In 1988-89, a study was conducted to determine the relationship between selected characteristics of summer sessions in public two-year colleges and such institutional characteristics as size, location, type (i.e., community college or technical institute), and administrative structure for summer terms. The study focused on the philosophical moorings, purposes, operational features, and planning of the summer programs, as well as the characteristics of summer program administrators, including their perceptions of recent changes in students, programs, and their own responsibilities. Questionnaires were mailed to the summer session directors at 83 technical colleges and 671 public two-year colleges with total credit enrollments over 1,499 students. Study findings, based on a 95.2% response rate, included the following: (1) at 89% of the colleges, the same official responsible for regular academic terms was responsible for summer sessions as well; (2) community colleges tended to enroll more students from other colleges during the summer than technical institutes; (3) the most important purpose cited for summer sessions was to provide credit courses for the institutions' regular degree or certificate students, with other commonly cited purposes being to attract new students, to permit students to make up academic deficiencies, and to more fully utilize facilities; and (4) a majority of the colleges reported increases in credit hours generated and offered, number of courses offered, student headcount, class size, and number of credit hours taken by students in summer sessions since 1985. (AAC)