Minority Leadership In Community Colleges is a study demonstrating careful research into the practices and plans for leadership of eight community colleges in the state of North Carolina. It was written to respond to the serious question of whether such colleges are fully prepared to face the future with adequate governance, against a rapidly changing academic and employment backdrop and an increasingly complex demographic. North Carolina has 58 community colleges serving 100 counties. Some colleges consider themselves (and their communities) too small to recruit the quality of leadership needed; some administrators look to college presidents to take full responsibility for leadership planning. The author points out that although most community colleges have some plan to replace soon-to-retire leaders, few have comprehensive strategies for on-going staff training and development; and despite the diverse communities the colleges serve, there is a dearth of stated policies to address that dynamic. Efforts towards cultural, ethnic, and racial diversity are being made, though the study did find that 75% of the colleges involved in the study demonstrate “some racial parity in certain areas.”

Smith, known as “Dr. Van,” has been working in the academic environment for more than twenty years. To conduct her research for this body of work, she used a method known as triangulation: employing more than one research tool in order to yield the widest possible divergence of results for any single question posed. All colleges in the study participated voluntarily. The book includes an extensive list of references, many quotations from relevant sources, and recommendations based on the results obtained, such as that colleges should “consider racial, ethnic and cultural nuances within the mission, vision and values” of each individual institution.

Community colleges play a critical role in the expansion of educational and employment opportunities in many regions of America. Smith’s work can serve as a valuable manual for forward thinking within these institutions.

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