https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/b4c9b97dda8198b5bc0c913255c80573.pdf 6895ac4f5150051fa8e24422d8ce8bb7 PDF Text Text Book Reviews 357 Globalizing the Community College: Strategies for Change in the Twenty-First Century by John Levin. New York, NY: Palgrave, 2001. 193+ pp. $35,00. CHAD M. HANSON, Casper College, Casper, WY When I saw John Levin’s Globalizing the Community College on the bookstore shelf I thought “Oh no, here we go again.” Here’s another treatise full of tips on how to make colleges leaner and meaner. I expected the usual talk about how institutions can find their market niche, do more with less, get more bang for their buck, and so on. Just a few months before, in the fall 2000 issue of the Community College Review, Levin (2000) foretold his position, or so it seemed. In cold, dispassionate terms, he described the future of two-year schools: ... community colleges will function more on a model compatible with busi­ ness norms: a fluid organization, with little reverence for academic tradi­ tions, little evidence of a dominant professional class of faculty and more ev­ idence of a professional managerial class, more emphasis on technology and less on full-time labor (p. 21). I have been an instructor at community and technical colleges for nine years. As I read this passage the first time I thought about my profession, my students, and my discipline. I heard a death knell ringing. When the full-length book was released, I presumed there would be plans therein. I expected to find strategies for automating community colleges to the point where they dispense credentials like candy from a coin-operated vendor, but I was pleasantly surprised. When community college professionals pick up Levin’s new volume, what they’ll hold in their hands is not a set of strategies at all. Instead they will hold in their hands a mirror. In these pages readers will see a clear reflection of what com­ munity colleges are today, and an image of what two-year schools may become if steps aren’t taken to reverse current trends. Globalizing the Community College is built on a mass of data collected at seven institutions in the western U.S. and Canada. The study followed a “quali­ tative multiple case study design” which involved “document analysis, inter­ views, informal conversations, observations and the use of informants” (p. 7). The study focused generally on the changing role, mission and organization of community colleges during the decade of the 1990s. Specifically, the study was designed to shed light on the “external forces that influenced or precipitated in­ ternal change” (p. 6). Those forces include politics and electronic information, along with the broader push of cultural and economic globalization. Levin uses an eclectic theoretical framework to interpret data collected over three years, 1996 to 1999. At times, the analysis is informed by the venerable tradition of Max Weber, made contemporary in the sociology of Paul Dimaggio and Walter Powell (1983). At other times, the analysis bends more toward the canons of freshman literature courses, Charles Dickens (1988) and Thomas Hardy (1958). In between, there is a mixed bag of citations, owing much to the research on community colleges in both the U.S. and Canada (Dennison & Gal­ lagher, 1989; Kent, 1995). Occasionally, the approach feels stretched between disparate perspectives. Yet, the wide range of views and data do not detract from the analysis, given the broad, indeed “global” nature of the subject. 'T.CO'i:, �358 The Journal of Higher Education In short, Levin suggests the cultural and economic globalization of the 1990s created a landscape on which community colleges were transformed as institu­ tions. In some cases, such as that of shrinking public support for higher educa­ tion, community colleges were forced to change in response to a new fiscal cli­ mate. In other cases, decision-makers in community colleges precipitated changes on their own, without direct external pressure. Through the process of identifying themselves as corporate board members, college officials initiated changes in their institutions that largely reflected the interests of business and industry. This was a major switch, as the guiding values of two-year schools had previously been tied closely (in the 1960s and 1970s) to the social and de­ velopmental interests of students, along with the needs of the local community. In Levin’s words, “the shift was from community service to private sector inter­ ests” (p. xx). His description of this shift is the most significant thesis in the book. In a myriad of ways. Levin documents the change in our cultural under­ standing of the two-year school: from that of a community resource designed to further social goals and nurture citizens, to that of a public, tax-supported means to train workers for the private sector. Through the course of describing this change. Levin provides a much-needed perspective on the “learning revolution” now sweeping North American col­ leges. From its beginning in the middle 1990s, the “learning college” concept has shaken the foundations of institutional culture in two-year schools (O’Banion, 1997). In the process, community college professionals have been polar­ ized into camps, “true believers” that recite learning college rhetoric with un­ compromising zeal, and “naysayers” that question the social