Thursday is the first day on the job for SIU-Carbondale interim Chancellor Brad Colwell.
Colwell left a job he admits he enjoyed as a dean at Bowling Green State University in Ohio to become the head of the SIU-C campus for the next two years while university leaders search for a permanent chancellor.
The Bluford native in Jefferson County says he realizes there are great challenges in front of him with a budget crisis and enrollment declines, but he always had a goal of returning to SIU-C, where he taught for 14 years, and making a difference.
"We're going to work on enrollment. We're going to do the best we can to deal with fiscal issues, and we're not going to be Pollyannaish about it. We know there are issues, but we're going to deal with them. And, dealing with them means dealing with it in a collaborative, consultative kind of way. We're not going to do anything to anyone. It will be something where together, with the different constituencies fully involved, fully informed."
Colwell says he needs help from outside the campus as well.
"It's going to take the Carbondale community; it's going to take Jackson County, and it's going to take southern Illinois to pitch in. It's going to take Bluford, Illinois to pitch in to make this thing go. For me, that's actually very exciting."
Colwell says his first priorities are to meet with as many people on campus as possible to let them know they will be a part of the process of turning things around. In fact, he had lunch Thursday with several student group leaders.
