The challenges of the community college presidency in the new millennium: pathways, preparation, competencies, and leadership programs needed to survive

Many of the community college presidents, upper-level administrators, and faculty, who began their careers during the advent of the community colleges in the 1960\u27s and 1970\u27s, are nearing the end of their careers. In a survey conducted by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) in 2001, community college presidents responded that 45% planned to retire by 2007 (Shults, 2001). In a similar study, Weisman and Vaughan (2002) found that 79% of the presidents surveyed intended to retire by 2012. The amount of history, experience and expertise that will be lost with their retirement is immeasurable.;In April of 2005, the AACC Board of Directors approved a document specifying a newly revised set of six competencies to be used as a framework for community college leadership development (AACC, 2005). These six Competencies for Community College Leaders became manifest from the results of a survey administered to participants of a series of leadership summits and members of the Leading Forward National Advisory Panel. Although one hundred percent of the respondents rated each of the six competencies as very or extremely essential to effectively performing in the various roles expected of community college leaders, responses to questions about how well their formal training prepared them to meet these competencies was not encouraging. In short, survey participants indicated a crucial need to establish this framework in contemporary leadership development programs.;The purpose of this study was to examine how current community college presidents\u27 demographics, backgrounds, career pathways, leadership programs, and educational preparation develop the transformational leadership skills embedded in the AACC\u27s Competencies for Community College Leaders ; and, inform educational leaders of ways that leadership development programs might be improved to better prepare future leaders for their first presidency.;Four hundred fifteen current community college presidents responded to The Community College Presidency: Demographics and Leadership Preparation Factors Survey. Findings reveal that: (1) the top five challenges facing current community college leaders are: fundraising, student enrollment and retention, legislative advocacy, economic and workforce development, and faculty relations; (2) overall, current community college presidents rated themselves prepared or well-prepared in the AACC\u27s Competencies for Community College Leaders; (3) current community college leaders were less likely to be prepared in the skill sets embedded in the organizational strategy and resource management domains; and (4) formal leadership programs and educational preparation in the highest degree earned play significant role in how presidents perceived their level of preparation prior to assuming their first chief executive officer position job.;This study provides new knowledge to the literature about the preparation and development of community college presidents in the competencies recently recommended by the AACC. Findings should be used to inform current presidents, aspiring leaders, and educators who have oversight of formal and informal leadership development and educational programs about specific areas that can be targeted to better prepare tomorrow\u27s leaders

The community college nursing director: A leader in the community college and nursing profession

The profession of nursing occurs in complicated work environments that require individuals to be immersed in areas with vulnerable populations that demand nurturing relationships between patients, family, friends, and employees. With the majority of nurses obtaining their initial education at a community college, strong leadership at the helm of the nursing programs is critical. The community college nurse leader is charged with tackling the challenges of: staying abreast of a rapidly changing healthcare system, providing quality educational programs for future nurses, addressing a national nursing shortage, and confronting a nurse educator shortage that oftentimes supplies the pool of future nurse leaders in higher education. Yet, there appears to be a dearth of literature about community college nursing directors and their professional pathways. The purpose of this study was to describe the extent to which community college nursing directors differ by demographics, educational preparation, career pathways, competencies and characteristics, and theoretical frameworks guiding their leadership philosophies and to better understand how these differences influence their self-perceptions of leadership effectiveness and job satisfaction. Dr. Jean Watson\u27s theory of caring served as the theoretical framework for the study and was used to examine its applicability for serving as the foundation of effective community college nursing leadership development

Dimensionality and size of photorefractive spatial solitons

We study experimentally self-trapping of optical beams in photorefractive media and show that the trapping is inherently asymmetric with respect to the two (transverse) trapping dimensions. We also present experimental results that show how the sizes of the resultant photorefractive spatial solitons are independent (within their range of existence) of the amplitude of the externally applied electric field used to generate them

Evaluation of Seismic Response of a Site Class F Site Using Equivalent Linear and Nonlinear Computer Codes

Evaluation of seismic site response and development of site-specific surface response spectra has evolved in recent years through the use of both equivalent linear (EQL) and nonlinear (NL) computer codes. Before the nonlinear computer codes become popular among practitioners, equivalent linear site response analysis programs were used to develop site-specific design spectra for both soft and stiff sites. Nonlinear site response analysis is now used more routinely for projects planned on Site Class F sites. This paper presents the results of seismic response analyses completed for a Site Class F site at Grays Harbor, Washington. Both the equivalent linear (SHAKE2000) and nonlinear (D-MOD2000) computer codes were used to evaluate the site response under the maximum considered earthquake (MCE) using the guidelines set forth in 2006 International Building Code (IBC) and American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) 7-05 code. Comparison of surface response spectra, soil shear stress and strain at various soil layers computed using both the equivalent linear and nonlinear computer program. Conclusions regarding the limitations of the equivalent linear code and presents recommendations on the use of the nonlinear computer code in site response analysis for practitioners

General properties and analytical approximations of photorefractive solitons

We investigate general properties of spatial 1-dimensional bright photorefractive solitons and suggest various analytical approximations for the soliton profile and the half width, both depending on an intensity parameter r

Stable oscillating nonlinear beams in square-wave-biased-photorefractives

We demonstrate experimentally that in a centrosymmetric paraelectric non-stationary boundary conditions can dynamically halt the intrinsic instability of quasi-steady-state photorefractive self-trapping, driving beam evolution into a stable oscillating two-soliton-state configuration.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figs, revtex os

Photorefractive Dark and Vortex Solitons

[No abstract

Inverse scattering approach to coupled higher order nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation and N-soliton solutions

A generalized inverse scattering method has been applied to the linear problem associated with the coupled higher order nonlinear schr\"odinger equation to obtain it's $N$-soliton solution. An infinite number of conserved quantities have been obtained by solving a set of coupled Riccati equations. It has been shown that the coupled system admits two different class of solutions, characterised by the number of local maxima of amplitude of the soliton.Comment: 23 page

Stable one-dimensional periodic waves in Kerr-type saturable and quadratic nonlinear media

We review the latest progress and properties of the families of bright and dark one-dimensional periodic waves propagating in saturable Kerr-type and quadratic nonlinear media. We show how saturation of the nonlinear response results in appearance of stability (instability) bands in focusing (defocusing) medium, which is in sharp contrast with the properties of periodic waves in Kerr media. One of the key results discovered is the stabilization of multicolor periodic waves in quadratic media. In particular, dark-type waves are shown to be metastable, while bright-type waves are completely stable in a broad range of energy flows and material parameters. This yields the first known example of completely stable periodic wave patterns propagating in conservative uniform media supporting bright solitons. Such results open the way to the experimental observation of the corresponding self-sustained periodic wave patterns.Comment: 29 pages, 10 figure