Book Review: The Community College Presidency at the Millennium

Abstract

The Community College Presidency at the Millennium by George B. Vaughan and Iris M. Weisman. Community College Press, Washington, D.C. 1998, 173 pages. $26 AACC members or $33 nonmembers (Paper, ISBN 0-87117-311-5). Reviewed by H. Clay Whitlow. In The Community College Presidency at the Millennium, George Vaughan and Iris Weisman have made a valuable contribution to the literature on the community college presidency. The book essentially presents a longitudinal study of the presidency that started in 1984 when 591 of 838 public community college presidents participated in Vaughan's first career and life-style survey. The survey was repeated in 1991 (with 837 out of 1,097 public community college presidents responding) and in 1996 (when 680 out of 926 presidents participated). The survey asked a wide variety of questions (55 in number) relating to each president's age, ethnicity, gender, political affiliation, position held before first presidency, and other background information. Vaughan and Weisman have compiled this wealth of information from the three surveys in a way that is eminently readable. They also have enhanced the data by including personal interviews with 13 community college presidents. The authors begin by taking a brief look at the history of community colleges, from the of Joliet Junior College in 1901 to the 1960s and 1970s when the number of community colleges nationwide grew dramatically. In 1961 there were 405 public community colleges in the United States. By 1977 that number had grown to 1,030. This created a substantial group of individuals referred to by the authors as founding presidents. These presidents or their proteges represented the majority of public community college presidents in the 1960s and 1970s. Unfortunately, we have no record of presidential life during these boom years for community colleges. Thanks to Vaughan and Weisman, future generations of presidents and scholars will be able to study the community college presidency from 1984 forward. Chapter 2 provides a personal profile of the public community college presidency based on survey responses. A reader learns, for example, that the average age of current presidents is 54 (increased from 51 in 1984); male presidents are much more likely to be married than female presidents (95 % versus 60 %); the most popular civic organization among presidents is Rotary, with 62 % belonging; 47 % of presidents are Democrats, and 26 % are Republicans; women, and to a lesser extent minorities, have increased their numbers among presidents. From 1991 to 1996, the percentage of women presidents increased from 11 % to 18 %, whereas the percentage of minorities went from 11 % in 1991 to 14 % in 1996. One interesting and disturbing item is the time presidents put into their jobs, perhaps to the detriment of their personal lives. Just 24% of those responding to the 1996 survey reported taking a vacation of two weeks or more in the last year. Of those, 69% performed presidential work while on vacationing. There is also fascinating information in Chapter 3 on presidents' perceptions of stress and risk in their jobs and on their plans to move to another position or retire. Lest the reader get bogged down in quantitative data, Chapter 4 begins a summary of telephone interviews with current presidents. …