After introductory material outlining some of the major challenges facing community colleges today, this paper examines the efforts undertaken by Chabot College, California, to meet the demands of the problems posed by "new students" and fiscal constraints. Described first are Chabot's two mastery learning centers, at which students proceed through a series of media-based learning modules on an individualized open-entry/open-exit basis. Problems encountered in operating the centers and their solutions are discussed in the areas of media selection and/or development, meeting personnel needs using available staff, and flexible scheduling. Next, the paper examines the problem of developing a student record keeping system that would accommodate varying rates of student progress and describes how the following considerations were dealt with in the college's computer-managed student record accounting system: course scheduling, student registration, course enrollment, student attendance, and grading. Additionally, the paper describes the creation of the system's database and files, procedures used in collecting data, the attendance and grade reports generated by the computer, and recovery programs. Finally, results of the first quarter of the system's implementation are reviewed. (AYC)