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Book Reviews 93 

O’Banion, Terry. A Learning College for the 
21st Century. Phoenix, Ariz.: Onyx Pr. 
(American Council on Education/ 
Onyx Press Series on Higher Educa­
tion), 1997. 260p. $27.50, alk. paper 
(ISBN 1-57356-113-4). LC 97-008299. 

Terry O’Banion’s new book has the en­
dorsement of the American Association 
of Community Colleges. The foreword by 
K. Patricia Cross, David Pierput Gardner 
Professor of Higher Education at the Uni­
versity of California, Berkeley, reflects the 
book’s overall tone in her statement that 
“this work provides an exciting model for 
community colleges of the future.” 

O’Banion is the well-known and re­
spected president and CEO of the League 
for Innovation in the Community College, 
a consortium of leading community col­
leges in the United States and Canada 
dedicated to experimentation and inno­
vation. The premise of this volume is that 
higher education must focus its attention 
on student learning and the creation of a 
“learning college” if it is to survive into 
the twenty-first century. This argument 
addresses both the rapid growth in com­
munity colleges in the1960s and the grow­
ing criticism and educational reform 
movement in higher education triggered 
by publication of A Nation at Risk in 1983. 
O’Banion and his colleagues’ thesis is 
that there has been little or no increase 
in learning among the nation’s stu­
dents. 

The learning college model’s strength 
is the principle that by focusing attention 
on how student learning takes place, edu­
cators will be able to develop a more ef­
fective education in the future. Institu­
tional organization and college operation 
are defined by this principle. In the learn­
ing college, “the faculty moves away from 
furnishing information to students and 
become designers of learning environ­
ments, working cooperatively with other 
faculty, staff and administrators. They 
guide more than teach and through the 
process, they also learn.” The new para­
digm that community colleges are learn­
ing, not teaching, institutions is high­
lighted by a review of the efforts of six 

community colleges in establishing learn­
ing colleges: Sinclair Community College 
(Ohio), Jackson Community College 
(Mich.), Lane Community College (Ore.), 
College System of Maricopa (Ariz.), 
Palomar College (Calif.), and Community 
College of Denver (Colo.). Each case 
study provides a candid description of 
how the institution grappled with 
changes leading toward more learner-
centered institutions. The CEOs of the 
institutions, the primary authors of the 
case studies, describe the environment of 
the college and the early developmental 
phases of the learning college concept. 
These are heartfelt descriptions of insti­
tutions in transition and provide models 
of what other community colleges can 
expect on the journey to becoming a 
learner-centered organization. 

In the last chapters, O’Banion offers a 
practical guide and blueprint for commu­
nity colleges interested in launching a 
learning college initiative of their own. He 
concludes: “Colleges that change their 
basic systems to focus on learning by ex­
panding learning options for students, by 
engaging students as full partners in the 
learning process, by designing educa­
tional structures to meet learner needs, 
and by defining the roles of learning fa­
cilitators based on the needs of learners, 
will create an educational enterprise that 
will help students make passionate con­
nections to learning, one whose accom­
plishments will be worth great celebra­
tion in the institution and throughout 
society.” 

Although this volume is of great im­
portance to community colleges and their 
learning resource centers and libraries, it 
should also be of importance to four-year 
institutions and libraries that will com­
pete for students through their academic 
and distance education programs in the 
twenty-first century. A Web site (http:// 
www.pbs.org/learn/als/revolution/per­
son/listserve.htm) hosted by the PBS 
Adult Learning Service online provides 
additional information on creating a 
learning college.—Paul E. Dumont, Dallas 
County Community College District. 

www.pbs.org/learn/als/revolution/per