Owens Community College interim president optimistic about future

Owens Community TOLEDO — College’s interim president has a plan for a successful school year: Retain more students, respond to the labor market’s demands, stay financially sound, and better promote the college’s offerings.

Trustees approved what Steve Robinson calls his “strategic priorities” at an Oct. 3 board retreat. Robinson, who joined Owens in 2015 as provost, was named interim president in April when Mike Bower announced he would not renew his contract as president.

The college is operating without a strategic plan, as trustees want the next president to take part in forming those long-term goals. But Robinson said it’s still important to formalize priorities.

“This is a plan for the last three quarters of this fiscal year, so that we’re all on the same page for priorities,” he said.

The community college was taken off of state-designated fiscal watch in April, a classification it was under for two years because of its poor finances, largely caused by dwindling enrollment. After months of changes that included layoffs, ending sports programs and increasing student fees, Owens emerged with a healthier financial picture.

“I feel so confident about where we are,” Robinson said of the school’s finances. “Before, we were looking at bigger survival metrics. Now we’re talking about fine-tuning.”

In addition to staying financially sound, Robinson wants to improve student retention.

Owens tallied 8,826 students enrolled this fall, which continues the school’s enrollment decline since the fall of 2009. More than 23,600 students enrolled in Owens for training and education during the recession, but those numbers have dropped as unemployment rates have improved.

It’s unrealistic for college officials to expect to enroll 20,000 students again anytime soon, Mr. Robinson said, so he wants the focus to be on ensuring students who do enroll complete their programs or transfer to fouryear institutions.

“If you take a look at the number of students who are graduating from local high schools, that number is going down. If you take a look at the unemployment numbers, we are close to full employment in northwest Ohio,” he said.

However, he does believe there is room to recruit new students who want to start their college career at University of Toledo or Bowling Green State University but may be enticed by the possibility of completing two years at Owens at a lower cost before transferring to UT or BGSU.

Robinson also intends to assess local and regional employment trends to make sure course offerings are relevant to workforce needs.

“Our programs are not worth anything to anybody if they don’t lead to family-sustaining wages and jobs that people need to do here in northwest Ohio,” he said.

In other business, trustees selected Cleveland-based firm Diversified Search to lead the hunt for the next Owens president at a cost not to exceed $75,000.