By Scott Allen
The Scene staff
Dennis Michaelis was optimistic about the future of the college’s administration and student services as he spoke with Forest Park faculty at a March 19 forum.
Michaelis is filling the job of STLCC chancellor during Myrtle Dorsey’s leave of absence through her original contract date of June 2014.
Few students attended, but the faculty and staff who were there questioned the school’s future leadership and efforts to improve student life.
“I’m here to answer questions and talk about whatever you want to talk about,” Michaelis told the crowd at the Mildred E. Bastian Center for the Performing Arts.
The interim chancellor explained that his tenure would be temporary.
“I’ve enjoyed doing this, but I was really happy being retired,” he said.
Though he is signed on with St. Louis Community College through June 2015, Michaelis promised he has no intention of making the job permanent.
Instead, he wants to help improve the school and make it a better prospect for quality chancellor candidates.
“One of the real goals I have is to help St. Louis Community College make this where it will be a very attractive position for the best and brightest in the country,” said Michaelis. “There’s been a great deal of change even since I’ve been here.”
He said that while he won’t name the next chancellor, he will help the board of trustees intensify its search starting this summer.
“Sometimes people come in with a template (for a candidate),” Michaelis said. “I brought no template in with me.”
He explained that he plans to present a new organizational structure to the board but it won’t affect the current structure of district-wide administration.
“We are one college,” said Michaelis. “As far as accreditation is concerned, it’s not going to cut it to keep acting as four separate campuses.”
While he won’t be naming a new chancellor, Michaelis was instrumental in the hiring of Rod Nunn as Forest Park’s new interim president, who will replace Cindy Hess.
“She had a contract through June, but (her new) opportunity was now,” he said. “I have a lot of confidence that it’s going to work well.
“You might absolutely fall in love with Rod Nunn, and you might not want another candidate, I don’t know.”
But during the search for a new Forest Park president, Michaelis wants the input of the campus’ faculty. He will present his suggestions for the search to the board, possibly at the beginning of the fall semester.
“But I’m going to do a whole lot of listening to you all,” he said.
An important concern for Michaelis and the board of trustees, he said, is the student experience with enrollment and bureaucracy.
“That problem is overwhelming,” said Thomas “Dr. Z” Zirkle, associate professor and program coordinator of music at Forest Park.
Michaelis referenced two studies — from the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers and from the Huron Consulting Group — that point toward student services as an area that needs improvement.
“I think you’re going to see a lot of focus … that will address those issues,” said Michaelis.
Layoffs are not anticipated, he said, but 27 people district-wide in student services will have their job descriptions rewritten “as soon as humanly possible.” The plan is that every student coming to Forest Park should have an excellent face-to-face meeting with student services.
Michaelis explained that during one of his first visits to campus, he and Hess ran into a potential student who, discouraged by his visit, decided against attending Forest Park.
“He said, ‘I thought I was too dumb to be here, and that cinched it,’ ” said Michaelis. “We need to help turn some of that stuff around. That should be our goal.
“Each student is an individual human being, and needs to be treated that way.”
That goal will be reached with people who are eager and ready to work with students.
“I am determined that by next fall, we will stop the decline in enrollment,” Michaelis said. “We will stop the bleeding.”
Zirkle was hopeful that his concern had been heard.
“It sounds like they’re already aware of the problem and they’re working to fix it,” said Zirkle. “I’m hopeful.”
Steve Gardner, a reading professor, told Michaelis he hoped to see faster-paced and better-funded developmental reading classes.
“We’ve been encouraged to think outside the box,” Gardner said. “What if the developmental department recommends accelerating the program?”
Gardner explained that accelerated programs would mean fewer hours spent by students working toward college level classes, but also less tuition money for the school.
“I don’t think any college should base decisions on how many hours students will take,” Michaelis said, adding that they should be based on how successful students will be.
Michaelis wants to see better assessments of what students are and what they’re ready for.
“The point is to get them to … where they need to be as quickly and as successfully as possible,” he said. “Not every student comes to us with the same aspirations, and we need to keep that in mind as well.”
Gardner hopes that the school can reduce the steps for students to start taking college-level courses.
“The research shows that every time you add another step in the road, they usually don’t re-enroll,” he said after the forum. “The reading department doesn’t believe that’s effective; each step doesn’t get you closer to an education.
“The students should be able to handle the work we give them in a more accelerated way.”
But Michaelis added that getting additional funding from the state for developmental programs will be difficult, because legislators often feel students were already taught those things in high school.
It would take a large charity or government grant to start defraying the costs of developmental programs for students.
The interim chancellor added that, for the first time in his career, he will recommend that the STLCC board of trustees uses reserve funds for next year’s budget.
“I will work very hard to see that there is some kind of salary increase for you all at