College Leadership Crisis:
The Philip Dolly Affair
Jann M. Contento and Jeffrey
Ross
Excerpt Heat Level: 1
Book Heat Level: 1
Blurb: A Crisis in Community College Leadership: The
Phillip Dolly Affair is literary in development but grounded in “chaotic” community
college daily experience. The novel is comic, satiric, quasi-politically
correct, edgy, and richly descriptive of community college life, leadership
foibles, and cultural themes. This hyperbolic text is entertaining, edifying,
and fun. Little community college fiction—comic or otherwise—exists—the authors
are fearless in their humorous—and sometimes biting-- analysis of community
college culture....
Call Me Phil
I'm Phil Dolly, EdD,
recently resigned, or deposed, community college president.
Yesterday I was the CEO at
North East Central Community College here in Folsom County, West Dakota. Today,
I'm contemplating my own crisis in leadership. Following a faculty vote of no
confidence and caving in to growing board pressure, I packed it in this
morning. No one was surprised, really, including me. But more about that
later...
This evening I am sitting
here at the bar nursing a weak gin and tonic, assessing the landscape of my
shattered career. This place is nothing fancy, that's for sure. I don't know
when it saw fresh air last. Located in Payson, West Dakota, this bar and grill
has been owned by the same guy, I.M. Tyred, for nearly a decade. I'm a little
bit out of my element--but I'm comforted by the visual relics of my own blue
collar past--seed company calendars, jars of pickled pig's feet, softball
trophies, and the effervescent aroma of bacon, beer, and cheese. Many of the
locals know me and enjoy seeing me stop in for an occasional drink. I probably
get in here once a month. Maybe more.
I'm not sure what happened.
Enrollments didn't increase, but they didn't decline much, either. We opened up
more centers. I had bandwidth upgraded. I was in Rotary Club. I brought in some
of my former graduate school colleagues from University of Toledo at Arlington
to help invigorate the executive staff and to help bring this district into the
21st century in terms of management. I wanted diversity on the management team.
Hmm, I made all of the
directors deans and all of the deans became associate VPs. Only one of the new
VPs had emotional problems, but no damage was done. He checked into rehab. Our
quality initiatives must have moved the college forward. We redid offices, put
in new floors and windows, and really spruced the place up too. We won several
national awards.
I remember there was some
grousing when I had the president's salary increased to 475K, but the board
agreed we needed to be competitive in future presidential searches.
I guess the future arrived
more quickly than I anticipated.
The hazy blue smoke in
this bar settles at about stool seat level. I wish I.M. Tyred would do
something. Why doesn't he install some fans or air purifiers or something? I
should say something before I have another asthma attack. The country music
just drones on and on. All those sad songs about lying, drinking, and needing
to be somewhere else are driving me crazy. How do these people stand it?
The lights around the
mirrors seem so harsh. I barely recognize my own face in the mirror--the
burdens of leadership, I guess. All those retreats, keynote speeches, conferences,
dinners, trips to Europe--just so much, so much over the years.
The governing board said I
spent too much time out of state. They said I belonged to too many national
organizations and attended too many conferences. They just don't understand the
difficult and complicated nature of being a community college president.
Networking means survival and prosperity for the institution and for me. They
don't understand the community is much bigger now. We can serve China! GIs!
Nebraska! Technology has empowered us to do so much more than teach welding,
massage therapy, and fertilizer applications.
We ought to do more than
just serve the needs of our county taxpayers! We can have the reputation of
being a global higher education leader! Oh, I guess it's no longer we.
No comments:
Post a Comment