Cliff Wood, president of Rockland Community College in Suffern, didn”™t expect his brief stint working in a community college while his wife completed her own education to become his lifelong career.
“I had just gotten my Master”™s, but my wife hadn”™t completed her education,” he said. “We agreed to stay in the area so she could be with her parents and finish school.” They were in Texas at the time. “I applied to our local community college for a position ”¦ and never left.”
Wood has been involved in community colleges for more than four decades. He has served as President of SUNY Rockland since 2004. Previously, he was vice president for academic affairs at County College of Morris in Randolph, N.J.; he worked there for 18 years.
Wood said community colleges play an integral role in job creation. “Many of the jobs lost during in 2008 are not coming back,” he said. “As a result, we have to look at our own curriculum and tailor it to meet the needs of the jobs that are coming.”
He doesn”™t have a crystal ball to predict exactly where they will be, but he said RCC and all New York state community colleges are banding together and creating new programs to help the work force of the future. “We have a new program in cyber security, and we”™ve expanded our fire protection technology and emergency management programs; we”™ve also introduced business and entrepreneurship programs,” he said. “Nursing and law enforcement are mainstays, but we need to look at other fields, especially in green-based technology for construction.”
The Internet has made it possible for harried workers looking to expand their knowledge base to get a degree online ”“without ever setting foot on campus.
“I truly believe community colleges are America”™s manifest destiny,” said Wood. “They have made it possible for people from very diverse backgrounds to have access to higher education they might never have otherwise. Now, we are working to serve our student population by creating programs and curriculum that meet their changing needs in the new workforce that is developing as we speak.”
Wood recently wrote a chapter for college administrators in “Strategies and Competencies for Success.” Its contents are reflections of college presidents: how they got there, how to make their colleges successful. He added some personal do”™s and don”™ts.
“Basically, it”™s a handbook to prepare people in college administration to prepare for the presidency, even if it isn”™t their goal,” he said. “I believe that, to be successful, you need to have hands-on knowledge of what programs are being taught and to make sure teachers are on track with teaching and are learning themselves along the way. They”™ve got to know what they are doing and why it”™s important.”
Wood believes it is imperative to acknowledge and respect human differences. “If you want to work together and move along, you need the ability to bring people together, particularly in a public community college, where backgrounds are so diverse. I like to see student events on campus that tie in to our curriculum; it makes our programs that much more valuable.”
Wood says despite 44 years in community college administration, he”™s still learning. “You need to be a lifelong student yourself, particularly if you are involved in higher education. Once I got involved, I knew it was where I needed to be.”
While the book Wood contributed to is geared toward his own colleagues, he believes the essential message is: anyone looking to succeed in their respective field has to learn what it takes to stay connected, to be empathetic yet provide tactful leadership.
“The world is changing, and we all have to change with it,” he said. “This recession has made it particularly important for our state SUNY system to become involved in creating tomorrow”™s work force. We need to stay on top of it because for many, community college is the only access they have to higher education and to give the training that the work force of tomorrow is going to need. We want our students prepared and ready for what”™s ahead.”
Wood was recently named by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to serve on the Mid-Hudson Regional Council of the state”™s new 10-council economic development blueprint. The councils are tasked with removing unnecessary impediments to growth and otherwise streamlining in any way the private sector”™s jobs-creation engine.
