Challenges to the Community Colleges
As Cohen and Brawer (1996) pointed out in The American Community College, the place of the community college within the history of education is fairly recent and is a purely American development. For that reason, the community or junior college has evolved to be a much more accommodating and much less static structure then other postsecondary educational structures. In fact, studies have been done on this adaptive characteristic. One in particular found that although many administrators did not think that the mission of the community college had changed much over the last 10 years, when curriculum and extra curricular activities were compared, the reality was that the intent and mission of the community college had indeed changed (Levin, 2000). This ability to adapt to the needs of the student and the community presents the two-year college with many challenges as well as opportunities.
One of those challenges, which also offer up many opportunities, is the role of the community college in the lives of minority and/or at-risk students. Typically these students are also categorized as first-generation students, that is they are the first generation to attend a postsecondary school of some sort and these students tend to come from lower socio-economic classes, the majority of which are also of racial and ethnicity background other than White. Currently, these first-generation students make up 45% of all undergraduates, 55% of which attend public two-year colleges (McConnell, 2000). Because community colleges do adapt and because they are being utilized by this particular population, this makes the community college uniquely positioned to serve this student population.
There are two points of view, however, as to whether or not the community college plays a positive role in the education of first-generation and/or minority students (Cohen & Brawer, 1996). Some studies indicate the ...