Community colleges benefit from collaboration
It’s simple, really.
When policy-makers dedicate themselves to linking a community
college with the community it serves, good things happen.
But that notion was enough to earn Matthew Escover of Hollister
a PhD and to turn his research findings into a recently published
book,
”
Creating Collaborative Leadership and Shared Governance at a
California Community College
”
(The Edwin Mellen Press).
Community colleges benefit from collaboration
It’s simple, really.
When policy-makers dedicate themselves to linking a community college with the community it serves, good things happen.
But that notion was enough to earn Matthew Escover of Hollister a PhD and to turn his research findings into a recently published book, “Creating Collaborative Leadership and Shared Governance at a California Community College” (The Edwin Mellen Press).
The compact volume is the result of Escover’s research at Gavilan College in Gilroy. Escover, a member of the political science faculty at Cabrillo College in Aptos and an occasional lecturer at the University of San Francisco and West Valley Community College, taught at Gavilan for many years.
After a yearlong fellowship through the Community College Leadership Development Initiative at the University of San Diego, Escover brought the germ of an idea to the University of San Francisco, where he eventually earned a doctorate in education.
Escover comes by his interest in public policy honestly. A former Hollister city councilman, he has a lifelong interest in public policy and politics.
As weighty as the title of his book is, it’s an easy to consume look at what makes effective community colleges effective, using Gavilan as a model.
Escover’s research delved into what he identified as five discreet interest groups within the college: trustees, administration, faculty, staff and students. In the book’s acknowledgements, Escover extended special thanks to Gavilan Superintendent Steven Kinsella.
“[Gavilan] was a community college that was not part of the community,” Escover said. “I have tremendous respect for Kinsella. My research showed he was instrumental.”
Escover’s research involved in-depth interviews with key stakeholders in each of the five groups he identified, as well as comparisons with other community college districts.
What he found to be the common thread at successful community colleges is a process of giving up control and involving all stake-holders.
“It’s a collaborative process where people form leadership collectively,” he said. “It’s turning the old pyramid upside down.”
Collaboration, Escover posits, makes all people part of solutions.
Escover has worked as an instructor in community colleges for 22 years, visiting campuses throughout the area.
In that time, he has come to believe that colleges develop unique identities.
“Every school is an organization and each one has its own characteristics so you have to tailor it for what’s there,” he said.
His interviews with stakeholders were first intended to find how people developed their shared beliefs. It’s more than an academic exercise. AB 1725 makes shared governance of community colleges California law, but “there are people who embrace AB1725 and work with it, and there are others for whom it’s just an exercise,” Escover said.
Curiously, when he began his research into shared governance, he found that Web searches turned up mostly hospital districts.
The idea of involving all those involved grew from hospital management with nursing groups, he said.
So who is going to buy a thin volume packed with research findings that carries a price tag of $89.95?
“People who are interested in finding out what elements work to make governance work, who want to make their community colleges better,” Escover guessed. “People who do research in the field, and hopefully administrators.”
“Creating Collaborative Leadership and Shared Governance at a California Community College” is available through Amazon.com.
