The funding of community and technical colleges has been a major topic of discussion in many states because community and technical colleges are critical for states' economic development and talent development strategies. The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between the type of funding at community and technical colleges in southeastern states and their nontraditional student enrollment trends. The researcher investigated the growth of community and technical college enrollment by analyzing southeastern United States community and technical colleges' part-time 25 to 44 year-old undergraduate enrollment rates for the years of 1995, 2000 and 2005, and how the funding of these schools was associated with the states' enrollment of nontraditional students. It was found that community and technical colleges that received local appropriation revenue for the years of 1995, 2000, and 2005 had higher percentages of nontraditional students enrolled in their systems than community and technical colleges that did not receive local appropriation. Community and technical college administrators and their governing boards can use these findings as additional justification to policy makers for support options to include the use of local appropriation revenues or maintain local appropriation revenues for community and technical colleges as an alternative to increasing tuition and fees.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Louisville, 2008. Thesis (Ph. D.)--Western Kentucky University, 2008. / University of Louisville, Department of Educational Leadership, Foundations, and Human Resource Education. Western Kentucky University, Department of Educational Administration, Leadership, and Research. Vita. "December 2008." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 215-231).

In 2008, the excitement to teach the class, Introduction to College to new students who are beginning college, was greatly accepted with much reservation. Numerous memories reflected back to that special period when the writer was faced with those daunting decisions of where to attend college. Those memories of excitement and fear of being away from home the very first time, starting college life, meeting new friends, and what career path to choose, were difficult decisions during that transitional time. Orientation class back then consisted mainly of a half day spent touring the college campus and listening to various speakers; if you could stay awake. The scope of this study will be to assess the effectiveness of Introduction to College (GE-100), on student GPAs and “persistence-to-graduation” rates as measures of success. In the course, the student will learn about the variety of support services available at the college, the behaviors necessary to be successful in college, and issues that relate to choice of major and/or careers. This study used a quantitative approach utilizing an ex-post facto longitudinal design that measures student grade point averages (GPA) and persistence-to-graduation rates for the five- year period from the Fall Semester of 2003 through the Spring Semester of 2008. Overall, at the conclusion, the results indicated that GE-100 students had significantly higher GPAs and significantly greater persistence- to-graduation rates over a five year period when compared with student who did not take or complete (GE- 100).

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