UPDATE: How do you define leadership at the community college?

Daniels: Leadership at the community college is the ability to create and sustain a quality learning and working environment where our stakeholders want to come to learn. This takes a great deal of vision and planning to accomplish.

UPDATE: What leadership strategies work for you in an executive leadership position?

Daniels: I try to establish good lines of communication by listening to people tell me about their job, their issues, and their lives. I also try to establish accessibility by keeping a set office hour everyday and by walking around to areas of the campus. Additionally, I strive to make fair, consistent decisions after first considering and listening to all stakeholders. Above all, I always ask myself if a decision benefits and expands educational opportunities for our students. If it does, it serves our mission and we should do it.

UPDATE: How well does higher education train and provide community college leaders?

Daniels: The Community College Leadership (CCL) program I graduated from at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign did a good job preparing me for higher education administration. I use information and skills gained from that program everyday in my job as an administrator. When I was a student the CCL program did not include community college finance, facilities management, and personnel law and management, but I understand that the program has tried to fill in these gaps. I had to learn about these issues through experience and seminars. Additionally, I have attended leadership training through the American Association of Community Colleges. The course I attended on legislative leadership was outstanding. It gave me a global perspective.

UPDATE: What role do effective leaders play in the various segments of the community college environment at the local, state, and federal levels?

Daniels: Community college leaders have a great opportunity to influence how government at different levels views community colleges. In order to influence government, leaders must keep active by serving on local and state policy committees and interacting with state and US representatives wherever possible and appropriate.

UPDATE: How do community college leaders contribute to increased accountability in education?

Daniels: Community college leaders need to be active in their state governing organizations in order to provide input to government leaders as to what accountability in education should look like. Additionally, they need to lead their institutions in the accountability effort.

UPDATE: As a community college administrator, what do you consider to be the major challenges of community college leaders as community colleges move forward into the new century?

Daniels: One of the biggest issues is replacing the large number of retiring faculty members. On the surface the institution has the potential to save a great deal of money because it will pay new hires less than their retiring counterparts. However, reality is that the college, in the end, will pay just as much to find and hire qualified people, especially in the high tech fields. And these new people will need to be mentored and provided with professional development in order to become master teachers. One of the biggest difficulties is attracting qualified instructor candidates.

UPDATE: What effect will leadership turnover have on community college leadership?

Daniels: I think that the high turnover in community college leadership in the next few years due to retirements is one of the big challenges facing community colleges. This will have a huge effect on leadership, both good and bad. The good effect will be that some community colleges that have not kept up with changes may be forced to do so with new leadership. On the other hand, from first hand experience, the applicant pool for front line administrators is small. Applicants generally have good educational background but little experience as administrators, while the retiring administrators may have 20-30 years or more of experience. Consequently, the history base of the long-term administrators may be lost if turnover is great. An alternative method of hiring new administrators is to allow for a transition period where the retiring administrator works side by side with the newly hired administrator to provide mentoring and the passing on of history.

UPDATE: How will this considerable turnover in faculty impact student learning?

Daniels: For one thing, students entering the community college have more diverse needs. An increasing number of entering students need remedial or developmental education. Community colleges need to partner with secondary education to discover ways to help high school students become ready for college-level work. Additionally, nontraditional aged students returning to or entering college later in life need special services geared to helping them become college ready.

In addition to meeting these needs, the community college must continually strive to keep up with technology. The cost of delivering technology courses that reflect current market demands is very high because of quickly changing hardware and software. An institution must be flexible enough to provide courses to meet evolving industry demands, and to hire qualified instructors to teach them.

A related challenge is that, as property taxes rise across the country, communities become less likely to vote for a higher tax to support schools of any kind. Community colleges must keep abreast technologically, serve all students who are not prepared for college, provide short-term training for employees in business and industry, and do all of this at an affordable tuition rate. Consequently, community college leaders will have to search for alternative funding sources. In economic hard times, a leader may also have to be proactive about providing only those services that support the college's mission.

UPDATE: How do these issues differ from those faced by community college leaders in the past?

Daniels: For one thing, the issues are different. Today, issues emerge quickly and community colleges need to respond immediately. A good example of this is the rapidly changing area of technology. In the past, technology did not change as fast, or cost as much, or need specific expertise to facilitate. These issues are interrelated to all areas of the campus. In the past, for example, the library was the library. Students went there to look up books and articles. Today, the library should be integrated into every part of the teaching and learning process. To provide this service the library must change with the high speed of technology. The library is equipped with computers and offers online research and Internet access not only to our students but also to the community. In order to get the most out of their educational experience, all students and faculty members need to be Internet-research literate.

UPDATE: Who, in your opinion, are the primary competitors of the community college for student bodies and dollars?

Daniels: Besides proprietary schools, one of the primary competitors of community colleges is private business and industry. When community colleges are not fast or flexible enough to offer courses that business and industry needs, they will find a way to train them in-house or through consultant services. For this reason, community colleges need to market aggressively to business and industry and keep abreast of their ever-changing needs.

Another competitor is online education. Many institutions are offering courses and degree completion via the Internet. The student may be taking a course originating from California and working on it through their computer at home in central Illinois. Because they must be done well or you will lose enrollment, community colleges need to decide whether they are going to aggressively participate in Internet courses. Parkland College has taken the lead in online courses in the state of Illinois, offering 80 plus online courses. Online education takes a great deal of administrative commitment and money in order to be successful and other institutions may not be able to commit the necessary resources.

Community colleges also need to partner with four-year institutions to offer online bachelor's degree completion programs. Partnerships with universities will keep our students involved with the home institution so they can take all the courses they can there and then take the upper division courses through the partnership.

UPDATE: What are your thoughts about the future?

Daniels: Leaders of community colleges will have to stay flexible to survive. Choosing personnel who fit the institution's mission will be a big challenge because of the dimishing pool of qualified applicants. We will need to be inventive and engage in more collaborations with industry. A mentoring arrangement is needed to stop thinking about industry and college as two different cultures and find a bridge between the two.