DOCUMENT RESUME JC 980 187 ED 417 789 Vaughan, George B.; Weisman, Iris M. AUTHOR The Community College Presidency at the Millennium. TITLE American Association of Community Colleges, Washington, DC. INSTITUTION ISBN-0-87117-311-5 ISBN 1998-00-00 PUB DATE 188p.; Foreword by Donald E. Puyear. NOTE Community College Press, American Association of Community AVAILABLE FROM Colleges, One Dupont Circle, N.W., Suite 410, Washington, DC 20036 (Order No. 1418, $26 members; $33 non-members). -- Reports - Descriptive (141) Books (010) PUB TYPE PC Not Available from EDRS. EDRS Price MF01 Plus Postage. EDRS PRICE *Administrator Attitudes; *Administrator Characteristics; DESCRIPTORS College Administration; *College Presidents; *Community Colleges; Comparative Analysis; *Educational Background; *Employment Experience; Females; Leadership Qualities; Males; Minority Groups; National Surveys; Two Year Colleges *Career and Lifestyle Survey IDENTIFIERS ABSTRACT Based on a 1996 national study of community college presidents, this monograph presents a snapshot of presidents' personal and professional characteristics. A preface describes the purpose of the study and reviews methodology, indicating that the Career and Lifestyle Survey (CLS) was sent to 926 presidents, resulting in 680 responses, and that in-depth telephone interviews were conducted with 1.1 presidents. Chapter 1 presents background information on the CLS and reviews general characteristics of past presidents involved in the foundation of colleges in the 1960s and 1970s. Chapter 2 presents findings related to resrondents' (2) educational and (1) demogr&phics; personal characteristics, including: family background; and (3) lifestyle factors, such as geographic mobility, social affiliations, and leisure activities. Chapter 3 focuses on professional characteristics including work background, professional activities and attitudes, employment status, and plans to leave the presidency. Chapter 4 summarizes comments from the 13 presidents interviewed regarding the community college mission, available resources, and existing threats. Chapter 5 provides a comparison of presidential characteristics by race and gender and reviews issues related to increasing the representation of women and minorities in the presidency. Chapter 6 reviews respondents' techniques for establishing and maintaining relationships with college boards and faculty. Chapter 7 addresses issues facing college leaders in the next four or five years and respondents' strategies for preparing for the future. The CLS and telephone interview questions are appended. (BCY) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** JL. at t e IV I JIL Mitor J11- .IL, -AL PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND U S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL IN MICROFICHE, Office of Educational Research and Improvement AND IN ELECTRONIC MEDIA FOR ERIC EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION COLLECTION SUBSCRIBERS ONLY, CENTER (ERIC) HAS BEEN GRANTED BY his document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it T. Gollattscheck Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality ° Points of view or opinions stated in this TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES document do not necessarily represent A INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) official OERI position or policy I - 4 a ABLE. 'n'OPY 2 The COMMUNITY COLLEGE PRESIDENCY at the MILLENNIUM George B. Vaughan and Iris M. Weisman Foreword by Donald E. Puyear COMMUNITY COLLEGE PRESS® a division of the American Association of Community Colleges Washington, D.C. 3 © 1998 American Association of Community Colleges All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including, without limitation, photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission. Requests for permission should be sent to Community College Press American Association of Community Colleges One Dupont Circle, NW Suite 410 Washington, DC 20036 (202) 728-0200 Printed in the United States of America. ISBN 0-87117-311-5 4 CONTENTS List of Figures iv List of Tables iv Foreword v Preface ix xv Acknowledgments 1 Building on the Foundations 1 2 A Personal Profile of the Presidency 19 3 A Professional Profile of the Presidency 45 4 Mission and Milieu: Views from the Trenches 73 5 Women and Minorities in the Community College Presidency 97 6 Establishing and Maintaining Relationships 125 7 Issues Facing Community College Leaders at the Millennium 137 Appendixes 1. Survey Instrument 159 z. Interview Questions 163 References 165 Index 169 About the Authors 173 111 Figures Presidents by Race or Ethnicity Figure 2.1 24 Figure 2.2 z6 Current Age of Presidents Figure 2.3 Presidents' Political Party Affiliation and Political Ideology 29 Figure 3.I Presidential Tenure 47 Figure 3.z Years in Current Position 48 Total Number of Presidencies Figure 3.3 49 Figure 3.4 Position Held Before First Presidency 53 Presidential Membership in Figure 3.5 Professional Organizations 57 Figure 3.6 Publications by Presidents 59 Presidents' Plans to Retire Figure 3.7 69 Tables Presidents by Gender and Table 5.1 Race or Ethnicity 100 I0I Table 5.z Current Age of Presidents Average Presidential Table 5.3 1oz Tenure (in Years) Table 5.4 Age at First Presidency 103 Average Reported Hours Table 5.5 per Week Spent Performing Presidential Duties 104 Table 5.6 Perception of Stress Associated with the Presidency 105 Table 5.7 Perception of Risk Associated io6 with the Presidency Table 5.8 Likelihood of Presidents Seeking