Timothy Gray Davies

Delicate Engagement The Lived Experience of Community College Students Enrolled in High-Risk Online Courses

This article reports the findings of a phenomenological study that examined the lived experience of community college students enrolled in high-risk online courses (HRCs) at a community college in the American Southeast. HRCs were defined as college courses with withdrawal or failure rates of 30% or more. In-depth interviews were conducted with 13 students enrolled in four different HRCs. Isolation, academic challenge, ownership, and acquiescence emerged as structural themes that framed the experience of participants. These structural themes intermingled in discrete ways that led to the survival or surrender of these HRC participants and formed the essence of the phenomenon that is referred to as delicate engagement, which speaks to the vulnerable threads of academic and social involvement that permeated the HRC student experience.

STUDENT VOICES IN THE TRANSFER PROCESS: DO WE HEAR THEM? DO WE LISTEN?

The “baby boomer echo” is increasing the number of traditional age students attending higher education, yet funding from both state and federal is remaining constant. In order to provide a higher education future for all who desire it, fiscal resources must be even more carefully allocated. Improving the transfer process from community colleges to four‐year colleges and universities will conserve our fiscal and our human resources and provide a higher education for more of our citizens. Statistics alone will not improve the transfer process; the voices of students experiencing this process must also be heard. A Fall 1994 cohort group of students transferring from Colorados 15 community colleges to Colorado State University (CSU) was identified. Within this Fall 1994 cohort, two groups of students were formed based on their earned grade point average (GPA) at CSV at the end of Fall 1995 semester: students who achieved a 3.25 GPA or better and students who were placed on academic probation. The focus group...

Community College Faculty Development: Bringing Technology into Instruction

Community college faculty development programs assist faculty in the development of quality curricula, using current and expanding teaching technologies. The first step in helping faculty reach their respective goals is to help them articulate their instructional needs. Eighteen faculty members participated in this study, using a personal in-depth interview as the research method. Several implications for community college faculty and administration resulted from this study including: the need to emphasize information literacy, the faculty as lecturers who want to use technology as a means of enhancing that lecture, the need for more time to accomplish their instructional ideas, the need for help to incorporate technology in the classroom themselves, and the desire for training classes that fit their time schedules and location.

Reducing Distance through Distance Learning: The Community College Leadership Doctoral Program at Colorado State University.

Creating a virtual community among learners in a course or program can increase student retention and satisfaction. Although community colleges are increasingly turning to on-line learning experiences for students, doctoral programs in community college leadership (CCL) can model the blending of different learning modalities. Using face-to-face experiences, two-way compressed video, on-line information posting, and synchronous and asynchronous on-line discussions, the CCL program at Colorado State University creates community among its doctoral students. A vignette is presented to illustrate the life of one of these doctoral distance students and to detail the uses of the various learning modalities. The article concludes with a discussion the three main types of support necessary for empowering students and keeping them connected in their community: multiple communities support, multiple meeting spaces support, and multiple systems support. The serendipitous result of this experience has been seeing doctoral students return to their respective community college campuses and use this blending of on-line modalities to serve their own students.Creating a virtual community among learners in a course or program can increase student retention and satisfaction. Although community colleges are increasingly turning to on-line learning experiences for students, doctoral programs in community college leadership (CCL) can model the blending of different learning modalities. Using face-to-face experiences, two-way compressed video, on-line information posting, and synchronous and asynchronous on-line discussions, the CCL program at Colorado State University creates community among its doctoral students. A vignette is presented to illustrate the life of one of these doctoral distance students and to detail the uses of the various learning modalities. The article concludes with a discussion the three main types of support necessary for empowering students and keeping them connected in their community: multiple communities support, multiple meeting spaces support, and multiple systems support. The serendipitous result of this experience has been seeing doct...

AFRICAN AMERICAN ADMINISTRATORS' EXPERIENCES IN PREDOMINANTLY WHITE COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES

The purpose of this study was to better understand the experiences of African American administrators in predominantly white colleges and universities. In depth interviews were conducted with eight...

Reflective Leadership by Selected Community College Presidents.

This phenomenological study addressed the following question: How do community college presidents experience self-reflection in their leadership roles? Male and female community college presidents of diverse racial backgrounds were interviewed to better understand how they experienced self-reflection in their own leadership. Three themes emerged: mindfulness, discovery, and authenticity revealing the essence of reflective leadership, self-care. Presidents spent deliberate time in introspection and inquiry, expanding self-awareness to lead others.

