Last year, amid the tumult of the Middle East's Arab Spring--a series of uprisings that have toppled governments and tested the United States' foreign policies throughout the region--administrators at Kirkwood Community College (KCC) in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, received an intriguing request. The school was among a group of institutions contacted by…

When the 10 members of the American Association of Community College's (AACC's) 21st-Century Implementation Team 7 (nine of whom are community college presidents) sat down in 2013 to talk about reforming institutional roles and functions at the nation's two-year career and technical colleges, everyone in the room knew the work before them would be…