Page 29 - BusinessWest August 8, 2022

looked at through the lens of ethnic diversity — and that is certainly part of it. But there are many aspects to this matter, some more visible than oth- ers, and they must all be considered at institutions like GCC.
“It’s a little cliché, but this is a bit
of an iceberg topic,” she explained. “There are the physical things that
we notice about each other, and then there’s the 90% of the iceberg that’s below the water line; you really need to get to know someone before you can fully understand how they, too, are diverse.”
Schutt told BusinessWest that, after more than 20 years of work in higher- education administration — work that had taken her from St. Cloud, Minn. to Hanover, Ind., Laramie, Wyo., and then Idaho, she considered herself ready to be a college president, and began look- ing to apply for such positions.
This recognition didn’t come over- night, she said, and it was actually several years after the then-president of CSI asked her to consider that posi- tion before she considered herself truly qualified and ready to take the helm at a campus.
“If they’re stressed about some sort of insecurity
or some issue related to childcare or transportation, it’s really difficult to
focus on calculus. That’s where student affairs and student services come in — to educate the entire student.”
She said she looked at a few oppor- tunities that presented themselves
— there have been a number of retire- ments and shifts in leadership in high- er education (as in other sectors) over the past few years — but soon focused her attention on GCC.
Schutt said the school — which this year celebrates its 60th anniversary
— and its mission, the area it serves, the team in place, and the institution’s prospects for future growth and evolu- tion all appealed to her.
Her immediate goals are to become acquainted with the school, its staff and faculty, as well as Greenfield and the broader area served by the college.
Looking longer-term, she said she wants to properly position GCC for a future where enrollment will be even more of a challenge than it is today, and where students’ ‘needs,’ a broad term to be sure, will only grow.
“Nationally, we’re heading for an enrollment cliff,” she said, adding that
2025 is the year when already-declining numbers are expected to reach a new and more ominous level. “We have to ensure that we’re offering what people need and what people are looking for; we have to take a look at what we’re doing in workforce and in community education and what we’re doing with credit-based courses, and align those with good outcomes.”
Course of Action
As noted, Schutt brings to GCC a résumé dominated by work in student services, with a focus on diversity and inclusion.
At the College of Southern Idaho,
where she started in 2015, she held sev- eral positions, starting with associate vice president of Student Services, then vice president of that same depart- ment, and, starting just last year, vice president of Community and Learner Services.
She lists a number of accomplish- ments, including a sharp rise in enroll- ment for the 2020-21 school year; steady increases in Hispanic student enrollment, from 17.8% in 2015-16 to 26.3% in 2109-20; and improvement in the graduation rate from 20% in 2016 to 34% in 2020.
But she believes many of her most significant gains came in the realm of
diversity, equity, and inclusion. Indeed, Schutt noted that, in help-
ing CSI become a Hispanic Serving Institution (HIS), she recruited and hired bilingual staff members for each area of Student Services, spearheaded CSI’s first HIS Week, lobbied the board of trustees for gender-neutral bath- rooms on campus, developed and offered a program called Parent College in both English and Spanish, estab- lished the Gay-Straight Alliance student group, and advocated for and hired
the school’s first full-time veterans’ coordinator.
Prior to CSI, she served as director of Student Affairs at Penn State Uni-
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