A comparison of goal perceptions at community colleges and community college components of four-year institutions in West Virginia

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if differences existed in the perceptions of administrators, full-time faculty members and student personnel workers between three separate community colleges and three other community colleges administratively organized as components of four-year institutions in West Virginia, and among staff groups of the two types of institutions as to the extent the generally accepted community college goals"should be" and"were" emphasized. The survey method using a questionnaire was selected to determine how administrators, full-time faculty and student personnel workers in three four-year and three two-year institutions in West Virginia perceived the generally accepted community college goals to be emphasized or should be emphasized. The questionnaire contained twenty-seven goal statements analyzed in the study. Each respondent was asked to rate each item on a four-point"importance" scale with each item rated in terms of both (1) the perceptions of the existing goal structure and (2) what the institution's goals ought to be (i.e., they gave"as practiced" and"as should be" responses). The data was analyzed utilizing a principal components factor analysis (BMD08M), multivariate analysis of variance with simultaneous confidence intervals, and a MANOVA (BMD11V) resulting in a U-statistic of significance. In general, personnel employed at the separate two-year institutions not only felt that community college goal areas received more emphasis in two-year institutions than respondents of four-year institutions perceived them to receive in four-year institutions, but that the community college goal areas should be of more importance than respondents of four-year institutions felt they should. Congruence existed among respondents of four-year institutions and among respondents of two-year institutions. Administrators and student personnel workers of both types of institution appeared to be complacent about or satisfied with the status quo regarding the extent the five community college goal areas were and should be emphasized in their respective institution. There appeared to be dissonance within the full-time faculty group of both four-year and two-year institutions.