Celebrate Learning! Spring 2014 (Vol 5, Issue 2) | Page 13

Q: What have you enjoyed the most about your years as a TJC/TCC faculty member, administrator and president? Q: We’re very curious…but how do you make the decision of when and if to cancel classes due to bad weather? A: In each of my roles at TCJ/TCC, the most enjoyable aspect has been my interaction with our students. They represent some incredibly talented individuals who are determined to succeed and are focused on their educational goals. A: No one has ever discussed this before, but there is a scientific rubric that has been handed down to each new president during a very private ceremony with lots of white smoke. Seriously….a small team actively monitors weather conditions and forecasts as well as highway, road, and street conditions. They regularly check with campus facilities to get updates on our parking lots and sidewalks and also try to determine how long it will take to clear these and make them as safe as possible. We also monitor other area college and school closings. Sometimes we are faced with a situation when we have to make a decision prior to inclement weather actually moving into the Tulsa area. We make a strong effort to try to time our announcements appropriately and get communications out to students and employees as early as possible. Q: What times or events have presented the most difficult or hardest challenges to navigate as a TJC/TCC faculty member, administrator and president? A: In several cases as a faculty member and an administrator, the College was faced with multiple mid-year budget cuts and these were very difficult and challenging to deal with. As a president, one of the most difficult challenges was responding to the Metro Campus fire crisis and relocating thousands of students and hundreds of employees to new camp