On May 12, 2025, Dr. Steven J. Triezenberg, former President of the Van Andel Institute Graduate School, began as Interim President of Grand Rapids Community College. He replaced Lisa Freiburger in the role, who herself had been filling in after former president Charles Lepper’s abrupt departure in April. Triezenberg arrived at GRCC in a time of change, with a looming change from the winter semester to summer, federal threats of loss in funding based on diversity, equity and inclusion program changes and a faculty retention rate unusually high for the school. After nearly a month on the job, he reflected on how he feels it’s gone.
“I’ve long had a respect for the place of community colleges in the fabric of higher education. I’ve long had an appreciation for GRCC, specifically, in the fabric of higher education here in West Michigan,” he said. “A lot of respect for the institution and its place here.”
Triezenberg, a graduate of Calvin College, had previously worked at Michigan State University and the Van Andel Institute, where he helped to develop their cell and molecular biology graduate program as their founding dean, before leaving the school when he retired in 2023.
While in his “retirement situation,” Triezenberg said he enjoyed reading, golfing and working with Habitat for Humanity.
“So much of my work has been cerebral, intellectual— working on a job site with Habitat for Humanity volunteers, we see something physical that got built that day. I take a satisfaction in seeing that done and then (going) home and (letting) the site supervisor worry about what’s going to happen the next day,” he said.
When it, “became clear that an interim president would be needed,” the GRCC Board of Trustees approached Triezenberg in a “quiet conversation” about whether it was a good fit.
“Eventually, we both came to the decision that it would be,” he said.
Triezenberg expressed how welcomed he felt as he began.
“The staff have been great about ‘how can we figure out how to do the things that operate a certain way in this setting?’ Whether it’s learning how to run my desk, or my computer, or learning my way around campus… And the leadership have been very warm, inviting, eager to work together and that’s a great environment to step into.
Despite his prior experience in education, this role is different— notably, since it’s an interim position.
“As an interim role, my time here will be limited, and so I need to respect the work that’s been done and the work that will be done. I feel a responsibility to set the stage for the next president so that they walk in with an opportunity to succeed quickly and effectively,” he said.
One of his biggest goals is to remind people of what made Triezenberg want to work for GRCC in the first place.
“There are a lot of challenges in higher education right now, and sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of that. So, part of my job is just to remind people of the value of the mission and the quality of the institution that GRCC is.”
A major challenge hanging over his administration is the federal government’s complicated relationship with higher education institutions that support diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, even threatening to pull funding for schools that didn’t remove them. In the wake of this, GRCC faculty and staff have asked for clarification on the school’s stance, but haven’t been satisfied with the answers they’ve gotten.
“Those create some challenges for the institution,” he said. “Creates challenges for students who may have some uncertainties about which direction their education should go and whether they have the resources to attend. Create some challenges for faculty and staff about what kinds of things we can say or what kinds of programs can be developed. So we have to continue to keep our eyes on what we know is part of our mission and continue to do that well in spite of or in the context of all of those external forces at play.”
In response to these challenges, college presidents from across the country put together “A Call for Constructive Engagement,” a letter that stood in opposition to government overreach in higher education. The team behind it asked Freiburger to add GRCC’s name to it, but she declined. Triezenberg said he hadn’t yet made a decision about whether he would.
“It’s challenging to make those kinds of decisions as an interim. I need to understand both the context in which those letters arise and… I need to be careful not to make commitments that the future president needs to uphold… The approach has been ‘how can we enhance or expand the services we provide to students?’ Maybe taking lessons from programs that have been more focused on particular demographic groups and expanding those best practices to meet the needs of all of our students,” he said.
Students, he emphasized, are always the most important part of his job.
“Education is… to give students the knowledge and the skills and the experiences that equip them for whatever direction they are headed in,” he said. “What do these students need in this setting for the paths that they are on, and how do we best provide that for them?”
In the process of accepting and beginning this position, Triezenberg said that a phrase his friend introduced him to felt pertinent.
“‘Do the next right thing,’ was the phrase that they used, in a very different context. But, that resonated with me as I was contemplating this position, this opportunity. And this felt like the next right thing to do,” he said.
