You may not have considered this interpretation, but I suspect a little bit of this resistance is a result of professional jealousy. Consider how threatening all these things might be to a very staid institution. Even though our community colleges are relatively young and supposedly responsive on the outside, we still have the core of the very traditional college. And so I suspect, on some of our campuses, you pose a threat similar to that gregarious child who is tugging and pulling and leading the way. And so the onus has to be on you, unfortunately, to think of ways to work with and to collaborate with the other members of the institutional family and help them to feel less threatened.
Community colleges have a tremendous challenge ahead.
Too often your continuing education and community service efforts and initiatives are relegated to a peripheral position in the college operation, away from the center of activity. I think that, as presidents, we need to bring you closer into the mainstream institutional life. Presidents may not always know how to do this. We may worry too much about the other constituent groups in our community colleges. We need your help and understanding in this dilemma.