Community colleges may fall short of the expectations made of them but they do so not by design but by lack of design. These expectations and assumptions, as commonly held by community college educators, students, and critics, include both positive and negative myths and realities. The assumptions that community college programs are inexpensive,…

In 1992, Hudson County Community College (HCCC), in New Jersey, began a mission review process to expand from a limited, career-oriented institution to a comprehensive urban community college. Mission statements were reviewed from 67 comprehensive community colleges in 22 states and a questionnaire was devised to determine college staff and…

Revised general education (GE) curricula at two community colleges are described in an effort to illustrate the outcomes of a "telic" curriculum revision based on: (1) the collective identification of the purposes of GE by an institution's faculty, and (2) the design of a GE curriculum which reconciles those identified purposes with the…

After 40 years of efforts, the first bill authorizing the establishment of community colleges in the state of Ohio was finally adopted in June 1961. Before and after the passage of the act, attempts had been made to create a comprehensive community college system in Ohio, but all of them failed. A 1970 study by the Ohio Board of Regents (OBOR),…

Dalton Junior College, Georgia, has developed a comprehensive staff development plan for professionals in the vocational-technical division to relate student needs to professional competencies and meet certification requirements. The plan consists of a rationale or stated need and general goals, policies, and procedures. As a component of the…