Dawn Lindsay Steps In

Is it a bird, is it a plane…no, it’s Dr. Dawn Lindsay, swooping in to fill the leadership vacuum at Glendale College. Unless you have been hiding out behind the San Gabriel Mountains, you must have heard that Dr. Lindsay officially stepped into the interim position of Superintendent/President on July 1, expanding her role from focusing on instructional activities to the overall welfare of the college.

As I conducted the interview, Dr. Lindsay was preparing to visit the nation’s capital with one of our trustees, in order to secure some much needed funding and to lend their support to some policy initiatives. The values of honesty and open communication appear at the top of her list of values and guiding principles. “Folks at the college need to realize that we are all responsible for the maintenance of the college, for moving the college forward, and for ensuring that we are here for at least another 80 years,” Dr. Lindsay said. That being said, Dawn (she insisted I call her by her first name) feels that the primary reason for the campus’s success and strong stature is its faculty and staff, who have tirelessly built the reputation we enjoy, despite the obstacles that all higher educational institutions face.

Dawn’s chief concerns are our students and the community. “Their needs as major stakeholders of the community should be front and center in regards to every decision we make in terms of our programs here at the college.” Having set those objectives, she is working tirelessly to secure the funding at the state and federal level, while not forgetting those at the community level. The community has a lot to offer and gain from the “Best Kept Secret in Glendale,” and Dr. Lindsay is making sure we are in the right position to take advantage of those resources.

Looking back at some of the goals she had set for herself two years ago as Vice President of Instruction, the results are pretty impressive. Enrollment was an issue at the time, and under her leadership we have now moved to an enrollment management model. Our web-enhanced and online course offerings have also increased from 4% to a whopping 15%, yet she feels that there is always room for growth.

I shared with Dawn an article from UCS’s Daily Trojan in which she is quoted on the impact budget cuts have made on community colleges. It is a real boon for Glendale College to be regarded as a voice in the larger community of higher education. Her parting words to me were: “When people know you are honest, that you have integrity and that your interest is the institution, they may disagree with your decisions but they won’t attack your reasons for making those decisions.” She knows that there are rough seas ahead, but our captain has no intention of keeping our ship at the dock.

Together, we will ride out the storm.

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