Community College Responsiveness: Myth or Reality?

Abstract

Change-rapid and accelerating-is a salient characteristic of American life today. This phenomenon has distinct implications for educational institutions: they must be open to change if they are to continue providing the services needed by the citizenry that establishes and supports them. If not, they will surely be replaced by other institutions that do meet society's needs. In fact, there are indications that Americans feel their schools and colleges are not performing satisfactorily. A possible cause of this disaffection is the failure of these institutions to change rapidly enough to keep pace with the changing needs of the people they are designed to serve. One American institution that prides itself on the ability to respond quickly and appropriately to its constituents' desires is the college. Its history is one of adapting to new situations by adding new functions to those initially assigned to it. Founded at the turn of the century, it originally provided college-parallel work to the growing numbers of high school graduates seeking further education-a need that existing institutions of higher education were either unable or unwilling to fulfill. This single-purpose junior college, as it was then aptly called, has evolved into today's community college, to which citizens turn for occupational training, developmental studies, and general education as well as for a college-parallel curriculum. How did this metamorphosis come about? How has it happened that the public two-year college has been so completely transformed during its relatively short life span? In order to answer these questions, it is