This paper provides an overview of strategic planning's role in enhancing higher education institutions' sense of strategic direction and outlining measurable goals. The study particularly reflects the practical experience of setting up a strategic plan within a community college at a Saudi Arabian university, providing academic insight into…

Effective shared governance processes enhance institutional effectiveness and sustainability, but governance in higher education is complex. The concept of shared governance lacks common understandings and practice, and models are outdated and need to be more inclusive, nimble, and flexible. Community colleges are responsive institutions and…

Collaborative decision-making and shared responsibility across departments can be messy and time consuming. However, working collaboratively in a well-constructed cross-functional team (CFT) can create a culture of self-responsibility and accountability and improve institutional practices. The following paper will describe a successful model for…

While there is no shortage of scholarship on "equity" in higher education, researchers typically examine whether a policy or practice is (in)equitable rather than how those responsible for designing and enacting a policy or practice make meaning of equity. Using a sensemaking framework and case study approach, I explored the collective…

Community college faculty are essential to the success of student learning. As such, active participation through faculty shared governance is key to student and institutional success. This study explored the role communication and collaboration have in community college faculty shared governance. Using a mixed methods study design, with a focus…

In this qualitative grounded theory study, I interviewed participants from and analyzed documents associated with three community/state colleges in Florida. Additionally, I have included the perspective of key informants from the state and/or the Florida College System. The purpose of this qualitative grounded theory study was to develop a…

Presidential assistants are important and trusted staff members to the president and the campus community at large. Despite their importance, little is known about the day-to-day of their jobs and how they may help advance equity and social justice goals and priorities at the community college level. This chapter attempts to rectify this gap…

In this paper we present the Advancing Racial Equity in Community College Model which maps out the organizational conditions shaping institutional transformation. Focused on two dimensions, the level of "organizational support" and "shared responsibility" to enact equity, we describe four quadrants with distinct organizational…

This study explored how a community college president used strategic planning concepts to advance an institution's completion agenda initiatives. The research method was a qualitative single case study design. Keller's (1983) academic strategy served as the conceptual framework to conduct the investigation. Four research questions guided the…

On many college and university campuses, the idea of shared governance is often misunderstood and highly debated. The general problem addressed by this study was the lack of clarity regarding faculty's concept of shared governance within an Eastern North Carolina community college that can lead to faculty and administrative conflict. The purpose…

This comparative case study examined how performance funding programs shape the faculty experiences at two North Carolina Community Colleges. Using Principal-Agent Theory, Street-Level Bureaucracy, and Bottom-Up Policy Perspective as theoretical frameworks, six themes and four subthemes emerged from semi-structured interviews of twenty community…

US colleges and universities have operated on the belief that academics need the freedom to question received wisdom, test new pedagogical methods, and produce knowledge that can be transparently shared for the public good. However, the same institutions are increasingly engaged in competition for resources through externally imposed…

Since the inception of the guided pathways model in 2015, most related research has focused on the interconnecting processes and practices that lead to student persistence and completion. While the processes and practices are the basis of the model, scholars acknowledge that the model's human capital and change management components are just as…

This multiple case study examines the extent and ways in which leaders and administrators in Florida College System (FCS) institutions engage in distributed leadership through data sharing with frontline staff. Based on focus groups and individual interviews with administrators, faculty, and staff (659 participants) from 21 state colleges, we…

Academic leaders at community and technical colleges must balance institutional projects, student success initiatives, and academic programs. Many of the tasks associated with these endeavors involve faculty and staff members. As academic leaders plan for change, it is wise to involve faculty in a positive way. The goal of faculty members'…