This chapter discusses the employment engagement efforts of Missouri's twelve community colleges to improve program development, student recruitment, program assistance, student support, and employer hiring.

Historically underserved and minoritized students are more likely to thrive when they are supported and led by diverse faculty and staff. In 2019, leaders of the country's largest higher education system, California Community Colleges, recognized wide gaps in representation: 52% of 2.1 million students identified as underrepresented minorities,…

This chapter examines exemplary practices and challenges of recruiting and retaining women in information technology programs in an Iowa community college context.

Recruitment, socialization, and development of new professionals are critical to the ongoing success, continuous improvement, and advancement of community colleges. The varied experiences and preparation of student services professionals create a complexity of needs that provide challenges to effectively and efficiently help them transition and…

Jane Knight is most often credited with establishing the term "internationalization" as a process in higher education. Her seminal works in the 1990s established internationalization not as a state to be achieved, but as an ongoing process by which colleges could strive to increase the global learning of students (Knight, 1993, 1994). Many…

An important consideration in examining faculty issues facing rural community colleges is the number of full-time faculty employed by these institutions and the number of students they serve. Using the measure of annual unduplicated head count enrollment, rural institutions served 36 percent of all community college enrollments in academic year…

Community colleges are generally more inclusive to female faculty as compared to four-year institutions. Women represent 49 percent of fulltime and 50 percent of part-time community college faculty, a stark contrast to the low numbers of female faculty in four-year institutions. Female faculty at community colleges also receive similar rates of…

For the foreseeable future, community colleges must seriously address hiring, retaining, and facilitating upward mobility for faculty members. Moreover, they should recruit a faculty corps that is more reflective of both the students they serve and the demographics of their college service area. It is critical for community colleges to employ and…

Collegiate athletic programs have often been referred to as the "front porch" of an institution. Coaches, athletic teams, student athletes, and athletic department staff serve as a "link between the immediate campus family and the larger community. It is this front-porch principle that makes managing intercollegiate athletics a unique and…

Evidence clearly points to the presence of intercollegiate athletics at the early junior colleges established prior to World War I. Moving into more current times, the authors find among prominent reasons for institutional involvement with athletics giving students a "true college experience," expanding access, recruiting a more diverse student…

This article takes a highly critical look at athletics and responds to the question of whether contemporary community colleges should continue to maintain athletic programs, especially in times of financial constraint. For balance, the authors have chosen to focus on the negatives. They feel it is important to present a balanced picture in support…

Rural community college presidential job advertisements that focus on geography, politics, and culture can improve the likelihood of a good fit between the senior leader and the institution. (Contains 2 figures.)

Community colleges' partnerships with other organizations give students opportunities to gain a realistic understanding of what will be expected of them upon graduation, and they help create a seamless path from college to career. This chapter describes how the Administration of Justice (AJ) Department at East Los Angeles College has partnered…

Much is being written about a potential shortage of qualified community college faculty. Rural community colleges may be at the greatest disadvantage in attracting and retaining new faculty because they cannot offer the financial, cultural, and social advantages that more urban institutions can. This chapter describes the factors rural community…

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 state, "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance". This provision paved the way for student-initiated…