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586 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. 6 (2003)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0586 and id is 1 raw text is: PREFACE Community Colleges: New Environments, New Directions S ince their inception, community colleges have been expected to serve a number of roles in American society. As the entryway to college for groups of people who would other- wise have been excluded from higher education, community colleges provide the first step on the ladder toward a baccalaureate degree. As higher education institutions that are uniquely linked to their local communities, community colleges are asked to address the educational and civic needs of a wide array of local citizens. And as the educational institutions most attuned to the needs of the local business community, they are charged with equipping their graduates with the skills needed to succeed in the economy. In short, community colleges, at least in their ideal- ized form, should be functioning as a democra- tizing force in American society-providing access to education and training where it would not exist otherwise, increasing the ability of peo- ple to engage in the civic life of American soci- ety, and providing the skills and training needed to gain employment. Whether community colleges ever lived up to these ideals has always been in question. Yet as community colleges enter the new millennium, they are encountering a set of forces that are making it increasingly difficult for them to main- tain a commitment to the diverse and sometimes competing missions that have always character- ized this sector of higher education. Both inter- nal and external forces are converging to steer these institutions away from important aspects of their historic missions-most notably, aca- demic preparation for transfer to the four-year sector. Instead, they are increasingly adopting a more singularly market-driven mission that focuses on providing the skills demanded by the local economy. As a result, an equity agenda, which for so long has been at the forefront of the rhetoric surrounding the community college, DOI: 10.1177/0002716202250198 ANNALS, AAPSS, 586, March 2003 6