EWC Board of Trustees Announces Finalists for President

June 6, 2008

TORRINGTON, WY -

Joe McCann
Tom Armstrong

The Eastern Wyoming College Board of Trustees has announced two finalists for the position of President for the College. The finalists represent college leadership from the states of Colorado and North Dakota. The candidates will be interviewed by the members of the EWC Board of Trustees. Faculty, staff, students, and the community will have an opportunity to meet the candidates during open forums to be held at the EWC campus June 30 and July 1.

The finalists are Dr. Thomas Armstrong, vice president for instructional services; and Dr. Joe McCann, president.

Dr. Armstrong has been in his present position with Otero Junior College, LaJunta, CO for nine years. Otero has an FTE of 1250 and a headcount of 1650. In addition to serving in this capacity, he has also served as the Associate Dean for Instructional Services, the Director of Continuing Education and as a member of the OJC faculty.

Dr. Armstrong lists as his top four accomplishments while Vice President at OJC:

  1. Retained or achieved the respect and buy-in from most people on campus and in the community, allowing the college to maintain strengths and enact many improvements. Worked collaboratively with friends kept and earned "Tom" rather than Dr. Armstrong.
  2. Coordinator/Writer HLC/NCA Self-study awarded ten year accreditation-2007 with new criteria and approved for HLC Assessment Academy-Student Success Strategies S3 assessment team at OJC assuring Student Learning Outcomes.
  3. New and improved learning environments, theatre, smart classrooms, web platform, training, professional development, and support through additional staffing and new science labs, new and updated nursing labs (including mobile simulator), mediated learning labs in math, reading, writing, and Smarthinking 24/7 online tutorials.
  4. Recasting Colorado Common Course Numbering (14,000+ courses to approximately 4,000) and transition to 60+ 60 CDHE Guaranteed Transfer model. Syllabus review. Dr. McCann has served for seven and one-half years in his current position at Williston State College in Williston, ND where the enrollment is 800 credit students and 2800 work force trainees.

Dr. McCann also served as the Vice President of Education and Student Development for three years and Vice President of Educational Programs and Resources for three years at Tomball College in the North Harris Montgomery Community College District, Texas. He spent three years as the Dean of Instruction at Highland Community College in Kansas.

Dr. McCann lists as his top four accomplishments while president at Williston State College:

  1. The number of career and technical programs expanded from 18 to 38 and the proportion of credit students in career and technical programs increased from 32% in the fall of 2000 to 49% in the fall of 2007. Increased summer credit enrollment by over 400%; the number of part time students by 125% from 181 in fall 2000 to 407 in fall 2006; and the number of distance education students from 70 in fall 2000 to 507 in fall 2006.
  2. Established a Petroleum Safety and Technology Center which includes an 11 acre training site with two wells for training, down-hole testing, and equipment and process trials, an oil well service rig, petroleum fire mock-ups for fire training, and truck driving training. This $2.4 million project resulted in over 2,100 employees being trained last fiscal year.
  3. Started up workforce training serving businesses in 1/4th of the state of North Dakota.
  4. Started online instruction and established online programs.

The finalists were selected from a larger group of candidates interviewed by the EWC Presidential Search Committee and recommended to the Board of Trustees. The Search Committee is headed by EWC Trustee President Sherri Lovercheck and includes both College and community representatives.

Campus forums will be held for employees and the community to meet the prospective presidential candidates. In addition to the open public forums, there will be meetings scheduled with the Board of Trustees, and the College leadership including representatives from administration, faculty, professional and classified employees, and student government.