Community College Environment Research Articles

LOOKING OUTWARD: CHANGING ORGANIZATIONS THROUGH COLLABORATION

Community colleges have long relied on informal and unstructured collaborations as a tool for both survival and success. Now that businesses and other organizations are entering into very sophisticated networks and alliances, community colleges will need to move into more structured forms of collaborations. As the pace of competition increases as we move into a complex knowledge industry, community colleges need to find alternatives to traditional closed operations and limited collaborations. This article describes the need for more complex collaborative relationships with external constituents and examines how these collaborations will affect today's community colleges. Existing forms of collaboration will be described as traditional, centralized, unstructured modes of collaboration. Although these collaborations will continue to exist in the future, as the community college environment becomes more complex, more structured collaboration will become increasingly more common. Examples of some of the emerging types of structured collaboration will be discussed as will the different ways in which administrators, staff, and faculty will react.

Remedial/Developmental Education Approaches for the Current Community College Environment

AbstractThis chapter examines remedial/developmental education in the context of an education environment facing new demands and adapting to rapid advances in technology. Rationales for different delivery models for remedial/developmental education are also discussed.

Distance Education and the Community College: From Convention to Vision

AbstractThis chapter analyzes the literature related to distance education in the community college environment, and looks ahead to new areas of inquiry.

Nursing faculty practice: challenges for the future

Just as artists need to create their own art, so nursing instructors need to practise nursing. However, traditional educational settings and clinical placements limit the capacity of nursing instructors to practice nursing directly with clients. The creation of a nursing faculty practice model in Canada, whereby teaching roles and responsibilities are combined with clinical practice, is discussed within the context of a community college environment. A nurse-managed health centre is suggested as an innovative practice arena which is more in line with the changes in the health care system.

THE EFFECT OF QUALITY OF EFFORT ON PERSISTENCE AMONG TRADITIONAL‐AGED COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS

Involvement in campus life and learning activities has long been recognized as a powerful contributor to persistence among college students. Much of the research on student involvement has focused on traditional, four‐year college students, frequently comparing the academic and social integration of residential and commuter students. Research on involvement among community college students has not been as plentiful, although an increasing body of literature suggests that academic achievement and related activities are far more important for two‐year students than social involvement, which seems to have little effect on persistence in community college environments. This study seeks to test the impact of various involvement activities on unit completion by “traditional” community college students, i.e., students entering college immediately following high school. Using the recently developed “Community College Student Experiences Questionnaire” (Friedlander, Pace, & Lehman, 1990) to assess students’ “quality of effort,” the study demonstrates that three activities significantly contribute to unit completion by traditional community college students: higher order library activities, counseling related to transfer, and participation in art, music, and theatre activities.

Confidentiality and the Rape Victim: Ethical Intent versus Political Reality

... The clinician who works with the victim of rape, either in hospital emergency departments, community mental health settings, college environments, or private practice, should consider ways that would effect the many overdue reforms for which this specialty cries out. The need for sensitivity in the area of record keeping, particularly as to how such records might be used, can hardly be debated. Beyond this, there is the role of patient advocate, calling upon the clinician to serve an educative function with reference to the members of his profession and of the larger society. Confidentiality of patient records can be preserved only to the extent that the cultural context in which they exist values such privacy.

COMMUNITY COLLEGE TENURE: TEACH OR RESEARCH?

This paper explores the purpose of the doctoral degree, as a research degree, in the community college. A dilemma occurs when a research degree is required in a community college environment in which teaching is the primary mission. Where does the emphasis occur: teaching or researching and publishing? Further examination reveals a contradiction in the hiring process under the tenure requirements both in the university and in the community college. Tenure contains implicit contradictions when applied to the hiring process and the provision of academic freedom for the classroom teacher, whose role is secondary to research publication. Suggestions are made for equal value placed on development of classroom materials and instructional innovation as well as scholarly journal publications. An additional suggestion for a Director of Faculty and Staff Development is proffered to provide for tapping the research skills of the Ph.D.s already hired. Such a position would provide a creative outlet for the individual...

FACTORS INFLUENCING HISPANIC STUDENT RETENTION WITHIN THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

This study is a correlative predictive study focusing on the identification of factors impacting on the ability of Hispanic students to achieve their educational objectives within the community college environment. The study sample of 698 students was selected from a community college in Southwest Texas with a student enrollment that was 61% Hispanic. Through regression analysis, factors that were significantly related to the completion of the students’ educational objectives were identified. These relationships were identified for the total sample and for each of four subgroups, Hispanics, white nonHispanics, males, and females. The results indicated that positive or negative reasons for withdrawal and the students’ positive perceptions of their educational experiences were significantly related to the ability of all students to complete their objectives. However, there were sufficient differences between the groupings of factors retained for the total sample and the four subgroups to warrant the conclus...