Former Cleveland Metropolitan School District CEO Eric Gordon recently clarified the duties of his new job as Cuyahoga County Community College’s (Tri-C) senior vice president of student development and education pipeline.
In his last “Talk with the CEO” segment as school chief, Gordon said the newly created position at Tri-C has two core functions: identifying and eliminating hurdles that students and prospective students might face at Tri-C.
“What [Tri-C President] Dr. Baston has charged me with, in my words, is to really interrogate the system to figure out what makes it easy or hard to get into Tri-C, what makes it easy or hard to stay in Tri-C, and what makes it easy or hard to successfully leave Tri-C,” he said. “My job is to then get rid of the hard stuff, the barriers and micro barriers.”
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Eric Gordon said he wants to use the position to be an advocate for students and provide a platform to elevate student voices, like he tried to do at the Cleveland school district.
“Think of a Tri-C version of our student advisory committee,” Gordon said, referring to committees of students who had input on district policy.
He said he’ll also explore what role community college can have in students’ lives before graduating from high school.
Gordon added that Tri-C students should keep an eye out for him this fall.
“Fully expect me to be sitting on the commons of one of the three campuses, laptop out, and backpack on the floor, meeting students and learning about their experiences,” he said.