This chapter describes rural community colleges, compares them to their urban and suburban counter‐parts, and highlights the unique challenges they face in the twenty‐first century.

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This chapter argues that a major gap in our understanding of community colleges is the need to recognize the diversity of institutional settings. A Carnegie-style classification system for community colleges is proposed, with a discussion of implications for graduate programs preparing Community college leaders. Preparing Leaders for Diverse Institutional SettingsStephen G. Katsinas Implicit in much of the higher education literature is the notion that great homogeneity exists among.and between community colleges in the United States. While they share a commitment to open access, comprehensiveness, and responsiveness to local needs, community colleges are in fact a diverse group of institutions. This diversity is reflected in geography, demography, governance, and institutional size. All affect college culture and the roles played by community college educators and leaders who complete graduate programs in higher education. What works in a large, multicampus urban community college system does not necessarily work in a small, rural setting, and vice versa.These differences are well known by experienced community college leaders and by the boards of trustees they serve (Katsinas, 1993). Regional geographic and demographic traits are reported by the institutions themselves in virtually every executive position description found in Community College Times, Community College Week, or the Chronicle $Higher Education. The intent is to attract applicants who can function in the college's unique circumstances. Successful candidates for these positions are aware of the vast differences in management knowledge and personal leadership style required to administer a single-campus rural community college as opposed to a five-campus urban metropolitan district.Unfortunately, these differences have not been adequately recognized in the community college literature. The general tendency to treat community colleges as homogeneous institutions prevails, particularly for research university economists and sociologists who are not themselves directly engaged in graduate and professional education programs for community college leaders.