By Jonathan Mitchell
With great power comes great responsibility. With great responsibility comes an extensive vetting process.
Peninsula College is currently in the process of hiring a new Vice President of Instruction. The pool of applicants has been narrowed down to four finalists: Terry Cox, Curt Freed, Chad Hickox and Peter Williams.
This past week the candidates arrived one by one on staggered days for several rounds of redundant questioning from multiple different panels including a faculty one and one for staff and students.
The panels were held in the Pirate Union Building conference room. The candidates were designated to a solitary table on one side of the room while the audience was seated at tables arranged in a horseshoe on the opposite side of the room. A microphone in the middle of the room and a cameraman at the back recorded the proceedings.
First to face the gauntlet was Dean for Business, Engineering and IT at North Seattle College, Terry Cox. She is a Doctor of Education and holds a Masters of Business Administration. Cox was an adjunct instructor at Whatcom Community College in 2009 and she spoke on the rewards of teaching saying, “I only do this because of the students.” Cox seemed to be tripped up by some of the questions and at times didn’t seem to provide a satisfying answer. “I’m a little rummy, it’s been a long day,” She apologized before adding, “I want to be a Pirate!”
Two days later Curt Freed, vice president for instruction at Columbia Basin College from 2010 to 2013 and a self-touted entrepreneur and early adopter faced the horseshoe. Freed is a bit of an outlier in a pool of Ph.D. candidates as he is what’s known as an ABD, which stands for all but dissertation. He is expected to get his doctorate in philosophy this May. His dissertation is “The Role of Emotional Intelligence in Community College Leadership” and he spoke extensively during the interview process about emotional intelligence and emotional leadership techniques such as reflective listening and his goal to “raise the horizon for students.” He foregoes the chair offered him and stands confidently, arms akimbo, hands folded at his waist. Freed claims that higher education has the power to “not just change lives but save lives.” He talks about his hopes to explore further applied baccalaureate programs adding, “I’m a fan of doing fewer things very well rather than doing a lot of things not as well.”
Up next was Chad Hickox, chief strategy officer and chief data officer at South Seattle College. Hickox pontificated on the subject of philosophic logic. “The goal of education is to enable someone to be a life-long learner,” He said. He talked about a job he had in college working loss prevention for the Bon Marche. The job taught him that a thief doesn’t look like what he thought they would. Deciding to pursue a career helping people rather than arresting them, Hickox took this lesson and applied it to his educational career.
Last to come to campus was Dean of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics at Clark College, Peter Williams. Williams has a Ph.D. in education from Oregon State University and wrote his dissertation on “Institutionalizing Sustainability in Community Colleges: The Role of the College President.” Williams is also an avid photographer and the owner of Monashee Photography. In one of three preliminary supplemental questions asked of the candidates Williams responded, “I am highly motivated to, first and foremost, be of service to students in my professional life. The way I apply this in my daily work as an instructional leader is to try and maintain a student centered lens as the foundation to all of my decision making.”
A committee comprised of President Luke Robins, council members and faculty will make the decision on who to hire in the coming weeks.