It’s been a year of learning for Cynthia Bioteau.
Learning what the community thinks of and needs from Florida State College at Jacksonville, where she is celebrating her one-year anniversary.
Learning that sometimes blowing up a bad system (or two or three of them) and rebuilding is the right thing to do.
Learning that her new neighbors will happily help her finish off a half-bottle of wine on a weekend afternoon.
When Bioteau was hired to succeed Steve Wallace at FSCJ, it wasn’t the first time she had followed a troubled president.
But the very public controversy surrounding Wallace — both in how the college was run and how he did his job — left scars.
Expensive ones that cost FSCJ more than $7 million in penalties and fines.
Deep ones that left the college with a black eye in public and a broken spirit for many of its 57,000 students and more than 3,000 employees.
Bioteau has spent her first year creating a new course for the 50-year-old school, one that begins and ends with integrity and ethics.
There’s a new strategic plan, a new values statement and a new open line of communication internally and externally to the president’s office.
It’s been a busy year for Bioteau, who decided to pursue her doctorate at 45 on the advice of her boss. That led to a job as a provost and a deal that let her husband retire early.
Learning about deficiencies
As Bioteau walked around FSCJ’s Downtown campus on her first day, she thought about it being tucked beside Springfield, the bus station and Clara White Mission.
“We are smack dab in the middle of a community who needs education and training and hope more than any other community in this city,” she told herself.
To make sure the college was playing that role to the best of its ability, Bioteau invited 86 community leaders and business owners to help with strategic planning.
For three-and-a-half-hours, she listened about whether FSCJ was relevant to them and, if not, what the college needed to do.
Open access to high quality education is as relevant and important as ever, she was told. And it’s wonderful FSCJ sends graduates with degrees or technical certificates, they said.
Then came the “but.”
But, she was told, if they don’t show up on time for work five days a week, they aren’t drug-free and they can’t work as a team, they are useless as employees.
Bioteau took that information to about 400 people that afternoon. Most were staff and faculty, but there were a handful of students, as well.
She sought their help in assembling the framework for a three-year strategic plan with one-year benchmarks.
The engagement of the group thrilled her, with people working beyond the scheduled 5 p.m. quitting time.
“That is just so cool,” Bioteau said.
Three months and several iterations later, the board of trustees approved the strategic roadmap.
Next up was a values statement for the battered school.
At a convocation that filled the gym at FSCJ’s South Campus, participants came up with five overarching values for the school. She said she was not surprised that ethics and high integrity topped the list.
It’s something Bioteau is committed to at FSCJ, even when others may not understand that.
Cleaning up the mess
Bioteau had read about the troubles under Wallace, including problems with how the school handled financial aid. But, she said, what she found was shocking.
“We were in a mess,” she said. “There was no way I could have understood the depth or the severity of the financial aid fiasco.”
This is one of those areas where she needed to blow up the system.
She outsourced the majority of financial aid duties to a professional consultancy firm. “I had to do something to stop the bleeding,” she said.
She immediately became “very, very engaged” in establishing relationships with the federal financial aid office and the U.S. Department of Education.
“I was letting them know we will do whatever we need to do to make this right,” she said.
With 72 percent of the college’s students receiving financial assistance, she had to preserve FSCJ’s ability to award aid.
“It’s a lifeline to our students,” she said. “It’s a lifeline to the college.”
The departments’ understanding of her willingness to make it right likely kept FSCJ from facing fines in the second go-round, she said. In the end, the college paid out more than $7 million in penalties and fines.
Fast forward a year, FSCJ has an in-house financial aid director as Bioteau gradually works on bringing it back in-house.
Not everyone is OK with how she’s cleaned up the system, she said.
Some students who benefited from the laxity are a little upset.
So are students who chose programs based on how much money they could get for living expenses. “We don’t do that anymore,” Bioteau said.
And some faculty members are irritated they have to take attendance, she said.
When she hears grumbling about the changes, she reminds people of the college’s commitment to being transparent and ethical.
“You can’t be ethical part-time. You either are or you aren’t,” she said.
And that wasn’t the only system she’s blown up.
Revamping the ‘plumbing’
Bioteau discovered FSCJ’s advising and career counseling was done “incoherently and haphazardly.”
She hired a new vice president for student services who is revamping that system.
Strategic enrollment management is one of three areas of “engaged emphasis” for Bioteau.
