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Nancy Smith

My Biggest Education Summit Takeaway

May 27, 2016 - 6:00am

Rick Scott's Degrees to Jobs Summit wowed state college trustees, but I have to tell you, state college trustees certainly wowed me.

These engaged, interested-in-everything public servants showed me something in Orlando Wednesday and Thursday.

I always thought of college trustees as the school's legislative branch, the people who act as a governing body that votes on all kinds of proposals -- school development, curriculum, and financing, mostly (yawn). And I guess they do perform those functions.

But I'm ashamed to say I never did them justice.

In my mind and probably on paper, I defined college trustees and university trustees the same. All Thursday-go-to-meeting folks. And not even every Thursday. I tarred them with the same brush.

I want to apologize for that.

What I saw this week was something completely the opposite and full of promise for the Sunshine State. If there are people in Florida communities committed to getting the future right, I'm betting on state/community college trustees. 

If there are people honor-bound to keep an open mind, people charged with understanding their community's identity and what it needs, people who listen with a "yes" ear, understand fiduciary responsibility and most of all, are enthusiastically willing to stick their necks out when necessary -- I'm talking about cheerleaders serving unglamorously at a governor's pleasure, without compensation ... it's college trustees.

I now think I probably have it wrong about their university counterparts as well. But I haven't been close enough to them to tell. Shhh, don't tell them, but I had university board members pegged as ivory-tower-inhabiting unicorns who arrogantly announce their appointments to friends as if they're displaying glossy, coffee-table magazines. Let me apologize to those people, too, for entertaining such thoughts.

I talked to a lot of college trustees on Wednesday and Thursday. Not a one of them was fighting Scott's challenge to graduate 100 percent of their four-year students on schedule. 

I found trustees huddled in groups in the courtyard outdoors between sessions, sharing ideas, making lists, firing questions at one another. Always positive and enthusiastic.

After a breakout session Thursday on business partnerships, four trustees from three different colleges were comparing notes on refining their institutions' partnerships.

They had just been inspired by Santa Fe College President Jackson Sasser who told them it was Florida's community colleges that brought the state out of the recession. He said some 28,000 jobs were created in April, "and guess who trained most of them? Our colleges. ..." Santa Fe, determined by the Aspen Institute to be the best community college in the country, stays ahead of the curve, that's its secret, he said. "We are driven by what's needed in business and industry. We listen carefully to every emerging business."

And dozens of trustees listened to Sasser. Santa Fe has also been deemed the best college at training and developing employees. "The University of Florida is one of our most important partners. Between 66 percent and 76 percent of students who come to Gainesville's Santa Fe and aspire to go to UF get in," he told them.

Most colleges have already developed a "career pathway," of which trustees are justifiably proud. For two days I overheard them comparing notes. Students aren't given time "to find themselves" anymore. They immediately are taken in hand, shown median first-year earnings according to degrees and possible majors offered. 

"You know what motivates me?" said David Maymon, founder of a company called Advocate Home Care and a new trustee at Broward College. "It's the need to tell the community how invested they are in our students' education. Forty-seven percent of Broward College students' tuition is paid for by tax dollars. That's their tax dollars. So they need to get involved. Broward businesses need to get involved. It's a big message."

And I watched trustees lean into a presentation by Jay Posze, vice president of Human Resources at Rayonier Advanced Materials in Jacksonville, as he offered a wish list from an employer's perspective.

"We like the STEM graduates, please emphasize that," Posze told trustees. "We actually hire several teachers over the summer so they understand our business and what we need and can go back and better prepare students. We like to hire people who embrace safety ... who can serve a sophomore or junior internship ... who can read a budget ... and most important, who have some communications skills." When Posze finished, trustees swarmed around him.

So here it is: In my opinion, Scott's Degrees to Jobs Summit will pay off handsomely. Why? Because he's put the right "college legislators" in place -- trustees who are motivated to serve, motivated to meet his challenges. These folks were raring to go from the first address to the last.

I'll never take them lightly again, and neither should anybody else.

Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith

Comments

I serve on the editorial board of the Journal for Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness. I also authored and coordinated the City of Fort Lauderdale Institutional Effectiveness Plan so I am expert at investigating and examining higher educational institutions and personnel. Ed Massey is by far the worst educational administrator I have ever seen in my 28 years of educational leadership. It's not even close. Massey and the IRSC Trustees should resign immediately. 28 pages of evidence has been filed with accreditors and the State of Florida. I left Indian River State College Plantation to train union leaders for an Ivy League university. Resign Massey and IRSC Trustees before Justice is done with their work here.

