Fitzpatrick cites basic mission in life

CLOVIS - Although he'd prefer to do it at Clovis Community College, Michael Fitzpatrick said his basic mission in life doesn't change based on his job or location.

"It's about what I leave behind," Fitzpatrick told a group of residents during his Friday forum at CCC. "I serve a God more important than me. If I can't show God in his glory, I don't need another breath in me."

Fitzpatrick, the final finalist candidate interviewed for the CCC president's position, addressed 16 people during his late afternoon public forum. He hopes to succeed Becky Rowley, who left CCC in June to take the president's position at Santa Fe Community College.

A current vice president of instruction at Pratt Community College in Kansas, Fitzpatrick has time in the Land of Enchantment as a faculty researcher at New Mexico State University.

"My goal has always been to return to New Mexico," Fitzpatrick said. "My intention was never to leave New Mexico, but when it was time to transition into the administrative world, there were no positions for which I was qualified."

Fitzpatrick said he would evaluate his time at CCC as a series of snapshots over the future years. You naturally want the best nursing program you can to make a current student happy, of course, but Fitzpatrick said you also have to think of that student as the nurse who could one day provide you needed care, and later as the parent whose child would consider CCC.

When asked of his successes, Fitzpatrick said Pratt made great strides in its nursing, information technology and electrical lineman programs since his arrival in 2015. The nursing program had just lost its accreditation when Fitzpatrick arrived, and he said the unpopular decision of a one-year enrollment cessation helped the school fix the program's issues.

Fitzpatrick referred back to those programs when asked about his views on in-person instruction against the movement to online coursework. He said the electrical lineman program was 90% online, but some hands-on learning must be in person. One audience member was a current nursing student, and Fitzpatrick rhetorically asked her if she could do her clinicals from a computer.

When asked about the standardization of New Mexico curriculum, Fitzpatrick said many programs require standardization because you're working with the same equipment wherever you go, but stressed that post-secondary education is a "last bastion of freedom" and that faculty should challenge ways of thinking and show students how to critically consume the information they receive.

A question was proffered as to how Fitzpatrick would provide for faculty and staff professional development during tight budgets, to which Fitzpatrick said a college could go multiple routes, whether it's finding online opportunities, or bringing a trainer or an entire conference to the college instead of paying hundreds or thousands of dollars per staffer in travel and training across the country.

When asked about the heart and pulse he'd provide for CCC, Fitzpatrick stressed the importance of meeting people where they were at - whether they're student, employee or community member - and finding out what they need done. Sometimes they want the moon and all you can offer is a handshake, Fitzpatrick said, but it's important they know their concerns are heard.