FSCJ President Cynthia Bioteau establishing business-first environment

Jacksonville Business Journal

http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/print-edition/2015/02/27/fscj-president-cynthia-bioteau-establishing.html

Florida State College at Jacksonville President Cynthia Bioteau has been at the helm for more than a year now, and has worked toward re-establishing stability.

Bioteau, who began her presidency after the period she refers to as the "troubles," has worked toward restoring FSCJ's relationship with the community.

"My goal was to stabilize the unrest and turmoil that appeared to be pretty pervasive throughout the community," Bioteau said.

FSCJ was mired in controversy surrounding its former president, Steve Wallace, as well as the school improperly awarding $2.8 million in financial aid to students.

Bioteau's task involved fixing existing problems, including regaining accreditation, but, more importantly, moving forward.

"It meant righting the ship, stopping the bleeding, fixing financial aid and getting the internal workings in order — and setting a culture of accountability and credibility," she said.

One of Bioteau's priorities, from the beginning, has been making FSCJ responsive to the business community's needs.

In order to build a strategy for getting students employed, the college called on business leaders to ask what they were looking for in students entering the workforce.

The answer to the call was clear: more on-the-job experience and greater preparation for careers.

"They wanted career-readiness, internships, the work experience that a student should bring, along with a degree, into the workforce," Bioteau said. "We opened that conversation to the entire college community and reframed a strategic plan."

Developing internship programs was key to that plan, which helps students gain valuable experience before graduating.

Bioteau — and FSCJ — have worked toward opening up more opportunities to students through forming partnerships with companies like Vistakon.

Students, starting in their junior year of high school, can dual-enroll in FSCJ and earn work experience with Vistakon while doing so. Students who complete the program are, in turn, eligible for employment.

It's these partnerships that FSCJ hopes to expand upon in the coming years. Bioteau hopes to add similar partnerships with Stellar and Florida Blue soon.

"We want to reclaim the importance of the role we play in the Greater Jacksonville area," Bioteau said. "We also want to be responsive to the needs of the business community."

While forming collaborations and internship programs is a priority for FSCJ, making the degree programs themselves more flexible and career-focused is also a pressing concern.

Bioteau sees shorter certification programs and "stackable" degrees as an emerging trend in higher education. For students at FSCJ, who are generally career-focused and looking for jobs in the area after graduating that is particularly valuable.

Promoting a college environment that is based on the skills students need is a big part of that.

"Our degrees are broken up into stackable credentials so that people can come and go from college," Bioteau said. "They come for a skill, they develop a skill, they need another skill, they come back to develop that skill."

The college has also worked toward adding programs that reflect a changing workforce.

Its new logistics program, which spun off its existing two-year supply chain management degree, is a good example.

It’s Strategics in Mechatronics, a new and more computer-savvy way of teaching machining, is also another prime example, according to Bioteau.

"You no longer teach biology and chemistry and technology in a vacuum," Bioteau said. "Quite frankly, they're taught together because that convergence is what the workforce is telling us they need."

Going forward, Bioteau hopes to set up new relationships and a collaborative environment with other Jacksonville colleges, including the University of North Florida.

Bioteau and UNF President John Delaney have been in talks about establishing a "dual admission" so that when students are admitted to FSCJ, they have guaranteed admission to UNF.

"We're a great pipeline for UNF," Bioteau said. "Many students who don't seek their bachelor's degree here go there."

Bioteau said that the environment between all four local higher education institutions — FSCJ, UNF, Jacksonville University and Edward Waters College — is one of openness. Each meets a separate need in the community.

"Rather than developing competing programs and drawing students away from each other, we're intentionally working toward developing niche classes," Bioteau said.

"Every student is all of our students."