In the beginning, some thought the coronavirus pandemic would last just a few weeks. Instead, after more than a year, it has completely changed higher education in ways that will persist even after college campuses repopulate and California and the United States reach some form of herd immunity.

The most significant change concerns instruction and learning, with the vast majority of students and faculty in online classes. But other changes exist, as well, including a more intense focus on mental health and campuses becoming more flexible with how they operate.

Community colleges across the country are plagued with tight budgets—caused in part by state disinvestment and chronic federal underfunding. For rural community colleges, these challenges are even more acute, as their needs are greater and the costs of providing services higher. The COVID-19 pandemic has only deepened the prosperity gap between rural and non-rural communities, and it has left rural community colleges struggling to dig their students out of an ever-deepening ditch. 

A new report calls attention to the experiences of rural community colleges in five states, with insight on how these institutions are addressing some of the access and completion challenges facing their students.