Succession Planning in Rural Community Colleges

Competent leadership is essential for institutions of any size to respond to the challenges facing post-secondary institutions. However, rural community colleges are especially vulnerable to the forces of change due to aging infrastructure, accelerated retirements, and geographic isolation that often limits competent and diverse applicant pools for future leaders. As senior administrators retire at rapid rates, geographic location and scarce resources can hamper leadership continuity. Few studies have explored how the leadership pipeline is established and maintained in rural community colleges and how institutional and community values shape that process. The study highlights the extent to which the co-dependent relationship between community stakeholders and the rural community college shapes its institutional culture and leadership development.

The Impact of Financial Aid on Associate Degree Attainment for Rural Community College Students: A Comparison of Rural, Urban, and Suburban Patterns

Objective: Increasing rural community college degree attainment is very important to foster rural areas’ economic and social well-being. Rural community colleges differ greatly from their suburban and urban counterparts in financial aid patterns and student bodies. However, existing literature is vacant with respect to student financial aid and degree attainment in rural community colleges. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between financial aid and associate degree attainment for rural community college students and compare the financing patterns of the three locales. Method: Using data from Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:04/09), we performed a series of logistic regression models that include financial aid variables and control variables from psychological, sociological, organizational, and internationalist perspectives. Results: We found rural community college students exceeded other locales in degree attainment. Logistic regression results reveal insignificant roles of Pell Grants and Federal Subsidized Loans, and negative role of Federal Unsubsidized Loans in associate degree attainment for rural community college students. Contributions: The results suggest that public subsidies, such as Pell Grants, were not sufficient to cover rural students’ unmet need for financing degree attainment, and that rural students are more cost-conscious in borrowing and spending than their suburban and urban counterparts.

A History of the “Festival of the Arts” at Southwest Virginia Community College (1995–2018): Community Service through Music

The purpose of this article is to describe the development, mission, and events of the Festival of the Arts at Southwest Virginia Community College (1995–2018) with special emphasis on community involvement and community enrichment. The festival serves as a tool in fulfilling the cultural enrichment mission and community service function of the college. Southwest Virginia Community College (SWCC) is a rural community college located in Richlands, VA, with a service area of more than 1,800 square miles, and a service area population of approximately 107,000 people. SWCC acts as the cultural center of its geographically broad service area, which is reflected in the mission of the college and is realized through initiatives such as the Festival of the Arts. After a regional performance by Pavlina Dokovska nearly a decade earlier, Dokovska became more involved in the arts community of Southwest Virginia, and she was instrumental in the official launch of the Festival of the Arts 1995. The Festival continued to evolve to an annual two-week event hosted by the college, bringing in nationally and internationally acclaimed artists for workshops, performances, and multicultural-centered education open to the public.

When Management Defines Leadership: High Demand x High Support in a Rural Community College

Drawing upon a diversity of data from efforts across almost four decades – the last two in the same rural community college – devoted to developing, implementing and studying the impact of a High Demand x High Support (HDxHS) teaching pedagogy, this paper addresses four topics: First, we briefly address the values and perspectives informing the HDxHS effort. Second, we sketch the HDxHS pedagogy and describe case exemplars, situating these in the context of a rural community college (CC). Third, we describe different leadership responses to HDxHS in terms of the use of strategic ignorance strategies (SIS), suggesting that these likely function more as a barrier than a conduit for understanding the challenges facing rural communities and CCs. Fourth, acknowledging that CCs are currently at a crossroads facing an uncertain future as legitimate public post-secondary institutions, we outline elements of a re-scripted more democratic CC leadership model. Part overview and part summary, the conclusion addresses the strengths and weaknesses of the HDxHS approach and the various bodies of knowledge to which it might contribute.