NEW ENGLAND COLLEGE LEADERS ATTEND CONFERENCE AT MWCC

(GARDNER)--Over 70 New England college presidents and leaders attended the annual spring conference of the New England College Council, Fri., June 20 at Mount Wachusett Community College.

The conference focused on leadership, styles, strategies and secrets of great leaders. Sister Joanne Bibeau, president of Marian Court College advised leaders to keep their sense of humor because, “it can diffuse so many situations.” She also stressed the importance of pursing justice. “Being fair is not always the same as being just,” she explained. Fairness is about following the rules while being just has more of a moral imperative.” Dr. Thomas Sepe, President of Community College of Rhode Island echoed Bibeau’s comments. “Leadership is not about power, title or management,” he said. “Management is about doing things right; leadership is about doing the right thing.” He added that doing the right thing is not always easy—especially when two very important values are in conflict and leaders must make a decision. For example: what if a college needs to weigh the purchase of raising tuition in order to purchase new computers? On the one hand, the technology is crucial to student success. But the increased educational cost diminishes the college’s financial accessibility.

Marc Herzog, chancellor of the Connecticut Community College System, told conference attendees that it is often useful to model great leaders. In speaking of President Lincoln, Herzog quoted the noted newspaper editor Horace Greeley’s assessment of Lincoln’s leadership style. “He did the work that was before him as well as he could…and learned from his failures.”

As part of the annual conference, attendees thanked outgoing president Dr. Melinda Rising, academic dean of Northwestern Connecticut College for all of her work and welcomed incoming president Dr. Thomas Sepe, president of Community College of Rhode Island.