This paper examines recent efforts by community college educators to enhance the liberal arts in a curriculum which is increasingly dominated by career, compensatory, and community education programs. The paper first notes the decline of the transfer function at today's community colleges and argues that the liberal arts, if they are to survive,…

Since 1974, the Center for the Study of Community Colleges has investigated the curricula, students, faculty, and institutional practices related to the collegiate function in community colleges. Recent activities have focused on advancing the liberal arts and facilitating student transfer to four-year colleges and chosen occupations. For example,…

Recent research efforts undertaken by the Center for the Study of Community Colleges have resulted in the construction of two data sets on community college students which can assist two-year colleges in institutional planning and policy making. The first data set is the result of the administration of the General Academic Assessment (GAA), a…

Presents the definition of transfer proposed by the Center for the Study of Community Colleges. Reviews research utilizing this definition to establish transfer rates from two- to four-year colleges. Underscores the value of a consistent definition of transfer, urging community colleges to collect and report their own transfer data. (DMM)

A study was conducted to examine the transfer rates of 395 community colleges participating in the 1993 Transfer Assembly to determine on the underlying causes behind different transfer rates. Of the states supplying information for the 1989 cohort, for example, seven had at least one college reporting a high (above 25%) and a low (below 15%)…

This discussion of articulation sees community colleges operating as the pivotal point between the "feeder" secondary schools and the "receiver" four-year colleges, emphasizing some of the difficulties inherent in this position and some of the programs undertaken by community colleges to improve the articulation process. The first section of the…

The Center for the Study for Community Colleges has examined community colleges in terms of the transfer function for over two decades, initiating the Transfer Assembly project in 1989 to collect hard, comparative data on transfer outcomes. In fall 1995, California's Cerritos College approached the Center for assistance in increasing its transfer…

Within a climate characterized by increasingly diverse and nontraditional student populations and by general student disinterest in learning, the liberal arts have declined precipitously in community colleges. Rather than serving primarily as stepping stones to higher education, community colleges now serve mainly as sources of occupational and…

Specific facets of the collegiate function of the community college are analyzed in this book. Chapter 1 defines the collegiate function as an amalgam of the liberal arts curriculum and efforts to promote student transfer. Chapter 2 focuses on the liberal arts curriculum, pointing to patterns in enrollments and courses offered in the disciplines…