An entirely commuter institution, JJC serves more than 10,000 students in credit classes and 21,000 students in noncredit courses. Of the students enrolled in credit classes, about one-third attend full-time, and two-thirds attend part-time. Of the students enrolled for credit, women comprise about 56%; the distribution by ethnic background is 7.5% African-American, 7.5% Hispanic, 1.5% Asian, 82.3% white non-Hispanic, and 1.2% other. The average age is 28.5 years.

Like most two-year colleges, JJC serves students from a wide spectrum of backgrounds, from the occasional National Merit scholar to students who are seriously under-prepared for college. Students attend for various reasons, ranging from an inability to afford a four-year institution, to getting turned down elsewhere and trying to get a start in a postsecondary institution. Due to the mathematics prerequisites, the most poorly prepared JJC students rarely enroll in the science courses featured in this case study. Even so, one of the physics faculty, Bill Hogan, described the range of students as follows:

We see a lot of students who are not "instructor immune." We see some who will learn no matter what you do. We see some who are so weak that they can't learn no matter what you do. And we see a lot of students in the middle, who we feel are learning because of the things we do--maybe with a different instructor, they wouldn't be learning. That makes me feel a little more involved as an instructor.... At JJC, doing a good job can make a difference. A lot of these students just need someone to pay attention to them.

The JJC instructional staff includes 165 full-time faculty and 380 part-time faculty. The faculty is unionized, and their salary structure is tied exclusively to years of service. The course load is 15 equated credits per semester. Class size is generally small, with most course capacities ranging from 10 to 35 students.

The faculty are organized into 12 departments. The four bricoleurs^a featured in this case study are members of the Department of Natural Sciences and Physical Education. This department has 19 full-time faculty and 43 part-time faculty. Adjunct professors teach about 40% of its courses.