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
Florida state college
...and THIS guy is teaching
I agree, C.Breeze, there
You are whining. Here's what
You are whining. Here's what
Please note this column
Do you have a reading
Ed Eissey was a great college
Agree, but wish college was
Until the education "system"
http://www.cfabamerica.com
Agreed! As a former