It was, with apologies to Charles Dickens, the best of times and the worst of times in Alabama’s community college system, according to its new chancellor, Bradley Byrne.
The scandals that had shaken public confidence in the two-year schools still had to play out to their dispiriting conclusion, Byrne said. But the system’s many undeniable strengths could be brought out of the shadows — encouraging the good teachers, administrators and staff, and persuading the public that the foolishness of the past was over.
The bad news, and the other news
The bad news would linger a while, Byrne acknowledged, as state and federal corruption investigations ran their course and new leadership was installed across the system. Alabama’s two-year colleges had been engulfed by revelations of double-dipping legislators on college payrolls, no-show jobs and contract abuses — and Bishop State Community College in Mobile had become one of the most visible faces of that scandal.
But the negatives, he said, would now have to compete with genuinely good news. He pointed to a $5 million renovation of the Southwest Campus of Bishop State, along with the creation of new campuses in north, south and west Mobile County.
Virtually ignored and untouched since the 1960s, the Southwest Campus was to become home to technical training in automotive repair, auto body work and the construction trades.
“We may also put the Manufacturing Sciences Center at Southwest if the engineering studies come back positive on the drainage for the part of the property we’re considering,” Byrne said. If the site proved unsuitable, that center would likely go to Bishop State’s new Brookley Campus, where an Aviation Sciences Center was planned as the centerpiece. A site off Highway 43 in north Mobile County had been offered as a donation for an adjunct campus. A Maritime Sciences Center was also envisioned, possibly on the Causeway just east of the tunnel.
Training a workforce for a boom
The building plans were not sentimental. They reflected the system’s central purpose: producing workers for industries that were arriving faster than the region could staff them.
Alabama announced 100 new and expanding industries that year, Byrne said, representing $5.7 billion in capital investment and 10,000 new jobs. In the Mobile area alone, the hiring needs of ThyssenKrupp, Berg Steel and Austal made the local community college essential to whether the region could actually capture the economic potential arriving on its doorstep.
Byrne argued that Bishop State’s troubles had blinded Mobile to what a well-run two-year college can do for a city. An enrollment of about 2,500 was ridiculous, he suggested, in a metropolitan area that should support at least four times that. To fix it, the college had to reach beyond downtown and the areas east of Interstate 65 and become genuinely accessible to people in southwest, west and north Mobile County.
Statewide, the system he inherited included 27 institutions — community colleges, technical colleges, a four-year university and the Marion Institute military academy — across 82 instructional sites, with 284,368 students, a third of them minorities, and an average student age of 27. Tuition ran about half that of the public universities. As an employer, the system had 11,000 workers and budgets approaching $1 billion.
Accountability, transparency, ethics
The “bad acts” of a few, Byrne said, should not permanently condemn a system full of competent educators doing vital work. To restore public confidence, he said the watchwords would be “accountability,” “transparency” and “ethics training for all.”
At Bishop State, he brought in the accounting firm Ernst & Young to examine the college’s finances from top to bottom — business operations, processes, financial controls, monitoring. On the academic side, James L. Fisher Ltd. was engaged to conduct an intensive institutional review and develop a strategic plan. A local firm, Sullivan-St. Clair, was hired to help tell the other side of the story.
Byrne expected a hard fight ahead with legislative interests who did not share his map for the system. In the meantime, he was on the road, and enjoying it.
“I’ve never had more fun than the last three months,” he said. He had visited 21 colleges and 16 branch campuses, typically touring the campus, meeting faculty and staff, holding a community meeting and giving at least one interview. “It’s physically very demanding, but the response is overwhelmingly positive.” He planned to reach the remaining six colleges and 12 branch campuses, plus the statewide AIDT staff, by Thanksgiving.
“By New Year’s, the department will be completely reorganized and fully staffed up, and the board and I will have appointed four new college presidents,” he said. “We have a lot of work left to do, but the progress is real.”
Who he was
Byrne had resigned his state Senate seat representing District 32 — most of Baldwin County — earlier that year to accept Gov. Bob Riley‘s offer of the chancellorship. A Mobile native, he lived in Fairhope with his wife, the former Rebecca Dukes, and their four children: Patrick, Kathleen, Laura and Colin.
His Senate vacancy triggered the special election in Baldwin County that was under way as he spoke. Byrne himself went on to run for governor in 2010, losing the Republican runoff, and was elected to Congress from Alabama’s 1st District in 2013.