About 13 hours after Southwest Colorado Community College solicited community feedback for its 2012-2015 Strategic Plan Wednesday evening, Pueblo Community College gave two deans their walking papers.
Shannon South, the dean of the Cortez/Mancos college branch and Lynn Urban, dean of the colleges Durango branch, were told Thursday morning their jobs had been eliminated.
Pueblo Community College President Patty Erjavec said the realignment was meant to move the college forward, and when asked about the impacts to the Cortez-area campus said the change will result in a way to save funds and offer more affordable resources for students.
We have no pre-conceived ideas, she said. We need to see where the need is and where we could do the best job.
She also said the rumors that the Cortez/Mancos campus could be turned into a strictly vocational school were absolutely untrue.
They are very much a part of Pueblo Community College, she said.
Erjavec mentioned supplies and materials that the college will now be able to afford and supply to students.
The college named Cindy Mihelich the interim executive dean for the Southwest Community College campuses, which include the branches in Cortez/Mancos, Durango and Pagosa Springs.
Over the summer, Mihelich will lead the faculty and staff to develop a set of goals for Southwest Colorado Community College based on the Pueblo Community College Strategic Plan, and propose a new administrative structure for Southwest, Erjavec said.
Erjavec said Mihelich will be the dean for the Southwest Colorado branches and stressed the new interim executive dean will have a strong presence at all of the locations.
Erjavec also said Urban and South were not fired and instead were let go after their positions were eliminated and refused to say whether either one received a severance package, saying it was a personnel matter.
She also said the realignment was implemented as part of its 2012-2015 strategic plan that must be in place by July 1.
Jill Carithers, director of pre-college programs at PCC, gave a Power Point presentation to the public about the strategic plan on Wednesday, which she said she would not release.
The five strategic implements Carithers talked about in the presentation were helping students learn, technology and equipment for families, affordability and financial stability, cultural importance and valuing people.
Carithers showed the audience five proposed core values with subheads under each category that included affordable and a higher caliber workforce.
Under affordability, Carithers talked about financial literacy, efficiency, attendance cost, the Pueblo Community Colleges foundation and other revenues.
Other proposed core values mentioned were respect for people, affordability, lifelong learning, integrity and accountability, excellence and teamwork.
She admitted some of the proposals were identical from the current strategic plan, but claimed this was much shorter and more to the point.
Members of the community wanted to know what the strategies mean to the Cortez/Mancos campus branch.
South, in her last meeting as dean, said this was the plan, and the college would take the strategies with comments from the public to the colleges cabinet for final review, and Carithers said the colleges ultimate goal was to improve students success.
Reach Michael Maresh at michaelm@cortezjournal.com