Uncategorized – Page 7 – President's Blog (2024)

I want to inform you on the status of the 2017-18 budget that was presented to the Board of Trustees and approved today. You may not realize that TCC faces a nearly $4 million budget shortfall this coming year as a result of a $2.9 million cut in state appropriation and a projected $864,278 decrease in tuition and fees revenue. The Florida College System had originally requested budget increases to offset rising costs and launch new initiatives that serve our…

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Gadsden County has a special place in my heart. It was where my career at Tallahassee Community College started – at the Pat Thomas Law Enforcement Academy, now part of the college’s Florida Public Safety Institute, back in 1999 – and it was where I began to fully appreciate the role that the College plays in transforming people’s lives. I spent eleven wonderful years at FPSI before becoming president. While there I had the privilege of working with elected and…

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Congratulations Colleagues! Tallahassee Community College has recently received a national award for our commitment to diversity. TCC has been named one of the Most Promising Places to Work in Community Colleges by the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development and Diverse: Issues in Higher Education magazine. This research-based designation recognizes commitment to professional development opportunities, equality, workplace diversity, inclusion, salary and benefits, and family friendliness. Only 11 community colleges in the nation received this prestigious award, which celebrates community…

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Budgets are more than numbers. They reflect priorities and values. Florida lawmakers ended the 2017 legislative session by approving an $82.4 billion budget for the coming year. If approved by the governor, this budget will cut $30 million from the Florida College System while simultaneously increasing funding to state universities by $232 million. What has been lost in the media coverage of this year’s legislative session is that the 28 colleges had requested 100 million new dollars this year to…

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This Saturday we will host our 2017 commencement ceremony. Commencement is a distinguished tradition that honors the hard work and dedication of our students, and is, without a doubt, my favorite time of the year as a president of a higher education institution. I get the opportunity to shake our graduates’ hands and congratulate them on a job well done. It is truly an experience that I treasure. Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t also take the…

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This post was originally published by the Tallahassee Democrat. As our state lawmakers move toward a final budget, it appears Florida colleges and the hundreds of thousands of students they represent are not a priority this year. Worse yet, although we don’t yet know the full extent, the state’s 28 colleges appear likely to see a cut of at least $30 million, while K-12 education and universities receive significant funding increases. I share our state leaders’ vision for pre-eminent universities…

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Last Friday, I had the honor of accompanying three of our students to the All-Florida Academic Team Awards Ceremony hosted by the Florida College System and Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) Honor Society. These awards recognize the most outstanding students in the Florida College System based on academic achievement, leadership and service to the community. Sandra Artecona and Kelxy Butler were this year’s award-winners from TCC, and Brianna Mead was also in attendance with us to help introduce keynote speaker FSU…

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Last month we officially opened our newCenter for Innovation. This is something I have been working on for quite a while and I can’t tell you how exciting it was to finally stand in the new space and share our vision for what it will one day become. The new facility was renovated with the specific purpose of bringing together the nonprofit, for-profit and government sectors to facilitate innovation and entrepreneurism. These three sectors are the drivers of our region’s…

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Dear Students, Faculty and Staff, Tallahassee Community College is concerned about the impact of the Trump administration’s recent executive order that prohibits citizens from seven majority-Muslim nations from entering the United States for at least the next 90 days. This new travel/border policy has created uncertainty and confusion among our students, faculty and staff. The College is closely monitoring this situation, which is rapidly changing, and will provide additional information as more specific details become available. In the meantime, we…

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Now that we’ve wrapped the 50thanniversary, people are already asking me where I think Tallahassee Community College will go in the next 50 years. While I cannot imagine the changes in degrees and programs that will occur long term, we will remain faithful to the principles TCC was founded on and continue to bedemand-driven and student-focused. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how to hit the ground running in 2017. Here are a few of the things we…

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