Dan Bailey: Candidate profile

Bio

Name: Dan Bailey

City: Wheaton

Office sought: College of DuPage Board of Trustees

Age: 66

Family: My wife Maria, 3 daughters and 3 granddaughters

Occupation: Retired Registered Nurse and Railroad Engineer

Education: Associate Degree in General Studies, COD 1993 Associate Degree in Nursing, COD 2008

Civic involvement: Volunteer, Independent Voters of Illinois Independent Precinct Organization, Chicago's Little Village Neighborhood. 1983-2010, Democratic Precinct Committeeman, Milton Township 1988-present. Chicago Area Committee on Occupational Safety and Health, Past member of Board of Directors

Previous elected offices held: Various local union management offices including: the Division President, Treasurer, and Legislative Representative for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers; 1st Vice President and President of District 19, Illinois Nurses Association.

Incumbent? No If yes, when were you first elected?

Website: www.danbailey.org

Facebook: Dan Bailey for COD

Twitter:

Issue questions

Describe your vision for the primary role of a community college.

Community Colleges play a unique role in our educational system. They are both the go to place to start a lower cost 4-year degree and the go to place to get trained for important living wage middle class mid skill level jobs. They were born in the early 20th century to support economic growth during the transition from our 19th century agrarian economy to a 20th century manufacturing economy. Today, we are once again in a time of rapid and dramatic transition. Community colleges must still play the leading role in local communities to prepare people to work in the internet, service and green driven economy. Community Colleges need to be forward looking and to collaborate with economic development, government and business entities to prepare for the future

How well is your community college fulfilling that role? What changes, if any, need to be made?

COD is a great institution. But COD could learn to be more nimble and responsive to the needs of the local community, it's students as well as businesses with their labor needs. We as a culture need to better connect classroom education with on the job training.

The press has been talking about people and businesses moving out of Illinois. One of the things that will keep or attract them here is to create partnerships with businesses in a more flexible and responsive way. Businesses want to have trained employees soon, not in 2 or 3 years to respond to new technical advances and to get market advantage. The nature of work is changing rapidly. So, workers will likely need to change jobs multiple times in their careers. They may not be able to afford to take 2 years or even six months off of work in order to retrain for the next job. COD can put together job retraining that meets the needs of employers and job changers. And ask employers to share in the costs

We also want to keep and attract good faculty in this changing and possibly unstable job environment for them.

Are you currently employed by or retired from a school district, if so, which one? Is any member of your direct family - spouse, child or child-in-law - employed by the school district where you are seeking a school board seat?

I am not currently or formerly employed by a school district. None of my family members are employed by the College of DuPage.

Is a tax rate increase needed and, if so, how do you justify it?

When I get on the board, I can evaluate the need for an increase in property taxes. But that is not the way we should fund education. If the federal gov't and especially state gov't were to pay what they used to (on time) there would be less need for local property taxes. Not convinced that every $ is spent as effectively as possible. I want to measure and maximize the benefit our community gets from COD. Make sure COD is focusing on the jobs of tomorrow in our communities. Investigate green jobs and green job training. Take advantage of FEJA the Illinois Future Energy Jobs Act, which has been passed and would put us as leaders in our country. I heard a story that the current board turned down an offer to provide a solar power system as a pilot or demonstration project. Why did that happen? Solar is the future and other countries are beating us there. We want to be current with IT especially the move to the internet of things and 5g technology. That is also part of the future.

Community colleges provide many services to a diverse population. Is there a service your college should be providing that it is not, or reaching a segment of the population that it is not?

Reach out more to those in our communities with fewer resources. Make it easier for those who do not now use COD (and need it more) to be able to use our college - Particularly those from areas of lower income who may not have cars. Ask county board members to look at improving route and schedules of a bus from the train stations. Look for other ways to improve transportation like easier parking and a better crossover at Lambert Rd.

Be more welcoming to the immigrants, DACA or without papers. As an immigration lawyer of color told me. …." those privileged to be born white in this country have no clue what it is like to be living in the United States without legal status now … Their needs go far beyond and deeper than … their tuition. COD lists scholarships available …. But academic counselors and advisers need to be trained to understand the situations undocumented students are placed under to provide them with proper guidance. " COD should host workshops and forums focusing on diversity that includes issues involving undocumented students on a continuous basis so that people can stay engaged in dialogues and discussions.