The first chapter in this volume presents an overview of the faculty personnel challenges facing community colleges; the next three discuss the socialization and professional development of new faculty. Authors stress the importance of understanding differences among the typs of community colleges and the importance of gender and racial/thnic diversity among the facultry of the institutions who educate the majority of undergraduate females and students of color. The volume concludes with chapters on legal aspects related to the faculty employment and the experiences of presidents and senior instructional administrators, giving valuable guidance to those actively involved in the hiring process. At the heart of this volume is the continued commitment to the community college ideal of providing educational access and, through quality instruction, facilitating student learning and success. Previous research indicated that community college faculty retire at or near the traditional age of sixty-five.
With an aging faculty, enrollments that are reaching unprecedented levels, and the federal goverment calling for the community college to take an even greater role in workforce training, community colleges will need to both replace significant portions of their faculty and hire additional faculty lines between now and 2020. This next hiring wave has implications for community colleges, the diverse student populations who attend these institutions, and society in general. This is the 152nd volume of the Jossey-Bass quarterly report series New Directions for Community Colleges. Essential to the professional libraries of presidents, vice presidents, deans, and other leaders in today's open-door institutions, New Directions for Community Colleges provides expert guidance in meeting the challenges of their distinctive and expanding educational mission.