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At the annual meeting of the American Association of Community Colleges, campus leaders discussed the growing pressures they face, the newest of which is their states' budget deficits.

Community colleges in the United States are seen as a model by developing countries looking to train a skilled work force, even as the institutions wrestle with issues of international education, said speakers at the annual meeting of the American Association of Community Colleges.

For-profit colleges have some advantages, but community colleges have their own.

Selected Articles (For Chronicle Subscribers)

DISTURBING DIVISION: Gaps in faculty pay between private and public institutions, including community colleges, continue to widen, the American Association of University Professors has warned in an annual report.

• WHAT PROFESSORS EARN: Average salaries, categorized by type of institution and by gender, along with related data.
• DATABASE: Faculty salaries at more than 1,300 institutions

KEEP ON BUILDING: Despite economic uncertainty, campus construction continues apace, in part because of nontraditional financing plans like public-private partnerships, like that at Georgia Perimeter College.

MEASURED SUCCESS: Advocates for electronic portfolios of students' work say the format can provide data to satisfy lawmakers' and accreditors' demands for accountability from colleges. LaGuardia Community College and Kapiolani Community College are among those using the new systems.

CHAPTER AND CHOW: Casting aside a longtime prohibition, campus libraries, including the one at Central Piedmont Community College, are choosing to welcome snackers, as long as they're tidy, among the bookshelves.

PEER REVIEW: A new administrator in the University of Texas system will help students transfer from two-year colleges.

BOND-RATING UPDATE

NASTY SURPRISE: Malicious hackers send users of a community college's home page to a porn site.

Community-College Supplement

DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS: Two competing visions of education help explain the tension between jobs and ideas that all community colleges grapple with, writes M. Garrett Bauman.

NEW MATH: Some colleges are trying new ways to move students more quickly and smoothly through remedial math.

CAMPUS TREASURE: Instructors at City College of San Francisco make the college's Diego Rivera mural an everyday part of the curriculum.

OFF THE BEATEN TRACK: In rural areas, arts programs at colleges provide a rich diet for culture-starved residents.

12 TEACHING TIPS: Community-college instructors offer ideas for the classroom.

GOOD CITIZENSHIP: Most community-college leaders give little thought to the role their colleges play in their communities, George B. Vaughan says.

NONTRADITIONAL LEARNERS: Colleges are not keeping up with changes in the way adults pursue their education, says Charlene R. Nunley.

SCARCE INFORMATION: Students need to know much more about how to transfer to four-year institutions, Stephen J. Handel writes.

BOILING POINT: Bob Blaisdell reflects on the day he lost it in front of his students.

A SPECIAL ROLE: Rural community colleges are meeting the needs of a changing and increasingly diverse population, Stephen G. Katsinas says.

INFLUENCE OVERSEAS: Community colleges can play an important role in fostering world peace, writes David J. Smith.

CLASSROOM OBSESSIONS: Charlotte Laws says that too many instructors emphasize grades and attendance, to the detriment of creativity and responsibility.

CHALLENGES OF POVERTY: Kathleen Sheerin DeVore says it is her job to help students complete their assignments amid the chaos of their lives.

ATTENTION BILLIONAIRES: Big donors should consider giving to community colleges if they really want to help the nation's students, writes Catherine Stukel.