Recent improprieties by community college administrators have scarred the public trust. Efforts to secure against maladministration are firmly rooted in utilitarian and deontological ethics. In this article, the authors argue that these common approaches cannot remedy maladministration in the community college because utilitarianism and deontology are part of the problem and, therefore, cannot be part of the solution. Instead, the authors make the case that virtue ethics provides the best framework for moral community college administration while also being the best means of restoring public trust.
American Association of Community Colleges. (2006). First responders: Community colleges on the front line of security. Washington, DC: Community College Press.
3.
AndersonS.DaviesT. (2000). An ethical decision-making model: A necessary tool for community college presidents and boards of trustees. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 24, 711-727.
4.
AquinasT. (2007). Summa theologica (Vol. 2, Part 2, Fathers of the English Dominican Province, Trans.). New York, NY: Cosimo. (Original translation published in 1912).
5.
Aristotle. (1987). A new Aristotle reader (AckrillJ. L., Trans.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
6.
AstinA. (1999). Student involvement: A developmental theory for higher education. Journal of College Student Development, 40, 518-529.
7.
AvolioB.WaldmanD.YammarinoF. (1991). Leading in the 1990s: The four I’s of transformational leadership. Journal of European Industrial Training, 15, 9-16.
8.
BassB.SteidlmeierP. (1999). Ethics, character, and authentic transformational leadership behavior. The Leadership Quarterly, 10, 181-217.
9.
BeattyB. (2000a, September). The paradox of emotion and educational leadership. Paper presented to the British Educational Administration Society Annual Conference, Bristol, UK.
10.
BeattyB. (2000b). The emotions of educational leadership: Breaking the silence. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 3, 331-357.
11.
BegleyP. T. (Ed.). (1999). Values and educational leadership. Albany: State University of New York Press.
12.
BlanchardK.PealeN. (1996). The power of ethical management. New York, NY: Ballantine.
13.
BondE. J. (1996). Ethics and human well-being: An introduction to moral philosophy. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
14.
BrownL.MartinezM.DanielD. (2002). Community college leadership preparation: Needs, perceptions, and recommendations. Community College Review, 30(1), 45-73.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2010). Occupational outlook handbook (2010-2011 ed., Bulletin 2800). Washington, DC: Author.
17.
CampbellE. (1999). Ethical school leadership: Problems of an elusive role. In BegleyP. (Ed.), Values and educational leadership (pp.151-164). Albany: State University of New York Press.
18.
CopeE. (1867). A review of Aristotle’s system of ethics. Cambridge, UK: Deighton, Bell, and Co.
19.
DavisG. (2007). Why presidents and trustees should care about ethics. In HellmichD. (Ed.), Ethical leadership in the community college: Bridging theory and daily practice (pp. 46-60). Boston, MA: Anker.
FryR. (2002). Latinos in higher education: Many enroll, too few graduate. Washington, DC: Pew Hispanic Center.
29.
GeorgeJ. (2000). Emotions and leadership: The role of emotional intelligence. Human Relations, 53, 1027-1055.
30.
GewirthA. (1978). The golden rule rationalized. Midwest Studies in Philosophy, 3, 133-147.
31.
HardyD. (2007). Threats to ethical leadership: The hubris of absolutism, the politics of affinity-based decision-making, and the development of unethical followers. In HellmichD. (Ed.), Ethical leadership in the community college: Bridging theory and daily practice (pp. 103-121). Boston, MA: Anker.
32.
HumeD. (1888). A treatise of human nature. Oxford, UK: Clarendon.
KantI. (1998). Groundwork for the metaphysics of morals. (M. J. Gregor, Trans.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. (Original work published in 1785)
36.
KolesnikovaN. (2009). Community colleges: A route of upward economic mobility. St. Louis, MO: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
37.
KuhG.KinzieJ.SchuhJ.WhittE. (2005). Student success in college: Creating conditions that matter. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
38.
LipovetskyG. (2000). Le crépuscule du devoir [The twilight of duty]. Paris, France: Gallimard.
LowiT. (1979). The end of liberalism. New York, NY: Norton.
41.
MacIntyreA. (1984). After virtue. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.
