Passionate plea to COD trustees
College of DuPage has a rich history in the western suburbs. The college-centered culture serving the needs of millions of students with a quality academic program, innovative leadership and clearly the first choice of students and community grew to a flagship institution in the state of Illinois.
And then there was a change that shook this community college to its very foundation -- a perfect storm resulting from questionable decisions by the president and select upper administrators, negative press and accrediting agency concerns.
More negative press has been written about College of DuPage in the last 24 months than all of the positive press in the previous 48 years.
COD has these series of events work to undercut a very successful institution of higher education. Select issues, especially related to board of trustee actions, have assumed major importance reflecting on the entire college.
It's time to put the "community" back into the college and allow the elected leadership and the college administration to address education, leadership, and the change needed to bring the college back to its flagship status.
This is a transition that will take time, but the college's foundation and fundamentals can again rise as a preeminent community college.
How can integrity and trust be restored? Three key short-term actions need to occur:
1. Selection of a seventh trustee immediately by the local board (not waiting for Springfield to provide one).
2. Take stewardship and fiduciary responsibility as elected officers seriously and put aside differences.
3. Assign an accreditation accountability team to address the concerns of the accrediting agency and provide navigation to correct previous management deficiencies.
The consequences of failure to accomplish the above urgent crisis-level issues is the alternative to state intervention, loss of community support and perhaps worsening status of accreditation.
Bernard Fradkin, Brenda Marcy, Russell J. Watson, Prudence Widlak
Concerned retirees of COD