If anyone doubts Dr. George B. Vaughan is the nation’s leading
expert on the community college presidency, the publication of this new
book should lay that to rest.
The Community College Presidency at the Millennium, co-authored by
Dr. Iris M. Weisman, is the latest contribution to research into the
important roles of chief executive officers of our nation’s two-year
colleges.
This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to become a community
college president. Its contents of wisdom and practical advice, drawn
from sitting presidents across the country, can give the aspiring
college chief executive officer a great deal of insight.
The book’s first chapter presents an effective overview of the
history of the community college presidency. The authors bring this
background into sharp focus in a brief presentation on the formation of
many new colleges during the boom years of the sixties and seventies.
This helps establish a basis for understanding the changing roles of
community college CEOs as these unique institutions of higher education
were coming into their own. They point out that during some years of
the 1970s, a community college opened each week.
But there are regrets.
“Unfortunately for those who would like to know more about
presidential life in the 1960s and early 1970s, much of the intimate
history of the boom years of community college development is lost, for
it was never recorded,” the authors write.
Perhaps the most useful chapters are those that contain
presidential “profiles.” The information comes from “the most recent
iteration of [Vaughan and Weisman’s] Career and Lifestyle Survey,” a
questionnaire in which “community college presidents were asked a
series of questions regarding their personal backgrounds, their
education and experience before becoming president, their personal and
professional lifestyles as president, and their future plans.”
