Community Colleges

THE DANGERS PEOPLE MIGHT encounter on a college campus are the same as those on a city street. Since there is no way to know when a security incident might occur (unless, say, someone calls in a bomb threat), campus leaders are relying on proper training to enable their security personnel to predict such incidents and respond appropriately.

While security personnel at community colleges deal with the same challenges faced by their counterparts at four-year institutions, there are some twists presented by the more fluid nature of the population at two-year institutions.

IT IS A WELL-KNOWN FACT: Tutoring helps students perform better. The trick is getting them to use it. In keeping with the cyclical nature of trends, community colleges are rediscovering the advantages of student success centers, which consolidate math, writing, and language help in one place.

Community college leaders already know to expect some students will drop out in the first few weeks of the semester. The Survey of Entering Student Engagement (SENSE) can help them figure out why.

LONG A STEPPING STONE TO higher education for low-income and first-generation students, community colleges will become more important to a wider variety of students if the combination of a weakening economy and increasing tuition continues.

IT'S BEEN MONTHS, EVEN years, of campaigning for your bond, but once election day is over you can rest, right? Wrong--that's when the real work begins.

DATA-EVERYBODY HAS IT, but they aren't all using it the same way. By applying business intelligence (BI) to reporting, some administrators are taking data analysis to the next level.

HIGHER EDUCATION IS having an "a-ha" moment, and Ken Kay is seeing it happen. As president of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, an advocacy organization, Kay works with education officials, business leaders, and policymakers.

THE LEAGUE FOR INNOVA-tion in the Community College hasn't heard much about it. The American Association of Community Colleges says it's not a trend. The American Council on Education knows of one person who did it 10 years ago. It doesn't happen often, but leaders do move from the four-year to the two-year sector. And once they do, they often find that things they learned working at a university can be helpfully applied at a community college.