Community colleges face unique challenges compared to four-year institutions, but these egalitarian gateway colleges remain as vital as ever in their mission of serving local populations and bringing higher education to a wider audience. Andrew Hibel speaks to Lane Glenn, Ph.D., president of Northern Essex Community College, on the evolving state of community colleges and how to address their needs with effective leadership.
Andrew Hibel, HigherEdJobs: In your president’s message you said, “As a former community college student myself, I know how important flexibility, affordability, and personal support are to your success.” How has your background helped you in your role today as the president of Northern Essex Community College?
Lane Glenn, Ph.D., president, Northern Essex Community College: As much as I appreciate and have benefitted from the education I received at my community college-Rose State College in Midwest City, Oklahoma-what I vividly remember the most are the people who made it possible for me. The personal support I received from faculty, advisors, and staff on campus helped me feel connected and confident that I could succeed. Our students at NECC come to us from all kinds of backgrounds-many of them from families without a lot of resources or experience with college, and a large number of them learning English as a second language. I want them to feel that same sense of connectedness and confidence that they can succeed.
Hibel: How does Northern Essex focus on the areas of flexibility, affordability, and support you mentioned above?
Glenn: Recognizing that our students lead very busy lives (two-thirds are attending classes part-time and working 30 or more hours a week, and many are raising families of their own); NECC offers classes in a wide variety of formats, including online, “hybrid” (partly online and partly in the classroom), and accelerated (3-8 week semesters); and in a number of locations, including two full campuses, a number of high school locations, and soon in the Dominican Republic, where a large number of our students come from, and still have families.
At a time when state support for public higher education has been shrinking, and tuition and fees are increasing to keep up with expenses, NECC has still managed to keep our costs affordable. Barely twenty percent of our students take out any student loans, and when they do, it is typically for only a few thousand dollars toward living expenses.
And through our work with the national Achieving the Dream initiative, we have developed a variety of specialized support services, including supplemental instruction, a First Year Seminar, and a Student Success Center with early intervention services that have all helped to significantly improve our retention, course completion, and graduation rates.
Hibel: Please explain a little more about your academic professional background and how you arrived in your position today.
Glenn: When I started my job as president of NECC about five years ago, I remember a particular interview with a local newspaper reporter. The writer took out his pad of paper and pen, started his recorder, cocked his head to the side, eyed me a little suspiciously and asked, “So, a theatre degree?”
Yes, I have a Master’s degree in Speech from Oklahoma State University and a Ph.D. in Theatre from Michigan State University, and as I find myself sometimes explaining (to curious reporters and others), I think it was wonderful preparation for my current role.
When I was teaching Theatre and involved in stage productions, I did a lot of directing. As a director, particularly in educational and community theatres, you develop some skills that are quite valuable in college administration. For example, you learn how to:
• Effectively work with a range of quirky personalities
• Speak in public
• Develop and work toward a common vision
• Organize large numbers of people
• Stick to a schedule
• Make the most of scarce resources
• Improvise
• Raise money for a good cause
• Roll with the changes (because the show always goes on!)
Hibel: What best practices does your institution follow that you suggest other community college leaders implement to enhance their campus community and success?
Glenn: Our involvement with Achieving the Dream and with Title V projects for Hispanic Serving Institutions over the last ten years have led us to a number of changes that have helped improve student success. For example, recognizing that students would benefit from a more structured approach to enrollment and course progression, we did away with “late registration” and implemented what we call the “three-peat” policy, which limits the number of times students can retake courses.
Over time, like many community colleges, we had created lengthy sequences of developmental courses in ESL, writing, reading, and mathematics; and have spent the last few years moving back in the other direction by shortening or eliminating classes in these sequences, and “fusing” developmental classes with college-level classes, expecting more from students, and helping them progress faster into and through credit-bearing coursework.
And as a “community” college, we take our role as a community leader and resource very seriously. Wherever they are, community colleges are “anchor” institutions. Whatever happens in the local economy, job market, or cultural scene, that community college is going to be there for the long run. The best way to do that is to make yourself and your resources as available as possible to the communities you serve.
I chair the board of directors for a newly formed organization called the Lawrence Partnership. It is a private-public collaboration created to improve the economic development and quality of life in one of Massachusetts’ most challenged cities, and it involves local hospitals, manufacturers, banks, businesses, non-profits, social service agencies, and elected officials. I think community colleges can be particularly trusted and effective conveners of these kinds of organizations.
Hibel: At the recent ACE conference, the topic of community colleges offering bachelor’s degrees was discussed. Although many believe it has benefits, there are some that believe that this is mission creep. What are your thoughts on the movement of bachelor degree completion programs at the community college level?
Glenn: I don’t think there is one right answer to this one. As with many issues community colleges face, geography is often destiny. If your community college is in a rural setting, quite a distance from other higher education opportunities or partners, and you need teachers, nurses, sign language interpreters, and other professionals for your area workforce that are in short supply, then offering the bachelor’s degree yourself might be the best option.
