A management support model for community colleges

This paper introduces a mathematical model for the time-dependent behavior of an organization such as a community college. Such an institution is enrollment-driven, thus lending itself to a feedback approach characteristic of the system dynamics studies of the M.I.T. group. Instead of using the Dynamo compiler of the Forrester group, new computer programs written in BASIC were developed. With this model, Burlington County College was used as a case study, yielding conclusions which were used in planning. The paper also discusses further work on generalizing the method for application to entire community college systems, as well as to similar institutions.