Q: What have you enjoyed the most
about your years as a TJC/TCC faculty
member, administrator and president?
Q: We’re very curious…but how do you
make the decision of when and if to cancel
classes due to bad weather?
A: In each of my roles at TCJ/TCC, the most enjoyable
aspect has been my interaction with our students. They
represent some incredibly talented individuals who are
determined to succeed and are focused on their educational goals.
A: No one has ever discussed this before, but there is a
scientific rubric that has been handed down to each new
president during a very private ceremony with lots of
white smoke. Seriously….a small team actively monitors
weather conditions and forecasts as well as highway, road,
and street conditions. They regularly check with campus
facilities to get updates on our parking lots and sidewalks
and also try to determine how long it will take to clear
these and make them as safe as possible. We also monitor
other area college and school closings. Sometimes we are
faced with a situation when we have to make a decision
prior to inclement weather actually moving into the Tulsa
area. We make a strong effort to try to time our announcements appropriately and get communications out to students and employees as early as possible.
Q: What times or events have presented
the most difficult or hardest challenges
to navigate as a TJC/TCC faculty member,
administrator and president?
A: In several cases as a faculty member and an administrator, the College was faced with multiple mid-year
budget cuts and these were very difficult and challenging to deal with. As a president, one of the most difficult
challenges was responding to the Metro Campus fire crisis and relocating thousands of students and hundreds
of employees to new camp