This July I joined Wilbur Wright College as its president. Never having been a college president before, I did what all academics do when starting a new task: head to a library for resources to study the literature. Scores of books are published every year on college leadership and presidencies, and an increasing number focus…
Author: David Potash
Recasting Remedial Education
Contemporary discussions about remedial education are often cast in the rhetoric of crisis, high cost, and failure. Remedial education, the courses and programs that help students with the basic mathematics, writing, and reading skills necessary to be college ready, is a long-standing component of many community college students’ lives. In fact, more than half of…
College Presidency and an Early Thanksgiving
Since the end of July I have a new position: president of Wilbur Wright College, one of the seven community colleges in the City Colleges of Chicago system. Diverse, dynamic, committed to serving its students and community, Wright College is similar to the thousand other public community colleges in the United States. We are an…
Smart Scientists, Smart Engineers, Smart Company
Growing up in northern New Jersey in the 1960s and 1970s, everyone knew about Bell Laboratories. A major employer and a company with well-publicized inventions, Bell Labs was talked about as a good employer and a place where things happened. There was always a kid who had a parent who worked at Bell Labs or…
Does Failing Mean Failure?
What does a failing school look like? Ron Berler’s latest book, Raising the Curve: A Year Inside One of American’s 45,000 Failing Public Schools is an in-depth attempt to answer that deceptively simply question. Berler, a seasoned journalist who has written on youth issues for The Chicago Tribune and many magazines, embedded himself in the Brookside Elementary…
University Presidents – Padilla’s Portraits in Leadership
Recently the Ohio State University’s president, Gordon Gee, announced his retirement in the face of criticism over some embarrassing statements he made. Rutgers University’s president, Robert Barchi, is facing a barrage of criticism over a number of issues, most saliently his handling of problems with Rutgers’ athletics programs. Gee and Barchi are both smart and…
Commencements & Graduations
Last weekend I had the privilege and responsibility of participating in the 2013 graduation ceremonies at Curry College. It was a beautiful day and by all accounts, an extremely successful ceremony. The featured speaker was Kenneth Feinberg, the attorney who distributed the 9-11 fund and is currently overseeing the One Boston fund. More than 800…