'Student by Student'
Christina Royal inaugurated as fourth Ώμ²¥³ΙΘΛ president
In her inauguration address, Ώμ²¥³ΙΘΛ Community College president Christina Royal affirmed her commitment to the community college concept - that everyone deserves the opportunity for an affordable and high quality college education.
"We accept Ώμ²¥³ΙΘΛs under any circumstances and meet them where they are, determine what they need, empower them to see their own potential, guide them on their educational journey, and stand proudly with them at graduation," she said from the podium in Ώμ²¥³ΙΘΛ's Leslie Phillips Theater. "And, Ώμ²¥³ΙΘΛ by Ώμ²¥³ΙΘΛ, this is how you build an educated society."
Royal spoke Friday soon after Ώμ²¥³ΙΘΛ Ώμ²¥³ΙΘΛ trustee Jonathan Jasmin of Westfield placed the presidential medallion around her neck, marking her official installation as the fourth president of the college and the first woman to hold that position.
Her address capped the inauguration ceremony, which was attended by some 200 members of the campus community, dignitaries, and guests, including Royal's family. In her speech, she traced her educational journey from a first-generation college Ώμ²¥³ΙΘΛ who grew up in a low-income, bi-racial family to the top spot at Ώμ²¥³ΙΘΛ, a job she began in January.
"Ώμ²¥³ΙΘΛ's mission and commitment to access, equity, success and affordability is deeply personal to me ... ," she said. "No one in my immediate family graduated from college. No one. I literally had no concept of college and no one to give me perspective on it."
"But I did know this," she added. "If I wanted to create a future that was less burdensome than the one my parents had, I needed to do something differently."
What she did was decide that college was her gateway to a more prosperous life, even though her family could not afford the cost.
"Tuition and fees were paid by Pell and other grants, a presidential scholarship, work-study opportunities and Ώμ²¥³ΙΘΛ loans," she said. "When my family dropped me off at college, we were thinking that I was set for the first year, only to find out that I needed another $400 for books for my first semester. We just didn't have it."
Click here to read the full text of her inauguration speech ...
The procession into the theater that opened the inauguration ceremony included the presidents of the other Massachusetts community colleges, as well as the leaders from some of Ώμ²¥³ΙΘΛ's top transfer partners: Smith College, Mount Ώμ²¥³ΙΘΛ College, Elms College and Westfield State University.
Carlos E. Santiago, Massachusetts commissioner of Higher Education, offered brief remarks as did Ώμ²¥³ΙΘΛ mayor Alex Morse, state Rep. Aaron Vega of Ώμ²¥³ΙΘΛ, Ώμ²¥³ΙΘΛ Board of Trustees chair Robert Gilbert, Ώμ²¥³ΙΘΛ Spanish professor Monica Torregrosa, Ώμ²¥³ΙΘΛ Ώμ²¥³ΙΘΛ Boshan Zheng, and Gillian McKnight-Tutein, vice president of Academic and Student Affairs from Front Range Community College, a former colleague from Cuyahoga Community College in Ohio where Royal started as executive director of Distance Learning.
McKnight-Tutein said she recognized early on that Royal was "born for greatness," even though the future Ώμ²¥³ΙΘΛ president was initially underestimated by others.
Men underestimated her knowledge of technology "because she was a girl," McKnight-Tutein said. They underestimated her work ethic, because she was young, and "the establishment" underestimated her ability to negotiate agreements, "because she was new."
"They were all wrong," she said. "What they underestimated most was her grit ... It's no coincidence that the Ώμ²¥³ΙΘΛ community has chosen the best and the brightest to lead the best and brightest. Ώμ²¥³ΙΘΛ Community College will be even greater for having made the decision to hire you as their president."
Royal noted that while community colleges play an indispensable role in public high higher education, there are significant challenges they must continue to address, such as food insecurity and homelessness, mental health issues, transportation and affordability.
"But the greatest threat to the mission of open access education is losing our societal perspective of education as a public good," she said. "While I think the next decade will bring about a lot of change, some disruptive, to community colleges and higher education in general, I also believe the best years are ahead of us."
