On Campus Housing At Community Colleges

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The focus of this paper is to dispel a common view that community colleges do not provide on-campus housing and to provide greater insights into the types of community colleges that provide on-campus housing, the typical student who resides in on-campus housing, a guide to various California community colleges that provide on-campus housing, and the impact that on-campus housing has on student learning outcomes, financial gains for community colleges that provide on-campus housing, and an overview of the lack of data in the area of not only on-campus housing in community colleges, but community colleges at large. According to Cohen and Brawer (2008) access to student housing is one of the fundamental dissimilarities between public community colleges and four-year institutions of higher learning (p. 220). Cohen and Brawer (2008) take the position that community colleges lack the all-encompassing ability to appreciate the connectedness of community in the same fashion as that of four-year colleges or universities. Broader analysis of current data relating to on-campus housing in rural community colleges is three-fold. First, it exposes the lack of concrete observation or empirical data on the issues that surround community colleges with respect to on-campus housing. A wealth of data supports the learning outcomes, financial impact, gains, and drawbacks of on-campus housing, but from the vantage point of on-campus housing at the four year college or university level. Data shared were from several sources, one which dates back to 1998 and the other two from 2005 and 2006. With little research expected from community college faculty and administrators, the community college as a whole suffers from the lack of empirical studies wit...

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..., research, and rewards so richly deserved for the vast numbers of students who continue on to four year colleges and universities, but, more important to those who become gainfully employed and offer substantial return on investments made by the community colleges. Moeck et al (2008) declare that, “On-campus housing plays an important role at America’s 553 rural-serving community college districts” (p. 247). Of the approximate 553 rural-serving community colleges, 11 of them are in the state of California, which has 110 community colleges. According to the California Community College Listings Dormitories (www.cccco.edu) the community colleges that provide on-campus housing are: Columbia College, Cerro Coso Community College – Mammoth Campus, College of the Siskiyous, Lassen College, Reedley College, Shasta College, Taft College, and West Hills College Coalinga.

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