From Staff Reports
Published: Monday, August 25, 2008
On June 1, Dr. Edward Meadows took office as PJC’s president. The Corsair’s Tom Moody recently had the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Meadows for an interview to discuss the start of his career at PJC.
Q. Why did you choose to come to PJC?
A. PJC historically has a tremendous reputation for being student centered and PJC has had a long and successful history of meeting the challenges of this area in Florida.
Q. How was the move over to Pensacola?
A. We are still in transition. We have an apartment, and we are looking for a home; but the job is more important than the home right now. We are going slow on that.
Q. Are you enjoying the community so far?
A. Oh yes, we’re finding that Pensacola is an unusual and unique community because of its historical history that is both intriguing and very atypical of a Gulf coast town.
Q. Have any problems arisen since taking office?
A. The most difficult problem thus far has been the financial situation of the state and the economic downturn that has led to about a 14 percent reduction in funding for PJC as well as the other institutions of higher education. It has been a daunting challenge to cut the budget and insure that the quality of instruction at the college isn’t jeopardized.
Q. What is your vision for PJC?
A. It is too early to have a clear vision for the school. The process is extremely important to me as to how we arrive at a vision. We’ve undertaken the process of forming a vision through a SWOT analysis to the community and the college. A SWOT analysis is an assessment of Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats. We are providing the employees of the college, as well as community members, the opportunity to give their assessment regarding those four indicators of strategic planning. At the conclusion of the SWOT analysis we intend to present the results to our Board of Trustees as a way to begin a strategic planning process for the college that will lead us to the vision for the future. This process is an inclusive shared vision. It will come from the people who need the services that PJC offers, the people that recognize what PJC needs to do for the community that we are currently not doing, and it will also represent what the community thinks we could do in the future that we have never done before.
Q. What do you like to do for fun?
A. I exercise occasionally, and I ride horses. I am also a shotgun enthusiast, and enjoy shooting sporting clays. In fact, we are working on a project for our foundation to do a sporting clay fund raiser for the college. We will invite shot gunners to participate as teams in a sporting clay event.
Q. Have you seen the new Batman movie?
A. I have.
Q. What did you think of it?
A. I think it was the darkest of the Batman series. It showed less of the superhuman and more the humanistic side of a person that might be caught figuratively in the situation that he found himself in. I give it a 4 out of 5.
Q. Do you have a message for the student body?
A. Students that are coming from high school should be reflective upon the opportunity in terms of making friends. If they can do one good thing at PJC other than making good grades, it would be to get to know at least one professor well enough that that professor will know them by their first name and that that professor will know them well enough to write them a letter of recommendation.