As the Chief Information Officer for SJC, I was originally slated to leave around July

Indeed, I wrote the IT wind-down plan as part of my responsibilities as CIO and the President's Cabinet, with my termination one of the final items

Instead, I found myself being asked to stay as part of the "Phoenix Team"; a group that consisted of the CFO, the VP of Academic Affairs, a newly recruited VP for fundraising, the former Rector of the College, and a small group of admin and facilities people

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Part of my expanded role was being given the "honor" of being the contact for the press, and quasi-spokesperson for the College. A role I honestly would rather not have bestowed on me again.

For the next 2 years I would be one of the "faces" of the group that, in the minds of many, killed their school.

I also had a local reporter, that despite my continual follows-ups and asks, could not get my title at the College correct:

https://www.newsbug.info/rensselaer_republican/sjc-s-final-auction-a-success-college-shifting-focus-to/article_b392c0a8-d3ed-11e7-a85f-ef850ca8ef1c.html

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Unsurprisingly, the liquidation of many of the School's beloved, uh, junk... had not left me in the best of moods, and some of the on-line commentary on social networking, was to put it charitably, unkind.

So, when our facilities manager informed us on Thanksgiving Day that the 6" water main into campus had developed a slight leak, the gallows humor was definitely in full swing.

His definition of a "slight leak" BTW:

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This was NOT one of my most pleasant Thanksgivings (that is me in the Red Sweatshirt).

Indeed, it would be safe to say I was seriously questioning what I had gotten myself into. I know for a fact it was really hard to envision what a come-back for this school was going to look like.

Looking back, this was likely the lowest point of my tenure with SJC and my 2nd journey in Jasper County Indiana.

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But you know, things did get better.

The water main got fixed, largely due to the efforts of a facilities team that just didn't know the meaning of the word quit.

I stayed on for another two years, and when I left, SJC was still operating, albeit as a very different institution than what it was when it closed. Today it provides vocational educational services for a rural community that arguably needs those skills more than what was coming out of a small Liberal Arts College.

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