Community colleges serve more students than any other institutional type in the United States, and internationalization is an inherent component of community colleges that advances student knowledge, facilitates student success, and serves the needs of local communities. As most community college students do not enroll in four-year institutions,…

This perceptive and cogent account draws on key data and firsthand observations to tell the story of the small college in America. Defined as institutions that enroll between 500 and 3,000 full-time students, small colleges number about six hundred in the United States. Many are thriving, while some--whether through low enrollment, ballooning…

Small community colleges with enrollments between 500 and 2,500 students have traditionally been unable to afford to hire an institutional researcher or to lease sophisticated statistical packages to perform enrollment analyses, though their needs for enrollment projections are the same as those of larger institutions. Fortunately, with a personal…

A survey of institutional researchers at 243 New England colleges and universities examined respondents' (N=127) views on the current and projected roles of institutional research. Results document limited resources particularly in small institutions. Also, a majority of institutional researchers reported that they were engaged extensively in…

Two possible causes for the demands for research and publication on small college campuses are explored with a focus on the effect on promotion and tenure. The first hypothesis is that many administrators feel faculty research is a partner to faculty teaching effectiveness, and thus, if master teaching is the goal, faculty must excel at research.…

This paper reports on a 1992 follow-up survey of graduates of Virginia Wesleyan College (VWC). The target population of 1,110 graduates from the classes of 1987 through 1992 were surveyed, and 576 responded (51.9 percent). The survey sought information on demographics, enrollment history, evaluation of cognitive and affective outcomes, overall…

The experience of Coastal Carolina College (South Carolina) suggests that, although the small college often has the same academic reporting demands for intercollegiate athletics as a large institution, the nature of the institution creates different recordkeeping and reporting challenges. Computerization and active institutional research staff…

Virginia Wesleyan College, a small liberal arts college, recently conducted four major student satisfaction assessment projects. In particular, the institution wanted to know how students evaluated their educational experiences and how they evaluated college programs and services. The assessment projects, conducted during the 1991-92 and 1992-93…

Without an institutional research office to look at recruitment and retention programs, DePauw University (Indiana) relies heavily on institutional trend data and comparative information to assess the effectiveness of three initiatives: recruitment of large numbers of minority students, strategic use of financial aid, and use of market…