Citizen Support for Northern Ohio Community College Funding Initiatives During an Economic Recession Recovery

The current research, Citizen Support for Northern Ohio Community College Funding Initiatives during an Economic Recession Recovery, asks the question: Do the citizens of Northern Ohio support community college funding during difficult economic times? Based on the theory of Stakeholder Analysis, the purpose of this concurrent, mixed-methods study was to investigate stakeholder support of community college funding initiatives, particularly for levy-funded community colleges that rely on the voting public to voluntarily contribute property taxes to support their institutions. A comparison of Ohio community college statements and survey responses regarding stakeholder needs and beliefs indicated a significantly higher instance of language content matching between college and stakeholder statements for levy-funded colleges in Northern Ohio then non-levy funded colleges. Additionally, there was a moderate difference in levy and non-levy community college stakeholder satisfaction scores with levy-funded college stakeholders expressing a slightly higher satisfaction rate. Although stakeholder satisfaction did not correlate linearly with frequency of matching between stakeholder beliefs and college mission/vision statements, evidence suggests that there may be a modest relationship between the two variables. Lastly, qualitative data identified topics and themes that may further the understanding of factors contributing to stakeholder satisfaction. The Educational Awareness Model of Stakeholder Satisfaction produced from this research could be tested to determine whether the levy-funded colleges in Northern Ohio may leverage an existing advantage to gain further stakeholder support by formally empowering their employee stakeholders. However, further research is warranted with a sample that more closely represents the population