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Higher Education And The New Capitalism: Social Enterprise Partnerships And The Opportunity For Community Colleges, Rosanna S. Diaz

Dissertations

In the current economic climate, driven by their mission of open access, affordability, and a desire to help all of their constituent communities, community colleges are under increasing pressure to service a rapidly expanding and increasingly diverse group of students with fewer and fewer resources. Declining budgets and a burgeoning enrollment spurred by the recent economic downturn have forced community colleges to become more entrepreneurial in the ways that they develop new programs and find alternative revenue streams. (Wiers, 2007; Dingfelder, 2007).

A critical concern for community colleges is that the business paradigm that fuels the increasing pressure to produce …