| Abstract: | Amid debates over multiculturalism and political correctness, American higher education is beginning to test the boundaries of its economic and intellectual resources. Critics agree that, at the university end of the continuum, these organizations have lost sight of their central purpose. Meanwhile, at the other end of the continuum, community colleges that spread like ivy in the last quarter of the twentieth century face a massive need to replace aging faculty and administrators. This article provides a proposal that may help both of these giants to mutually support one another at a time when they are increasingly essential to our economy. Rationally, the only organization to meet the total needs of community colleges is the comprehensive university. Developing new credentialed administrators and faculty is a complex task and must involve several different organizations at the national, state, and local levels. With the American Association of Community Colleges at the helm, the federal and state governtments, the major associations at One Dupont Circle, the accreditation associations, and major foundations should contribute to the planning processes. The author attempts to analyze the human resource problem through three frames of reference, developed by the politicalanalyst Graham Allison (1971) to analyze major national crises such as the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. These frames are the Rational Actor, the Organizational Process, and Bureaucratic Politics. Using these as organizational frameworks, the author predicts how the organizations will behave and discusses how bureaucratic politics could be harnessed and focused at the national level to resolve the problems. |
