Getting COD back on track
By Deanne Mazzochi
Guest columnist
Since its inception nearly 50 years ago, College of DuPage has provided more than 1 million students with high-quality, affordable education. COD has proved itself to be a powerful institution that enables greatness for every student entering its doors.
More recently, deeply caring citizens also served COD. They watched the college and spoke out: college leadership had lost its way. Our accrediting body confirmed it.
We heard you. You helped us make a change. We have looked to the future, reset our priorities, and are restoring the college to the hands of its stakeholders. With your support, we have accomplished much over this past year, and we are now proud to announce that Dr. Ann Rondeau will be the college's sixth president.
Dr. Rondeau achieved the rank of three-star vice admiral in the U.S. Navy, reorganized Illinois' Great Lakes Naval Station after a period of turmoil, and significantly elevated the National Defense University's academic performance, standards and outcomes. Dr. Rondeau's strengths include curriculum development from basic hands-on training through graduate-level studies, enacting large-scale fiscally responsible budgets, and serving as a trustee on the Council of Higher Education Accreditation. Her record repeatedly demonstrates a commitment to leadership and ethics, while ensuring every member of the team is valued and appreciated.
Dr. Rondeau has a meticulously documented history of integrity, excellence and success in everything she does. She understands that accountability and transparency are liberating, not threatening, and are goals we must all share. We trust Dr. Rondeau will build upon and be proud of the college's record of academic excellence, and be humble in its service.
While Dr. Rondeau begins to care for our college family and community, the board will continue its recent successes. Unlike other community colleges whose students lost opportunities due to the Springfield budget impasse, COD dedicated resources to self-funding MAP grants to ensure our most financially at-risk students could stay in school. Consistent with our mission to remain affordable, we reduced tuition last year, and are committed to no increases for the coming year. To carry out the board's duty of being fiscally responsible, we oversaw a budget that delivered the same quality services without raising the property tax levy. We have reapportioned additional dollars to reduce the college's long-term debt load. To carry out the board's mission of genuine oversight, we added more checks and balances to our investment and procurement processes, changed audit firms, and opened our books to the Illinois auditor general, while improving our conflicts of interest and whistle-blower protection policies. And to ensure the lapses that led to past issues never happen again, everyone at the college, including the board, must now engage in ethics training.
The board demonstrated its commitment to academics by approving seven new academic programs (degrees or certificates), adding to the college's impressive offering of nine associate degrees and more than 170 certificates in 100 areas of study. We responded to faculty initiatives, and granted tenure to 24 full-time faculty members during a time when colleges across the state are cutting employees.
As COD approaches its 50th anniversary year, we are excited to witness the further innovations for delivering academic excellence Dr. Rondeau will offer. The decision to bring this respected leader to COD caps an extraordinary turnaround year in the nearly half-century history of this institution.
As a board, we look forward to working with Dr. Rondeau, our college stakeholders and community to shape our institution in a way that ensures we stay focused on our mission. The people we represent expect this level of focus from us, and it is our promise to the District 502 community. This will be, in the best sense, an exciting year for COD as we move onward and upward, reaffirming our position as the state's flagship community college.
Deanne Mazzochi is chairwoman of the college of DuPage board of Trustees.