February 25, 2017 – Gulf Coast State College & Northwest Florida state College

Northwest Florida State College

Today I drove south into the Florida Panhandle.  Intending to take the slower road east along the gulf coast for a while.  Seeing the confederate flag still flying on the backwoods roads of Alabama was mildly unsettling so I thought I would see if the coastal communities had a mellower vibe.  The route I took was east of the main campus of Northwest Florida State College, which is located in Niceville (Great name for a city almost wanted to backtrack the miles to see if the town was true to its name) Instead, I ran into a sign for the College in Walton.  So I pulled over.

            Most Colleges I can pull up to with relative anonymity, but here I was greeted in the parking lot before I had a chance to turn the engine off.  Turns out that the college site in Walton is a small satellite of the main campus located on the grounds of a high school.  Most of the college students are taking night classes so the site runs as a High School in the day and holds JC classes at night.  I was not run out of town even though I was pulling up on a motorcycle to a high school (let’s face it my bike is not that “Bad Ass” anyways, nobody ever stole your teenage daughter on a BMW did they?).  Instead I was invited in to have a nice conversation with the part time college staff that keeps the place running for the night classes. 

            Lots of good information, new president of the college, federal grant programs running at the site, hopes that the site will not be closed down in a reorganization etc.  Classes there were mostly general education and some of the students do prefer to travel the 40 minutes away to the main campus.  The next college I visited had satellite sites as well but they were mostly connected with a function or identify of the site.  (EMT and fire programs located together, at the same site where the county’s disaster preparedness program is etc.)  The latter model appears to be most successful even it there are not compete pathways available at the site.  The assumption is not that the site will provide all services but provide some classes and a way for the more remote communities to connect with the main campuses.

Gulf Coast State College

            When I hit the Gulf of Mexico coast instead of going west I went east to Panama City where I ran into the Gulf Coast State College main campus.  This campus is located right on the harbor next door to a satellite extension campus of Florida’s University system.  An absolute wealth of information about this college can be had from the senior administrative assistant in the natural sciences department, who was one of the few people on campus due to the Mon to Thurs scheduling of classes (Yes, Fridays were for meetings but it was a slow day when I came by).  At Gulf Coast I was impressed by the administration, even though I did not speak with any of them.  The fact that the person I did speak with was so informed and enthusiastic about the direction and initiatives the college was taking spoke volumes about the communication abilities of upper management.  The president came up through the college, although he had worked for a time for the university system, a fact that was producing rewards in ironing out some transfer and coordination issues between the two systems.  His initiatives were very focused on the community, job creation and partnering with industry to bring large businesses to the area.  My second hand impression was that the college management had a business mind set but it was business to benefit the community first.  Not business to make a deal and then move on. 

            When I asked if we could steel away their president, my friend was very clear that the president himself has stated this would be his last job and that he will retire from this college.  It was mentioned that he could be making more money elsewhere but he is committed to his college (a good message for those working under him to hear, it takes away some of the fear about reorganization I had just experienced at the previous college…)

            Some ideas to take from Gulf Coast:  The president meets periodically with small groups by invite for breakfast.  Groups are not all of one constituency, and they call it the “Kitchen Cabinet”.  It sounds like a much more informal version of what CCSF used to have as its “college council” but being rotating and by invite the participants feel acknowledged and included.  The president gave some of his time to hear from me…  Another initiative they are working on is release or sabbatical time for instructors to write open source textbooks for their courses.   Administration, here recognizes this issues with textbook costs and wants to move foreword as a leader in this area for themselves and hopefully to combine resources by making the work freely available.

            Before leaving I did wander by the administrative building where there were multiple walls and architectural features that focused on honoring outstanding students or donors to the college.  My impression was this administration was clearly focused on doing what they could to get resources to their students, and I did not see any signs of administrative perks or self-aggrandizing…  If the business is education, the business should function to the betterment of the students…