PHOTO BY STEVE DEBENPORT, ASISEEIT/ISTOCK

In his article in the November-December issue of Academe, “Community Colleges in the AAUP,” Paul Davis turns our attention to the evolving role of community colleges. Having taught for almost thirty years at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, he has seen dramatic changes in the student population and in policy makers’ expectations of how community colleges fit into the higher education system. Community college faculty, many of them adjuncts, bear the challenge of educating a wide variety of students, including those lacking basic skills in reading, writing, and math and those qualified to attend four-year schools but unable to afford them. Davis, who serves as vice chair of the AAUP Collective Bargaining Congress, would like the AAUP to focus more than it has in the past on organizing faculty at community colleges and notes that current AAUP leadership supports this goal.

A recent example of the AAUP’s active interest in faculty at community colleges is its release last week of a report on governance violations at Union County College. As Paul Davis emphasizes in his Academe article, we need to recognize the importance of community colleges and their faculty and ensure that they play a prominent role in the work of the AAUP.

Articles from the current and past issues of Academe are available online. AAUP members receive a subscription to the magazine, available both by mail and as a downloadable PDF, as a benefit of membership.