Community colleges are eminent for their open admission policy, low tuition cost, and convenient locations, which allows access by wide range of people. These colleges are institutions of choice for most students of color and low-income students. According to the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), the community colleges hosted 12.1 million students, representing about 44% of total college students’ population in the United States ( Ortagus & Hu, 2019) . At present, community colleges are wrestling leadership challenges as most of the institutions are suffering from high turnover and shortage of qualified replacements. The leadership problem is exacerbated by the high number of community colleges presidents retiring over the past few years ( Tyree, 2004) . Community colleges in the United States are also ailing from external pressures like decline in funding, accountability demands by the public, accreditation requirements, and increased need to respond to demands from constituent campuses, local communities, and the state ( Eddy & Garza, 2017) . These increasingly intricate problems require highly skilled professionals to take up presidential leadership positions to salvage these vital institutions.
Which of the thinkers and researchers on Presidential leadership have you built your idea of Presidential style of leadership?
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In my opinion, democratic leadership would be an ideal presidential leadership style for the next generation of community college top administration. Acknowledging that the next generation of community college presidents will be required to manage more complex organizations, and handle increasingly difficult challenges than their predecessors, democratic leadership will come in handy to offer multidimensional approaches suitable for the new challenges, demand, and environment. Also known as participative, or shared leadership, democratic leadership was advanced by thinkers such as Cleisthenes and Thomas Jefferson. Cleisthenes is credited for reforming Anthen’s constitution and setting it on a democratic footing, while Thomas advanced a philosophy that states that democracy leadership in practice is a phenomenon where leaders include the common people in decision making processes, and through daily interactions, rather than treating them simply as followers. This idea of leadership is also built on leadership researches by Woods (2020), Seabrooks (n.d), Hernon and Rositer (2019), and Khan et al (2016).
According to Hernon and Rositer (2019) democratic leadership applies to any organization, from schools to businesses and governments. In learning institutions, democratic leadership has been reported to increase innovations, creativity and, productivity. Members of staff are allowed to share opinions though the president retains the final say over decisions. The researcher opines that, this approach makes the staff to feel more involved and devoted to projects thus, more concerned about end results. Khan et al., (2016) established that democracy is the most effective leadership style in educational institutions. The researchers found that results were better in terms of quality and productivity among students and staff led by democracy compared to institutions where authoritative leadership dominated.
How do your previous courses in Leadership and Administration and Professional Development help you to understand Presidential leadership?
Previous courses have helped me understand presidential leadership through learning the diverse leadership styles, various leadership skills and competencies that would qualify an individual for college presidential position. The courses have helped me recognize that there is no longer a single method to lead as a college president, and that different challenges and institutional situations will always require different leadership approaches. Nonetheless, a style like democratic leadership would be suitable for any situation as it combines authoritative, authentic, and group-think leadership styles in one. Also, the courses on administration, leadership, and professional development have helped me understand that suitable college leadership style is one that promotes dialogue, cultivates holistic learning as ethical, all rounded citizens, and fosters relational wellbeing. Good leadership should be effective in addressing issues of leader cognition, gender, culture diversity, race, and the need for communication and collaborative decision making to structure and implement positive change.
Who are the presidential leaders of American community colleges you most admire and why?
Three of the American Community College presidents who I admire are Seattle Central College’s Sheila Edwards Lange, Stephen C. Head of Lone Star College System, and Jimmie Bruce of Eastern Gateway Community College. Sheila Edwards has an excellent reputation in education leadership not only in Seattle, but across Washington. I admire mir her for her efforts to increase institutional equity and diversity, and eliminate institutional racism. She holds building of a sense of shared community with equal importance as increasing enrolment, retention, and financial stability of the college.
I admire Jimmie Bruce for his leadership skills manifest in his ability to negotiate for students’ tuition through scholarship partnerships. Besides, he has managed to enrol the highest numbers of out-of-state students with approximately 5,000 from Ohio and a whooping 6,000 from other states in the country ( Ortagus & Hu, 2019) . This is unheard of in community colleges who often enrol most of their population from the local districts. Stephen Head has earned my admiration due to the collaboration culture he has established at Lone Star College, where all presidents and staff work together and feel their contribution to students’ success. Besides, Stephen has built a highly esteemed pool of staff that everyone else admires working with his team, or hiring from his highly credentialed staff.
How do studies from community college leaders and researchers help to frame this discussion?
Community college researchers helped frame this discussion by providing insights into the various leadership styles and their applicability. For instance, Woods (2020) after discussing various leadership styles, suggests that democratic leadership style is one that college presidents, head teachers, and principles can adopt to make all stakeholders including staff, parents and students feel included and consulted. This informed the selection of democratic style upon which I build my discussion. The researchers also provide an understanding of characteristics of good leadership styles in community colleges. Leaders like Sheila Edwards, Jimmie Bruce, and Stephen Head also helped me frame my discussion. Their leadership styles and qualities are reflected in the outcomes of their leaderships such as increased enrolment, high retention, elimination or racism, promotion of diversity, high reputation due to skilled staff among others.
References
Eddy, P. L., & Garza Mitchell, R. L. (2017). Preparing community college leaders to meet tomorrow’s challenges. Journal for the Study of Postsecondary and Tertiary Education , 2 , 127.
Hernon, S. P., & Rositer, J. (2019). Perceived democratic leadership style of university librarians and library staff work attitude. Library Philosophy and Practice , 0_1-23.
Khan, M. S., Khan, I., Qureshi, Q. A., Ismail, H. M., Rauf, H., Latif, A., & Tahir, M. (2015). The styles of leadership: A critical review. Public Policy and Administration Research , 5 (3), 87-92.
Ortagus, J. C., & Hu, X. (2019). The price of mission complexity: A national study of the impact of community college baccalaureate adoption on tuition and fees. Educational Researcher , 48 (8), 504-520.
Seabrooks, J. (nd.). The chocolate truth: An anthology of perspectives from community college CEOs. Farmington, MI: My Vision Works.
Tyree, L.W. (2004).The leadership dialogues. Phoenix, AZ: League for Innovation in the CC.
Woods, P. A. (2020). Democratic leadership. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education .
