Campus Visits Candidates For Nic Presidency Receive Warm Reception
The first two of four presidential candidates met with campus groups behind closed doors at North Idaho College on Monday.
According to students and faculty on campus, Kae Hutchison, a dean of Bellevue Community College, and Eric Reno, vice president of Front Range Community College in Fort Collins, Colo., both were favorably received.
Ten to 20 people attended the open afternoon receptions for the two.
“Both the candidates were excellent,” said Ben Toews, student body vice president. “Everyone thought they were very personable and answered our questions very well.”
Except for the brief reception, all candidate appearances and remarks made before the general faculty, staff and students were closed to the media and public.
“This is college business,” Interim President Ron Bell told The Spokesman-Review on Monday, defending the closed-door sessions. Similar interview sessions during recent presidential searches at Lewis-Clark State College and the University of Idaho were open to the press and public.
Hutchison said she heard about the position through Bell, a friend who was formerly a community college president in Western Washington. After further research, she was taken by the pride employees and students have for NIC, which she praised for its student-centered approach.
Hutchison said being a woman will make her a positive role model for the NIC community if selected.
Hutchison, who has a college-age daughter, appeared at ease with students, who asked questions about student autonomy, lifelong learning, and how the candidates would go about making changes.
She fondly recalled her student days rooting for Whitworth College, where she studied music, piano and German in the early 1960s. The only member of her immediate family to attend college, Hutchison recently took three semesters of carpentry classes in order to help build a sailboat she and her husband pur chased.
She worked in several administrative positions at BCC, and while dean pursued master’s and doctoral degrees through The Fielding Institute in Santa Barbara, Calif.
A consensus builder, Hutchison said she understands the need to network behind the scenes to avoid public confrontations on a political level. “I’m very good at doing my homework, so I come armed with data and arguments,” Hutchison said. “There ought to be a lot of work done with the local legislators here before the session.”
Reno, vice president at Front Range Community College’s Larimer campus, said he’s always wanted to be a community college president, and NIC seems a good fit.
“This community has a lot of similarities with the Fort Collins community,” he said. “It’s a good place to live, raise a family, and it’s a good institution.”
Reno’s college branch serves 12,000 students and is the newest campus in Colorado. He is credited with helping develop the young school by forming partnerships with Colorado State University and local school districts. Three new buildings opened there this year after Reno enlisted the support of Colorado legislators.
“If growth here continues, classrooms are going to be a premium,” Reno said of NIC. “Enrollment growth is going to drive a need for more facilities.”
As president, Reno said he would be an inclusive decision maker and an advocate on and off campus. “People are looking for someone to bring stability, energy and vision,” he said.
Reno received his master’s degree in English from San Francisco State University. In 1981, he took a position as division chairman at Broward Community College-South, near Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He later became the provost and dean of academic affairs there.
Between 1987 and 1992 he worked as provost and interim vice president for academic affairs at Broward’s expansive central campus.
The father of a 16-year-old son and twin 9-year-old daughters, Reno said he enjoys sports, music, film and outdoor recreation.
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