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It is an unfortunate reality that not all students successfully navigate the path from urban community colleges to four-year institutions. Despite the apparent obstacles and odds, some students are successful. This article is the equivalent of reading a book by starting with the last chapter and then reading the rest of the book to find out why the story ended as it did. It begins with a group of students from a large study who actually transferred and then goes back to their community college transcripts and other files to try to determine why they were successful. The study verified the ultimate importance of academic success while in the community college for those aspiring to transfer. The most predictive factor for transfer was taking courses prescribed in a transfer-focused community college curriculum. Successful transfers enrolled and passed courses in transfer-level English and mathematics as well as other courses. The study highlights the importance of academic focus for those aspiring to transfer.

Various factors are making faculty leadership challenging including the rise in part-time and non-tenure-track faculty, the increasing pressure to publish and teach more courses and adopt new technologies and pedagogies, increasing standards for tenure and promotion, ascension of academic capitalism, and heavy service roles for women and people of color. This article focuses on describing actions taken by institutional agents and aspects of campus environments which are supportive of grassroots faculty leadership. While there are many conditions which inhibit faculty leadership (i.e., part-time and contingent faculty trends, rising publication standards, etc.), our study demonstrated certain campus conditions or characteristics can overcome the forces of change including counting leadership as service, creating campus networks, addressing dysfunctional department dynamics, fostering role models, supporting faculty who question or challenge decisions, ensuring flexibility and autonomy, and altering contingent faculty contracts to include service and leadership.

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