Community college practitioners often use ambiguous metaphors. Just as channels can refer to both rivers and televisions, community college missions, purposes, and curricular objectives have always been very fluid and attuned to the latest academic modalities. But academic times and fortunes have been shifting, and community colleges, along with other sectors of American higher education, are in danger of running aground or losing the signal. Depending on your choice of metaphor, the old channels are silting over or becoming very snowy. Those who ride on the river or the airwaves are not likely to notice degradation of the channel until it is too late, for there is comfort and stability in the old ways. However, if community colleges are to truly adapt and respond to their constituent communities, a hallmark of their raison d' etre, then they must change channels. Community college leaders must chart a new course using technology to navigate through the shoals of access, accountability, diversity, and quality. Doing so will require examining community college philosophy, mission, purposes, and curriculum against the backdrop of living, learning, and earning in the information age.Such fundamental values are not easily broached. How can our success as community colleges be a sign that we need to do something different? What has worked before will surely work again. Now
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