by Michael Piwowarski
UNIVERSITY CENTER – Delta College president Jean Goodnow’s goals for 2020 have been approved at Tuesday’s board of trustees meeting.
One month ago, Goodnow came to the December meeting with her goals only to have them struck down in a near-unanimous vote, with several trustees asking her to revise them and include important details.
“We’ve had a lot of eyes on this document,” board chair Diane Middleton said about the revision process. “[…] A lot of goals have been filled in, measurables have been filled in as well.”
Every year, Goodnow sets goals for the college which are evaluated by her colleagues. This time around, several of the aforementioned colleagues requested that some important details be added, making the goals more achievable.
Goodnow previously told the Collegiate that diversity and the Midland community focus are among the most important goals in question.
“We really haven’t changed that much,” says Goodnow. “We just made a few additions to the goals; added some metrics that the board asked me to make.”
Middleton read a statement sent to the board by trustee Michael Nash, who was absent that day. Nash expressed his support for Goodnow’s revised goals, saying that they should have been written in this way and approved much earlier.
“I support the revised goals that include more specifics and measurable outcomes for diversity and inclusion, as well as further progressing the new Midland center,” Nash’s statement read.
The diversity goal calls for increasing enrollment of students in minorities as well as increasing minority employment. Delta College states on their website that they seek to promote diversity and inclusion on campus, welcoming students and employees of different ethnic backgrounds and minority groups.
The trustees asked Goodnow to elaborate on this and other goals, adding more specifics to them and making them less broad so that the issues can actually be addressed. One of the main issues with the diversity goal is the decline of male students of color—a challenge that all colleges face, as Goodnow said.
Goodnow made it clear at the meeting that she made changes based on feedback received from her colleagues. She also plans on working on her yearly goals for next year sooner than last year.
“[The board members] had asked for a different format when I put my goals together,” says Goodnow, “and so now they’re asking that I bring the goals to the board for approval—probably this summer in June and July—and that they coincide with our strategic plan.”
Student retention, an issue at many colleges, will remain a top priority for next year’s goals as well as being more responsive to their community and collaborating with four-year colleges for transfer students.
Transfer articulation, in particular, is another challenge particularly faced by Michigan community colleges such as Delta, as Goodnow points out.
“It’s still challenging with some of our other universities in the area with accepting some of our credits, even though our faculty members have their Master’s and Doctorate degrees,” says Goodnow. “[…] There’s still some resistance.”
