Local Autonomy Is Alive and Well: The Results of a National Study on Locations of Effective Decision-Making Authority in State Community College Systems

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-1996

Description

This study defines the location of effective decision-making authority in governing community colleges and examines differences in the locations of authority in academic, personnel, or administrative matters. Effective decision-making authority was defined by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (1973) as the “agency whose decision generally stands and is not reversed” (p. 96). We compiled a list of governance decisions on the basis of the Carnegie Foundation study. An expert panel then weighted the items on this list by their importance in the governance of a community college. Location of decision making exists along a continuum from exclusively at the college through exclusively at the state system. Five points were identified along that continuum and assigned values from -1 (for local decisions) to 1 (for state-level decisions). Forty chief executive officers of state community college systems identified the locations of decision-making authority in their states for each item. Location of overall decision-making authority and locations of decision-making authority for academic, personnel, and administrative matters were identified for each state. Results strongly suggest that location of decision-making authority generally rests at the local level, although personnel decisions are more likely made locally than either academic or administrative decisions. These results may be contrary to current thinking in the field.

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