Clark State College is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. President Jo Alice Blondin says after more than a half century, the college continues to grow. In this interview with WYSO’s Jerry Kenney, she talks about the institution’s latest addition to its curriculum - a Bachelor’s degree in addiction and treatment services. And also her recent appointment as Chair of the Higher Learning Commision Board of Trustees.
We're just kind of catching up to the news that at the end of June, Clark State held an event to celebrate its 60th year. And we wanted you to talk a little bit about the event itself, and how the college has grown in its time in providing higher education to the local community, and really beyond.
So, we gathered our faculty, staff, students, community members, board members and supporters of Clark State to celebrate our 60th anniversary through a variety of activities. We've been actually celebrating all year, and we started on Charter Night, which is a celebration in February when the college was founded in 1962, when our charter was established. And so, this was really an informal family day fun event to get everybody outside. Of course, it was 95 degrees on that day, but we had a good time. We were happy to be outside and together, and we had food and games and fun. And most of the trivia was around the founding of Clark State and different programs, and in our five locations were represented, our five athletic programs were represented, our 57 board members that have served since 1962 were represented at the table that my office put together. So, it was just a great day to learn about Clark's history in a really informal way. And, of course, we have plenty of formal celebrations, but it's nice to just, you know, be together, too.
You also gathered input on what I believe is a time capsule that you're planning?
We are! We're in the process of doing that. And we're going to gather the items over the course of the next several months and then plant the time capsule at our next charter night ceremony, which will be in February of 23.
So let's talk about the economic impact of the college for the local community over the years. Obviously, you've grown and continue to grow. But let's talk about the importance of the institution to this area.
Yeah, the study that was most recently done in 2017 showed an economic impact of $161 million that the college, as in our region, we have grown since 2017. And of course, we are we continue to grow throughout the region. We've added to that in those intervening years, we've added a campus, we've added three bachelor’s degree programs. We have added some activities and facilities on our main campus on Leffle Lane and improved many of our facilities. So, our impact is much greater. And I know that we're going to be doing another study with the Strategic Ohio Council on Higher Education, SOCHE here in the next year or two through the University of Cincinnati. So, we'll get some updated numbers, but $161 million still sounds really good to me. So, I'll go with that and just say it's more than that, too.
Let's talk a little bit about that third four-year degree that you've mentioned and that has to do with addiction and treatment. And that is something that really there is no community across the country that is not facing a need like this. So how will you fulfill that need with this new degree?
[The] Bachelor of Applied Science in Addiction and Integrated Treatment Studies has been an absolute labor of love on behalf of our social work programs and our chemical dependency programs. We have associate degrees and certificate programs in those areas, and the mental health community and the addiction communities, the providers of services to these individuals came together and knew that Clark State was the right provider to bring these two areas together and offer this degree program. We first proposed this degree and in 2017 - 2018 timeframe and have been working on that since. And we're really grateful to the Ohio Department of Education for their work with us to get this degree passed. Because, you know, a lot of things we do in higher education aren’t life and death, but this is definitely one of those. And the addiction that, first of all, many people who have mental health issues also have co-occurring addiction disorders of some kind. So, we wanted to make sure we brought those two things together and a degree program that really is the first of its kind in the country, especially for practitioners. It is designed for the practitioner, but of course for your institutions have also stepped forward and say we would like to have your students in our master's group program like Ohio State.
And then I will also add that this program is extremely important for this region. It was already timely. We knew about the opioid crisis and the alcohol abuse crisis that affects Ohio and frankly, the entire country. But the pandemic exacerbated a lot of these problems. It didn't get better. And so, we want to make sure that we're part of that solution as well. So, this couldn't be a better-timed program. And so, we're really excited to offer it in the fall. We had 100 people on our waiting list when we just got accreditation approval for it last week, officially last Friday. And so, we're registering students as we speak, and we hope to have about 30 to 40 students in the program for fall.
That's great. And I believe you're also, correct me if I'm wrong, expanding in the area of performance arts. Is that correct?
Well, what we're doing right now is we're doing two things in the performing arts. Of course, we have our lovely 1500 seat performing arts center, the Kuss Auditorium in Springfield, and then the Turner Studio Theater. We've got a lot of different venues, many partners in with the Greater Springfield Partnership and others have come together to talk about expanding the venues downtown to include more flat space, more opportunity for meetings and conferences on a larger scale in Springfield to get kind of that mid-market. And so that's something that we've looked at.
And we're also we've engaged with a consultant, Keane Associates, to take a look at our performing arts center and just kind of review our operations and make sure that we're really preparing for the future. Because, again, the pandemic changed the way that we think of the arts and the way that we consume the arts as well. And we just want to make sure that we're doing what our communities want us to do. So, we're gathering input. On the 2nd of August, we have a town hall on Zoom so, you don't need to drive to Springfield, you're welcome to join, and I can provide that link to you, Jerry, so that you could put it on the website if you want.
And finally, also the latest news is that you were just appointed as chair of the Higher Learning Commission, the board of trustees. Tell us what your focus will be there.
Sure. So, the Higher Learning Commission is our what were then called regional accreditors. I won't go into all the details, so your eyes glaze over but what I will share is that we are we ensure quality across a what was then a 19-state region, which is what is now national. So, we're a national accreditor and we are, of course, I think, the most innovative of the accrediting bodies and really focus on student success and how we put the student at the center of everything that we do, whether we're a huge research institution like a Purdue or Ohio State, a small liberal arts college like Wilmington, or a community college that also offers bachelor's degrees like Clark State. And so, we do a, I believe that we do a really good job of peer review, and that is how we accredit these institutions. But of course, there are a lot of changes in higher education, and we are adapting to those changes through the processes which we do review quality. So, I'm excited to lead that for the next two years. I've been involved in accreditation for about 25 years with the with the Higher Learning Commission formally since 2005. And I always say that I am I'm an accreditation nerd. And when I was probably 12 or 13 years old, I said to my parents, I would love someday to be the chair of the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association, being from Indiana and only working in HLC schools. And guess what? My dream came true at the ripe old age of 51. So here I am and excited.
Well, that's great, and that leads right into my next question. So even at a young age, what has drawn you to this work in general?
I've always wanted to; I always knew I would be a college professor since I was little. And I'm an English professor by training so, I always knew that I would I knew I'd love college and I did. I never left. And so, I love college and I just wanted to help students. I started tutoring and helping when I was an undergraduate and it was a calling, but I also got involved in student government and saw how I could affect change. So, I thought, you know what, you might be a good administrator someday. And I, I did. I remember when I was a sophomore at Purdue, Junior at Purdue, I said, you know, I could maybe I could be a college president. So that's the way I got into that. But as far as getting into the quality assurance it was through, teaching English and wanting to be more involved in providing assurance that credit transferred, and that's really what we also do as part of Higher Learning Commission.
Jo Alice Blondin is president of Clark State College. Jo Alice, thank you so much. Continued success to you and to the college.
Thank you. I really appreciate it.
And thanks for your time today.
You're welcome.
