Sustaining Opportunity in Rural Community Colleges

Engaging Community Colleges in Rural Development: A Meta-Synthesis of Doctoral Dissertations

“…A search of the ERIC database using the descriptors “community college and rural development” yielded more than 200 documents. This includes documents describing the Ford Foundation’s more than $17 million Rural Community College Initiative (RCCI) launched in 1994 as a national demonstration project to help community colleges in distressed regions move their people and communities toward prosperity (for example, see Emery, 2008; Kennamer & Stephen, 2011; Torres & Viterito, 2008). The literature base reflected in ERIC search results is the primary conceptual and methodological grounding for the dissertations reviewed in this project.…”

Closing the Academic and Equity Gaps: How Achieving the Dream Redefined Assessment

“…Capacity‐building is reflected in the manner decisions are made, who determines what is valued, and the creation of processes that connect the core purpose of community with the current trends in society (Smith, ). A study of rural community colleges viewed capacity‐building as a necessary step to shift structures and processes to enable the college to confidently approach the future in a manner that develops confidence that change is not only possible but also sustainable (Torres, Viterito, Heeter, Hernandez, Santiague, & Johnson, ). Having community colleges focused on data that directly examines issues of equity often requires colleges to increase their capacity to consider different structures to meet the demands associated with serving diverse students (Kezar, ).…”

examination of the impact of economic development activities at a rural community college

“…While over 85% of the United States is considered rural, only 15% of the nation's population lives in these rural areas (Miller & Kissinger, 2007). This geographic challenge only makes it more difficult for rural community colleges to recruit and retain not just students, but qualified faculty (Torres et al, 2013). To further the challenge, rural areas are often economically disadvantaged as well, leading to a lower tax base available to support the mission and activities of the college (Fluharty & Scaggs, 2007).…”

“…Interestingly, these options have revolved around institutions working with regional partners to transform these challenges into opportunities. Some of the ways this has been accomplished included: fundraising for scholarships for books for students without access to financial aid; partnering with community service organizations and others to open satellite campuses and centers for colleges embracing a large and rural service area; and acquiring grants to upgrade fiber infrastructure for whole communities to expand access both to distance education and telemedicine (S. Rubin, 2001;Torres et al, 2013).…”

“…Interestingly, these options all revolved around working with regional partners to evolve these challenges into opportunities. Some of the ways this was accomplished included fundraising for scholarships for books for students without access to financial aid, partnering with community service organizations and others to open satellite campuses and centers for colleges embracing a large and rural service area, and writing grants to upgrade fiber infrastructure for whole communities to expand access both to distance education and telemedicine (S. Rubin, 2001;Torres et al, 2013). Given the extreme interest of the stakeholder participants in the potential for this study to help the college overcome these limiting factors, it is likely that some of these strategies from RCCI would be beneficial to the college considered in this research.…”