New faculty issues—Fitting in and figuring it out

The first chapter in this volume presents an overview of the faculty personnel challenges facing community colleges; the next three discuss the socialization and professional development of new faculty. Authors stress the importance of understanding differences among the typs of community colleges and the importance of gender and racial/thnic diversity among the facultry of the institutions who educate the majority of undergraduate females and students of color. The volume concludes with chapters on legal aspects related to the faculty employment and the experiences of presidents and senior instructional administrators, giving valuable guidance to those actively involved in the hiring process. At the heart of this volume is the continued commitment to the community college ideal of providing educational access and, through quality instruction, facilitating student learning and success. Previous research indicated that community college faculty retire at or near the traditional age of sixty-five. With an aging faculty, enrollments that are reaching unprecedented levels, and the federal goverment calling for the community college to take an even greater role in workforce training, community colleges will need to both replace significant portions of their faculty and hire additional faculty lines between now and 2020. This next hiring wave has implications for community colleges, the diverse student populations who attend these institutions, and society in general. This is the 152nd volume of the Jossey-Bass quarterly report series New Directions for Community Colleges. Essential to the professional libraries of presidents, vice presidents, deans, and other leaders in today\u27s open-door institutions, New Directions for Community Colleges provides expert guidance in meeting the challenges of their distinctive and expanding educational mission.https://scholarworks.wm.edu/educationbookchapters/1039/thumbnail.jp

Partnerships and collaborations in higher education

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Editor’s notes

A ground swell of activism on campus is underway to recognize a wider understandings of gender, to support long time marginalized populations, and to open up leadership pipelines that result in a reflection of the populations community colleges servewhich include women, minorities, and diverse stakeholders. This issue expands on the research regarding the stubborn persistence of the glass ceiling and thinking about constructions of gender, inclusivity, and strategies to advance equity for all. Tackling new and extended conceptions of gender to include issues facing the LGBTQ community; it: highlights the intersections of race and gender, addresses how gender performance continues to influence the experiences of men and women in the 2-year college sector, presents strategies for supporting women leaders updates readers on the Clery Act on campus, and includes strategies for inclusivity. This is the 179th volume of this Jossey-Bass quarterly report series. Essential to the professional libraries of presidents, vice presidents, deans, and other leaders in today\u27s open-door institutions, New Directions for Community Colleges provides expert guidance in meeting the challenges of their distinctive and expanding educational mission.https://scholarworks.wm.edu/educationbookchapters/1029/thumbnail.jp

Connecting Learning Across the Institution

Most research on learning tends to occur in silos based on stakeholder perspective. This volume seeks to break down these silos and draw together scholars who research learning from different perspectives to highlight commonalities in learning for students, faculty, and institutions. When we understand how learning is experienced across the institution, we can develop strategies that help support, enhance, and reinforce learning for all. Exploring what it means to bridge learning across the institution, this volume provides a roadmap to improve learning for all. Both scholarly and practical, it advances the knowledge about the ways we investigate and study learning across and for various groups of learners. It also: Collects thinking about learning in its various formats in one location Provides a platform for synthesis Outlines key questions for thinking more deeply about learning on campus. Instead of thinking of learning as discrete depending on the stakeholder group, this volume highlights the commonalities across all types of learners.https://scholarworks.wm.edu/educationbook/1005/thumbnail.jp

Leaders as Linchpins for Framing Meaning

Community college leaders serve as linchpins for framing meaning on campus. The current pressures on institutions (given declining financial resources, demands for accountability, changing faculty ranks, and societal need for new knowledge) require presidents to juggle multiple priorities while presenting a cohesive message to campus constituents. This study examined how the presidents at nine community colleges communicated with college constituents and framed the meaning of those communications to help the college community make sense of ongoing change. Interviews with the presidents, as well as with key administrators, faculty members, and staff members, revealed that the presidents used emissaries to disseminate information in four distinct ways. Study findings also showed that the presidents framed the meaning of their communications through visionary framing (emphasizing future possibilities), step-by-step framing (emphasizing the immediate next steps required to achieve institutional goals), or connective framing (emphasizing dialogue and collaborative learning)

Developing Leaders: The Role of Competencies in Rural Community Colleges

Pending retirements underscore the need to develop community college campus leaders. Rural community colleges will be particularly hard-hit by changes in leadership as they represent the majority of 2-year colleges and face unique challenges given their location. To help address the anticipated leadership transition, the American Association of Community Colleges developed a set of competencies to frame critical skill areas and guide leadership development efforts. The research reported here showed both resource development and organizational strategy as areas of weakness for rural leaders and, paradoxically, the areas of most need. Leaders acquired competencies predominantly on the job, which has implications in planning development of future leaders

Editor’s notes

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Editor’s Notes

The AACC competencies were initially developed to help provide guidance in developing community college leaders because of predictions of a leadership crisis in the two-year college sector. Since their creation, the competencies have been used to direct topics in leadership development programs and to guide future leaders about what skills are critical to master. Yet scant research exists on the use of the competencies in practice or on analysis of the competencies within the changing higher education climate. This issue provides a review of the research on the competencies in the field and posits several strategies for the future use of the competencies and potential changes to the competencies. This is the 159th volume of this Jossey-Bass quarterly report series. Essential to the professional libraries of presidents, vice presidents, deans, and other leaders in today\u27s open-door institutions, New Directions for Community Colleges provides expert guidance in meeting the challenges of their distinctive and expanding educational mission.https://scholarworks.wm.edu/educationbookchapters/1040/thumbnail.jp

Grocery Store Politics: Leading the Rural Community College

Rural America is characterized by decreasing populations, increasing poverty, limited economic growth, and limited access to cultural events. The context of the rural environment makes leading colleges in these locations different than in larger, more urban regions. The research reported here investigated the experience of rural community college leaders to determine more about the phenomenon of how they constructed their leadership given their rural context. Findings indicate less anonymity for rural community college leaders, a reliance on relationship building to accomplish goals, and a smaller local peer network to aid in reflecting upon the duties of the president

Nested Leadership: The Interpretation of Organizational Change in a Multicollege System

College leaders serve important roles as guides for campus understanding during times of change. Within multicollege districts, campus members deal with several levels of leadership, ranging from department chairs, to the college president, to the system chancellor. These leaders may send conflicting messages regarding change, or have competing end goals for change. The research reported here sought to investigate the influence of the system chancellor on change initiatives at the individual colleges within the system. Findings from this investigation concluded that leadership within the system was nested, whereby the overall direction of change came from the chancellor, and was replicated as a change effort on each of the district\u27s campuses. The implementation of the initiative, however, was filtered through the culture of each separate campus, resulting in different interpretations by campus members at each of the separate colleges. Understanding more about the filtering process that change initiatives undergo can aid in increased understanding of what makes certain changes more understood and, ultimately, more successful