Candidates to lead college system make their cases

Candidates vying to lead the Tennessee Board of Regents visited Nashville this week to offer three distinct visions for the state's network of community and technical colleges.

Each candidate was in town Tuesday and Wednesday to interview for the position of chancellor, a process that included conversations with Gov. Bill Haslam, college leaders and students. The Board of Regents is expected to decide which candidate to hire later this month.

The candidate they select will play a leading role in reshaping the college system next year after the departure of six Board of Regents universities, including Middle Tennessee State University and Tennessee State University, which are getting their own boards. Some concepts were consistent across meetings between the candidates and Board of Regents staffers Tuesday, but each candidate discussed different priorities and skills they would bring to the transition.

All of the finalists have experience leading technical or community colleges. The candidates are:

• Shaun L. McKay, president of Suffolk County Community College in New York;
• Monty E. Sullivan, president of the Louisiana Community and Technical College System; and
• Flora W. Tydings, president of Chattanooga State Community College.

During his interview, McKay focused on the success of initiatives in New York. In particular, he talked about ways he gins up support for his college through advertising, personal relationships with students and conversations with political decision-makers.

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“In order for us to meet the needs of the region and the state, advocacy is at the very beginning," McKay said. “We work together to advocate on behalf of the institution.”

Sullivan repeatedly returned to the idea of engaging local businesses to shape a workforce-ready curriculum. It's a much-touted strategy that already has been woven into Tennessee's technical college system, but Sullivan said input from business leaders could help guide the reinvention of the Board of Regents as it turns to focus exclusively on community and technical colleges.

Becoming “more aligned with business and industry” would help the Board of Regents system boost the state's economy, Sullivan said. “They could help us spell out exactly what it is they would like to see."

Tydings, the only applicant who has already worked within the Board of Regents system, outlined an ambitious set of goals that she said would target the state's weaknesses and amplify its successes. In particular, she said, the state's community and technical colleges needed to do a better job of streamlining their application processes and recruiting adult students. Tydings also said the next chancellor needed to work to encourage unity and combat the "adversarial" relationships between some colleges.

“This isn’t a competition between technical and community colleges," she said. “What we need to be doing is growing everyone in the right direction.”

Mike Krause, the executive director of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, said the slate of candidates — and their experience focusing on community and technical colleges — spoke to the new mission of the Board of Regents.

Krause spoke to the three candidates during their interviews this week. He said a key task for the candidate who gets the job will be to ensure that each of the 13 community college campuses and 27 technical college campuses succeed at the same rates.

“You would expect the new chancellor to ensure that students, regardless of where they enroll, have access to the same innovations," he said.

Reach Adam Tamburin at 615-726-5986 and on Twitter @tamburintweets,