HAYWARD -- Community colleges will have to be creative and bold if they are to weather the foreboding future challenges of decreasing state funding and more competition for students, a national expert on junior colleges said Tuesday night.

Keynote speaker John Roueche, director of the Community College Leadership Program at University of Texas, Austin, told attendees at a Chabot College fund-raiser for its upcoming facilities bond that funding pressures are increasing on state colleges and universities, and the trend doesn't show signs of slowing.

He said colleges will have to adapt to the changes in aggressive new ways if they expect to continue to serve an ever growing base of students.

"Change is rampant," Roueche said. "Community colleges have to be more aggressive, more creative and more entrepreneurial to address the future."

Roueche, who has written 34 books on leadership, teaching and learning in American colleges and universities, presented examples of how junior colleges are adapting to the changes in bold new ways.

One college bought a shopping mall and set up classes there with help from public and private partners, then rented out vacant spaces to retail outlets and enjoyed the revenue that flowed in. Santa Fe Community College in Gainesville, Fla., offered faculty members a seminar on fund-raising -- then reaped the benefits of a tenfold increase in charitable donations. And still another college district in Greenville, S.C., has contracts with 2,000 businesses to provide a workforce trained to exact specifications.

These ideas and others will help community colleges thrive as states cut back allocations for public higher education, Roueche said.

At the same time, Roueche said, colleges are facing increasing competition from private, for-profit institutions, such as two-year business and medical schools, that are springing up all over the nation.

"They're niche-marketing community college students to death," Roueche said.

Colleges shouldn't underestimate the competition from outside institutions that have used the Internet to give students access to learning 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Roueche said. Community colleges, he said, should also research ways to provide their services 24/7.

"The whole world is becoming more customer-oriented," Roueche said. "We've got to be more and more willing to meet the needs of our customers."

The evening was also an opportunity for local officials to lobby for support of a $498 million bond measure for the Chabot-Las Positas Community College District that will appear on the March ballot.

The bond will help pay for new buildings and facilities upgrades at Chabot and Las Positas College in Livermore, the district's two colleges.

Mark Drummond, the new chancellor of the 108-campus California Community Colleges system, was a special guest at the reception. Drummond began his community college career 37 years ago as an instructor at Las Positas College.

"There are a lot of people in the East Bay and the entire state of California who would not be where they are today without the Chabot-Las Positas Community College District or other community colleges," Drummond said, adding, "It's so important that you support this bond."