Preparing For Community College Governance: A Module-Based Orientation For New Trustees

Community colleges are under tremendous pressure to meet their mission of providing affordable and accessible post-secondary learning and to serve their constituents in an arena filled with political pressures, unstable funding streams, declining enrollments, an increase in CEO turnover with a narrow pipeline of qualified and experienced successors, and unforeseen post-covid learning modalities and competition. Leadership at the governance level is critical for the community college sector to navigate this changing landscape. Well prepared and oriented trustees have a distinct advantage in understanding their board roles to successfully fulfill governance oversight responsibilities.
This research is focused on understanding the role of trustees in community college governance, how they arrive at these roles, consideration of their qualifications to govern a community college, and the orientation practices that would prepare new trustees to be successful. The purpose of this product dissertation is to create a product, specifically an orientation program for new trustees, using as an example an orientation I created for the College of Southern Maryland.

The Orientation Learning Modules (OLM) were initially designed for the College of Southern Maryland to be used as a new trustee onboarding and Board orientation process. The model uses adult learning theories and theoretical frameworks for information delivery, recognition of best practices in andragogy, and a pacing of information flow to build confidence and understanding in new trustees to support early and effective participation in their role of governance by employing best practices for community college governing boards.

This governance-centered approach is designed to allow trustees to navigate the environment at the local, state, and federal levels while demonstrating a healthy trustee–president relationship. The intended outcome of using this model is to ensure the clarity and understanding of trustee roles and responsibilities to build the confidence and performance of these civic -minded citizens.