The Community College in the Twenty-First Century: A Systems Approach.

The Community College in the Twenty-First Century: A Systems Approach by Michael Scott Cain. University Press of America, Lanham, Maryland. 1999, 168 pages, $32.00, Cloth, ISBN 0-7618-1357-8. Reviewed by Clifford P. Harbour

In The Community College in the Twenty-First Century: A Systems Approach, Michael Scott Cain argues that community colleges must clarify their mission and move beyond their recent descent into "confusion and ambiguity" (p. 9). The author maintains that this can be best accomplished through a systematic analysis of public two-year institutions. For Cain, a systematic analysis is holistic and views community colleges as more than the sum of discrete organizational units or individuals (p. 13). By recognizing the importance of systematic concepts like intra-organizational communication and its role in altering perceptions and relationships, Cain holds that community colleges can revise their mission and move beyond the confusion that he sees as endemic (pp. 25-26).

Cain's description of systematic analysis is informative and interesting (pp. 9-26). But, his discussion of how this approach may be implemented is inconsistent with his description of the paradigm. For example, after describing systematic analysis and its emphasis on concepts like communication, organizational preference for homeostasis, and change through morphogenesis (pp. 13-15), Cain turns to examine some of the traditional groups in community colleges--faculty, students, and campus leaders (p. 41-91). In short, the author's discussion of systematic theory is based on the same discrete organizational units and individuals that he wanted to transcend at the outset.

To be sure, the author discusses the community college as a system in commenting on faculty, students, and campus leaders. He fails, however, to emphasize concepts like communication, organizational preference for homeostasis, and change through morphogenesis. After Cain promises a thick notion of systems analysis in Chapter 2, subsequent chapters reveal only a thin application of the theory to community colleges. In the end, systems theory adds little to the book.

Despite this shortcoming, students of the community college will find Cain's discussion of the institution provocative and engaging. The author's title for Chapter 1 is "The Walmart of Higher Education," and it is here that he marks out the central theme of the book. Cain states that "a major strength of the community college, then, has been its ability to discover and serve what Walmart would call new markets. Ironically, its major weakness emanates from that same ability" (p. 7). At the end of the chapter the author clarifies this point and states,

   just as a growing number of people are returning to the strip shops because
   Walmart has gotten too big and noisy and confusing, so are a number of
   people expressing dissatisfaction with the community college because it has
   overextended itself. It has lost its direction by spreading itself too
   thin. By trying to appeal to the entire population, it has wound up
   satisfying no one. (p. 8)

In Chapter 3 Cain explains how, in his view, community colleges have come to this point. He observes that the twentieth century has seen a continuing expansion in the mission of public two-year colleges (pp. 27-39). Although these institutions were initially designed to provide the first two years of baccalaureate instruction, they gradually expanded their mission to include new responsibilities such as technical or vocational training and developmental education. Simultaneously, two-year institutions accommodated increasing enrollments by White males, women, and minorities. After chronicling the expansion of the community college mission, Cain argues that the current confusion and ambiguity has had a negative impact on faculty, students, and administrators.

In Cain's view, there are three separate and distinct faculties at community colleges: academic, vocational, and adjunct (p. 44). Although he focuses on the academic and adjunct faculties, he maintains that each group has its own view of the expanding mission of community colleges. "Among academic faculty," Cain states, "there is a widespread feeling that students in technical and vocational programs are somehow not real students. The feeling sometimes extends to the people who guide them: vocational-technical teachers are not seen as real faculty," (p. 48). Thus, Cain claims, "for academic faculty, the story of the community college has been the slow drift from mission to disillusionment, from boutique to Wal-Mart, a drift that has moved them from a position of power to a lack of perceived power" (p. 48-49). Worse yet, he concludes, the development of the comprehensive community college has resulted in a "loss of intellectual rigor" (p. 52).

Cain correctly identifies adjunct faculty as the least powerful of the three faculties (p. 44), but his description of part-time instructors is not objective. For example, in Chapter 5, he characterizes adjuncts as "the Cinderellas of the community colleges, the less valued stepsisters who are taken for granted, given the responsibility for the dirty work and never invited to the glitzy parties," (p. 62). The use of this metaphor, although colorful, is misguided at best. To be sure, adjunct instructors, as part-time employees, do not enjoy the same salary, benefits, and job security as their full-time colleagues. Cain's implication, however, that the community colleges should surrender their commitment to the comprehensive mission to avoid employing large numbers of adjuncts is overly simplistic.

With respect to students, the author acknowledges that the open door philosophy succeeded in attracting nontraditional students and those who did not enjoy academic success in high school (p. 81). But, he makes a distinction between students with "dormant ability" and those with "lower ability" (p.90). He states,

   The two-year college, however, very often mistakes dormant ability for
   lower ability (sic) and, other than provide a place where students can
   gather until their abilities and interests crystalize, does nothing to
   increase the level of ability. By trying to be all things to all people, it
   aims like television, for the lowest common denominator and, also like
   television, becomes cynical. It assumes the worst about its students and,
   in assuming the worry, tends to bring out the worst in them. (p. 90-91)

Cain concludes by focusing on community college leaders and governance mechanisms. He criticizes the diversity of governance models used to administer community colleges (p. 97). He also contends that "the guiding principle for administration is generally pragmatism; community colleges are not ruled by either theory or principle deriving from values," (p. 98). For Cain, the development of the comprehensive mission caused institutions to replace leaders with managers (p. 108). Managers, he argues, were needed to secure the enrollment increases that have come with the comprehensive mission (p. 108).

In summary, Cain holds that the comprehensive mission has had a detrimental effect on faculty, students, and campus leaders. It has also "lowered the intellectual level" of the institution (p. 131), increased job training programs at the cost of academic instruction (p. 134), and mistakenly committed colleges to the "student salvaging business" (developmental programs, p. 124). In his last chapter, Cain states the following:

   The argument behind this book is that failing to recognize its true nature
   led the community, college to disperse its energy in a thousand directions;
   the schools ... tried to become something for everyone and thereby ...
   wound up satisfying no one. (p. 139)

From this reviewer's perspective, Cain's justification for a retreat from the comprehensive mission is ultimately based on the considerable challenges that faculty and campus leaders face in delivering educational programs and services at publicly funded open door institutions serving adult learners in the community. Cain is certainly right in arguing that the comprehensive mission has strained institutions. Many would argue, however, that this is the nature of the business given restricted state allocations and the needs of adult learners and local communities. Public hospitals, public schools, police departments, and other public service agencies have their own commitments to excellence, service, and access. We would not accept a retreat from their traditional missions to accomplish smaller, quieter, and less confusing institutions. A retreat from the comprehensive mission at community colleges would be just as wrong.

Unfortunately, numerous typographical errors and misspellings in this 1999 publication compromise Cain's interesting account of the contemporary community college mission. For example, students of the community college know that The Diverted Dream (1989) was written by "Brint" and Karabel and not "Brick" and Karabel. Additionally, some readers may have concerns about the limited number of recent publications used by the author in his research.

Cain's book presents an argument for a more focused and limited community college in the twenty-first century. Readers will need to make their own decision as to whether the author's argument is convincing. The reasonableness of the purchase price will be judged, in large measure, by the reader's view of the comprehensive mission, the open door philosophy, and the attendant responsibilities public two-year colleges have to adult learners and their communities.

Clifford P. Harbour is dean of academic programs at Durham Technical Community College in Durham, North Carolina. [e-mail]