In this brief, the authors examine changes in enrollments at the Los Angeles Community College District between fall 2017 and summer 2023 to document the extent of pandemic-era enrollment declines overall and across student populations.

The COVID-19 pandemic created a crisis all over the world challenging traditional methods of business practices, teaching, and administration in the educational sphere. International education has been particularly affected; many individuals working in different areas of the profession had to enact emergency triage to aid the more than one million…

In Spring 2020, colleges across the nation swiftly transitioned their operations--including both classes and student support services--to remote delivery on an emergency basis in response to the crisis posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. While prior research has documented that the transition was associated with decrements in student outcomes, there…

In 2021, community college practitioners, scholars, researchers, and leaders accepted a challenge to document what worked, what did not work, and lessons learned during the era of the COVID-19 pandemic. This article summarizes the works of 39 authors who collectively wrote 14 peer reviewed papers in areas of leadership, curriculum, funding, social…

The COVID-19 pandemic-related social distancing practices that colleges implemented in Spring 2020 disrupted the typical mechanisms of propinquity (physical proximity) and homophily (shared characteristics) that physical institutions rely on to help students build and maintain relationships critical to learning and wellbeing. To explore how social…

The community college serves every segment of the population of the United States. Research suggests that there is currently a push to enroll international students to counter the decline of domestic enrollments and state funding and to ease financial burdens on community colleges. However, the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic slowed operations at…

How do you teach fieldwork methods when your students are suddenly prevented from entering the field? This was a pressing question faced by faculty at Guttman Community College who were teaching "Ethnographies of Work," a required first-year course centered on the observation and analysis of real-world workplace dynamics. During the…

Using data from the Quarterly Workforce Indicators, this brief explores changes in the Los Angeles County labor market and in the working-age population as a plausible explanation for some of the enrollment decline at the county's community college campuses.

As colleges and universities continue to navigate the longer-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, a wealth of knowledge and insights exists within many community colleges to inform how to best prepare students for the fast-changing demands of learning, work, and life. Using a strengths-based approach and interviews with students from three large…

To help the nation respond to the pandemic, Congress injected about $4.6 trillion into the U.S. economy through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and subsequent legislation. Of this amount, over $75 billion was directed to institutions of higher education through the Higher Education Emergency Relief (HEER) Fund,…

Four years after the onset of COVID-19, enrollment and persistence at community colleges is rebounding, although still not to prepandemic levels. Community college leaders report that a key strategy in encouraging enrollment and persistence is a drive toward more flexibility in course formats, including modes of delivery modality, materials, and…

Virtual international exchange programming increased in prominence on U.S. college campuses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given their potential as high-impact educational practices, these programs hold great potential to improve student learning in areas like global perspective-taking and self-efficacy. However, this evaluation found that…

Student veterans face a multitude of transitions throughout their life, with the initial transition into the military as a civilian, the possibility of multiple transitions throughout their enlistment, and the transition from military service to readjusting to life as a civilian following discharge. As veterans reintegrate into society, some…

To provide fast and direct economic aid to the American people negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress enacted a series of laws and injected about $4.6 trillion into the U.S. economy. Of this amount, over $75 billion was directed to institutions of higher education through the Higher Education Emergency Relief (HEER) Funds. This…

The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate the impact of the rapid shift to online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic on a community college. This study focused on examining the attitudes of the faculty towards online teaching and their teaching practices. Additionally, the study aimed to understand the impact of the rapid shift to…