Education Commons^™

Dual Degree Program Guidebook, Student Affairs And Enrollment Management

Student Affairs Reports

This Guidebook is designed to encourage unprecedented cooperation between four-year institutions and community colleges. The advice goes far beyond articulation to creating a culture of cooperation and inclusion.

From the time of widespread establishment of community colleges until now, clearing a pathway from the two-year college to baccalaureate graduation was assumed to be the sole responsibility of the community college. The university or liberal arts college served more as gatekeeper than facilitator. As a result, community college students, often the first in their families to pursue post-secondary education, were expected to navigate two complex bureaucracies with help only from the …

Alumni Engaging Students From Under-Served Groups In Southern Appalachia, Mitchell R. Williams, Laura Leatherwood, Laura Byrd, Monica S. Boyd, Kevin Pennington

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Faculty Publications

The study explores how alumni can help community colleges in Southern Appalachia to create greater access for people in groups which are traditionally under-served by higher education. Semi-structured interviews conducted with alumni program directors and admissions officers at seven community colleges in the Southern Appalachian Region explore how they use alumni to recruit and retain students from non-dominant groups as well as students from generationally poor families. Examples of "best practices" illustrate ways alumni can help recruit, motivate, and retain students from historically under-served groups.