One of the most important elements of the community college is the open enrollment policy, providing students who may have performed poorly in high school with a fresh start. Serving academically underprepared students is an important objective of community colleges, but the practice is not without pitfalls. Negative outcomes of the open…

Although the community college is a product of the publicly subsidized move to mass higher education during the 25 years following World War II, it now faces a more stringent fiscal environment that severely challenges its comprehensive, multipurpose character. Funding in the current era of consolidation entails an examination and reconciliation…

This paper describes the use of tuition tax credits and vouchers as political alternatives of choice and competition in a progressive society. School and public administration theorists identify two distinct finance models: the rational and the political. The first part of this paper examines and describes these two models. The next part…

A procedure used to select students for a nursing program in a community college was evaluated, and attention was directed to the cost effectiveness of the program and the implications for the community of an open-door policy. The selection criteria were based on high school grades in chemistry and biology; scores on the Aptitude Test for Allied…

Based on a 3-year case study of an open-access community college, this monograph examines the background to, causes of, and possible resolutions for the decline of literacy in open-access colleges. Chapter 1 presents a working definition of literacy; considers the nature of literacy in a community college setting; and raises issues concerning the…

This three-part concept paper was the result of a colloquium, during which 35 community college educators met in Traverse City, Michigan, to discuss issues related to access, assessment, and developmental education and to develop concept papers and recommendations for each topic. First, introductory material describes the colloquium and its…

The academic performance of intercollegiate athletes at the University of California (UC), Davis, was studied, using graduation rates and grade point average (GPA) as performance measures. Comparisons of academic performance of athletes and other UC Davis undergraduates were also made. Of 1,042 male athletes during 1970-1979, 63 percent were…

The open admissions policy at the City University of New York (CUNY) and the effect of fiscal crisis in New York are considered. One of the important changes that occurred after the fiscal crisis in 1975 was that entry to CUNY's senior colleges became more difficult. Another change was the implementation in 1977 of a more stringent and precisely…

The degree to which the City University of New York (CUNY) prepares students for useful lives can be measured, in part, by the degree to which its graduates are able to find employment. In order to assess the effectiveness of the newly developed counseling services of the Office of Employment Counseling and Placement at Bronx Community College,…

In order to ascertain the effect of open admissions by investigating the graduation rate of basic skills students, a follow-up study was conducted of the 1,728 students who entered Queensborough Community College in fall 1970 and who were assigned to remedial reading and/or writing. Of a total enrollment of 3,230, 24% or 774 students were…

This report of the evaluation of the Office of Instructional Resources Teaching Center at the University of Florida describes an approach to the problem of assessing an instructional program developed for students who do not meet the admission requirements of the state university system. The program evaluation design not only provides a model to…

Issues in community college basic skills instruction are reviewed and two model programs are outlined in this paper. First, concerns about student illiteracy, lack of academic preparation, and failure to complete courses are discussed, and public demands for educational accountability are examined. Next, the relationship between the "open…

The dilemma of maintaining academic standards as well as open access policies is discussed in this paper with respect to the causes of and possible solutions to the problem. Trends leading to the standards/open access dilemma are first considered, including the dominant belief in the 1950's that education served to select and groom the most…

The effectiveness of open admissions and delivery of educational services at a distance in serving adult learners enrolled at Athabasca University, Alberta, Canada, was studied in 1979-80 through an analysis of demographic and geographic information on 2,491 students. Information was gathered on the following characteristics: sex, age, number of…

An examination is provided of University of Mid-America/State University of Nebraska (UMA/SUN) multimedia adult learners, based on market surveys in 1973 and 1974. One of the major responsibilities of SUN was to complete the planning of a two-year postsecondary open learning curriculum to be offered, including enumeration of courses in order of…