The third edition of the AACC Competencies for Community College Leaders is now available and it’s more comprehensive than ever before. As more leaders retire, gaps are left throughout institutions as staff and faculty shift to fill different positions. That means everyone within an institution needs to be a leader, no matter their title. At […]
Leaders and Training Articles
Training, testing are key to cybersecurity
It’s early evening, and you get an email from your college president saying she is at dinner with a potential donor and misplaced her credit card. You’re asked to pay for the bill electronically by clicking on a link in the email. But you notice the email didn’t come from the college’s system, but rather […]
Faculty diversity is a worthy goal
Community colleges tend to have the greatest diversity among their students than other types of higher education institutions, yet they still face challenges in attaining diversity among faculty. In California, for example, a report by the Campaign for College Opportunity found that while Hispanics compromise 44 percent of the student body in higher education, including […]
Recognizing faculty
Innovation happens every day in community college classrooms. The success of students is dependent on innovative, dedicated faculty. And the success of institutional initiatives is dependent on faculty. Recognizing those faculty members who make a difference every day is important. That’s why the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) created the Dale P. Parnell Faculty […]
Access and equity: Are community colleges the answer?
Every Thanksgiving I travel and take the opportunity to catch up on reading materials. While in flight to California, I opened the November 11 issue of The Chronicle. Three headlines caught my eye: “How Dual Credit Contributes to Inequality,” “Public Colleges Backslide on Access” and “How to Help Disadvantaged Students Reach the Middle Class.” The […]
Serving as president during tumultuous times
The community college presidency represents an amazing opportunity to make a tremendous difference and impact in the community that the college serves. Along with that opportunity comes an awesome, almost burdensome, sense of responsibility. The work of community colleges is simply too critical and too urgent to not get right. We must find ways to […]
Social media for college presidents
By now, your marketing and communication teams have almost surely embraced social media as the spear-point of low-cost, high-touch targeted outreach to potential students. What’s more, cultivating an online community of students and college staff who regularly interact together has helped spread the stories of your institution, given your college a unique personality and possibly […]
Developing tomorrow’s leaders today
Metropolitan Community College (MCC) students who want to grow their leadership skills will get the opportunity this fall as the Missouri college launches the MCC LEADS Academy. The program, designed by the Campus Life & Leadership coordinators, is targeted to help MCC students develop their leadership skills over the course of their education. Caitlin Mountjoy, […]
Report roundup
Here are three reports you should know about this month. The American Council on Education’s survey of U.S. college and university presidents shows that presidents from associate-degree granting institutions are, overall, more diverse and younger than presidents from other types of institutions. Thirty-six percent of associate college presidents are women and 20 percent are minorities. […]
The 655-mile man
John J. Sygielski’s 655-mile bike ride this spring not only raised funds for students in financial need, it gave Dr. Ski, as he is known, an opportunity to briefly put aside from his mind the daily duties of his job as president of HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College. The “Tour de Dr. Ski” raised $4,000 […]