The transition into a new century inevitably provokes reflections on the past and predictions about the future. While any point in time might serve to mark definitive change, the year 2000 seems to promise a heady renewal of the spirit that energized the expansion of community colleges in the mid-twentieth century. This book, A Learning College for the 21st Century, provides an exciting model for community colleges of the future.

In the United States during the late 1960s, community colleges were established at the rate of one new college every week. The times were ripe for the creation of a uniquely American institution. Unlike the models of research universities and liberal arts colleges that were imported from Europe, community colleges were designed from the ground up to serve American priorities.

Perhaps because of their unique design as American institutions, community colleges have often been bellwether institutions for change, leading the way into new and unexplored territory. European models of higher education were built with the fundamental assumption that only a certain proportion of the population needed or could profit from a college education. In the United States, that proportion was variously (and erroneously, it turns out) estimated at between 25 and 50 percent by early blue-ribbon study commissions. But as economic and societal pressures changed, so, too, did the demands placed upon higher education. Community colleges anticipated this inevitable need for a well-educated public by opening the doors of educational opportunity to all who wished to come. Once the principle of universal access to higher education had been accepted, community colleges continued to lead the way by devising new programs and adapting practices to meet the needs of previously unserved populations.

Existing models of higher education had assumed that college students were young, full-time students who lived on campus and completed their college education in four years. Community colleges had to devise programs to meet the practical realities of increasing numbers of older, place-bound, part-time students with jobs, families, and other obligations that competed with education for their time and attention.

The access revolution of the 1960s and 1970s also brought new students into higher education who were not prepared to do college work. Community colleges, implementing their "can do" philosophy, set to work to devise remedial and developmental programs to meet the needs of this new population.

Although community colleges have not always received appropriate recognition for their leadership in rising to meet the constantly changing educational needs of the nation, their energy and innovative spirit seem undaunted. This "can do" spirit is fortunate because in many instances change arrives on the doorsteps of the community colleges without fanfare, and they are expected to rise to the challenge. Sometimes, a challenge that seems natural to community colleges becomes a cause celebre for more traditional institutions of higher education.

Because community colleges were committed from the beginning to serving the needs of their local communities, they were early innovators in recognizing the value of diversity as an educational force. Although more traditional colleges struggle to "recruit minorities," community colleges achieve their diversity, on many dimensions, as a natural part of their mission to serve their communities.

Another example of a change that was a natural for community colleges is the current high interest in the teaching of undergraduates. In the 1980s, when higher education was harshly criticized by national study commissions and the public press for failing to give adequate attention to teaching, community colleges were already there with a dedicated faculty whose first priority was teaching.

Now, as we enter the twenty-first century, assessment of student learning outcomes has become a powerful lever nationwide for focusing attention on learning. And once again, it looks as though community colleges will be bellwether institutions if they adopt O'Banion's vision of the learning college.

In this book, O'Banion and his colleagues offer a compelling rationale for focusing the attention of higher education on student learning, i.e., on creating the "learning college." As the long-time executive director of the League for Innovation in the Community College and as a writer, scholar, and insightful observer of the community college scene, Terry O'Banion has a broad perspective, possessed by few people, of the role of community colleges in education. And because he is a popular speaker and consultant to individual colleges, he also brings to this task a working knowledge of how individual colleges deal with the practical realities and exciting challenges of change.

The challenge that readers will find in this provocative and well-informed book is the contention that the concept of the learning college represents a paradigm shift in the way we think about and plan for a new community college. A "paradigm shift" is a strong concept, and O'Banion is not timid about his call for a break with (not merely a change or an extension of) the thinking of the past. O'Banion contends that this change will not be a "natural" for community colleges; it will take great imagination, effort, and energy. But the record of community colleges is strong on meeting new needs, and this book captures a vision waiting to be put into action.