Book Review: Help wanted: Preparing community college leaders in a new century (New Directions for Community Colleges Series, no. 123)

Abstract

Help wanted: Preparing community college leaders in a new century (New Directions for Community Colleges Series, no. 123) by William E. Piland and David B. Wolf. San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 2003. 114 pages. ISBN 0194-3081. Reviewed by Leila Gonzalez Sullivan.In response to a nationwide sense of crisis in community college leadership, authors William Piland and David Wolf have called upon noted current leaders in the field to describe the causes of this crisis, to examine the ways leaders have traditionally been prepared, and to suggest other means for creating new leaders to guide these institutions effectively in the face of dramatically different conditions and challenges.Chapter 1, Leadership Blues, outlines the dimensions of the problem. Those who are brave enough to take on a presidency frequently find their good work blocked by political machinations, legislative intrusions, and fiscal disasters, as well as suffering capricious cruelty (p. 6) and politics of personal destruction (p. 8), according to authors James March and Stephen Weiner. Listing a series of cases that ended or nearly ended a presidency, they note that campus culture and a lack of civility often contribute to a leader's downfall. And once employees lose confidence in the leader or the emotions surrounding an issue rise to an intolerable level, there is little hope of rescuing the presidency or restoring good relations. To avoid what the authors refer to as poisonous (p. 13), leaders should take every opportunity to build trust, to encourage civility, to develop conflict management mechanisms, and to emphasize continually that the community college is a social system in which all members are working toward a shared vision of student learning. This chapter speaks eloquently to the realities of presidential leadership in higher education these days; however, some readers may find the content discouraging enough to set aside the book and perhaps even their aspirations to leadership. This chapter might have served the purpose just as well at a later point in the book.In Chapter 2, Leadership Context for the Twenty-First Century, George Boggs, president and CEO of the American Association of Community Colleges, summarizes research conducted by AACC which sounded the alarm regarding the growing leadership vacuum. Not only are nearly half of the current community college presidents planning to retire in the next five years, but their potential successors, upper level administrators, also expect to retire in even greater numbers. Yet community colleges will continue to be in the forefront of higher education as the primary providers of career preparation and lifelong learning, and the rewards of leading these institutions far outweigh the challenges ahead. Looking at the coming leadership turnover as an opportunity for new energy and greater diversity, the AACC board and its staff have identified essential skills and qualities of leaders, have established a web-based resource list of degree and professional development programs, and have begun to offer training for aspiring new leaders. Although little of this material is new or unknown, the chapter does set the stage for much of what follows in the text.Joanne Cooper and Louise Pagotto, the authors of Chapter 3, Developing Community College Faculty as Leaders, base their discussion in a literature review and see a pool of potential leaders already on campuses-the faculty. However, many faculty members are reluctant to step forward, preferring to wait until they receive a clear invitation to move into administrative leadership roles. Still others refuse the invitation entirely. Whatever the means by which faculty are drawn into administration, they generally have little preparation, formal or informal, for their new roles, and they may be apprehensive about making the move because their teacher colleagues will see them as having sold out (p. 30). To make the transition from teaching to administration easier, there must be formal training either through degrees or through workshops such as the model programs in Hawaii that are outlined in the chapter. …