Dozens of aspiring community college CEOs descended on Baltimore this week to learn keys to career success from noted practitioners and thinkers in the community college leadership realm. On Monday, American Association of Community Colleges President and CEO Walter Bumphus helped kick off the Roueche Future Leaders Institute/Future Presidents Institute with a presentation titled “The Community College Leader: Challenges, Expectations and Rewards,” during which he related powerful and poignant reflections on his four-plus decades of community college leadership experience.
Bumphus spoke of his experiences as chancellor of the Louisiana Community and Technical College System when hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit, noting that amid the devastation caused by the natural disasters, the system lost 60 percent of its enrollment, and to this day, one campus has still not opened. He cautioned the rising community college leaders in the audience that unexpected events like Hurricane Sandy, tornadoes in Oklahoma and campus shootings happen, and leading the way through such crises comes with the territory.
Bumphus, the winner of the 2013 Diverse Champions Award, also spoke of community colleges defying the odds when it comes to the academic success of their minority students, noting that Valencia Community College in Florida won the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence in the past, and top honors this year went to Walla Walla Community College (Wash.) and Santa Barbara City College (Calif.).
Valencia Community College and Miami Dade College, “two institutions that have great diversity … are graduating now, their students of color, at or near the same rate, and in some cases, higher than their majority students. The same thing with Walla Walla Community College and Santa Barbara City College. That tells me it can be done. But it’s really hard work,” Bumphus said.
Bumphus, an African-American, also spoke of his experience applying for a college presidency for the first time in Maryland in an era when no community college in that state was led by a woman or person of color. Hinting that part of the reason he did not get the job had nothing to do with his credentials or preparation, Bumphus urged the rising leaders in the room to embrace diverse leaders, as “the diversity of your team can help you make better decisions.
“Unfortunately, there are far too many leaders who are unwilling to hire people different than them. And you can talk about whether they are folks from a difference racial background, or folks that are better looking, have a better car — I’ve seen all those things happen.” Ultimately, Bumphus said, decisions about the potential of a leader to shine must be based on a holistic, objective assessment. “You can’t really make those kind of determinations by just looking at someone.”
