End of Year Speech 2005-06, BCC's 40th Anniversary

President Jean Floten

June 7, 2006

Welcome colleagues.  Thanks for joining me in the celebration of our 40th academic year.  After much reflection about the year, I am reminded of the comment made by the cartoon character Pogo, the Okefenokee Swamp Opossum, (remember him?) who once lamented:  “We are confronted with insurmountable opportunities!”  Insurmountable opportunities….
 

It would appear from four years of budget cuts, to the tempest a year ago surrounding reorganization, to the challenge of preparing a meaningful college-wide self-study, to the design of a new program for adults with learning difficulties that reflects our academic standards, to designing interventions for declining enrollments, to convincing the state that we should offer four-year degrees, to our most recent ordeal concerning our commitment to pluralism  that we  have to nod in agreement with Pogo; our opportunities, at times, have seemed truly insurmountable. 

Yes, we have been put to the test; but, because of our fundamental capabilities and values, we arise from difficulties an even better institution in providing education for our students and serving the needs of our faculty and staff.

Take, for example, the work of Tom Pritchard, Paula Boyum, Jeffrey White, Laura Nudelman, Rosemary Richardson, Art Goss, the Venture faculty and the whole Curriculum Committee this year that, under some duress, took up the structure and curricular content of the Venture Program.  Those involved may recall some stressful meetings along the way where there were no solution in sight. Just a couple of weeks ago,  Paula was doing cartwheels in the courtyard to express her joy and appreciation at what had been produced when discipline faculty met and collaborated with Venture faculty.  She had nothing but praise for the collaborative work of Tom Pritchard, Art Goss and the whole Curriculum Committee.  She spoke about how grateful the Venture parents were that their adult children would have an opportunity to lead more normal and fulfilling lives through the opportunities this program affords.  We have developed what is truly a national model, thanks to the combined efforts and good will of every one involved in the solution. 

Think, too, of the many hours our imaging and radiation faculty, Ron Radvilas, Julius Armstrong, Jennifer Prekeges, Sally Green and Kathryn Olsen, along with Elise Erickson and Michelle Royer, contributed this year to design BCC’s first 4-year degree, the Bachelor in Applied Science in Radiation and Imaging Sciences. The competition for this status was fierce, but our college prevailed and has produced a much needed degree that will benefit students and healthcare institutions statewide.                
I appreciate the many hours of dedicated work provided to advance our four initiatives in student success, institutional renewal, community building, and innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship this year.  If you were involved in one of these committees or subcommittees, please stand.  As you can see this was a college wide effort and we benefited from everyone’s good thinking and hard work.  This foundation will serve us well as we put our plans in place next year to improve student recruitment and retention, and our organization.    

And, speaking of college-wide tests of our abilities, weren’t we all proud of us during our accreditation visit?  We began this year with the excitement of the impending visit and the exhilaration of the visiting team’s unparalleled acknowledgement of our college’s strengths and vitality. The accreditation visitors extolled our programs and our effort, and they recognized the quality of the faculty and staff in our college. They cited not just the skill and the expertise we bring to our work, but our strong commitment to excellence and our absolute dedication to student learning and success. We set out to tell our story well and we succeeded triumphantly.  Alice Jacobson, the visiting team leader, teasingly asked me where I lined up all of you each morning to tell you what to say.  She was thoroughly impressed with how excellence and teamwork permeated our campus.  The result was a proud occasion for all of us.  It was wonderful to hear this confirmation of the excellence that pervades our campus from a group commissioned to evaluate all dimensions of our college community for the purpose of reaffirming accreditation.  

The truth is, however, that they told us nothing that we did not already know.  Across our campus, people share my pride in the quality of the work we do, and derive the same satisfaction I do in our individual and collective achievements.  We are a great college.  Rolling Stone Magazine confirmed this years ago; the accreditation visitors acclaimed the quality of our work; the State Board for Community and technical Colleges acknowledged our leadership in naming us the state’s Center for Information Technology Excellence;  the Higher Education Coordinating Board will do the same when it approves us, as one of the four pilot colleges capable of successfully mounting a baccalaureate program; and, with our students constant excellence in mathematics, musical, drama and other national competitions, we have again demonstrated and obtained external validation for the quality that has given us a national reputation for community college education.      

Another important moment for us came this spring as we breathed a collective sigh of relief when it became clear that our budget picture was improving and that we could actually expect some new money for next year. Wasn’t his very welcomed news after the previous four years of reduced budgets? 
Pogo’s creator, Walt Kelly, once said:  “Traces of nobility, gentleness and courage persist in all people…” My opening day speech fall term focused on the theme of renewal and the need to reintegrate our community and rediscover the “boulders in the stream” -- those fundamental and stabilizing elements and touchstones in our work.  Events this year have confirmed what we have always known: the people of the college, in the talent they bring and in their dedication to their work, are our real points of surety.

