Retirement will arrive in blink of an eye

I recently started listening to the audio book Blink. But as I am writing this column, I am thinking less about the book and more about the title. The topic of today’s column – retirement (MINE) - makes me feel as if I blinked and that over a decade of serving as Cochise College’s president has rushed by me. As Dr. Joanna Michelich, the college’s executive vice president overseeing instruction and student services, and I were welcoming faculty, staff and students back to the beginning of a new academic year, both of us were acutely aware that this would be our last time to kick off the college’s fall semester. Last summer, we both announced our intent to retire at the end of this academic year, most likely in July 2009.

Since announcing our intent, we have both been asked many questions. What are your plans after Cochise College? Why are you both leaving at the same time? What are the college’s plans for replacing both of you? Are you sure you want to retire? Okay, that last question may have only been asked by our spouses, who are probably growing increasingly nervous about the lengthy “honey-do” lists we are already compiling for them.

In all seriousness, Joanna and I agreed that this column might be the time to provide some insight into our thinking. First, for both of us, making the decision to leave the college comes only after several months of consideration and consternation because we both love our jobs, the people with whom we work and, most importantly the people for whom we work – our students and the communities we serve. In many ways, it is our great affection for the college and its future that led us to make the decision that the time was right for both of us to stand aside for new leadership.

We both take some satisfaction in knowing that when we end our tenure, it will be as the college’s longest-serving president and vice president for instruction and student services. One of my first decisions as college president was to select Joanna, a Cochise College graduate looking to return “home,” to fill the opening for what was then the position of vice president for instruction. And, although it is left to others to decide whether, as a team, we have served the college well, we know that we have been served well by the partnership. Individuals who have worked with us over the years have observed that we tend to finish each other’s sentences, or, in some cases, restate what the other one meant to say. We have discovered that we tend to think alike on most issues, we both enjoy a good philosophical debate, and we share a passion for the college’s mission and vision. So, why retire at the same time? In sum, to give our successors the same opportunity to choose to work with one another and to begin from day one to frame the future of the college with the other vice presidents. Our hope is that we will have left a strong foundation on which the new leadership of the college can build.

The Governing Board has initiated the process for the recruitment and selection of a new president. The board is using the services of the Association of Community Colleges Trustees (ACCT) to assist its effort to conduct a national search for my successor. Jan Guy, board chair, will lead a search committee of 15 individuals representing external and internal stakeholders. In early October, the ACCT consultant will visit Cochise County for the purpose of meeting with Governing Board and selection committee members, as well as to conduct open meetings at the Douglas and Sierra Vista Campuses. The purpose of the meetings is to provide input to assist ACCT in developing an institutional profile and qualifications statement. The profile development will outline the characteristics, expectations, opportunities, and challenges for the next president of Cochise College.

Once profile and qualifications statements have been established, advertising will be prepared and placed. The search committee, working with the consultant, will identify semi-finalists for consideration, with the intent to ultimately recommend finalists to the Governing Board for its consideration. As proposed, the board plans to consider finalists in February, with a final decision reached by March. Later this year, the college will begin the process of national advertising for Joanna’s position with a search committee to recommend two to three finalists for my consideration, in consultation with the incoming president.

All that will be left is for Joanna and me to enjoy, for one last time, all the celebrations of students’ successes associated with the end of the academic year. As for our retirement plans – I am not sure either of us feel “retirement” best describes what we hope to be doing a year from now. I think we both would say, as we so often suggest to our graduates, we are simply beginning a new chapter in our lives.

But I do have a feeling the next 10 months will pass by in the blink of an eye.