ERIC Review: Collaboration as a Vehicle for Community College Facilities Development

Collaborations and partnerships between organizations can enlarge their resource bases (Kanter, 1994). As a result, many colleges are ex-ploring the advantages of engaging in such relationships (Roueche, Taber, & Roueche, 1995). Pfeffer and Salancik (1978) and Aldrich (1979) be-lieve that collaborative relations between appropriate organizations in-crease available resources to each, while also having the potential to de-crease some of the uncertainty caused by constant change. Because community college educators can benefit from expanded involvement in collaborative activities with other organizations, many colleges today include commitments to explore collaborative opportuni-ties in their official planning documents or mission statements. The Ne-vada University and Community College System's (1993) planning re-port for 1993-1997, for example, states that the system "will emphasize and enhance collaborative programs within the system and between the system and other institutions and agencies " (p. 11). There is also evi-dence in the literature of an expanding number of working partnerships in the nation's community colleges (Tushnet, 1993). However, little has appeared in the literature about community colleges ' innovative collabo-rations or strategic partnerships directed at developing or enhancing fa-cilities. This article will (a) discuss a range of approaches for addressing collaborative facility development; (b) review examples of creative com-munity college facilities acquisition, construction, leasing, shared-usage, and management styles; and (c) identify future issues and selected chal-lenges involved with such collaborations