We called upon our “points of surety” this spring, when we experienced sudden upheaval as our institutional commitment to the values of diversity and our understanding of the very nature of that work was questioned and put to the test. Our individual and collective spirit was severely challenged and shaken. While the events were indeed sobering, they presented us with a rare opportunity to become clearer about what it means to be a pluralistic campus; and, it has been through the dependable talents of people at the college that we will learn from this experience.   

We know the hallmark of greatness is not the absence of adversity but how we deal with and learn from it.  Throughout the whole cascading series of events, we looked for the boulders in the stream, and they were there.  We found them in important conversations about pluralism that explored our values and our commitments more deeply.  Ongoing conversations are fundamental to academia, as former Yale University President Bart Giamatti observed when he spoke about education as the “constant conversation,” … the sound of ..voices, over centuries overlapping, giving and taking, that is, finally, the music of civilization.”

Our conversations have fulfilled that essential need within our campus community to discuss, to weigh, to reflect, to engage, to challenge and to comfort. As the commentary grew and has since subsided, it has been evident that we have been involved in a college-wide engagement of faculty and staff, many of whom have never before contributed to a college discussion, in an exploration of our individual and collective perspectives.  The conversation has been energetic and impassioned; and, the level of energy and fervor offers evidence that our college community cares deeply about the pertinent issues and is committed to creating an institution in which they have true merit.      

    
The conversations have sometimes been tough and unsettling.  As Thomas Fuller has commented:  “All things are difficult before they are easy.” Before, our commitment to pluralism was untested and perhaps more comfortable, but through introspection and engagement, the future promises us even deeper understanding and commitment. I am heartened by the wisdom of the campus, the many overlapping voices that through give and take are helping us to learn, to grow, and to progress in the music that advances civilization. 

The individual and group responses during this time of turmoil have been inspiring.  The pluralism committees have provided guidance in helping us to determine how to focus the issues and to proceed, and we will apply their wisdom in plotting the future of our college and incorporating the learning that has resulted from these events. 

As we try to gain an institutional perspective on events of the past two months, certainly we regret any pain we may have caused students, but we also understand that the actions that precipitated the events, and certainly their impact, were not deliberate or malevolent in intent.  We know, too, that the mathematics faculty has been harshly characterized from within the college and from the community.  I commend them for taking ownership of the problem, for attempting to participate productively in the discussion, and for their individual and collective initiatives to explore the pertinent diversity issues.  Throughout this time, they have continued the strong record of service and teaching which has been their hallmark since the college opened its doors. They are and continue to be among the “boulders in our stream.”

This has been a time of exploration and analysis for all of us. I am confident that our learning and our vigilance will initiate a new period of singular achievement in which BCC will demonstrate its remarkable creativity, devotion, and passion as a learning community committed to its students and to each other.

When people here and elsewhere ask me what is distinctive about BCC, I must admit that I derive great satisfaction from telling the story of our excellent programs and the record of achievement of our magnificent graduates.  Inevitably though, those stories lead me back to the fundamental bases for our success—the astonishing quality of our faculty, staff, and administration.  Our college is unique because we fulfill our own collective expectation that we will all do our jobs conscientiously and with superb results. 

And the expectation is not set by the college administration.  We all establish an expectation of excellence for one another and we all respond capably to the charge. 

As we end the year, I want to thank you. I want to thank you for giving your talent and your dedication this year. The life we share – and we share a large part of it together -- makes it possible for us to accomplish what we manage to do. I thank you sincerely for that. And I want to thank this entire community because, every day in hundreds of classrooms and offices throughout our college, high quality education is taking place with thousands of students, who have entrusted themselves in our care.  BCC keeps on achieving good results, and the reason for that is no secret, it is our fabulous staff and our collective aspiration to provide our students with a high quality education.  

As I look around the room at you, I feel proud. I'm proud that you keep students at the core of what we do. I'm proud that you care so deeply about the college, our students, and each other.  And I'm proud that you carry standards for excellence in all of your work. What that all adds up to is this: the way we work and the way we succeed means that we have good reason to claim we're the best – a fact that is routinely corroborated by outside evaluators, a truth in which we may all feel pride.  As long as we keep learning and improving, we can only feel positive about our future.

With commencement on June 15, BCC’s 40th year will officially close. As we watch our students rejoice in their new credentials, we will be reminded of the timeless rhythm of academia and of our crucial role in the transmission of knowledge and culture to a new generation. May we find comfort and pride in this powerful experience and boulder in our stream.  

Again, I thank you for the great honor of being president of this exceptional college. I look forward to the New Year and to all of the new opportunities that await us.  And, to each of you, I wish you a happy summer, filled with all the fun and pleasure you can endure, and hope you will greet next fall rested and reinvigorated.  

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