Editorial: The challenge to focus on the future at COD

The College of DuPage's recent past is going to be with the institution for a long time to come. Lawsuits from fired former administrators, including President Robert Breuder, are sure to linger for months if not years, and, even more important, the long road to getting its accreditation problems cleaned up will take at least until the fall of 2017.

Still, it's not the past that should command COD's attention now but the future. In that regard, new President Ann Rondeau has used her first month on the job to reach out to the varied segments of a school whose administrative and elected leadership have been in turmoil for two years or more. Refreshingly, the approach the 65-year-old retired Navy vice admiral has taken seems in striking contradiction to the authority-driven leadership style one might expect of a former high-ranking military officer.

She has pointedly emphasized her desire to respond to the directions of all members of the COD board of trustees, including the three who voted against hiring her.

Based on a "covenant leadership philosophy" she advocates, she has worked to share her vision for COD with school administrators and, particularly, to understand theirs.

She has met with faculty and other employee groups, not, she emphasizes, to give directives but to ask questions. She has examined educational programs at COD and met with students and student leaders.

And she has emphasized that, while getting COD off probation is "priority No. 1," a key objective of her administration must be to restore the community's faith in the institution. In a meeting with the Daily Herald editorial board last week as part of that community outreach, Rondeau evinced a leadership style that emphasizes collaboration and an aggressive commitment to COD's educational mission. She demonstrated an impressive combination of strength, openness and transparency, key components certainly of any effort to get and keep COD on a positive path. If anything gives us pause, it was a tendency to describe her goals and experiences in broad philosophical terms rather than in concrete everyday actions.

But it's early. In coming months, she will have plenty of opportunities to form those philosophical underpinnings into concrete results and her vision of a positive path will be amply tested. Addressing the concerns that led the Higher Learning Commission to put COD's accreditation on probation may be the most urgent challenge, but contract negotiations with faculty in an environment of flat tuition and tax revenues and limited to non-existent state aid are sure to present a key test of her - and her board's - leadership.

For the fractured board's part, at least some members have begun to show signs of willingness to cooperate. President Deanne Mazzochi has repeatedly emphasized her desire to engage involvement even of board members who oppose her, and, significantly, the board managed to pass its hold-the-line 2017 fiscal budget on a 6-1 vote - a far cry from the 4-3 splits that have dominated board decisions the past two years.

A signature institution in the state's community college network, COD has been roiled with controversy in recent years - much of it needlessly - and strains of that are going to linger for years to come. That can't be helped at this point, but what can be helped is the productive approach to governance at the college. In these early "honeymoon" days of her administration, President Rondeau presents an excellent case for collaboration and expresses the desire for open participation and serious engagement from everyone. That's the right start. We look forward with hope that the college's diverse interest groups will take her up on it.