In this blog, unlike most of my other blogs, I want to address our students specifically. There is a reason the windshield is bigger than the rear view mirror. As we near the end of 2017, instead of reflecting on all the many, many different things that have happened over the past year, I’d like to focus on the future and my hopes for 2018. At Tallahassee Community College, we are committed to the role we play in enabling you…
This week we will be taking a break to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. It is the perfect time of the year that we all should use to pause and reflect on what we’re thankful for. I am thankful for our students who chose Tallahassee Community College. That choice indicates their trust in our institution to provide them with the opportunity to earn a College degree. What an honor it is for us to be helping them with this leg of…
It’s hard to believe that this fall marks the start of my eighth academic year as president of Tallahassee Community College. Time flies when you’re doing meaningful work and each year becomes more exciting to me as students, sometimes, accompanied by their parents, begin their academic journey toward their career goals. This fall, we will have more students marking their first semester in college than we have had in many years. To them, the single greatest piece of advice I…
I want to inform you on the status of the 2017-18 budget that was presented to the Board of Trustees and approved today. You may not realize that TCC faces a nearly $4 million budget shortfall this coming year as a result of a $2.9 million cut in state appropriation and a projected $864,278 decrease in tuition and fees revenue. The Florida College System had originally requested budget increases to offset rising costs and launch new initiatives that serve our…
Gadsden County has a special place in my heart. It was where my career at Tallahassee Community College started – at the Pat Thomas Law Enforcement Academy, now part of the college’s Florida Public Safety Institute, back in 1999 – and it was where I began to fully appreciate the role that the College plays in transforming people’s lives. I spent eleven wonderful years at FPSI before becoming president. While there I had the privilege of working with elected and…
Congratulations Colleagues! Tallahassee Community College has recently received a national award for our commitment to diversity. TCC has been named one of the Most Promising Places to Work in Community Colleges by the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development and Diverse: Issues in Higher Education magazine. This research-based designation recognizes commitment to professional development opportunities, equality, workplace diversity, inclusion, salary and benefits, and family friendliness. Only 11 community colleges in the nation received this prestigious award, which celebrates community…
Budgets are more than numbers. They reflect priorities and values. Florida lawmakers ended the 2017 legislative session by approving an $82.4 billion budget for the coming year. If approved by the governor, this budget will cut $30 million from the Florida College System while simultaneously increasing funding to state universities by $232 million. What has been lost in the media coverage of this year’s legislative session is that the 28 colleges had requested 100 million new dollars this year to…
This Saturday we will host our 2017 commencement ceremony. Commencement is a distinguished tradition that honors the hard work and dedication of our students, and is, without a doubt, my favorite time of the year as a president of a higher education institution. I get the opportunity to shake our graduates’ hands and congratulate them on a job well done. It is truly an experience that I treasure. Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t also take the…
This post was originally published by the Tallahassee Democrat. As our state lawmakers move toward a final budget, it appears Florida colleges and the hundreds of thousands of students they represent are not a priority this year. Worse yet, although we don’t yet know the full extent, the state’s 28 colleges appear likely to see a cut of at least $30 million, while K-12 education and universities receive significant funding increases. I share our state leaders’ vision for pre-eminent universities…
Last Friday, I had the honor of accompanying three of our students to the All-Florida Academic Team Awards Ceremony hosted by the Florida College System and Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) Honor Society. These awards recognize the most outstanding students in the Florida College System based on academic achievement, leadership and service to the community. Sandra Artecona and Kelxy Butler were this year’s award-winners from TCC, and Brianna Mead was also in attendance with us to help introduce keynote speaker FSU…