Confessions of a Community College Administrator

Confessions of a Community College Administrator Matthew Reed San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2013. 166 pages. $36.00USD/Paperback There are no deep, dark secrets betrayed in Confessions of a Community College Administrator, but the book is no less captivating and provocative. The author, Matthew Reed, is the current vice president for academic affairs at Holyoke Community College in Massachusetts and previously served as dean of liberal arts at County College of Morris in New Jersey. A staunch advocate of the community college, he also served as faculty, associate dean, and dean at DeVry University (which he refers to as "For-Profit U" or "FPU"). These often vilified, for-profit schools are booming, and instead of dismissing or further disparaging the for-profit model, he suggests ways the community college can learn from it. Reed notes in the Introduction several basic convictions driving the book's organization and his argument for reform: (a) economically and morally, an educated citizenry is a good idea; (b) the community college's open-door admissions policy is a public good; (c) the economic pressures on public higher education and the middle class will continue to intensify; and (d) although their political fortunes may be diminished, for-profit colleges and universities are not going away. These convictions permeate his writing and, coupled with his varied work experiences, lead to matter-of-fact recommendations. Reed provides valuable context for why his recommendations are necessary through a brief history of the community college in Chapter 1. For many readers, this will be familiar material; however, for the neophyte education historian, discussion on the "diffuse" missions of the community college--transfer, remediation, workforce development--provides a foundation for understanding the past, present, and future challenges of the institution. From these mission highlights, the discussion turns to the different educational eras the community college has traversed and is currently navigating. As this navigation raises questions about the usefulness and validity of the geographically constrained service model of community colleges, the chapter closes with Reed advocating for regionalization of specialized programs as a tool to address these challenges. Does every program need to operate on every campus in a particular state, he asks, or would it be more cost-effective if one institution became the regional "technical" college while another was anointed the regional "transfer" college? Other challenges facing the community college and ways to address them are detailed in Chapters 2-5. These chapters focus on topics critical to becoming a successful college administrator: (a) funding; (b) administrative structure, roles, and responsibilities; (c) faculty; and (d) challenges of a dean's job (the major focus level of the book). Reed argues--and rightly so--that administrators must pay closer attention to other sources of revenue, and he goes on to scrutinize the community college hierarchy with particular focus on the role of the dean, a level where much of his administrative experience was gained. With respect to faculty, he cautions that "in the end, managing creative people often involves drawing a distinction between what can be done and what's worth doing. …