“We don’t offer classes willy-nilly or just because that’s how we always offered them,” she said.
Another area of emphasis for her — and another that needed to be blown up — is the school’s enterprise management system. The system of how FSCJ handles business electronically, dealing with businesses and students was beyond antiquated.
The college had a “homegrown” system for as many years as anyone could remember, Bioteau said.
She’s made a five-year investment of $30 million to bring FSCJ into the 21st century.
Bioteau likens that decision to having to put new plumbing in a newly bought house. It would be lovely, she said, to put new curtains in the window or paint the house a new color or plant new flowers.
That would make it clear to everyone there’s a new family living inside, she said.
But, FSCJ’s plumbing had to be replaced first.
“It sounds like all I do is blow things up and I don’t,” Bioteau said with a laugh.
The other area she wants to focus on is getting FSCJ more civically involved. She’d like to see the college attain Carnegie Community Engagement Classification, which is a five-year process.
The first step is joining Campus Compact, which helps colleges and universities “integrate civic and community-based learning in the curriculum,” according to its website.
Bioteau said the college is talking about creating a center for civic engagement so all courses have a piece of service learning where students take theory and apply it to community service.
Pizza with the Prez
Bioteau has opened up communication with both staff and students.
She has open forums each month where there are two items on the agenda: What does she need to know and what do they need to know.
That certainly helps dispel rumors before they take off, she said.
“The grapevine is real strong here. Communication stinks but the grapevine is strong,” she said.
Justin Cran, president of Phi Theta Kappa, said Bioteau is student oriented.
He’s attended events where she’s met with students, such as Pizza with the Prez, and found her to be more than willing to answer questions.
Plus, Cran said, he finds her to be open to new ideas.
Being visible on all campuses is important, Bioteau said. Students and faculty often see their campus presidents and administrators. “But if they see their college president, it means not only are they important but she’s a real human being,” she said.
Bioteau said she tries to show “my human side” during the forums by talking about personal things, like going strawberry picking and making jam.
She reminds them that leadership belongs to everyone, from an administrative assistant who welcomes guests to provosts to students.
“I can’t turn this place around by myself, but if you help me, we can do it,” she said.
Educational unity
Bioteau is also receiving help from the presidents of the city’s other higher education institutions. She said John Delaney of the University of North Florida, Nat Glover of Edward Waters College and Tim Cost of Jacksonville University have been supportive from the beginning. The three men were part of Bioteau’s investiture Friday.
“I think that’s symbolic as to how important they are to our college and hopefully how important our college is to their institutions,” she said.
She said she’s called on Delaney when she’s needed to understand the “socio-cultural dynamics of the community.”
“There are times when I’m out there and I’ll be sort of perplexed by something and before jumping in with both feet or putting my foot in my mouth, I’ll call John and say help me understand,” she said.
Delaney, whom she described as an “intricate and exquisite politician,” helps her find a better way, she said.
Glover said he immediately saw Bioteau was sincere and committed to making sure the under-served in the community get the opportunity for higher education.
He praised her first year on the job. “There’s a kind of quality about her that she will no doubt be received well because there’s no hint of arrogance and no hint that she would not be approachable,” he said.
“If you’re a college president and people feel like you’re approachable, that’s a big hurdle,” Glover added.
He gave the invocation at her investiture, where he asked God: “If she leans, prop her up. If she falls, pick her up.”
Sealing a doctorate deal
Away from the college, Bioteau likes to hike, garden and shop for antiques. She and her husband, Frank, both enjoy gardening.
She also has time now to read for fun, something she had to give up when pursuing her doctorate. During those four years, whenever she found a book that she wanted to read for fun, she added it to a pile by her chair. In four years, she had two big piles of books waiting for her.
“I read every single one of them,” she said.
There’s always a book on her bed table. “That’s probably the last thing I do at night,” she said.
She and her husband have two adult children and four grandchildren. Frank has been retired for 10 years, thanks to a deal she made him when she decided to get her Ph.D.
He thought they should be thinking about retirement at the time, not going back to school and taking on debt. So Bioteau made him a deal: Let her get a Ph.D. and he could retire while she still worked.
“Darn if he didn’t remember that,” she laughed. “The minute I got my Ph.D. and became a provost and vice president of academic affairs, he retired.”
Bioteau, 62, described her activities outside work as pretty milquetoast.
“I’m just like a human being,” she said.
One who has become an expert at blowing things up and building them back up.
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