Suggests a positive future for community colleges as the educational needs of high school students, business organizations, graduate students, and diverse others stimulate enrollment. Predicts high demand for community colleges for reasons including convenience, quality of instruction, and flexibility in scheduling. (VWC)

Describes the need for the use of public relations professionals in advancement units--structures designed to help community colleges meet the increasing demands of image development, enrollment management, and fundraising. Gives suggestions for creating and maintaining a public relations department that protects and promotes the college's…

Describes performance funding as a relatively new approach that links tax support to institutional results from performance indicators chosen by the state. Under result-based funding, states consider efficiency and effectiveness as a basis for funding two- and four-year schools. Budgeting shifts from what states should do for their colleges toward…

Discusses organizational development and its importance to the competitive community college. Suggests new tactics to renew colleges by changing competencies, redesigning structures and systems, and developing new alliances. Closes with a basic design that emphasizes narrowing the gap between a college's current core values and future…

Argues that the entrenched meanings for Vocational Education and Training (VET) as serving industry have disenfranchised small businesses and the rural sector, and resulted in VET that is gendered, classed, and urban-specific. Raises three implications: the convergence of Adult and Community Education with VET, the role of local networks in…

Examines the status of Tech Prep in the North Carolina Community College System and compares the attitudes of senior administrators and faculty toward Tech Prep programs. Discusses four research questions regarding college and faculty involvement in Tech Prep and finds that, in most cases, it has not yet made substantial changes within community…

Surveys part-time faculty teaching transfer courses and finds that the most popular teaching techniques are lecture, class discussion, written feedback, and methods that encourage critical thinking. Reports that faculty who had participated in professional development were more likely to use small group discussions, demonstrations, and activities…

Discusses a study that examines department chairs' beliefs about the role of faculty in departmental governance and the characteristics of an ideal governance structure. Concludes that faculty's key role is helping clarify the administrators' responsibilities, and that faculty members should be rewarded for their participation and empowered to…

States that with the approach of ubiquitous access to distributed learning resources, the old regional basis for community colleges is rapidly evaporating. Asserts that institutions must rethink their nature and purpose and develop new services for students. Discusses new instructional support services, new or redefined course delivery systems,…

Studies differences between learning-disabilities (LD) programs at five Midwest colleges and universities to determine differences between programs at community colleges and four-year institutions, levels of satisfaction with LD programming, and services most important to students. Reveals that the types of LD services offered among institutions…

Employs personal in-depth interviews as a first step in helping faculty to develop quality curricula by allowing them to articulate their instructional needs. Reveals three general themes: preliminary course-design considerations, instructional delivery methods, and faculty instructional needs. Discusses implications for expanding teaching…

Explores community college faculty's perception of their involvement in decision making. Reports the responses of 70 Midwest community college instructors in five areas: finance, instruction, personnel, goals, and students. Finds that respondents feel little sense of decision-making involvement. Warns that presidents may alienate the faculty if…

Discusses an initiative to revitalize senior faculty through an interview with Dr. Bernice Braid, Dean of Academic and Instructional Resources at Long Island University (New York). Also presents the inducements for early retirement in the second half of this article via an interview with Dr. Leonard T. Kreisman, Senior Professor of Economics,…

Explores the demographics of faculty who volunteer to teach using distance-education technologies and discusses incentives for this participation. Finds that faculty have an interest in teaching with technology as a component of student learning, and they see internal rewards as the dominant motivation for involvement. Contains 15 references. (VWC)

Describes the efforts of the Southeastern Michigan Transfer Consortium, a cooperative of nine community colleges and universities formed in 1995 that seeks to exchange a variety of data about shared students and their educational experiences at partner institutions--information that suggests ways to tailor services and academic offerings based on…