NICC's Penny Wills: "They trusted us"

Friday is the last day on the job for NICC President Penny Wills, who is leaving Northeast Iowa to take a job as president of the Yavapai College District in Prescott, Arizona.

As she leaves, Wills looks back on seven years of building partnerships between NICC and other community organizations--a process that she credits with producing the success the college has enjoyed.

The first success came with the passage of a $35 million bond issue on the second try--passage that Wills says was made possible by an open public discussion of the district's needs.  The bond issue kicked off a building boom on the Calmar and Peosta campuses, with 80 percent of the contracts going to local contractors and every single project coming in on time and under budget.

But beyond the new buildings, the spirit of cooperation has produced a number of new programs for NICC.  "The days of doing it alone are over," says Wills.  Instead, discussions between NICC officials and community groups resulted in programs such as the RAMS program at Oelwein, a cooperative program in Manchester with Upper Iowa University, the NE Iowa Dairy Center in Calmar.  It also led to the creation of new academic fferings, such as the Vet Tech and Chem Tech programs.  "You get to know what the community needs," says Wills, noting that each community is different.

Seven years after she started her job, the landscape is changing for schools like NICC.  "Community colleges are coming into their own," she notes, although with greater funding comes greater scrutiny and more strings attached.  That's OK with her, however.  "It's been fun, but challenging," she says.