In the Times-Union: Holcombe's Rescue of FSCJ "from his heart."

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Will Holcombe had just retired from the Florida College System when he received a phone call.

It was Gwen Yates, who, at the time, was board chairwoman of Florida State College at Jacksonville.

The college was having some issues, particularly with financial aid and the spending habits of its then-president. The troubles led to FSCJ parting ways with its president and Yates needed an interim leader, someone willing to steady the ship until a new president arrived.

Holcombe said yes, knowing that his one-year stint would mean he must fix the financial aid issues looming over the college. Holcombe, who spent all of his career in the Florida College System, said he took the challenge because he wanted the college to be healthy and efficient again.

Now, one year later, those who worked directly with Holcombe say he not only fixed the issues, but he made changes that renewed the faith of many college employees and relieved students of thousands of dollars of debt.

Known in Florida’s higher education system as the mild-mannered former U.S. Marine Corps officer who had a pleasant way of drawing input from others on important decisions, Holcombe is leaving FSCJ with the respect of the faculty and gratitude of top-level administrators.

“The day he walked in, it was like ‘Thank God,’ ” Yates said.

He didn’t have to come out of retirement, but one college administrator said she’s glad Holcombe did because he set the college up to be successful for many years to come.

“He really did this from his heart,” said Judith Bilsky, the college’s provost. “In one short year, the college has really gotten to know Dr. Holcombe and he was so important in this time of turmoil.”

Holcombe’s year as interim president ends Tuesday, paving the way for newly appointed president Cynthia Bioteau to start Jan. 13. Until then, Bilsky will be the acting president. Holcombe said part of what drove him this past year is because he knew that FSCJ is important to this region. It’s a school that must operate efficiently because it is the biggest open-access college between Atlanta and Orlando. It’s a college where many Duval County public school graduates will land and a place that can help entice new businesses to the First Coast.

“I didn’t think it was going to be a cakewalk,” Holcombe said. “It was a year, yes, but the impact of what I did will come much later.”

A YEAR’S WORTH OF DECISIONS

In January 2013, Holcombe became the interim president. He inherited a college with an incoming $10 million budget shortfall and a place where 1,331 students needed to pay back about $4 million in federal Pell grants, which were incorrectly given to the students. In the middle of the Pell grant issue, the state inspector general was investigating the spending habits of former FSCJ President Steve Wallace.

Holcombe said in an ideal world he would have had much more time to meet the college community before getting started.

“But I didn’t have a lot of time to listen, so I read a lot, read information I hadn’t seen and I had a lot of meetings and even met with the inspector general,” Holcombe said.

As the year went on, Holcombe made several key decisions that impacted the college and its students.

To fix the budget shortfall, he eliminated 76 positions and that saved the college $4.7 million. He reduced the number of college vice presidents and reassigned those executives to positions with lowered salaries, which saved money for the budget hole as well. Finally, he used a $6.5 million pot of college scholarship money to forgive the students in the Pell grant troubles, a move that many FSCJ professors and board trustees applauded.

“The faculty always thought that should have been done,” said Karen Morian, the college’s faculty union president. “They were pleasantly surprised when he made that move. This was not the fault of students; they signed up for grants, not a loan. I heard no faculty disagreement once that decision was made.”

Yates said the board trustees liked the decision because it showed that Holcombe was thinking about what was best for students.

“Yes it was taking money away from our scholarships, but those were still our students,” she said.

Holcombe reassigned the vice presidents, he said, because there were too many people, almost a dozen, reporting directly to the president.

“And what that said to me is that the president can’t supervise that many people at the same time, which means somebody isn’t being supervised,” he said.

Now only three people will report to Bioteau. Students who once faced paying back thousands of dollars to the college are free from debt. And perhaps more importantly, Holcombe said, the 2013-14 budget is balanced.

Yates said it was important that FSCJ balanced its budget because there is no way the college can plan to be better in the future if its administrators can’t budget the money available now.

HEADING BACK WEST

When Yates thinks back on the decision on who would serve as interim leader, she recalls that the board had a short list of candidates. Holcombe was the best choice the for job, she said, because he had been the Florida College System chancellor and he had good relationships with state lawmakers who sit on education-related committees. Holcombe had also been the college president in Broward, Yates said, which meant he could hit the ground running in Jacksonville.

In the middle of making the big decisions, Holcombe spent time with state lawmakers and assured them that FSCJ would be OK, Bilsky said. He spent another chunk of time meeting with college employees, telling them the recent issues could be resolved and the college will move forward.

Bilsky said, in short, “he knew the college had a lot of healing to do.”

Holcombe will leave FSCJ after the college’s board meeting Tuesday. With his eyes now set on being back in Montana by Christmas, Holcombe believes the healing at FSCJ has started.

“I think there’s a new attitude toward the college,” he said. “People are getting focused now on how to serve the students and how to serve the community — and we ought to be doing that.”

Khristopher J. Brooks: (904) 359-4104