What traits about San Joaquin Delta College appealed to you?
I love the diversity of the community and the students. There’s a wonderful cultural tapestry here that really makes it an exciting place to study and work. That for me is a wonderful part of this district. I think the other piece I like is the warm welcome from the community at large and more importantly the students and faculty.
Do you have a vision for Delta? If so, what is it at this point?
My first vision to develop is to build relationships. There’s an overwhelming desire from the employees to work well together to solve problems and avoid conflict. Trust is extremely important to me. Second related goal is to continue and improve the connection the college to its communities. There’s been a lot of dishevel and problems over the last couple years and its impacted the communities perception of Delta. And I would like to see it come back to being well-managed and out front education in terms of services and programs provided.
What will you do to improve Delta’s financial status in wake of the fiscal crisis effecting California community colleges?
Delta has already initiated some very important downsizing initiatives before I got here which established a strong reserve that will allow the college a year to do a soft landing. Most California community colleges are reducing enrollments and were holding status quo, which is the counter trend. We have the grace of one year to get our organization truly into financial balance, and while It’s going to be a very difficult year, we have more time than other community colleges in California have so well be using this year very wisely to right size the organization.
What is your impression of student life on campus?
It’s wild. My wife and I love the student activities. Me and my wife have been doing as many activities that we can find time for and we are having the time of our lives. This week alone I will be out every night at an event, last week was the same situation. The social life for our students and community is unbelievably rich and were having a wonderful time. I believe fully that if the social student life is rich it keep them engaged and it also creates leadership and networking. So it’s really important and my being there is an attempt to show the students and staff that I believe in this very strongly.
What are you plans for the summer in terms of work?
I’ve made a goal to meet everybody by summer. I have charts that I fill in and I use floor plans so I know who is where to make a visual connect. My second goal is to work with the board to develop goals for them and myself. The board and I finally finish building the staff several keys vacancies to work on that need to be filled so we can begin working on initiatives with the district that needs to be addressed.
