(This is the second of three articles featuring the Trinidad State Junior College presidential finalists. Thursday’s Courier featured finalist Dr. Diana Pino, and Saturday’s Courier will feature Dr. Rhonda Epper.)

ALAMOSA — “I would like to be your next president,” Ron Slinger told attendees at the community forum Wednesday evening to meet the Trinidad State Junior College presidential finalist. “It would be an honor to work for all of you.”

Slinger is one of three finalists for the position vacated by Dr. Carmen Simone and currently filled by Interim President Kerry Hart.

Slinger is currently the vice president of institutional advancement, strategic partnerships at Red Rocks Community College and workforce solutions and executive director of the Red Rocks Community Foundation. He has worked for Red Rocks since 2010. He has also served on the Gilpin County school board, as a Gilpin County commissioner, Central City council member and mayor.

With a master’s in higher education, he is currently in his second of a three-year program to earn a doctoral degree in community college leadership.

Referring to TSJC’s 1.7 percent of market penetration in its eight-county area of service Slinger said the college should be at 2.4 percent. He said TSJC should not be “the best kept secret” but should be “the best known fact.”

Slinger said the college already has a vice president of instruction and vice president of student services. “What you need is a CEO who’s engaged with the community, driving the conversations for the college and making sure Trinidad State Junior College’s profile is raised throughout the community.”

As with other candidates, Slinger was asked how he would transition to a smaller rural community after having been in the Denver metropolitan area. He said he has run the full gamut of community sizes in his life, having served as mayor of Central City, which has a population of 500, to his current residence in Arvada, with a population of 120,000.

“Coming back to a rural community resonates with me,” Slinger said. He graduated from Defiance College in Ohio, which had about 1,000 students.

When asked what he could offer in growth for the two TSJC campuses, Slinger said, “Strategic partnerships is where the growth potential is … We need to reach out and engage more.”

He referred to a collaborative effort between Red Rocks and 1st Bank, headquartered in Lakewood. The bank promised its employees that if they wanted to, they could be president of a bank, which was not realistic. Slinger talked with the senior vice president of human resources for 1st Bank and suggested that the bank and Red Rocks create a certificate that bank employees could earn by taking business classes at Red Rocks. The college was not out anything because these were classes that already existed, but the college saw increased enrollment and bank employees were offered a more realistic plan for advancement.

“I don’t believe the Field of Dreams ‘if you build it they will come.’ I don’t need to sit in the office and they will come. I need to go to them. I need to go and start the conversations … We have to go there. We have to build relationships.”

He said his job is not to micromanage other people’s jobs on campus but to develop resources for the college, champion the college, raise money, increase enrollment and build partnerships.

When asked what he saw as TSJC’s biggest challenge, Slinger said in viewing the college’s climate surveys he noticed areas of concern from the faculty, specifically salaries, which he acknowledged were under what they should be, poor communication and job insecurity, especially during the time when TSJC experienced lay offs and cuts.

“There’s only one way to solve that and that is to have more resources,” Slinger said. Increasing enrollment through greater penetration of the market will increase funds, which in turn will allow the college to pay its faculty more, he said.

The other part of the staff’s concerns can be addressed by increased collaboration, “getting more input, having more conversations.”

Even if he doesn’t always have the answer staff is looking for, they should always feel comfortable asking, he said.

Asked about his leadership style, Slinger said, “It’s very collaborative.”

He added at some point decisions will have to be made, and he is not afraid to make those decisions and own them. Even if people do not agree with him, he wants them to know why a decision was made, he said.

Slinger advocated strengthening the community college’s ties with its alumni and building on the alumni’s good past experiences to provide future resources for the college.

He also supported concurrent enrollment with high schools to draw that population into the college. “I think there’s tremendous opportunities there,” he said. “We should be trying to get every credit we can for them. It’s good for us, it’s FTE, but it’s also good for them, and that’s also good for the community.”

As other candidates were asked, Slinger was asked how he would improve the role of TSJC as a Hispanic Serving Institution. Slinger referred to his experience as the interim vice president of the Craig campus of the Northwest Community College. Craig is 17 percent Hispanic, but that was not reflected in the student body. “We should be a mirror of our community,” Slinger said.

What he did there was to hold a meeting in a church where the Hispanic community felt comfortable attending, and 50 people showed up, with 17 of the attendees signing up for classes. Many of them just were not aware what the college offered.

“You engage. It’s not happening in my office on campus. It’s engaging where they are.”

To draw more Hispanic students, “You need to represent, engage and represent them.”

“We are about hope and opportunity,” Slinger said, “the hope for a better life and the opportunity to make that hope a reality.”

A student asked Slinger about the possibility of on-site childcare for students who have trouble finding childcare so they can attend school. The student suggested that the on-site facility could also be a training center for those in the early childhood development program.

“It can be done. You just have to have the will to do it,” he said. “Anything can be done.”