Column: Community colleges find success

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, November 19, 2002

On Oct. 5, 2002, I officially began my duties as interim president of Riverland Community College. I have come out of retirement to lead Riverland for the next several months while the Office of the Chancellor for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System conducts a search for a new college president.

My career history includes serving as the president of five community colleges spanning 31 years, and I am President Emeritus of Lehigh Carbon Community College in Allentown, Pa. I retired in 2000 to my wife’s family farm near Worthington. My specialties include organizational development (OD), labor relations and economic development. I am also a professional golf clubfitter and factory-trained clubmaker.

Although I was enjoying my retirement, I have decided to serve at Riverland because Chancellor James McCormick from the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System convinced me that Riverland is an excellent college doing exciting things for its students and its communities.

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I have spent most of my professional life in community colleges because they are so important to those they serve. Way back in 1918, Ira Cammick stated that his Kansas City junior college was there to be a &uot;home college&uot; which would &uot;respond to public demands, fit local conditions, include … opportunities for [lifelong learning], and become part and parcel of the home life of the people.&uot; This is an excellent statement of what the community college is and should be, and Riverland Community College is an excellent example of the embodiment of that goal.

Bob Davis and David Wesel, award-winning reporters for the Wall Street Journal, in their book, Prosperity: The Coming 20-Year Boon and What It Means to You, state that &uot;the nation’s 1,100 community colleges have evolved into institutions that successfully give workers the skills that employers need.&uot; They go on to say that community colleges &uot;prepare some students for further education, but give most students what they need to get good-paying jobs.&uot;

Thus, community colleges have increasingly become what Ira Cammick envisioned more than 80 years ago. The community college is crucial to the training and retraining of a vast workforce that faces constant change in skills that are necessary if America, its people, and its economy are to prosper.

It is because Riverland Community College is so vital to the economic health and prosperity of this region that I intend to move forward over the next several months. Although I will be with the college on an interim basis, my commitment is to do whatever is possible to help the college continue meeting the needs of the communities we serve. I look forward to this challenge.

James R. Davis is interim president of Riverland Community College, which has campuses in Albert Lea, Austin and Owatonna.