Surfing the political waves

Kirkwood Community College President Lori Sundberg (right) takes Sen. Joni Ernst (center) on a tour of the college. (Photo: KCC)

The more polarized American politics become, the more challenging it becomes for institutional leaders of all stripes to maintain a balanced approach and not get crosswise with anyone.

Community college leaders are no exception to this reality — and they say succeeding in this environment requires an artful combination of underscoring the natural appeals of two-year schools to people at both ends of the spectrum, advocating for the interests of their students, faculty and staff, keeping their own personal views to themselves, and taking wins where they can get them while accepting that you can’t win ‘em all.

This excerpt comes from the new edition of the AACC’s award-winning Community College Journal.

As the statewide leader of two-year colleges in a conservative state with a moderate Democratic governor, Monty Sullivan knows the need for this combination of strategies perhaps as well as anyone — especially in the current, hot-button environment.

“We call it party politics, but the reality is, I’m not so sure it’s about party,” says Sullivan, president of the Louisiana Community and Technical College System for the past eight years. “It’s the approach, the aggressiveness, the unwillingness to listen in many instances. … How do we manage politics in a state like ours, where at times politics overruns common sense?”

Lori Sundberg, president of Kirkwood Community College, based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, says community college leaders must navigate an environment in which average people are much more passionate — and public — about their political views.

“With the advent of social media, they’re able to communicate to a wider group,” Sundberg says. “That’s probably the biggest difference. People probably could have been as passionate 20 years ago, but they were only telling a group of people they would hang out with. Today they reach hundreds, sometimes thousands of people with a post. That invites everyone who’s equally passionate on the other side to contribute.”

Justin Lonon, chancellor of Dallas College, says community college leaders need to know their audience, know their stakeholders and know what buzzwords are going to resonate differently with different people. “There are certainly issues important to our students and to our communities where there are divisions. You’ve got to represent your students and represent your college as best you can,” he says.

Appealing to both sides

The best way that Sullivan has found to do that is to articulate how the mission of community colleges supports the goal of both sides of the aisle.

“When speaking with someone aligned to the left, I have a discussion about social opportunity, mobility and ensuring that people realize their full potential,” he says. “As we look to folks on the right, we talk about how you support businesses and a strong economy, and individual opportunity and responsibility.”

When talking with his chancellors around the state about their approach, Sullivan is always mindful of the fact that values and priorities are going to be different in a metropolitan area like New Orleans as opposed to a more rural part of the state. But he encourages individual college leaders to meet with their state legislators, no matter how thorny the subject is.

“There’s nothing in this political sphere in the last 40 years that has changed about the fact that an interaction with a legislator is a positive thing,” he says. “Politics is about relationships. Chancellors need to be able to talk about their mission to this legislator in terms that will resonate.”

Every such interaction provides the opportunity to both extend a relationship and to teach a legislator about community colleges’ mission and benefits, Sullivan says. “And to personalize it,” he adds. “One thing we have seen, over time, is that a personal story neutralizes politics.”

Lonon agrees that “the beauty of community colleges” is that what they do and what they represent holds something for everyone. “Certainly, sometimes you’re going to engage with legislators and others who have very different opinions on the issues that may be important to your institution,” he says. “Look for common ground. That doesn’t mean it exists everywhere.”

But he adds, “Because of the unique role community colleges play in providing a path to economic mobility and prosperity, there’s certainly opportunity for those with different opinions to find common ways of how to do that, without getting into the mechanics of more divisive issues around curriculum, or other things, that people sometimes want to talk about.”

College leaders must strive to keep their campuses an open forum, Sundberg says.

“People will make remarks that you, as a higher ed professional, would not endorse,” she says. “At the same time, that’s what it means to be in higher ed, to have civil discourse about competing and challenging ideas. To not engage with that would not be fulfilling our mission. It’s definitely a challenge, and it’s also an opportunity to have meaningful conversations.”

Read the full article in CC Journal.

About the Author

Ed Finkel
Ed Finkel is an education writer based in Illinois.
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