This article describes how out-of-work miners are engaged in the Empowering Education Initiative, a unique alliance between Country Music Television (CMT) and community colleges in Appalachia. The initiative, which includes a website and a series of country music concerts, is changing the conversation in the Appalachian region, giving hope to…

Today, thousands of California students worry about vanishing college affordability and access, especially for historically under-represented and marginalized populations. The author reports on how students and faculty throughout California are grappling with the effects of draconian state cuts to postsecondary education that have topped more than…

The following steps and alternatives should be considered in developing a well-balanced plan for staff reduction: maintaining current enrollment figures; pinpointing areas of under- and overstaffing; reducing non-salary expenditures; encouraging voluntary reduction; terminating non-tenured faculty; formulating due process procedures; helping…

This paper addresses the topic of tenure in community college education and the suspension of tenure in most collective bargaining agreements. It proposes a five-step process to be included within any just cause (incompetence or misconduct) and termination sections of collective bargaining language. Professors who work under collective bargaining…

This document contains the results of California court decisions in litigation involving the status, or status and pay of part-time faculty in California community colleges. The information in the report was obtained by asking each California community college president and district superintendent to report whether their college or district was,…

Describes "Operation What Now," a project initiated by Orange County Community College (OCCC) in Middleton, NY, in response to the closing of the community's Ford Motor Company assembly plant. Explains the steps taken by OCCC to assist the unemployed workers: organizing public meetings, strengthening communication, and providing career counseling.…

Investigates the extent to which external pressures on community colleges have affected the traditional mission of educational access. Findings show that the community colleges in Alberta, Arizona, British Columbia, California, Oregon, and Washington resisted restructuring and retrenchment to preserve student access. Contains 1 data table and 42…

In spite of funding constraints and legislatively mandated growth caps, the California community colleges, as the major provider of occupational education in the state, must play a significant role in serving and retraining workers displaced by plant shutdowns and mass layoffs. In response to these problems, a study was conducted to identify the…

Seneca College is the designated community college for the City of North York, in the Greater Toronto Area, and is the most culturally diverse college in Ontario, with over 70 languages spoken by students. It also offers the largest business and among the largest applied science programs in Canada. In November 1995, in response to severe…

Following the economic recession of the early 1980's and the consequent high levels of unemployment in Rock County, a program was created at the Blackhawk Technical Institute (BTI) to assist dislocated workers reentering the labor force. The Rock County Dislocated Worker Program was intended as a comprehensive program with two principal activities…

This annotated bibliography contains selected sources on reduction in force indexed in the ERIC system. Most of the journal articles and documents annotated here deal with the impact of declining enrollments on school staffs, with changes in personnel policy to cope with the need to reduce the number of employees in elementary schools, secondary…

This study examines the earnings histories of displaced workers in the state of Washington. The study sample included approximately 97,000 workers who had three or more years of job tenure when they were permanently laid off from their jobs between 1990 and 1994. About 16,000 of the workers in the sample earned some community college credit by…

This paper presents new evidence regarding the benefits of retraining prime-aged adults by analyzing the impacts of community college schooling on displaced workers in Washington State during the 1990s. The authors also conducted a similar analysis of a small program that provided community college courses to workers displaced from their jobs…

The Washington State Employment Security Department and Columbia Basin Community College have been partners in delivering training, education, and re-employment services at the Re-Employment Opportunity Center (ROC). The ROC targets dislocated workers, especially those affected by downsizing at the Department of Energy, and provides retraining,…

Declining enrollment and financial setbacks faced by California community colleges have necessitated discontinuing programs and terminating the services of experienced, tenured, certified personnel. Laws and policies in California, Connecticut, and at Miami-Dade (Florida) related to reduction in force (RIF) are discussed in terms of termination…