CATALYST V22N2 - Editor's Page


Volume XXII, Number 2
Spring 1992

Editor's Page

This issue completes the series of projects undertaken to commemorate the first 20 years of the Catalyst. Two issues (Summer and Fall 1991) presented reprints of the most significant articles to appear in the first 20 years of publication. The next issue (Winter 1992) contained an index by author to Volumes I-XXI of the journal that will allow us to better recapture the history of continuing education and community services in community colleges and the history of NCCSCE and this journal. That issue also represented a rather bold step into the future as the Catalyst launched an electronic publication format. This decision by the NCCSCE Board of Directors made us the first association in higher education to publish simultaneously in print and electronic form and made us one of the first, if not the first, higher education journals in electronic format. Now, with this issue we complete the projects we initiated by publishing the index by subject to Volumes I-XXI of the Journal and continue the project of simultaneous publication in print and electronic format. We hope to complete these activities with one final project--putting all the issues of the Catalyst since its inception in the electronic format. We hope to complete that project in 1992.

This issue represents a transition to our more familiar content. We are pleased to publish the Ward and Smith article describing community college programs designed to prepare older and retired people as child care workers. This activity represents an interesting partnership between community colleges, social service agencies, and a university. The programs themselves were offered by both continuing education units and academic units of the community colleges. This article represents an intriguing mix of cooperative work among agencies, community service, and service for the older worker. The Andrews and Allen article also represents cooperative activities--in this instance between private industry and a community college and within the college between the credit granting and continuing education arms of the institution. The occasions for this cooperation were created by the introduction of computer integrated manufacturing into the curriculum of the college.

The final article is a new venture for the Catalyst. A recent article in the community college literature provoked reactions from several professionals in our field. Two of them, Betsy Dubose and Hans Andrews, were driven to express their opinions in writing. We are pleased to present their observations as an "Opinion Piece" and invite your reactions. Their opinions are theirs, not mine and not the Council's. The issues they address are real and areas where little consensus exists. We hope to use occasional "Opinion Piece" articles to highlight areas of concern and debate within our field. We invite participation from the field. This issue contains an ERIC Review of particular interest. Diane Hirshberg has turned her attention upon us and produced a review of the recent literature in ERIC on CE/CS, and it is an interesting literature she discovered. I invite your attention to it.

Darrel A. Clowes
Editor