Characteristics and professional activities of community college counselors

The profession of community college counseling continues to struggle with several related issues including the functions and roles of counselors in the community college, qualifications of counselors, and professional development needs of community college counselors.; Literature sources agree, that due to the nature of the community college, a strong counseling program with competent counselors is required (Schoenmaker & Hood, 1972). Although agreement exists on the need for trained counselors, the literature documents a failure to satisfactorily define the role and subsequently the functions of community college counselors (Ancheta, 1983). This failure leads to the question of who are today's community college counselors and what do they do?; The purpose of the study was to develop a better understanding of the current state of the profession of community college counselors. A nationwide survey was conducted with 479 counselors from publicly supported community colleges in the United States holding membership in the American Association of Community Colleges. Of the community colleges surveyed, 309 community college counselors responded (64% response rate).; When compared to the counselors in the Keim (1988) study, today's counselor is more likely to be female and have a greater workload. The community college counselor represented in this study is older and more experienced in years spent as a counselor in the community college and years spent at the current institution.; Most counselors were not licensed as professional counselors. Approximately 35% held a counseling license and 16% were certified. As job functions, counselors spent the greatest percentage of their time in academic and educational counseling. Non-licensed counselors, more so than licensed, spent statistically significantly more time performing this function.; On the job functions of teaching and administration, counselors with a doctorate spent more time than did those with a master's degree. The differences in time spent on the counselor job functions between counselors who attend and those who attend and present at professional conferences were not statistically significant. However, comparing the means for all counselors on current and preferred job functions, significant differences were found on all nine of the functions. Recommendations for the profession and future research were offered.