This document is part of the series, "New Expeditions: Charting the Second Century of Community Colleges," sponsored by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Initiative. Addressed specifically in this paper is the history and current status of community colleges with regard to trends in enrollment, persistence rates, associate degree attainment, and transfer rates. The paper concludes with a look into the future of community colleges in regard to diversity, technology, operational reforms, and priorities for action. While community colleges make up only 28 percent of all colleges and universities, their collective enrollment constitutes about 37 percent of students in higher education. More than half of all Hispanic and African American students who attend college following high school enter two-year institutions. Overall, persistence rates continue to be a problem for all groups, and statistics show that in most two-year colleges, even those with diverse student enrollments, well over half of all associate degrees were earned by white students. Calls for reform have already been made to bring about the structural transformations needed to improve transfer education and persistence rates, recruit a diverse community of faculty, staff and students, and encourage greater interaction between faculty and students. (Contains 40 references.) (AF)