Florida state college trustees and Rick Scott who appoints them need to be investigated for corrupt racketeering. 75% of Florida state college faculty have not been represented in faculty senates. Florida adjunct professors who teach 3/4 of college classes are denied health care, paid starvation wages among the lowest in the USA and are deprived other basic constitutional rights. At Indian River State College, we see the trustees refusing transparency, obstructing justice, and concealing evidence. We see trustees led union busting, arrogance, incompetence, and failures to maintain integrity and accreditation standards while SACS looks the other way. Ed Eissey and the IRSC trustees must resign. In my 28 years as an educator and administrator, I have never seen more of an arrogant charade from any institution's leadership than at IRSC which in 2012-13 had 131 of their personnel making over 100,000 a year with benefits, more than the United States Attorneys Office for the area. Many of the starving adjunct professors who teach 3/4 of state college classes need food stamps . Teachers and professors in Florida are not paid for most of their prep and grading labor which violates the Fair Labor Standards Act. IRSC promotes flunkies who contribute to the state Colege foundation and are documented poor teachers. The IRSC Admin never saw me teach once over an entire academic year and Ed Massey is a textbook example of poor leadership. He and the IRSC trustees should resign before Rick Scott is indicted.

...and THIS guy is teaching our kids ?!?!? He's qualified to be the "poster-boy" for "tenure elimination"!

I agree, C.Breeze, there always seems to be one who paints everything with a negative brush and makes unfounded allegations against the people who are actually working and doing good for our state.

You are whining. Here's what you do, Mr. Friedson. You go to your computer, compose your letter of resignation and present it to Ed Massey. Nobody chained you or the other IR adjunct profs to that college. You agreed to the terms. Colleges that depend on a good adjunct staff keep their tuition low. I know adjunct profs too. They have other jobs and I bet they would like to be fulltime or tenured but I don't hear them whining. Find another line of work if this one doesn't feed your family.

You are whining. Here's what you do, Mr. Friedson. You go to your computer, compose your letter of resignation and present it to Ed Massey. Nobody chained you or the other IR adjunct profs to that college. You agreed to the terms. Colleges that depend on a good adjunct staff keep their tuition low. I know adjunct profs too. They have other jobs and I bet they would like to be fulltime or tenured but I don't hear them whining. Find another line of work if this one doesn't feed your family.

Please note this column setting does not allow me to edit a couple typos. I typed on my tiny phone keyboard. Thanks for understanding. Investigate the Florida state college and public university violations of law. Respect teachers and students. We are tired of public officials abusing power at the People's expense.

Do you have a reading comprehension problem, nobody is agreeing with you. Wow, you mean to tell me that you are actually a teacher?? WOW . . . .and you don't even understand the comments written here.

Ed Eissey was a great college president at PBCC. Ed Massey and the IRSC trustees must be investigated. Damn phone auto correct. LOL!

Agree, but wish college was more about the learning and less about the budgets... Santa Fe has got it right, but they are the exception rather than the norm...

Until the education "system" eschews Federal Grant monies, disbands the Federal Dept of Education, and returns "education" to the STATES,... This is all "pie-in-the-sky window dressing" to support a "field trip" to Tallahassee for "Bored Members" (pardon the pun)...

http://www.cfabamerica.com/common-core-why-should-we-find-another-solution-3 http://www.cfabamerica.com/supreme-court-violates-the-u-s-constitution-we-must-have-them-impeached http://www.cfabamerica.com/subject-amendment-14-rights-guaranteed-amendment-1-freedom-of-expression-and-religion http://www.cfabamerica.com/what-does-the-u-s-constitution-actually-say-about-religion Charles Frederick Tolbert EdD Candidate for US Senate Fl 2016 Retired MSGT Pastor Www.cfabamerica.com

Agreed! As a former Commission and Board staffer for several government and legislative entities, I have had the opportunity to view first-hand the dedication and effort put forth by so-called volunteer Board and Commission members across Florida. In fact, don't agree to serve unless you have the time, energy, financial and intellectual ability to read and analyze statistical reports, visit community businesses, attend meetings at various statewide locations, listen to endless presentations, offer support and advice and of course care more about the societal outcome than having your name on a Website or brochure. Kudos to those who serve.

Comments are now closed.

nancy smith
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