The Grand Rapids Community College Faculty Association held the final provost search forum and candidate, Vice President of Academic Success at Northwest Vista College Daniel Powell on Thursday, March 21. Powell expressed the importance of the student experience several times during the hour-long forum.
Powell was given the first 20 minutes of the forum to explain why he is the best candidate and present a presentation based on prompts provided by the college. He first opened with his idea of the purpose of community college.
“The purpose of community college from my perspective, and I think we should have a shared perspective, is that we reflect the community that we serve,” Powell said when opening up his presentation. “Not only in program offerings but in the way we engage our community. There are really three pillars…transfer programs, there needs to be workforce programs and continuing education.”
He went on to discuss the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the college’s hiring process as well as maintaining culturally relative pedagogy and professional development in the classroom.
“(It’s) very important that we have diverse hiring committees that represent cross-functional groups of the college that are diversified in gender, ethnicity, (and) all perspectives and views at the hiring process and that we hire people that are dedicated to this work. I think it’s very very important,” Powell said. “One thing I would like to see more developed is culturally relative pedagogy, professional development training and just emerging in the student experience. Meeting students where they are culturally and providing instruction that is relative and meaningful to the cultures that are emerging.”
After his presentation, Powell answered questions posed by the Faculty Association and audience members on how he would perform as provost. When asked what it means to be a provost and how it compares to other departments, Powell explained that the main objective of the provost position and every other job on campus is the advocacy for students.
“I’m really in it for the students and I’m in it for advocacy of the student experience,” Powell said. “I believe that the institution is how the student experiences us and that drives my behavior, that should drive all of our behaviors and interactions. I think we should all be collaborative in that.”
Faculty Association President Frank Conner asked Powell how he would measure his success as provost after six months as provost. “I think the immediate answer is relationships,” Powell said. “If I’m able to develop relationships in that short period of time that would be the best way I would know I’m successful. I feel like you can call me Daniel and come in my office, I have an open-door policy, I personally would feel like that’s a win in the short term.”
When asked about the three-year mark, Powell explained that there are three big areas that the college needs to maintain: access, completion and providing students with resources to get hired or prepared to transfer to another institution post-completion.
During The Collegiate’s interview with Powell, he reiterated that the message he wants to convey to students is that the college’s drive is for the student experience.
“The message to students is that they should be proud that their entire community is rallying behind the student experience, that they really care,” Powell said. “This whole day I’ve said in interviews and the primary message that came out of that is that people care about the student experience, I think the students need to know that.”
When asked what the relationship between the provost and students looks like, Powell said, “I want to be involved, I want to hear from students directly what is it that’s on your mind, what is that student experience? I’ve learned so much from the front door of talking directly with students more so than I learn from any phone game, of ‘this person tells this person.’”
Powell graduated from Florida State University with a doctorate in music and before taking on his current role at Northwest Vista College, he served in many leadership positions, including Dean of the School of Arts & Humanities at Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Music and Theater Department Chair at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts Patel Conservatory in Tampa, Florida.
He also spent some time in Michigan teaching saxophone/clarinet sectionals, technique classes, music theory and helping undergraduate counselors at the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Twin Lakes during its summer programs from 2005 to 2011.
Interim Vice President of College Advancement and Executive Director of the GRCC Foundation Erin Van Egmond explained that the college is collecting feedback from those who attended the forums and the next GRCC provost is expected to be named soon.
“We’ve asked for feedback…from all the stakeholders that were involved over the last three days and we will look through that and the final decision will probably be made within the next couple of weeks,” Egmond said.
