In 2017, there were 941 public community colleges enrolling 7 million credit students and 5 million noncredit students accounting for 41% of all undergraduates enrolled in higher education (American Association of Community Colleges, 2019). While enrollment has increased, the complexity of the mission of two-year colleges has also increased. Part…

Although emergency aid programs have existed on community college campuses for years, no extant research has articulated which emergency resources students apply for and how students prioritize these resources against others (e.g., food needs compared to housing needs). To better understand student emergency aid needs shortly after the World…

I examine what the characteristics of competitive community colleges are and how the ranking systems identify the ideal qualities of community colleges through a comparison of community colleges to prestigious four-year institutions. I provide information regarding the institutional differences and the characteristics of top-ranked community…

The purpose of this exploratory, qualitative study of the lived experiences of low-income college freshmen (as they relate to their needs and decisions about continuing their enrollment in college) addresses the problem college administrators and faculty members have with determining how best to help high-achieving, low-income students meet their…

This paper presented the case for residential living in the community college setting. The increase in the number of students attending community colleges has led to a consequent demand for and increases in on-campus housing at two-year institutions. The information provided in this paper provided a critical assessment of the many academic,…

For many immigrants, survival in a foreign land has been marked by reinvention. Such reinvention has historically included changes in name, marginalizing traditions and customs in favor of adopting new ways of living, language acquisition, and in best-case scenarios, enculturation through education. For some, though, this reinvention has been…

Institutionally offered student services (e.g., academic advising, career counseling, personal counseling, and educational planning) are available in community colleges to help students with the transition into postsecondary education, obtain success while in college, and transition to the next phase of their educational, career, and life journeys…

As postsecondary institutions seek ways to attract military veterans as students, they ostensibly grapple with how to best support these men and women once they arrive on campus. Although there are dozens of financial, academic, and emotional support systems available through the government, academic institutions, and non-profit organizations,…

Students often enter community college with little proficiency in writing. The authors of this paper share a series of writing assignments designed to help students develop writing and critical thinking abilities throughout their community college experience. The first is a series of relatively low-stakes exercises aimed at helping beginning…