Frank Denton: Rebuilding public trust in FSCJ

Times-Union

http://jacksonville.com/reason/frank-denton/2015-03-13/story/frank-denton-rebuilding-public-trust-fscj

Most transactions and relationships are based on some type and degree of trust, if you think about it. Whether you’re buying a product or making a personal commitment, you need what the dictionary defines as “assured reliance on the character, ability, strength or truth of someone or something.”

That is especially important with major, life-changing commitments, like the investment of time, money and energy in a choice of college. Parents trust the college with their children, and students trust the college with their futures.

Trust can take years or even decades to develop but only weeks or months to deteriorate.

By its own accounts, Florida State College at Jacksonville lost some of the trust it had built with its community over its 50 years when Times-Union investigations in 2011-12 uncovered an array of mismanagement, misuse of public money and other scandal, including changing students’ majors without their consent.

Cleaning up began with the messy and expensive ouster of former President Steve Wallace and others, then some restructuring and settling with the U.S. Department of Education over millions of dollars of improper Pell grants to students.

That was relatively easy. The hard part is restoring trust between FSCJ and the public, who are its owners as well as its customers.

When new President Cynthia Bioteau took office in January 2014, she said openly that it would take at least two years for the college to regain the public’s trust. She knew that because, in her previous job as president of Salt Lake Community College, she had to lead recovery from a similar organizational disaster, including her successor fired for ethical lapses.

Recently, she came in to meet with our editorial board and report on her progress on a number of fronts, including the rebuilding of trust. I interviewed her again last week.

“A year ago, there was great disappointment in the truths that were being presented, perceptions by both internal constituents and external partners,” she said. “There was shock and disappointment and disbelief that an entity as important as FSCJ would be mired in those kinds of reports. It was real institutional trauma. People were embarrassed by what they were reading and seeing.

“So in order to begin to rebuild trust, we needed to listen to the hurt and fear, understand why people were feeling that way and begin building a basis and foundation.”

Thus, in addition to becoming oriented to her new college and city and developing new strategic directions for the school, Bioteau has been working methodically on the trust issue.

She has held open forums for faculty, staff and students at all five FSCJ sites. “I ask them two questions: What do you need to know? What do I need to know? I have said to them, you don’t know how brave I am to stand before you, because I never know what’s going to be stated.

“One huge stepping stone in the right direction is, every other week, I write a president’s message to all employees and give an update of FSCJ as I know it today. I share the good, I share the bad, and I share the ugly, and where we’re going.”

Bioteau also has invested time in building relationships with others in the community, such as our editorial board. She held a “strategic planning day” with community leaders. “I want people to see not only the face of FSCJ being one of hope, but I want them to see we’re integral and integrated into the community.

“That kind of consistency has turned the tide for trust.”

She said the work of rebuilding trust has not distracted her from the normal leadership of the college because it’s all the same work. “Any advancement of any institution happens because of relationships. Every bit of progress happens because of relationships of trust. Building relationships is the most important and time-heavy part of my job. But it’s not frustrating. I have a great team, so I don’t have to do it all by myself.”

I asked her what message she would like to send to the public, and she said: “FSCJ is the community’s college, and we are here because of our students, our employees and our community members. We’re putting their interests first, not the interests of those of us who lead the college.”

A little over a year into her tenure at FSCJ, Bioteau wants you to know she sees progress.

“When I first came here, I felt I was on a precipice overlooking a very wide river, the St. Johns comes to mind, and I fell off and into the river, and I was paddling to save my life and keep myself afloat.

“A year later, I feel I’m halfway across the river. I still have the other half to cross, but I can see the other side. We still have work to do, very heavy work to do, but we’re halfway there. It will take me three years to stabilize the college so we can become a premier institution.

“We’re getting there.”

frank.denton@jacksonville.com: (904) 359-4197