or Accepting Another Position within the Next Five Years 107 '08 Presidents' Plans to Retire Table 5.9 iv 6 FOREWORD George Vaughan and Iris Weisman have provided another important contribution to our understanding of the com- munity college presidency. This is the third national study Vaughan has conducted on the characteristics of community college presidents. The information presented throughout the book will be useful to those who wish to understand commu- nity colleges and their leaders. The sections of the work that address both historical and future issues facing community col- lege leaders are intriguing. The historical perspective of chapter 1 sets the context for a review of personal and professional profiles of today's commu- nity college presidents in chapters 2 and 3 ("A Personal Profile of the Presidency" and "A Professional Profile of the Presidency," respectively). These two chapters, and a good bit of chapter 5 ("Women and Minorities in the Community College Presidency"), come from the most recent iteration of Career and Lifestyle Survey (CLS). In this survey, community college presidents were asked a series of questions regarding their personal back- grounds, their education and experience before becoming pres- ident, their personal and professional lifestyles as president, and Community College Presidency at the Millennium vi their future plans. As is demonstrated by the type of analysis in these chapters, this research becomes even more valuable when it is repeated over time. Trends are identified and the results of the trends are analyzed. In chapter 6 ("Establishing and Maintaining Relationships") the human and relational aspects of the presidency are consid- ered. This chapter draws on information on the president- board relationship previously obtained from a complementary study by Vaughan and Weisman. In-depth interviews with a number of community college presidents are included in a new and quite fascinating feature of this volume. In these interviews, the issues, concerns, and visions of the presidents are explored in a most effective man- ner. These results are reported in chapter 4 ("Mission and Milieu: Views from the Trenches"), chapter 5 ("Women and Minorities in the Community College Presidency"), and chapter 7 ("Issues Facing Community College Leaders at the Millennium"). These sections are the heart of the work; here one gets the sense of what is really important to today's com- munity college presidents. Also in chapter 7, the presidents' responses to the survey questions regarding the major issue facing the community col- lege in the next three to four years and what presidents can do to prepare their institutions to face the issue are synthesized. These issues and strategies are followed by comments of the interviewed presidents regarding the leadership skills that will be needed by presidents in the millennium. Many of the presidents interviewed for this book stated that getting community and political leaders to understand the com- munity college mission was one of their greatest challenges. Is that, perhaps, because we are hanging on to the old answers when it is the questions that should be doctrine? What are the educational and training needs associated with today's and tomorrow's societal imperatives and how and where are this 8 FOREWORD Vii education and training to be provided? The answers must be developed anew in light of the changing demographics, tech- nology, and needs of today's citizens. They must be developed in collaboration with those who will be served. As community colleges serve their communities with renewed vigor and vital- ity, they just might be better understood. In this book, Vaughan and Weisman have chronicled changes in the characteristics of community college presidents as we have moved from the first to the second or third genera- tion of presidents at most colleges. Most of the founding presi- dents, and even most of the immediate protégés of the founding presidents, have moved on. The corps of presidents has become more diverse in gender and to a lesser degree in race or ethnic- ity. Yet one thing has not changed: Presidents need to have a vision of the contributions that community colleges can make to society and the zeal to lead their institutions to accomplish their missions. DONALD E. PUYEAR Executive Director State Board of Directors for Community Colleges of Arizona PREFACE This book provides a snapshot of the community college presidency by studying the personal and professional pro- files of community college presidents. The data used in this book come primarily from national studies in which presidents completed a Career and Lifestyle Survey (CLS). In addition, interviews with 13 community college presidents further reveal the challenges that community college presidents currently face and those they will face in the next century. In 1984, 591 out of 838 public community college presi- dents (71 percent) participated in the CLS study; in 1991, 837 out of 1,097 public community college presidents (76 percent) participated in the study; and in 1996, 680 out of 926 public community college presidents (73 percent) partic- ipated in the study: The surveys taken in 1984, 1991, and 1996 provide the data for assessing changes that have occurred in the presidency over time. During that 12-year period, some personal charac- teristics did not seem to change at all, whereas other changes 1. See Vaughan, 1986, and Vaughan, Mellander, & Blois, 1994, for a com- plete description of the results of the first two studies.