Community colleges in America are facing significant challenges that necessitate transformational change. Collaboration is essential to address these challenges within an environment characterized by external stakeholder interdependence, internal stakeholder interdependence through shared governance, and unique power and authority structures.…

This quantitative, exploratory study examined the budget decisions made by administrative leaders and academic leaders at 15 Pennsylvania community colleges as measured by the Budget Criteria Instrument (BDCI). Sixty-two leaders ranked 15 budget criteria items on the 4-point Likert scale used by the BDCI and the responses were analyzed based on…

Higher education is going through a significant period of change following the COVID-19 pandemic. The increased technological capacity and desire for online modalities are both a great opportunity and a potentially challenging burden. Although they serve the most marginalized students, community colleges are often vastly under-resourced, leaving…

The history of Black people across the globe is marred by structural racism created by colonialism. Structural racism is deeply embedded in the American culture and academia is not excluded from this phenomenon. The research demonstrates that the problem of racism is not only prevalent in four-year academic institutions but also exists in two-year…

Leisure education is an important part of community development as well as citizen engagement, and can be offered through a wide-range of providers. Community colleges have historically played an important role in offering these programs, yet little documentation has reported how they are operated or structured. The purpose for conducting the…

The issue of gender bias has been studied in many facets of society, including business, education, and leadership in general. Researchers and professionals working in the field have long had concerns over the issue of gender bias: if it is occurring, what does the rate and impact have on overall success in leadership? Women in upper-level…

As community colleges continue to face challenges in serving an ever-changing student population and a wave of presidential retirements, the next generation of senior community college leaders is surfacing. To prepare these top-level administrators, doctoral-level community college leadership (CCL) programs often serve as a viable mechanism for…

The present basic qualitative researched sought to explore the experiences and practices of academic deans in community colleges. I leveraged Schein's Model of Organizational Culture as a framework for data analysis. Schein's Model includes three layers of organizational culture; artifacts, espoused beliefs and values, and the inner most layer of…

Program directors at community colleges must navigate institutional rhetoric to effectively support Men of Color. This study considers how administrators often exhibit a non-performative commitment to diversity, in that stated commitment might not equate to action. Utilizing a framework grounded in critical race theory and cognitive frames…

Colleges are charged with providing safe and secure campus environments, which are conducive to learning for all students. It is the duty of the college leadership to ensure that their campuses are not only visually appealing, but also that they ensure the safety of all. Recent events have shown that efforts to protect our campuses and…

Though 92% of California's community colleges are federally recognized Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs), Hispanic/Latinx students have disproportionately low success rates statewide. HSIs have been slow to center their Latinx students, opting instead for race-neutral policies and practices. Such approaches prevent educators from addressing the…

Success Centers are a component of community colleges that prepare students who need additional foundational coursework to proceed to college-level credit classes (Housel, 2020). In this study, the perceptions of Success Center Directors concerning their programs were explored through the lens of adult learning theory as advanced by Knowles and…

Through an open-door admissions policy, affordable tuition rates, and pulse on regional workforce needs, community colleges keep the dream of higher education and career preparation alive for all Americans, regardless of socio-economic status. Although public enterprises partially funded through tax-payer dollars, community colleges have not been…

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on the retention and persistence rates of college students from historically excluded backgrounds while also introducing new resources for remote learning experiences. This action research study aimed to examine and improve the resources needed for community college students from historically…

Using Academic Plans in Sociocultural Context as a framework, this study examined university personnel's perspectives of the Bachelor of Applied Science degrees. Through quantitative techniques, the findings from this study show university faculty and administrators associated with liberal arts education view Bachelor of Applied Science degrees…