EOL 573 - THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Wednesday 4:00 – 6:50 p.m. (Hybrid)
162 Education Bldg.
Meeting Dates: 9/3, 9/10, 9/17, 10/1, 10/8
10/15, 10/29, 11/5, 11/12, & 12/3
Professor Eboni Zamani-Gallaher
E-mail: ezamanig@illinois.edu
Course Description
This course provides an overview of how various types of two-year postsecondary institutions, primarily comprehensive community colleges, have evolved and how they function. Themes running through the course address policies, trends, issues and innovations influencing the evolution and current operation of community colleges from the 20th century to the present. Beginning with a brief history of community colleges, the course offers content dealing with foundations, governance and administration, curriculum, faculty, students, and student outcomes. The course also offers a critical
examination of community colleges, considering their strengths and weaknesses within the broader context of P-16 education.
Course Objectives
Ultimately, the course prepares students who aspire to be professors, researchers, policy analysts, and/or administrators of community college and higher education to understand, assess, and contribute to the betterment of community college education, today and in the future.
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
- Trace the evolution of U.S. community colleges; understand the general mission, typical functions and goals of two-year institutions policies and programs as well as the stakeholders associated with them.
- Identify and describe the status of community college education in terms of varieties; theoretical foundations; finance, governance, and administration; curriculum, faculty, students, and student outcomes.
- Discern the unique linkages of two-year institutions within the K-16 educational pipeline.
- Become familiar with issues related to campus climate and organizational culture at community colleges.
- Obtain increased awareness of the diversity of administrators, faculty, and student body
- Describe features of the Illinois community college system relative to the themes identified in objective #2; compare and contrast the Illinois system with other major state systems.
- Appreciate the paradox and complexity of community college through examination of its advocates and its critics.
- Identify and explain policies, innovations, trends and issues that influence community college education and assess their impact on future policies and practices.
