Over the past century, the United States has grown increasingly complex socially, ethnically, economically, politically, and technologically. This complexity has been enabled by the evolution and development of a citizenry of many talents, interests, abilities, and backgrounds. The geographic enormity of the country has meant that in any given year or decade there have been regions of poverty and economic depression during times of general prosperity. Conversely, some states, regions, and localities have escaped general economic downturns. The opening two decades of this century, like the closing decades, have provided an enormous influx of new citizens, cultures, religions, nationalities, and ethnicities to the fabric of American society. The impact of these demographic changes has similarly not been uniform across the country (Abraham, 1986).
The United States has been able to adapt to and capitalize on this diversity of peoples, regions, and economics in part due to the pragmatic and adaptive nature of its educational system. A hallmark has been the multiple avenues of public access to education at all levels. At the postsecondary level, the comprehensive community college has made a singular contribution to this adaptiveness and pragmatism. Unlike countries whose higher education has been neatly divided into a binary system of universities and technical colleges or institutes accessible primarily through prescribed pre-college programs and entrance examinations, American postsecondary education has remained committed steadfastly to inventing courses of study, educational programs, or even those institutions dedicated to the needs and expectations of a particular sector of society (Fetters, 1977).
As a distinctively American invention, the comprehensive community college stands between secondary and higher education, between adult and higher education, between industrial training and formal technical education. Community colleges have provided educational programs and services to people who otherwise would not have enrolled in a college or university................
