4 SFCC board candidates make their cases

The four candidates running for Position 5 on the Santa Fe Community College’s Governing Board fielded questions submitted by faculty, staff and members of the audience during a forum sponsored by the school’s faculty senate on Friday.

During the third of three forums leading up to Tuesday’s election, the candidates addressed questions about increasing enrollment, retaining students and the college’s Higher Education Center that will offer classes and credit to some of the state’s universities.

Kathleen Keith, executive director for Regional Development Corp., said one thing that sets her apart from other candidates is she would represent the business community.

She said her job is to help create jobs and she often hears that what’s needed in Santa Fe is a well-trained workforce, and that SFCC needs to make an investment in human capital in order to succeed.

Asked about the impact the new Higher Education Center will have on the college once it’s built, Keith said the HEC presented a huge opportunity for growth. It was a challenge getting the OK to build the center, she said.

“Now the challenge is making sure it’s sustainable and successful,” she said.

Jeffrey Case, who already is tied to the college because he’s served on several boards and committees, agreed that the HEC presented a huge opportunity for the college and it should be poised to strike.

“The most important thing is to have a sound marketing plan to get people to think that it’s the most important thing in their life, and now’s the time,” he said.

Asked about what can be done to increase enrollment and improve retention and graduation rates, Case said the school needs to offer programs people want. He said the health career and culinary arts programs were two good examples of successful programs, but the school should also look into emerging technologies.

Responding to the same question, Francis Renz said exploring new programs and keeping tuition affordable would aid enrollment.

As for retention, he said it was important that students have a good first impression.

“It really matters that students experience initial success, rather than initial failure,” he said. “So we’ve got to work on that initial success.”

Renz emphasized his experience in developing public policy and noted that setting policy was one of the key roles of a governing board member. Another role was overseeing the college president, and as a leadership coach he said it was important for the college president to support the concept of shared governance.

Thomas Whitson concurred, saying the college president should have a long-term vision for the school.

“A president also needs to be able to delegate responsibility to associates, because often they are so busy they don’t have time to see the big picture,” he said. “Shared vision is just as important as long term vision.”

Whitson, a retired educator, said the college should develop a close relationship with the public schools and make efforts to reach students while they’re still in elementary school. He said one of his goals is to get people in the community to think of SFCC not as “the” college in town, but “our” college.

The SFCC governing board election is set for this Tuesday. In addition to the race for Position 5, six candidates – Stephen Hochberg, Bruce MacAllister, Kim Martinez, Frank Pearce, Martha Gandert Romero and Andres Salazar – are running for a seat in Position 3.