Murray reflects on her accomplishments at HCCC

HERKIMER — While her tenure may not have been as long as her predecessors at Herkimer County Community College (HCCC), retiring President Ann Marie Murray leaves behind a legacy full of accomplishments at the school.

Murray, Ph.D., began her role as the college’s president in August 2008, taking over for Ronald Williams, who served as president from 1986 through June 2008. Before him, Robert McLaughlin served as HCCC’s first president from its inception in 1966 through 1986.

While Murray finishes up her last weeks at HCCC, a  school with a $24 million budget for 2013-14, the college’s board of directors is already at work mapping out a plan to find its fourth president.

“Right now, we’re in the middle of researching search firms,” says Isabella Crandall, vice chair of the board. The HCCC board has narrowed it down to five search firms that it is now studying further. Crandall, speaking with The Business Journal on Dec. 12, said the board hoped to have a better idea of its next steps after a meeting planned for Dec. 18.

“It’s such an important decision to make that we want to cover all the bases,” she says. Faculty, staff, the college community, and the surrounding community will all have an opportunity to provide input as the process moves forward, she notes.

“She’s been amazing,” Crandall says of Murray, and replacing her won’t be easy. The HCCC board wants to make sure it finds the right person to follow in Murray’s footsteps.

Murray herself had some big shoes to fill and some key tasks to accomplish as HCCC’s third president. Right off the bat, she was given two directives by the college’s board of directors — improving the school’s image within the community, especially student behavior, and addressing the college’s at-risk accreditation with the Commission of Higher Education. Accreditation is crucial for an institution to be able to access financial aid for its students, Murray notes, so her mission was a critical one.

With those directives in mind, Murray spent her first two years as president working to make sure that HCCC met the goals set by the Commission of Higher Education to improve its performance in the areas of strategic planning, mapping institutional effectiveness, and assessing student-learning outcomes. The college adopted a new five-year strategic plan in June 2010 and took the necessary steps to improve the other areas, Murray says.

“It’s very, very important,” she says of the accreditation, “and we received accreditation for 10 years.” The college was such a success story, she says, that it was invited to the commission’s national conference to share its story and help other schools struggling with accreditation.

Students also came under Murray’s watchful eye in other ways including their involvement in the community through volunteering and other efforts as well as their academic efforts.

“Not all students come to learn,” Murray acknowledges, and that became apparent as the college evaluated student data and assessed the college readiness of students both within Herkimer County and from other areas. The result was a policy, approved in 2009 and later modified in 2010, requiring that new out-of-county applicants have a minimum high school grade-point average of 68.

“That made a major change,” Murray says. One big change was that enrollment at HCCC fell, but more important was the change in the campus culture, she says. Teachers began seeing that students were more focused on their work, and the entire campus has benefited from a more academic environment, Murray says.

And since then, enrollment numbers have been recovering. HCCC has a current enrollment of 3,221 full-time and part-time students. And, applications are ahead of estimates for the fall 2014 semester, she says.

HCCC offers more than 40 majors, 18 completely online.

While Murray is proud to have successfully met the tasks outlined for her by the college’s board, she’s equally proud of the achievements on her personal list of goals as president. Those accomplishments include:

·      Establishing a teaching and learning center for college faculty to continue learning and stay current on trends and technology;

·      Creating a Center for Global Learning to better serve HCCC’s international students and students interested in international study;

·      Completing a $2.8 million renovation of the college’s science wing to update its lab facilities, funded through a $1.4 million fundraising campaign and $1.4 million in matching funds from the state;

·      Completing a $1 million renovation to the college’s cafeteria;

·      Relocating the offices associated with the admissions process to make things more streamlined for prospective and new students;

·      Centralizing the student advisement area and creating a welcoming and private space; and,

·      Establishing a Herkimer Community Museum, located near the Frank J. Basloe Public Library in Herkimer, that displays replicated artifacts and associated paintings and prints and is open to the community. Since it opened in March 2012, more than 1,000 people have visited the museum.

HCCC is also part of the SUNY Manufacturing Alliance for Research and Technology Transfer, which received a $15 million SUNY 2020 Grant from the state in June to build new facilities, develop training programs, and add or expand academic programs. HCCC will use its share of the funds to build its Center for Quality Assurance, where it will offer two quality assurance programs, one for business and one for science.

In her final month as president, Murray will oversee a new branding initiative that will give the college a “whole new look and feel,” she says.

While she is retiring to attend to personal family matters, Murray says she’s not leaving academia entirely. She and her family plan to return to their roots in the Capital District, and Murray says she plans to work with higher-education institutions on matters such as program development.

Prior to joining Herkimer County Community College, Murray served as vice president for academic affairs at Broome Community College (SUNY Broome) and worked for 24 years at Hudson Valley Community College in a variety of positions including dean of business and engineering and industrial technologies. She holds several degrees from the University at Albany, including a doctorate degree in curriculum and instruction and master’s degrees in advanced classroom teaching and instructional technology.

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