Community Colleges' Use of the Web to Communicate Their Mission: Slights of Commission and Omission.

This basic interpretive qualitative study identified, described, and interpreted community college mission statement messages as they appeared in print and on the web site. The study analyzed each institutions similar, different, unique, and unintended messages. The within-case inductive analysis found emergent mission statement messages in the print materials and on the web site. A deductive analysis then was conducted using Newsom and Hayes (1990) mission statement component framework. Inductive and deductive cross-case analyses were completed to compare and contrast institutional messages resulting in the 3 themes discussed in this article: access, diversity, and service area. The authors recommend that community colleges use an inductive and deductive checklist to examine their print materials and web site for message consistency between the two mediums and their mission statement.

An Ethical Decision-Making Model: A Necessary Tool for Community College Presidents and Boards of Trustees.

How can community college presidents and boards of trustees safely manage the ethical dilemmas they face as they lead their institutions into the future and important resources continue to diminish? And what happens when a board member violates the boards code of conduct or the president either fails to consult a professional ethics code or ignores it? This article considers such a scenario. Recognizing that ethical dilemmas are complex and involve emotional responses, this article presents a nonlinear, multidimensional ethical decision-making model that can help presidents and boards maneuver through difficult situations in an ethical manner. This decision-making model consists of six steps to guide presidents and boards as they consider the most ethical course of action for their college and the community. These steps include (a) identifying the ethical dilemma; (b) gathering facts, self-monitoring, and consulting; (c) asking important questions; (d) creating alternate courses of action; (e) evaluating...How can community college presidents and boards of trustees safely manage the ethical dilemmas they face as they lead their institutions into the future and important resources continue to diminish? And what happens when a board member violates the boards code of conduct or the president either fails to consult a professional ethics code or ignores it? This article considers such a scenario. Recognizing that ethical dilemmas are complex and involve emotional responses, this article presents a nonlinear, multidimensional ethical decision-making model that can help presidents and boards maneuver through difficult situations in an ethical manner. This decision-making model consists of six steps to guide presidents and boards as they consider the most ethical course of action for their college and the community. These steps include (a) identifying the ethical dilemma; (b) gathering facts, self-monitoring, and consulting; (c) asking important questions; (d) creating alternate courses of action; (e) evaluating alternatives by the ethics code, law, and moral motivation; and (f) implementing a course of action by moral follow-through and virtue ethics.

FROM INNOVATION TO INSTITUTIONALIZATION: THE ROLE OF ADMINISTRATIVE LEADERSHIP IN THE ASSESSMENT PROCESS

Faculty involvement comprises a critical part of the assessment process. The literature spends far more space discussing faculty roles than the roles of administrative leadership in developing assessment programs. Since faculty involvement is crucial to the success of any assessment effort, the authors address both the barriers to faculty involvement and models that nurture faculty involvement in the assessment process. The authors also review the assessment literature which marginalizes administrative leadership process as well as a smaller body of literature that supports administrative leadership in assessment programs. The authors turn their attention to creating campus cultures that promote effective administrative leadership. Two steps recommended for administrators creating this culture include creating a culture that is conducive to assessment and adopting a variety of leadership characteristics that they can apply using the Hersey-Blanchard situational leadership model. The mission and vision of administrative leaders, their listening, and their knowledge of what is essential should reflect in what they pay attention to, measure, and control as well as in the criteria for allocations of reward and status and in the criteria for recruitment, selection, promotion, retirement, and termination. In regard to assessment, this means that administrative leaders must present a mission and vision for assessment.

Participative Leadership: Perspectives of Community College Presidents.

This grounded theory study addressed the issue of how community college presidents foster active, broad-based participation in campus decision-making processes. This study was based on in-depth interviews with nationally recognized community college presidents selected on the basis of their work in implementing participative governance within their respective institutions. The findings of this study are presented according to the emergence of four axial categories, and a core category is described and explained. Participative leadership is highly interactive and dynamic. Perhaps most importantly, participative leadership is a developmental process for building environments for broad participation. The core category, Visioning Participative Environments, reveals the centrality of the visioning process throughout each sequence of the participative leadership process. This model identifies and explains key participative leadership practices that flow from the theoretical cornerstones.