Confessions of a Community College Dean

This just in: well-connected rich white kids who drop out of Princeton can still do well in life, and the New York Times is ON IT.

By Matt Reed

his did my heart good. Apparently, the academic major outside of STEM fields with the highest lifetime salary payoff is government. As a poli sci Ph.D., I say this news should be shared far and wide.

By Matt Reed

The headline to this article pretty much tells its story: “Student Advising Plays Key Role in College Success -- Just As It’s Being Cut.” It goes on to detail the rollout of an automated advising program at Arizona State.

By Matt Reed

I enjoyed this story. Apparently, Ozarks Technical Community College has decided to take out ads showing how its tuition levels stack up against its local for-profit competitors. The idea is to provide some much-needed counterpoint to the marketing barrage that for-profits routinely generate, and to warn students away from programs that might saddle them with heavy debt burdens and non-transferable credits.

By Matt Reed

I winced when I read about the Community College of Allegheny County telling its adjuncts that it would cap their hours in order to avoid penalties under the Affordable Care Act. The commentary over the next few days was predictable: conservatives saying “I told you so,” and everyone else saying that this is just another example of evil administrators running a college like a business.

By Matt Reed

Should community colleges in different parts of a state compete with each other for funding? To me, the obvious answer is “no,” but that doesn’t appear obvious to everybody.

By Matt Reed

A new correspondent writes: "I just recently passed the phone interview stage and I'm getting ready to prepare for an upcoming on-campus interview. The position is a full-time community college asst prof position, teaching online courses. The on-campus interview will require me to conduct a 10-minute presentation on content I've created for online courses. I was wondering if you might have any advice about this process?"

By Matt Reed

I get uneasy when I read calls for ‘transformative leaders.’ They strike me as taking far too much for granted.

By Matt Reed