Opening Doors : Students' Perspectives on Juggling Work, Family, and College / Lisa Matus-Grossman and Susan Gooden.

Information gathered in focus groups of current, former, and potential students at six community colleges was used to explore institutional and personal access and retention issues faced by students seeking a workable balance of their college, work, and family responsibilities. The six community colleges were as follows: Cabrillo College (Aptos, California); LaGuardia Community College (Long Island, New York); Macomb Community College (Clinton Township, Michigan); Portland Community College (Portland, Oregon); Sinclair Community College (Dayton, Ohio); and Valencia Community College (Orlando, Florida). The following were among the main themes that emerged from the focus groups: (1) working students typically take more than 2 years to complete college; (2) financial aid is a major factor affecting enrollment decisions; (3) balancing work, family, and college is difficult; (4) students need on-campus academic and personal support; (5) a gap exists between the services available to students and students' awareness of them; and (6) students view individual faculty members as the "front line" of their community college experience. Educational, financial aid, student service, and community partnership approaches to helping community college students juggle their college, work and family responsibilities were identified. Selected results from phone interviews with focus group participants are appended. (Contains 14 tables/boxes and 46 references.) (MN)

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