2008 Woodie Awards
Chatting with Fran
With 5 minutes, what would you say to the new COM president?
Lisa Bremner
Issue date: 5/24/04 Section: Feature
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July 1 is fast approaching, the day our new college president, Frances White, takes office.
Expectations are high. There's hope of a fresh start, talk of everyone pulling together to work with the president in a new spirit of collaboration.
To find out more about the mood on campus ahead of White's arrival, some students, teachers, staff and managers were all asked the following question:
If you had five minutes private counsel with the new college president, what would you tell her, what would you ask her or, even, what would you like to warn her about?
Stacey Cook,
Director of Student Affairs and Health Center
I would like to welcome her, tell her that I'm very happy that she's here and I'd tell her that I will support her and will help her to build a stronger, closer and happier community on campus.
I would like to warn her that she should form her own opinions of people, make her own relationships and I'd encourage her to build her own rapport with people.
I met some of her students from Skyline and San Mateo Colleges who said they really liked her and respected her very much. They were sorry to see her go.
Carl Cox,
Library coordinator
I'd tell her how wonderful the faculty staff is, how dedicated the faculty staff is, and that we have very proactive academic staff and a proactive union that's very interested in working with management to make COM the best college it can be for our students.
I'd tell her to be a good active listener and to be a decision maker. Get to know the faculty is to have lunch with them. Have one-on-one conversations with departments for constructive suggestions. Meet with the library faculty, find out the issues and problems of the library, [which are] lack of budget and not being part of the budgetary process, and also making sure the library is an integral part of the master plan and the goals and objectives of the college. But I think we should do that with other departments also.
Expectations are high. There's hope of a fresh start, talk of everyone pulling together to work with the president in a new spirit of collaboration.
To find out more about the mood on campus ahead of White's arrival, some students, teachers, staff and managers were all asked the following question:
If you had five minutes private counsel with the new college president, what would you tell her, what would you ask her or, even, what would you like to warn her about?
Stacey Cook,
Director of Student Affairs and Health Center
I would like to welcome her, tell her that I'm very happy that she's here and I'd tell her that I will support her and will help her to build a stronger, closer and happier community on campus.
I would like to warn her that she should form her own opinions of people, make her own relationships and I'd encourage her to build her own rapport with people.
I met some of her students from Skyline and San Mateo Colleges who said they really liked her and respected her very much. They were sorry to see her go.
Carl Cox,
Library coordinator
I'd tell her how wonderful the faculty staff is, how dedicated the faculty staff is, and that we have very proactive academic staff and a proactive union that's very interested in working with management to make COM the best college it can be for our students.
I'd tell her to be a good active listener and to be a decision maker. Get to know the faculty is to have lunch with them. Have one-on-one conversations with departments for constructive suggestions. Meet with the library faculty, find out the issues and problems of the library, [which are] lack of budget and not being part of the budgetary process, and also making sure the library is an integral part of the master plan and the goals and objectives of the college. But I think we should do that with other departments also.