On the other hand, if you can partner effectively with four-year colleges and universities that are already offering those in-demand degrees, that may be the best way to serve your community effectively and efficiently. For example, here at NECC we are partnering with Regis College, a well-known Massachusetts private institution, to offer bachelor’s and master’s level health degrees on our Lawrence campus; and we are partnering with the University of Massachusetts, Lowell to offer degree options in Business, Psychology, and Criminal Justice on our Haverhill campus. We refer to these and other emerging partnerships like this as the “communiversity” model, offering the best of both opportunities.
Hibel: In an article from the Massachusetts Teachers Association you were quoted saying, “Without a doubt, the life of an adjunct instructor in higher education can be challenging, frustrating, and downright unfair.” And a new report, suggested, “that by relying more and more on adjuncts, the state’s community colleges are not doing all they can to improve student graduation and success rates.” How do you build the case for a higher education professional to teach as an adjunct when the academic culture can be convoluted and challenged?”
Glenn: Many, perhaps most, of us in higher education got our start as a part-timer. The year before I landed my first full-time job as a faculty member I was cobbling together living as an adjunct at a community college and a state university, while also working as a part-time technical director/carpenter, and a writer for a local magazine and an encyclopedia. And of course, none of those jobs came with benefits.
As states have reduced their support for public higher education to the point where most colleges and universities are receiving a third or less of their budget from tax dollars; while at the same time students, families, and elected officials are pressuring those colleges and universities to keep tuition and fees low, something has to give. Over the past couple of decades, we have seen more colleges rely more heavily on part-time, non-benefitted, less expensive instructors and staff.
It is absolutely not a sustainable long-term solution for a quality education. At NECC, we set ourselves what I think was a rather modest goal a few years back of having at least 65 percent of our courses taught by full-timers, and we have come close to that goal. But it’s still not enough.
Full-time faculty have more time on campus to spend with students-advising, coaching, working with student organizations-and more time to spend researching, preparing to teach, getting professional development, and constantly improving teaching and learning.
And…
For a great many talented, hardworking educators, the road to one of those full-time positions still travels through adjunct teaching. Somewhat like working as an intern in a business or getting clinical hours in a hospital, it is often how you get your first experience, and get noticed. So yes, I still encourage people to get that teaching experience however you can-preferably at a college that will value you as an adjunct and connect you to students and professional development whenever possible.
Hibel: You communicate via email with your staff with updates and reflections. Why do you think this is important and how does this leadership tool enhance your ability to lead?
Glenn: I write a more-or-less weekly email that goes out to all employees at the college and a large number of business and community leaders in our region and across the state. Usually, it has a couple of short articles about something that happened on campus that week (some recent ones have described a visit by our state’s governor and a student play production), or an important issue in higher education (like student loan debt or the growing importance of learning outcomes assessment). And each “weekly” usually ends with a story about my daughters, who I call “Big Sis T” and “Little Sis Z.”
From what I hear from faculty, staff, and friends in the community, everyone loves the Big Sis and Little Sis stories, and they often skip to the end to read them; then if they have time, they will peruse the more serious topics about budgets, buildings, and bureaucracy.
I find in this job that my time is often spent on the road and away from campus-at the state house, at other colleges, meeting with business and community leaders, at national conferences, and so forth. So my weekly writing is a way of staying in touch, and hopefully personalizing some of the issues we are facing together as a college community.
Hibel: What other strategies have you learned throughout your career that make you an effective leader?
Glenn: I am not perfect at these strategies, but a few that I have found to be particularly important and effective include:
In “The Leadership Challenge,” Kouzes and Posner describe the importance of “DWYSYWD” (Do What You Say You Will Do). It seems obvious, but when it comes down to it, you quickly recognize who you can rely on to do what they say they will do (and who you can’t). There are two ways to be sure you “DWYSYWD”: 1. Don’t commit to something you aren’t sure you can do. 2. Once you agree to do something, do it.
Embrace difference opinions. There really is no point in surrounding yourself with people who all think and act like you do. Think about it. If there are ten of us in a meeting discussing an important, complex decision, and we all have the same backgrounds, experience, and ideas, then nine of us are probably unnecessary. You need different ways of seeing things-respectfully-to arrive at more effective decisions and outcomes.
Bring your whole self to work (and encourage others to do the same). My “whole self” includes not only my suit, tie, briefcase, and administrator hat; but also my role as a father, my passion for running, and my love of the arts. As a result, I write stories about my daughters; started a lunchtime running club for students, faculty, and staff; and attend (and occasionally appear in) performances on campus.
Hibel: What is the most rewarding part of your position?
Glenn: The open-door mission of community colleges means just that: Our door is open to anyone and everyone who wants an education. We serve plenty of honors students who can afford to pay for their own education. And, as compared to state universities and most private colleges, we serve a larger proportion of low-income students, minorities, veterans, students with learning disabilities, people learning English as a second language, students with remedial needs, and just about every other category of “at risk” student you can think of.
The most rewarding part of my position is helping as many of those students as possible succeed.