The Grand Rapids Community College Faculty Association held a forum on Tuesday, March 19 to hear current Interim Provost Sheila Jones present and speak on why she should be retained as the Provost of the college. This is the first of three forums to determine which candidate will take the role.
Jones is the current Interim Provost and Executive Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs at GRCC. She began working at GRCC in 2016 as Dean of Instructional Support and worked her way up to becoming Associate Provost of Instructional Support and Institutional Planning in 2022. Jones was named Interim Provost of the college in August of 2023 after GRCC decided not to hire any of the four candidates that competed for the position back in May of 2023.
All three of the forums will have a structure outlined by GRCC Faculty Association President Frank Conner, where each candidate gives a 20-minute presentation on why they are the best candidate for the job and also highlights a few plans they have if they receive the job. After that, the candidate is given a set of five questions to answer which were chosen by staff prior to the presentation. Lastly, the candidate is faced with questions from the crowd.
Jones started the presentation by discussing what she thinks the purpose of a community college is.
“Our doors are open to anyone that decides to pursue lifelong learning and we have a responsibility to provide opportunity in order to serve our local community,” Jones said. “GRCC is unique due to our long and proud history, as we were the first community college in Michigan.”
Jones continued on with what provost means to her and the responsibilities it comes with.
“Provost supports faculty, staff, and students and the achievement of their goals and professional development,” Jones said. “It’s to provide stability and support to forward thinking and synthesizing at the local, state, and national levels.”
While discussing student retention, Jones made it clear that GRCC needs to provide enough for the incoming college students while also being competitive with other West Michigan colleges.
“We need to put more of an emphasis on our students,” Jones said. “In terms of our competition, we need to put more of an emphasis on us, GRCC. We know that there are concerns on the ‘enrollment cliff’ We need to shape our mindset about what we do in order to continue to be West Michigan’s first choice for children and their families.”
Jones also touched on students earning their degrees at GRCC before moving on to their transfer schools or even getting their bachelor’s degree.
“Some of our partners say they are in favor of the 2 plus 2 agreements and awarding direct transfer credit, in practice, this is not the case with our [GRCC] students even with the Michigan Transfer Agreement,” Jones said. “Our focus needs to be on degree completion and then transfer because our students’ time and resources are valuable.”
Jones believes she is the best candidate due to her experience already as the interim provost.
“I think I’m the best candidate for the job because of my leadership experience,” Jones said. “I’ve had progressive roles as a faculty member that turned into administrative positions while I was in Florida and now I’ve had three solid administrative roles that afforded me to learn about GRCC and how it functions so I can bring a lot of continuity as the provost.”
After the presentation concluded, Jones gave her responses to the five questions and then answered questions posed by faculty and staff..
Most of the questions asked were related to faculty and staff and how Jones expects to help train and retain faculty while trying to empower them to feel they are making a difference.
Michelle Richter, the Nursing Program Director at GRCC, mentioned students are coming in less prepared, while facing more challenges related to mental health and asked how GRCC can improve the counseling center.
“These are conversations that we are having with our Student Success Team and with our Counseling Center, and within the context of our budget considerations in terms of continuing to advocate for resources and making it a priority,” Jones said. “Internally, we have been able to add another position for mental health counseling and you will see that very soon. I also think that there is a bigger picture and there is only so much that we can do as the work is bigger than us.”
Jones declined to answer a follow-up question on what she would provide for students if she became the provost.
Jones is the first of three candidates that will compete for the position. Michael Pullin, the Dean of Academic Initiatives at Queensborough Community College, will be presenting on Wednesday, March 20 from 3-4 p.m. in the ATC Auditorium in room 168. Daniel Powell, Vice President of Academic Success at Northwest Vista College, will be presenting on Thursday, March 21 from 3-4 p.m. in the ATC Auditorium in room 168.
If you would like to send feedback throughout the process, you may send it to provost@grcc.edu
