Community college governance and trustees as advocates for fiscal support

Abstract

Community college boards of trustees are not highly visible, but they play a vital role in college and student success through governance and oversight of the mission of open access higher education. The stakes are high as community colleges compete for scarce resources in state budgets making the local and state‐level trustee/governing role as fierce advocates of utmost importance. This chapter describes the different roles and functions of community college trustees across the states with a particular focus on college finance. The article begins by describing community college governance arrangements and duties of state level boards followed by a description of duties for locally governed colleges. The chapter then moves to a discussion of state and local budgetary support of community colleges. The chapter closes with a discussion of political power and implications for trustees to expand budgetary support for community colleges through advocacy.