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Community college enrollment continues to grow. Boosted by the increase in unemployment, Des Moines Area Community College hit a record level with a 17 percent jump in students this fall. And as they get bigger, the two-year schools change organically and almost without notice.

Linda Serra Hagedorn suggests that it’s time to talk about what changes actually should be made. Hagedorn is an Iowa State University professor of educational leadership and policy studies, director of ISU’s Research Institute for Studies in Education and president-elect of the Association for the Study of Higher Education.

In a chapter she wrote for the annual edition of “Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research,” Hagedorn warns community college officials to proceed with caution in expanding degree programs.

“The attempt to expand degree options could have negative effects on the community colleges’ abilities to support the programs and activities designed for students needing special assistance,” she wrote.

Hagedorn offers these ideas:

1. Increase involvement between two- and four-year institutions through state-level meetings, faculty development and other means.

2. Bring two- and four-year colleges together for joint strategic planning.

3. Share facilities.

4. Share technology.

5. Rework the transfer policy to smooth the path for students who begin their postsecondary career at a community college.

6. Transfer student scholarships to help lower-income students.

7. Develop a “reverse transfer” program for the increasing number of students who start at a four-year school and move to a two-year school.

We question the idea of sharing facilities, just because it’s important that each institution retain its identity. But most of her thoughts about greater cooperation make a lot of sense.