Community College and Community Leader Expectations of the “Village”

A level of consistency between community college leaders and community leaders is necessary to demonstrate behaviors, actions, and beliefs that shape, represent, and support expected community values. Likewise, communities, which are collectives of suborganizations, play an important role in aiding individual development, especially related to educational attainment. This study sought to understand ways in which community college leaders and community leaders demonstrate behaviors, actions, and beliefs that shape, represent, and support community values, particularly the influence on an individual's acceptance of formalized education and continued education beyond compulsory schooling. Data were collected from 113 mayors and community college presidents/deans around the United States. Analysis of the data indicated five types of actions consistent among the two groups including the promotion of civic involvement, community growth and development, economic development, well-being of citizens, and value of education.     

A Review of: “NURSING HOME ADMINISTRATION (4th Ed.)By James E. Allen”

The relation of fiction to society may be interpreted from several points of view. As any other medium of mass communication, fiction is a source of information and attitudes, and an indicator of popular perspectives. In addition, fiction responds to its own rules. Necessities and conventions of representation in a particular form lead to certain combinations that are attributable neither to reflections of the situation nor to the intention to influence.

This paper examines the place of the aged in novels published in the United States during the years 1931‐1970. Because of the different ingredients that go into the creation of characters in novels, no simple relationship of contact with social conditions or attempted influence by an author can be discerned. A realistic picture of the presentation cannot concentrate on the status of old heroes and heroines, but on the manner in which old people become part of the general scene or setting within a whole presentation of a novel. One can contrast this approach with that of looking at the traits of the principal characters in novels and other media (Aronoff, 1974; Charles, 1976; Peterson &; Karnes, 1976). The relation of the reader to particular characters is ambiguous, and the influence of clear stereotypes is not clearly understood; one has only to consider the controversy surrounding Archie Bunker. The position of the aged as an integral part of novels may be more enduring because of the less obvious influence on the audience, corresponding to the place of salience in learning and media influence (Krugman, 1965).     

A Review of: “GAY AND LESBIAN AGING: RESEARCH AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS By Gilbert Herdt and Brian deVries, (Eds.)”

A program of peer counselor training was conducted to evaluate the acquisition of counseling skills by older volunteers. Modeled on similar programs developed for younger paraprofessionals, the course emphasized the learning of three core therapeutic conditions: empathy, warmth, and genuineness; it also contained information on the aging process to reduce stereotypic thinking. The results indicated that the trained groups changed significantly compared to controls on two of the three core dimensions, empathy and warmth, and had scores on all three scales above the minimum necessary for effective counseling. These findings suggest the potential for older persons to provide supportive, peer‐counseling services.     

A Review of: “LEARNING LATER By Brian Findsen”

Many older adults do not use health information available on the Internet. Older adults residing in affordable housing were taught to use the NIHSeniorHealth.gov Web site. Participants were predominantly African American women with limited education and income (N = 42). Outcomes included changes in computer and health Web site navigation skills. Results showed significant improvements for all demographic groups in both computer and Web site navigation (p < .001). Older minority adults with no prior computer experience were willing and able to learn to use health Web sites. Success factors included an instructor familiar with the community, peer training assistants, and a focus on new learner needs.     

A Review of: “TALKING ABOUT DEATH By Virginia Morris”

Partnerships at local and state levels between the aging and developmental disabilities establishments can positively affect the quality of operation of each. The two systems need to exchange experiences that benefit the clients and overcome obstacles, expand the range of offerings at senior centers, plan jointly for secure and permanent residences for dependent adults who lose caregiving parents, join forces to overcome bias and prejudice against their constituencies, and assert the rights of all people rather than to pit one group against another.     

A Review of: “Student Success in College: Creating Conditions that Matter”

Scholarship matters. It allows faculty to fulfill the responsibilities of their three academic citizenships--in their institutions, in their disciplines, and in higher education in general. Current standards for community college faculty scholarship, however, have excluded faculty from exercising academic citizenship outside of their institutions. The sector claim to a unique teaching mission has been used to exempt or exclude community college faculty from the scholarly obligations and responsibilities understood elsewhere in higher education. The absence of generally accepted norms for scholarly production and validation at most community colleges continues to set them apart from other institutions, including those also serving non-traditional open admissions students. By discouraging externally validated scholarship, community colleges deny their faculty an appropriate voice in higher education and deny the rest of higher education the important voice of community college faculty. By encouraging scholarship that meets the tests of external scrutiny, community colleges can provide their faculty with legitimate higher education citizenship beyond the institution.     

The Promotion of “Civility” and the Quest for the Creation of a “City of Peace”: The Beginnings of Trinity College,Dublin and of Harvard College,Cambridge, Mass.

The paper seeks to investigate the process of the “transfer of knowledge"from the reformed university in Cambridge to the quite alien socio‐political conditions of Ireland and later to the New World. The “transfer of knowledge” fiom the English to the Irish environment was seen as relocating an ideal replica of the original The same was intended in the case of the founding of Harvard by the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Company. Both new locations, i.e. Dublin (1592) and Harvard (1636), were identified by Puritans who took their role of “civilising” a wilderness and Christianising society very seriously. Universities, despite their medieval European origin, were thought of as vital instruments in the “civilising” process. A Puritan network, communicating between all three locations, can be identified; its members endeavoured to centre their “city of peace” on the universities and their refined scholarship; this seemed indeed easier in New England than in Ireland.