Elgin Community College will hold public forums Monday and Tuesday to allow community members to learn about and question the three finalists for school president.
Each candidate is to participate in an individual session during which there will be a 15-minute introduction followed by a 30-minute question-and-answer period, according to an ECC news release. Questions can be submitted anonymously to be read aloud by a college representative.
The first forum will be at 4 p.m. Monday, Dec. 2, for Tia Robinson Cooper, currently the chancellor at the Ivy Tech Community College South Bend-Elkhart campus. She also has been the president of Contra Costa College in California and provost and vice president of academic affairs/chief academic officer at Inver Hills Community College in Minnesota, the release said.
It will be followed by a 5 p.m. session for Peggy Heinrich, who has been serving as ECC’s interim president since the July retirement of President David Samm.
Heinrich has worked at ECC since 2007 in roles that have included vice president of teaching, learning and student development, dean of adult/continuing education and workforce development and associate dean of adult education. Prior to that, she was associate director of the Illinois Community College Board, the release said.
Wrapping up the forums will be the one held for Pakou Yang at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 3. Yang is the provost/vice president of academic and student affairs at Century College in Minnesota and previously worked as system director at Minnesota State University.
Following the forums, the ECC/District 509 Board of Trustees will consider feedback from attendees. It is the final step in the search, which should result in the selection of the next president in December, the release said.
The forums will be held in the Seigle Auditorium, located in Building E of the school’s 1700 Spartan Drive campus in Elgin.
Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.