Cuyahoga Community College President Dr. Michael A. Baston believes “Changing lives is not fast work, it’s eternal work.”
That was his message at a session at the said Michael A. Baston, Ed.D., Cuyahoga Community College president, at the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development conference on May 26, where Baston was presented with The EDU Ledger’s Champions Award. Baston was recognized for his work spearheading increased enrollment at CCC and boosting matriculation completions for adult and high school learners through the Centers for Learning Excellence at CCC.
“Education is not merely competing against other colleges anymore,” said Baston. “It’s competing against exhaustion, hopelessness, algorithms, the rising cost of survival and a culture that increasingly tells people to pursue shortcuts instead of transformation.”
“I’ve spent much of my life in or around community colleges and, after all these years, what still amazes me is not the size of our campuses or the complexity of our institutions. It’s the audacity of our mission,” he said.
According to the Community College Review, 34 percent of community college students are older than 25, and 64 percent are working. Nontraditional students are also classified as those that have children or other dependents, are financially independent and are military veterans.
Baston emphasized that adult learners may require more attention and encouragement due to their circumstances. As a first-generation college student himself, he said he understands the obstacles a student faces being the first.
His formula for success embodies “four enduring commitments” that he says drive students to excellence through caring, connecting, creating and commitment. Baston challenged the audience to be intentional about being compassionate toward students.
“It is not enough to look at education from a transactional perspective where you come, get a degree and move on,” Baston said. “The president and executive leadership have to support those faculty that are going to take a chance of doing something differently.”
“Educators are builders of possibility and guardians of hope,” he said. “We take people who have been underestimated by the world, and we dare them to have a future that’s still unwritten.”
