Heating Up and Cooling Out at the Community College: The Potential of Student-Faculty Interactions to Contribute to Student Aspiration

Nearly half of the nation's college students attend community colleges. With increasing emphasis on graduation and transfer rates in higher education, the importance of micro-level interactions that shape student aspiration has been neglected. This study examines the potential of faculty at the community college to positively influence, or “heat up,” student aspirations. This study attempts to bridge the “cooling out” and “heating up” literature in the context of the modern community college by recognizing the role of the individual academic program and faculty. This book applies organizational theory and systems perspective to examine the potential at the community college to "heat up" student aspiration at the institutional, program, and faculty levels. This analysis would be useful to faculty and administrators at community colleges, as well as policy makers or researchers in the field of higher education.