42.
McCarronG.InkelasK. (2006). The gap between educational aspirations and attainment for first-generation college students and the role of parental involvement. Journal of College Student Development, 47, 534-549.
43.
MillJ. S. (1863). Utilitarianism. London, UK: Parker, Son, and Bourn.
44.
MorettiE. (2004). Estimating the social return to higher education: Evidence from longitudinal and repeated cross-sectional data. Journal of Econometrics, 121, 175-212.
45.
MorrisC. (2008). The trouble with justice. In BloomfieldP. (Ed.), Morality and self-interest (pp. 21-30). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
46.
National Center for Education Statistics. (2011). Table 202: Total fall enrollment in degree-granting institutions, by level of enrollment, sex, attendance status, and type and control of institution: 2009. In SnyderT. D.DillowS. A. (Eds.), Digest of education statistics, 2010. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d10/tables/dt10_202.asp
47.
NeumannY.NeumannE. F. (1999). The president and the college bottom line: The role of strategic leadership styles. International Journal of Educational Management, 13(2), 73-81.
48.
NevarezC.WoodJ. L. (2010). Community college leadership and administration: Theory, practice, and change. New York, NY: Peter Lang.
49.
NorcrossA. (1995). Should utilitarianism accommodate moral dilemmas?Philosophical Studies, 79, 59-83.
NozickR. (1974). Anarchy, state and utopia. New York, NY: Basic Books.
52.
O’NeillO. (1993). Kantian ethics. In SingerP. (Ed.), A companion to ethics (pp. 175-185). Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
53.
OrrM. T.BraggD. D. (2001). Policy directions for K-14 education—looking to the future. In TownsendB. K.TwomblyS. B. (Eds.), Community colleges: Policy in the future context (pp. 101-128). Westport, CT: Greenwood.
54.
PaulsenM. (1996). Higher education and state workforce productivity. Thought & Action, 12(1), 55-77.
55.
PedersenP. (1996). Our present: Postmodern. In AndersenH.KaspersenL. B. (Eds.), Classical and modern social theory (pp. 412-431). Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
56.
PutnamH. (2004). Ethics without ontology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
57.
RouecheJ. E.RichardsonM. M.NealP. W.RouecheS. D. (Eds.). (2008a). The creative community college: Leading change through innovation. Washington, DC: Community College Press.
58.
RouecheJ. E.RichardsonM. M.NealP. W.RouecheS. D. (2008b). From challenges to opportunities. In RouecheJ. E.RichardsonM. M.NealP. W.RouecheS. D. (Eds.), The creative community college: Leading change through innovation (pp. 1-25). Washington, DC: Community College Press.
RyanA. (1987). Utilitarianism and other essays. London, UK: Penguin.
61.
SendjayaS. (2005). Morality and leadership: Examining the ethics of transformational leadership. Journal of Academic Ethics, 3, 75-86.
62.
ShapiroJ. P.StefkovichJ. A. (2001). Ethical leadership and decision making in education. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
63.
SimoneB. (2005). Knowing and influencing the college culture. In ElsnerP. A.BoggsG. R. (Eds.), Encouraging civility as a community college leader (pp. 39-48). Washington, DC: Community Colleges Press.
64.
VaughanG. (Ed.). (1992). Dilemmas of leadership: Decision making and ethics in the community college. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
65.
VaughanG. (2006). The community college story (3rd ed.). Washington, DC: Community College Press.
WallerB. (2007). Consider ethics: Theory, reading, and contemporary issues. New York, NY: Pearson Longman.
68.
WassmerR.MooreC.ShulockN. (2004). Effect of racial/ethnic composition on transfer rates in community colleges: Implications for policy and practice. Research in Higher Education, 45, 651-672.
69.
WolfeB.HavemanR. (2002). Accounting for the social and non-market benefits of education. In HelliwellJ. (Ed.), The contributions of human and social capital to sustained economic growth and well-being (pp. 221-250). Paris, France: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
70.
WoodA. (2002). The final form of Kant’s political philosophy. In TimmonsM. (Ed.), Kant’s metaphysics of morals: Interpretative essays. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
