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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

Leadership Abstract: A Learning-Centered Ph.D. for Community College Leaders


A Learning-Centered Ph.D. for Community College Leaders – The looming
leadership crisis is converging with the commitment of many community
colleges to learning-centered education. Terry O’Banion and Jonathan Kaplan think the time is right for a learning-centered Ph.D. Read about this revolutionary idea in the September Leadership Abstracts.

Published monthly with Support from SCT (www.sct.com)

** To view the web version of this abstract, in printer friendly layout, go to https://www.league.org/publication/abstracts/leadership/labs0903.htm ** __________________________________________________________

A Learning-Centered Ph.D. for Community College Leaders

Terry O’Banion and Jonathan Kaplan

Two major waves of historic proportion are engulfing community colleges, and the future of the community college will be determined, in great part, by the action or inaction leaders take to address this situation. On the one hand, in the words of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), there is a leadership crisis, a challenge that needs immediate attention. On the other hand, there is an emerging commitment to learning-centered education, an approach that has captured the attention of hundreds of community colleges across the United States and Canada. These two waves present an opportunity for the convergence of a new idea: a learning-centered Ph.D. for community college leaders.

THE LEADERSHIP CRISIS

In 2002, AACC convened a national summit of community college leaders to address problems and issues related to leadership needs in community colleges. The summit report did not mince words: “Community colleges are facing an impending crisis in leadership.” This alarm was sounded on the basis of a leadership survey conducted by AACC in 2001 that warned

* Nearly half of responding community college presidents indicate they will be retiring in the next six years; and

* Thirty-three percent of presidents estimate that one-fourth or more of their chief administrators (the ranks from which community college presidents rise) will retire in the next five years.

If one-half of the approximately 1,200 community college presidents retire in the next six years (600) and one-fourth of the chief administrators, say three vice presidents, retire in the next five years (900) that is 1,500 new leaders needed in the next five to six years.

                                                        (TO CONTINUE, OPEN ATTACHMENT)
 

Dr. Susan Salvador
Office for Student Services
09/18/2003