and cultural consequences of the agenda set forth in the learning college literature. At present, true believers have the upper hand, as the basic tenants of the learning college concept are very nearly sacrosanct. Still, Levin suggests the learning college paradigm is largely ideological. Even though the learning rev­ olution is touted as a universally positive movement, it represents a partisan and conservative view of the community college, a direct challenge to the most cherished values inherent in the liberal view of education. With the concept of a learning college emerging as a beacon of change, the purposes of the institution decidedly moved from individual and community betterment to economic ends: development sites for workforce preparation (p. 170). Institutional rationales paralleled the view of education and training as a commodity, students as customers, and business and industry as clients—all reinforcing market ideology (p. 17). The changes that took place in the community college during the decade of the 1990s stand in stark contrast to the spirit of human development that drove the institution’s expansion in the 1960s and 1970s. Although Levin appears to lament the shift in our understanding of the commimity college’s role in society, readers are left to believe the future holds little promise of improvement. Despite the book’s title, there really are no Strategies for Change offered here; there is no agenda for a renewed sense of institutional mission, no program poised to overttim the changes of the 1990s. The exclusion of a sound strategy for change is curious given the book’s title, but the omission is more than a mere oversight. In the face of the overwhelming changes taking �Book Revie'^s 359 place in community college education, it is easier to point out the partisan and problematic nature of current attempts to reform or restructure, than to offer genuine alternatives. In my own professional life I found it easier to leave insti­ tutions flooded by the new “learning college” rhetoric than to face the prospect of fighting to save the dignity and tradition of academic culture in a college that is willfully succumbing to the forces of market ideology. Most recently I left a secure post at a technical college in order to find a two-year institution where academics were still respected, a place where the liberal arts were still welcome and honored. The good news is I found such a place. There are two-year schools that main­ tain a strong student focus and also challenge themselves to offer the finest lib­ eral education available. From my present position I can say with pride there are community colleges where being focused on the welfare of one’s students means more than the promotion of “learning for the sole purpose of earning” (Levin, p. xx). In other words, there is hope. However, one thing remains clear, community colleges underwent broad and decisive changes during the decade* of the 1990s. Levin’s work stands as a resolute confirmation of those changes. Globalizing the Community College is a thoughtful look at a respectable data set, but readers truly won’t find Strategies for Change or a program for the fu­ ture here. There are no calls for action. There are no plans for reemphasizing the role of two-year schools in a strong democracy, only reflections on where com­ munity colleges came from, and an accurate, research-based depiction of what they are today. Descriptive research of this kind is instructive. It can inform policy deci­ sions; it may even prompt some to alter their professional practices. But this book also reminded me that research cannot change institutions for the better by itself, even when it is well conceived. After reading this report it remains obvi­ ous that students are served, traditions are preserved, and colleges are improved by people who work in and care about them. If you count yourself among those who care about the role and future of community colleges, Levin’s work be­ longs on your shelf. You’ll be left to devise your own strategies for combating corporate culture on campus, but this book confirms that your cause is just. References Dennison, J. & GallagherP. (1986). Canada's Community Colleges. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. Dickens, C. (1988). The Speeches of Charles Dickens. Edited by K.J Fielding, 2nd ed. Hemel Hempstead, U.K.: Harvestor. Dimaggio, P. & Powell W. (1983). The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields. American Sociologi­ cal Review 48, 147(160. Hardy, T. (1958/ Far From the Madding Crowd. New York: Heritage Press. Kent, P. (1995). National Profile of Community Colleges: Trends and Statistics. Washington, D.C.: American Association of Community Colleges. Levin, J. (2000). The Revised Institution: The Community College Mission at the End of the Twentieth Century. Community College Review 28(2), 1(25. O’Banion, T. (1997). A Learning College for the 21st Century. Phoenix: Oryx Press. � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Print Journal Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. 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Chad Hanson Journal Publications, CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01_ChadHansonPapers_73 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Journal of Higher Education is published by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC