The People\u27s College? An Examination of Who Governs Community Colleges at the Local Level

Community colleges are playing an increasingly important role in national and local postsecondary education and economic development policy arenas. These two-year institutions educate 46 percent of American undergraduates, including the majority of African American, Hispanic and Native American undergraduate students. However, community colleges are failing to graduate students, particularly students of color (AACC, 2012). Given the national demand for graduates, policymakers are struggling to help more under-represented groups succeed and complete their college degrees. Therefore, an examination of who is governing community colleges and making important policy decisions to address student success is critical. While there are a variety of governing structures for community colleges, the majority of states employ local governing boards to provide some level of oversight, making these boards an ideal focal point for research (Polonio & Miller, 2012). Little empirical data exists specific to the composition of local community college governing boards in America. Using descriptive representation as a theoretical framework, this dissertation analyzed data from a random sample of 91 local community college governing boards to determine to what extent local community college governing boards reflect the Black and Hispanic populations they serve, to what extent structural and environmental variables predict the presence of minority board members and examine the impact of minority board members on substantive outcomes for higher education. The results found that demographics have a strong relationship to the racial composition of the governing board, student body and graduating class. Using structural equation modeling, the data indicate the percentage of Black and Hispanic board members has an indirect causal effect on the percentage of Black and Hispanic graduates, iv respectively. In addition, four case studies follow the quantitative analysis to provide rich context to the results and highlight the important contributions minority members make to their respective boards. These qualitative efforts also show the degree to which institutional programs, board member training, recruitment planning and even state laws can impact board composition and ultimately student success

A Seat at the Table: Minority Representation and County Governing Boards

This study focuses on minority representation on county governing boards to determine the extent of minority representation, and then to provide explanation for the exiting patterns in its representation. The dependent variable used in this paper is a count variable employing a Zero-Inflated Negative Binomial model. The results indicate that minority populations, counties located in the South, partisan elections, the size of county governing boards and urban counties have positive effects on increased minority representation, while at-large voting districts have a negative effect. Furthermore, it advances the need for greater research on county governing boards, county governments in general and a new agenda for the future study of minority representation on local governing bodies