Inauguration Address
Anita T. Gliniecki
October 12, 2007

I wish to thank all of the speakers this morning for taking the time to share in this inauguration ceremony and for their kind and supportive words.  I would also like to thank everyone for coming today and sharing in this inauguration ceremony.

I hope that many of you had the opportunity to participate in the wonderful events that took place yesterday as we celebrated our cultures, our communities.  I want to acknowledge all the HCC faculty and staff who worked so hard to create yesterday’s and today’s event.  All their names are listed in your program.  Let’s take a moment to acknowledge and thank them

In preparation for today, I took the opportunity to pause and reflect on what has led me to this day, as a new president at this particular community college.  As everyone knows, our experiences shape our lives and our responses to life situations.  I was very lucky to be raised in a loving and supportive family and am so pleased that my sister and her husband are able to be here today.   Our parents valued education, expected that their children treat all persons with dignity and respect and stressed that there is no higher calling that to be of service to others.  Our mother was a feminist before Gloria Steinem coined the word.  I will admit that my father paused and wasn’t sure about my decision to not change my name after I married.  But the man I married consistently encouraged me and helped me keep that balance between family and work such that on any given day he can identify  me in a crowd.  And now we have two wonderful daughters who are bright and independent and, most important, kind and loving individuals.

As I reflected on my educational and work experiences that had great impact on my life a consistent pattern emerged:  a pattern of meeting and working with people who always did that little bit extra, offering their help beyond that which was required of them. A high school biology teacher who arranged for me to have access to the biology lab after school and during the evening to complete basic genetics research that resulted in my being a participant in an International Science Fair on the other side of the country in San Francisco.  Coming from rural Michigan it was a big deal to meet other students from around the world.  A college math teacher who six weeks into the math course realized that due to a language barrier the whole class had not understood him, and who set up evening sessions to re-teach the first six weeks instead of flunking all of us first-semester freshman.  A Dean of the College of Nursing who helped me change majors in college.  Multiple people giving that extra help so that I could succeed.   I have also been blessed with many wonderful mentors in my work experiences, two of whom are here today.  You have already met Christa Adams.  Also here today is Janis Hadley, immediate past president of HCC who welcomed me to this college four years ago.

Why did I share these experiences?   How do these experiences apply today?  They explain why I sought the presidency at Housatonic Community College. What I have described as my previous personal experiences, are replicated daily at Housatonic Community College.  Faculty, staff, administrators take the time to listen, understand and then help our students to succeed. In fact, HCC is an award winning college for our Support for Students, one of three community colleges in the country to receive a MetLife award for our work with students.  As an institution we focus on learning all that we can about our students. 

During the last two years as an Achieving the Dream college we have talked with our community members in our eleven-town service region, talked with our business and industry partners, talked with our students, looked at the data to better define what helps our students to succeed and what are the barriers that impede their success.  We are in our second year of implementing changes and studying the results of these changes to be certain that we have, in fact, selected better ways to help our students succeed.  This includes changing how we teach math, developing a mentoring program for our students and reaching out to our local high schools to work with the students before they come to Housatonic Community College, trying to bridge any gaps that may exist between high school and college.

I recently had the opportunity to attend a presentation that compared educational attainment in thirty countries:  Countries such as the US, Canada, Western European countries, Japan, Korea, and China.  The great news; out of these 30 countries for people 25 to 64 years old, the US is 1st in attainment of bachelor’s degrees, and above average; 10th out of 26 in attainment of Associate’s degrees.  What is absolutely scary is when a comparison is made by age groups. comparing  25 to 34 year olds to those 55 to 64,  in  the growth in attainment of Bachelor’s degrees, the US is 30th of 30 countries and with associate’s degrees 14 out of 24.  In other words the generation that is to compete in the global economy (those 25-34) is less educated than the 55 to 64 year-old baby boomer generation, which is moving towards retirement.  This does not forebode well for this nation or for each state.  Dr. Adams used the words life and death, urgency to address these issues.  I would concur that it is imperative to do everything possible to help each student graduate, all those who enter this college with the intent to attain a degree.  Access must be matched with success.  An educated citizenry is the cornerstone of a free society.  The abilities to think, explore, argue, challenge are critical to a democratic society and the economic vitality of a community and of this country. 

The education of each of the 4475 individuals who registered for Fall semester at HCC affects not only the eleven towns that HCC serves but the state and the country.  Obviously, their education is not accomplished in isolation.  Each student at HCC has been impacted by his/her life experiences, both positive and negative.  The education of these individuals is a community effort.  We are a community college committed to working with our communities.  As an integral part of this community effort, HCC will continue to work with our local school districts to facilitate a smooth transition of their graduates into HCC.  We will also continue our work with the baccalaureate granting institutions developing articulation agreements so that students who plan to transfer, do so without difficulty.  We will continue to seek opportunities to work with our local businesses to ensure that the education our students receive, whether credit or non credit, provides the knowledge and skills needed by their employees.  We will continue to ask our legislators at all levels - local, state and federal - for support for education through state funding and federal financial aid for our students.  Through our Foundation we will complete our major gifts campaign to garner the additional support for our students to provide them with that extra financial assistance, to provide that extra tutoring and mentoring for our students, to expand our Honor’s program, to preserve our phenomenal art collection and bring special exhibits to the college such as the current Rembrandt exhibit that is displayed in our gallery. A community of effort.

 HCC is a great community college because it has great partners working with us and a great faculty and staff who see each student as a distinct and separate person with unique educational needs.   HCC is proud of our culture of respect and dignity for our students, for each other and for our community partners.  It is a culture we are committed to maintain.  

What lies ahead for HCC?  One obvious change that you may have noticed as you entered this building today is the addition of Beacon Hall which is scheduled to open next fall 2008.  This addition represents the support of Governor Rell, our legislators, Chancellor Herzog and the Board of Trustees, and our local community. The addition of this building will double the physical size of HCC.  More importantly we will be able to increase our course offerings, both credit and non credit and to the infinite relief of faculty and staff jammed into “created” office space, more places to meet and work with students and more space for students to gather and have club and senate meeting as well as the impromptu study sessions.  We will continue to focus on student success by analyzing student progress - what helps, what hinders - in order to increase the numbers of students who graduate, go directly into the work force or transfer to baccalaureate programs.  We will continue to work with our high schools in our service region so that all new high school graduates come to HCC ready for college level courses.  We will do all of this with the long-term goal of improving the economic vitality of this region and of Connecticut overall.  In other words an HCC graduate will be prepared to be competitive in the global world market AND support all of us baby boomers in our retirement.

In closing, I again thank each of you for coming today and sharing this inauguration ceremony with me.  I also thank each of you for what you do to help our students succeed before, during and after they leave this college.  From helping children learn the pleasure of reading in read-aloud days, distributing dictionaries to third graders, volunteering to chaperone the field trip to our museum, creating a high school environment to prepare students for college, mentoring students in grade school, high school or college, helping students transfer to your baccalaureate programs, providing an internship experience in your business, providing state funding for education, providing support to our College Foundation, to so much more.  The list is endless but each action positively affects our students and our community.  For this, I thank you.