Welcoming our new VP

Hello Dr. Margie Martyn. Or would you prefer Margie?

I, along with everyone at HWC, received an email, from Don, on your behalf, yesterday. I know I can only speak for myself, and I’ll do just that on this post, so…
I would like to thank you for your message, and I too look forward to meeting you and learning about your work and passions.

I’m glad to hear you toured the building and were able to meet with some, not all, of our faculty, staff, and students. I was glad to hear that you were “struck by a wonderful sense of community and care for each other” at HWC. Yeah, we take pride in caring for our students. In fact, methinks we’re passionate about our mission (which by the way, I’m not quite sure what it is post-reinvention, but I’ll stick to the pre-reinvention mission statements that went missing after the Chancellor changed our college colors) and about all that we do as educators and scholars. Wait till you hear it from the majority of faculty once classes get underway for the Fall 2012 semester.

I’m glad to hear that your goal is to “support [our] efforts as educators to ensure our students’ success” ’cause I’m gonna hold you to that once I get back into the building in August. (BTW, I hear we’re installing some safety measures in the lobby. Hope you made it through without setting off any alarms. Wait, are they operational yet?)

About those “strategic activities planned for next year in the Operating Budget”, methinks all the faculty would like to know what they are, so feel free to share. Best if we are all on the same page with goals. (Oh, if you’re gonna use the word goals, make sure ya prefix that with ‘reinvention’. If your not sure what I mean, ask the chancellor.)

I like that your experience has taken you from small to large institutions and that you are familiar with public vs. private. One thing I’ll ask is that you understand our role as a community college in Chicago. Don can tell you how adamant I am ’bout pretending to be something that we are not. We’re not private or large. What we are is an open enrollment institution serving our neighborhood.  A neighborhood ranging from white collar professional to blue collar dignitaries to homeless souls. We’re here to serve them all. In an academic sense. But, time and time again, from what I’ve heard and seen, our faculty do more than that. We know these streets and we’re not far removed from any of these urban classifications to know that four reinvention goals don’t capture the essence of our  learning community. In fact, these goals reduce our vision, mission, and purpose. Oops. Sorry. I go off track every now and then. Passion gets the better of me. Ok, where was I… Oh yeah, we’re small in size (relative to our sister campuses), yet large in enrollment numbers (relative to our sister campuses). We’re open enrollment. We are community. We are a college. Not a business. Not a factory. Not a beehive or an ant hill.

I’ll be very excited to meet you, when I grant myself leave of the friendly confines of The Lounge. I’ll be listening to my colleagues to hear what they have to say about your actions during the Fall 2012 semester. Speaking of my colleagues, you’ll notice an earlier post I provided wherein I cut-and-pasted Don’s announcement about you being approved by the Board. I just want you to know that from what I read, the replies have nothing to do with you as a professional, but about the process by which you came to our institution. Hey, what can I say, we live in a politically corrupt state and we’re a bit jaded when it comes to some decisions that look a little bit like under-the-table, I’ll-scratch-your-back-you’ll-scratch-mine, kinda choices. (This ain’t me talkin’, this is how I interpreted said replies to said post. I’d give you a link here, but then I don’t want to obligate you to click and read) I can’t say I blame some of these peeps for being so outspoken and concerned. Hey, we’ve had more administrative changes over the past couple of years at the District and local level that it’s hard to know who’s comin’ and who’s goin’ and what master plan they’ll dictate or retract. Times have been tough. Perhaps you’ll bring some much needed stability to our campus.( I hope Don and you can be like Theo and Jed.)

We care, therefore we blog, and talk, and create our learning community. Yes, an assumption on my part, but I hope you’ll concur by mid-term of the Fall semester. Honestly, I don’t know how the whole hire-and-retire admin process went down. All I know is that we had a darn good VP and it looks like Don made a decision to bring in a new VP. I can’t say the decision was good or bad. That’s not my business or my job. I can only say that what’s done is done and I’ll support my president, and trust that he knows what he’s doing (or else I might end up being jaded too!). I’ll give you, how shall I say this, the benefit of the doubt and look forward to your great leadership.

So, with all that said (you can call it a ramble or preamble), WELCOME TO HWC MARGIE MARTYN!

I hope you’ll have time to visit The Lounge, or maybe subscribe to it like Don, so that you get email notifications and know what faculty are up to in this virtual environment. Perhaps you’ve already decided to start a blog of your own? Maybe you can be an author on Don’s blog? All of these choices are kinda’ exciting, don’t ya think?

BTW, this ain’t my blog. It belongs to my neighbor (in the community sense, not in reality) PhiloDave. I’m just here, learning about blogging and hoping to have open and transparent digital dialogue with any and all readers.

Thanks for your time. Let me know if you have any questions about the ins and outs of HWC. I’m sure I’m not the only resource you can count on for answers. We help each other ’round here and at the college.

Here’s to a successful HWC present and future!