Southeastern United States community college chief financial officers' observations of their institution's implementation and importance of economic development activities in their communities

The overall purpose for this study was to get a first-hand look of how chief financial officers in community colleges throughout the southeastern United States observed the level of implementation of a certain economic development activity in their respective community colleges, and to determine their perceived levels of importance of those economic development activities or strategies regardless of whether or not their community college engaged in those activities. The study also examined any relationship between the level of implementation and relative importance of an economic development activity in the CFO's respective community college based on the institutional characteristics of state, institution classification, enrollment size, and overall annual budget, and differences between the level of importance of an economic development activity in the respective community college based on the institutional characteristics of state, institution classification, enrollment size, and overall annual budget.;This research attempted to identify current levels of implementation and importance of community college economic development activities using a 58-item questionnaire. The survey was used to gain a better perspective from the CFOs since they are heavily involved in the budgeting and decision-making processes when it comes to the overall financial well-being of their respective institutions. Independent variables related to the community college included state, institution classification (rural, state or metropolitan), enrollment size, and annual budget. Independent variables related to the CFO's personal characteristics included gender, age and race.;The data indicated a significant relationship between overall levels of implementation and overall levels of importance of community college economic development activities. While this study found no significance between overall annual budget of a community college and perceived level of importance of economic development, the overall annual budget was significantly affected in terms of level of implementation. The information provided in this study could be beneficial for CFOs across the U.S. when decisions and implementing policies and procedures benefiting economic development activities for the institutions and communities they strive to serve.