Successful Community College Election Strategies.

This study identifies successful election strategies employed by community colleges in bond issues or tax levy increase elections, and distills these strategies into a list of principles or rules that can be utilized by colleges in preparing for such an event. Results of case studies conducted at Maricopa (Arizona), Santa Monica (California), and Washtenaw (Michigan) community colleges indicate that: (1) dollars raised by campaigns are not enough to guarantee victory; (2) each campaign had significant support from a broad array of community organizations; (3) the length of the formal campaign was relatively brief for all three subject colleges; (4) the impact of other, unrelated issues on the same ballot differs by college; (5) the primary organization of each campaign came from a core of college staff members; (6) efforts to involve students in the campaign efforts were emphasized; (7) staff participation at the colleges were crucial to electoral success; (8) efforts to involve faculty and staff began years before the formal campaign; (9) strengths and weaknesses were assessed by the subject colleges both internally and externally; and (10) the primary role of the formal campaign committees was to raise dollars for the advocacy effort of the campaigns. Each of the colleges studied had an electoral victory; further research on colleges that lost elections might provide a useful comparative analysis. Appended are the questionnaire provided to state community college directors, the fifty-state telephone survey, the follow-up questionnaire to subject colleges, the interview guide and procedures, a summary of contacts in fifty-state telephone survey, summaries of interviews, ballot language, and employee guidelines for bond election. Contains five tables and 114 references. (AS)