Remarks from the editor

SHRINKING BUDGETS may be the greatest challenge facing community college educators today. The tendency can be for administrators to hunker down, eschew new ideas while grimly focusing on retrenchment. Cutbacks are an unavoidable necessity, but now is not the time to close minds to ideas that can enhance efficiency and optimize the use of resources.

In the latest "Two Sides of the Same Coin" interview, Steven Berg talks to Carolyn Haynes, editor of Innovations in Interdisciplinary Teaching, a collection of essays offering intriguing approaches to interdisciplinary pedagogy. He also speaks with Peter Sands, a teacher of computer-mediated pedagogy at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The two share their expertise and add to the discussion of the benefits and challenges in the hybrid classroom.

John Welsh, Joseph Petrosko and Jeffrey Metcalf analyze the differences in attitude regarding accountability among faculty and administration at two- and four-year institutions. Denise Sigworth, Cheryl Hawkins and Deborah Daiek catalog the skills stakeholders in academia and the community identify from one project as the skills college students need in the 21st century.

Amy Glenn and Frank Glenn discuss the results of a survey of minority students asking whether they would be more or less likely to pursue a bachelor's degree if one were offered by the community college they currently attend. Howard Major and Debbie Taylor present a primer for new and adjunct faculty, adept in their fields of study, but inexperienced as instructors, with little or no formal training in androgogy.

"A Short Take" features Edward Trowbridge's letter to an undecided student which includes an innovative method to help students choose a major field of study. Vicki Kloosterhouse relates the experiences of participants in the Galileo Leadership Consortium, a training academy for K-12 and community college educators and staff. Phillip Ballard and Dana Washington tell how two new literary magazines helped their institution build relationships in the community.

In the book review, Kimberly Buster-Williams discusses The Politics of Writing in the Two-Year College edited by Barry Alford and Keith Kroll. William Rugg rounds out the issue with a technical review of Course Management Systems, software packages developed to facilitate online education.

Today's economy is testing higher education's abilities and resources. Educators who meet the challenge will emerge from the downturn leaner but stronger.

Louis A. Reibling, Ph.D.

Copyright Schoolcraft College Spring 2003
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