This paper provides an overview of strategic planning's role in enhancing higher education institutions' sense of strategic direction and outlining measurable goals. The study particularly reflects the practical experience of setting up a strategic plan within a community college at a Saudi Arabian university, providing academic insight into…

Our preliminary experiment examined a potential pain point with ASSIST, California's database of articulation agreements. That pain point is cross-referencing multiple articulation agreements to manually develop an "optimal" academic plan. Optimal is defined as the minimal set of community college courses that satisfy all transfer…

Distance learning technology continues to grow and undergo significant changes in higher education settings. Applying strategic planning methods from organizational behavior and operations management can act as a useful guide for the implementation of a sustainable distance learning program. Strong planning can help ensure the distance learning…

In the following systematic review, the author examines how rural community college leaders address the unique challenges and strengths of working in a rural environment as they strive to retain, support, develop, compensate, and invest in their employees. Factors such as geographic isolation, small population sizes, and close-knit social networks…

An increasing preference for nondegree credentials evident prior to the pandemic has become even more apparent. Nondegree credentials can and sometimes should be part of a postsecondary education, but the inchoate credentials environment encourages poor planning and unwise decisions. The competitive advantages that a balanced education can offer…

Dr. William Serrata has been President of the El Paso County Community College (EPCC) District since 2012. Dr. Serrata serves as an advisory board member of the Higher Education Research and Development Institute (HERDI), and was recently appointed to the Executive Committee for Board of Directors for the American Association of Community Colleges…

Internationalization in the community college sector serves many purposes that align with the local and national contexts in which an institution is situated. One method of assessing how international efforts have become institutionalized is through the analysis of internationalization plans. Prior research examining internationalization plans and…

Rural-serving community colleges (RSCCs) play vital roles in their communities yet often struggle to facilitate student transfer to further education, especially in STEM fields. This mixed methods study explored how rural STEM educators leverage relationships to support transfer. Social network analysis of focus groups with 36 educators at five…

This study utilizes interviews with five Hispanic presidents at Hispanic-serving community colleges in the United States to understand how presidents define and perceive their role in ensuring Hispanic servingness, that is, guaranteeing that the Hispanic population is being fully served, at Hispanic-Serving Institutes (HSIs). We employ Garcia and…

This article presents an instrumental case study of how community college faculty engages in academic planning in the wake of curricular policy reform, and tensions between the perspectives of faculty from 2- and 4-year institutions. Implications of these dynamics are discussed with a focus on advice for those leading curricular change projects in…

In this paper, we offer a philosophical argument explaining why and how community college leaders may support the adoption and implementation of campus climate action plans. Our argument is based on the community college philosophical commitment to service (to the community, the state, and the nation) and the challenges posed by climate change and…

Strategic plans are valuable tools for colleges seeking to cast vision and provide focused guidance for leadership and faculty, but it is not clear how these plans address student success. This study analyzed plans from 55 of the 58 community colleges in North Carolina. First, we analyzed the plans using a 10-step strategic planning framework to…

The pursuit of relevancy is a rural community college's chance to evolve, adapt, to obtain long-term sustainability. This chapter discusses ways that institutions can demonstrate their relevancy to support their sustainability.

Objective: Concurrent enrollment programming is on the rise in the United States. Offering authentic college coursework to high school students has been shown to increase college enrollment, persistence, and graduation, as well as cut down on cost and time to degree. This study provides perspectives on concurrent enrollment directly from students.…

This article focuses on Latinx transfer inequity and the role of state policy in addressing barriers faced trying to move from community college to four-year institutions. A recently passed initiative in California, known as the Student Equity Policy, offers community colleges the opportunity to address transfer barriers for racial/ethnic students…