Fall semester classes at Illinois Central College begin next week, and new president Jamonica Rolle says it’s a moment she's been waiting for since starting her position in July.
“I am so excited, just welcoming students back,” said Rolle. “I will be standing on that bridge on the first day, greeting students with their smiling faces and my face will be ultimately smiling.
“My heart will be warmed as we really start to think about how we can transform students’ lives as they come to Illinois Central College.”
After two decades in higher education administration at Broward College in Florida, Rolle was chosen in March to follow Sheila Quirk-Bailey, who retired at the end of December.
In an extended interview with WCBU looking ahead to her first semester, Rolle details what attracted to ICC: the combination of a strong institution, a supportive community and a region with great opportunity.
“The college has done a lot of great work in terms of having a foundation that’s strong when it comes to student success,” said Rolle. “Workforce development has been a key part of what has grown the institution up in many ways, and I see an opportunity to really build on the work that has been accomplished here thus far.
“I wasn’t looking for an institution that I would have to come in and change everything. I really wanted a place that I could build on, that had a strong foundation, that was moving in the right direction, and we could really take to the next level.”
While admitting she’s still in the early days of her tenure, Rolle says she has set some overarching goals. Among them is making sure ICC is accessible to students and their needs.
“It’s important that we are reaching out and getting more people engaged in higher education,” she said. “Illinois has recently put out a statistic that states that by 2031, 70% of all jobs in the state will require a post-secondary credential.
“Because of that we need to make sure that we’re responding to getting more students into college, but not just ‘in’ — that we’re also supporting them while they’re here. So retention will also be an important goal of mine, and then completion of credentials of value — making sure that more people are completing credentials that will lead to life-sustaining wages.”
Higher ed challenges
While highlighting a critical need to continue ICC’s workforce development initiatives, Rolle made a point to note there’s more to the college’s mission.
“In terms of what we do as a college, we also help folks to not only do what they need to do to get work, but we’re helping them learn, create critical thinking skills, communication skills, all of those workplace skills that are important,” she said. “But also, ICC is a place where students come, and as they are looking to transition, perhaps they take their first two years here and then they’re looking to transition to a university.
“So I want us to be not just workforce focused, but focused on the ultimate mission of the community college, which is ‘workforce, and’ — right? It’s all of the other things that we do to help prepare individuals for their lives.”
Rolle acknowledged higher education is currently facing a host of challenges, specifically pointing to increasing skepticism surrounding the value of getting a college degree.
“We’re seeing an erosion of people just really believing that they need higher education,” said Rolle. “Another challenge would be that you’re finding emerging technologies are rapidly evolving to a point where it’s sometimes difficult to keep up with how fast things are changing.
“A third thing I’d add would be economic uncertainty. Costs, sometimes, and the just the ability for people to attain higher education is challenging because there’s so many other economic uncertainties around them.”
Another concern at all collegiate levels is the expected enrollment cliff driven by declining birth rates dating back to the 2008 recession.
“What we believe is you won’t have as many high school students, but you certainly have a population of folks who have not had any higher education,” said Rolle. “You’re talking adult learners, you’re talking folks who have been in the workforce for a while and need to be retrained, reskilled.
“We know that jobs of the future are changing; they’re rapidly evolving, and so people will need to come back into higher education in order to stay relevant in their workplaces. So, while we won’t see as many students coming straight out of high school, we will need to look closer at our adult populations and just training in general.”
Leadership experience
During her time at Broward, Rolle says she developed a variety of skills that prepared her for administrative leadership — beginning with her time as a faculty member.
“It is the position where I learned most about what students bring to the classroom, their tenacity, the challenges that they have, and their will to succeed,” she said. “It also helped me a great deal in really respecting the role of faculty, which are really critical to the work that we do.”
She also points to embracing innovation and advancing technologies as preparing her for guiding ICC into the years ahead.
“We did a lot of work around artificial intelligence and embedding some of those emerging skills into the classroom,” she said. “Also, we did work around supporting students to [program] completion, so what [are] those wraparound services that students need to help them succeed, I’d say is probably what I bring here.”
Rolle characterized her leadership style as collaborative, transparent and accountable.
“I hold myself accountable, and I hold my team accountable to the success of the work that we’re looking to accomplish, making sure that we’re aligned with our mission, and that we are moving the institution forward,” she said. "Definitely, I believe in listening and bringing folks along as we move to the next phase of where we’re going.”
Rolle described her transition into the ICC leadership role as “energizing,” as she has met with students, faculty, staff and community members to get a sense of the college’s standing in the region.
“What I have found is that Illinois Central College is loved by the community, and it has had a great impact on many lives,” she said. “The welcome that I’ve received has been amazing. People are warm and friendly, and they’re offering to help and to provide guidance.”
Rolle said one person she’s consulted frequently for guidance is her predecessor, Quirk-Bailey.
“She accomplished a lot of great things, really set the college on a strong upward trajectory. I’m looking forward to continuing to build on that,” said Rolle. “She’s had a lot of successes alongside the faculty and staff and students that are here, and I’ll continue to work with them to see what the emerging needs are.”
