Community College Representatives Stress Importance of Changing With the Times
AUSTIN, Texas
Dr. Jerry Sue Thornton was not about to let
Cleveland leave Cuyahoga Community College behind on the city’s road to
revitalization.
Thornton, president of the Ohio college in the county surrounding
Cleveland, knew other businesses were poised to help revitalize the
city by training new workers. But Thornton saw that training as her
college’s job. So, she forged partnership with businesses and
government agencies in order to include the college on the comeback
bandwagon.
“We wanted to be an integral part of what’s going on in our
community,” Thornton told participants at the 19th annual conference of
the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development
(NISOD), a national consortium of colleges and universities.
Nearly 1,400 faculty and administrators attended the conference here
late last month, and Thornton, a former Association of Community
College Trustees outstanding CEO recipient, kicked it off with a bang.
After approaching the stage to music from “Mission Impossible,” she
delivered a message that resounded again and again throughout the
three-day affair.
According to Thornton and others at the conference, if community
colleges ever hope to reclassify what seems like a “mission impossible”
as a “mission possible” and flourish in an ever-changing world, they
must remain open to new ideas.
In Thornton’s case, her college changed with the times by forging
partnerships with up-and-coming entities in Cleveland – such as
Ameritech, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the Convention and
Visitors Bureau. She displayed testaments to the partnerships’ success
on big screens at the conference.
