Well, my time here is almost up. I’ll likely stick around for the Summer edition or maybe try and take a course for fun, but alas I will hand over the editorship in the Fall. With that, I wanted to leave the students with a few ideas to keep with them on their journeys.
Unfortunately, the President was not available the past three years for interview on these subjects. Thankfully, we did receive an email reply after quite some time that allowed us to run a spotlight on President Johnson a year ago.
I’ve decided to go ahead and write the grounds for some of the reporting I was hoping to have the opportunity to do for the sake of the students, anyway.
I’d like to ask President Johnson about his views on how we evaluate community colleges.
While we can glean from press releases or conferences that we may or may not be invited to, perhaps some of his insights or feelings on current funding, the broader point would be an excellent exploration to have within our community.
Is it fair to judge Sinclair next to other community colleges? Aren’t our communities…different? Our community colleges should exist for our communities, how does unilateral legislation and funding help or hurt us?
I really believe students would connect with our President’s perspectives and having direct communication about our fine school’s hurdles or ways we can help.
I’d like to address Sinclair’s founding principles in the interview as well. Many students now view technical colleges and two-year programs as a substitute for the first two years at a four-year university.
Do you think there’s a trend among scholars to view community colleges like this? Are community colleges a substitute?
Coming from a suburb, I personally feel that to be the peddled ideology.
However, I don’t think that matches up with Sinclair’s founding purpose, so having the chance to explore that with the President would be valuable for both our students that plan to transfer to four-years and our certificate-seeking students aiming to head directly into their careers.
Is there any advice you would give to students who obtain two-year degrees and then find themselves in a four-year campus environment? Do you think there are any particular positives or negatives for these students?
Does the culture at Sinclair give students transferring to four-year campus environments the proper skills to be successful? If so, how do we encourage that success?
Maybe Sinclair’s purpose is evolving with an evolving Dayton.
The students want to hear President Johnson’s honest thoughts about where we are and where we’re going. How else will we get there? If we’re on an educational journey, we want a present leader–or at least someone to encourage us to forge our own paths.
I’d liked to have gone in-depth about how Sinclair is filling Dayton’s needs and what we still have left to do. What challenges are Sinclair students facing in Dayton coming out with their degrees or certificates?
Our times are changing, there are many more degrees in the market. There are many more people applying for each job listing. There are many more age groups competing for jobs across all levels. What elements of our economy is Sinclair factoring into learning opportunities?
Also, I’d liked to have discussed how President Johnson refers to himself as the CEO of a public college. If he’s the CEO, let’s talk about the Sinclair product. What is the market for our product?
What elements does your business-like approach help Sinclair to achieve? Are there any struggles you’ve experienced or misunderstandings in your approaches?
I’d also ask about any exciting developments. Perhaps about the new, great health-science center that plans to open this Fall semester.
Maybe, there’s some newer information he’d be happy to share about what will be offered, specifics of how this will streamline one of our most successful and desired education programs and so on.
Online courses are also a large portion of many students’ degrees. Is Sinclair expanding its online program?
The shift has been away from going at your own pace in online courses to signing in during specific times and relying on other students to do the same to obtain full credit.
What do you think is successful with the online degree options and what does Sinclair intend to work on to ensure that students are getting the same standard of education as in-person options?
All in all, bygones are bygones–and most of us at the Clarion are moving on.
I’m just writing this to encourage our President to get talking with the students more if possible. We truly value you and having more opportunities to connect would really impact our community for the better.
Barton Kleen
Executive Editor