Seven vying for two College of Lake County board seats

Seven people including two incumbents, a former trustee, a one-time elected official and community activists, are running for two seats on the College of Lake County Board of Trustees in the April 1 general election.

Voters will decide among Dawn Abernathy, Trustee Jesus Garena, Janet Gibson, former Trustee Vaseem Iftekhar, Trustee Torrie Mark Newsome, Riaz Yusuff and Francine Zodda, who will sit on the board when it convenes on April 22.

Zodda is making her first run for public office. She said in an email she was active with the Wauconda Area Chamber of Commerce, running its expo between 2017 and 2019. An operator of early childhood education programs for 18 years in the county, she said she hopes to contribute as an educator.

Yusuff is also a first-time candidate, but is no newcomer to community colleges. For the last 15 years, he worked in higher education and for the last three years as chief
information officer at Harper College in Palatine.. He said in an email he is running because he believes, “in the transformative power of education to empower” people.

Newsome, the current board chair and an attorney, was appointed to the board in 2000 and elected to a full term in 2021. He said in an email he is a former student, a professor of paralegal studies and sat on the advisory committee for the Lakeshore Campus in Waukegan.

Iftekhar, a trustee in 2019 and 2020, said in an email he wishes to return to the board to offer his skills in project management and strategic planning. He considers strong fiscal management a priority.

Gibson said in an email she was recruited to run by community members. A Lake Forest resident, she has served on the Lake Forest Library Board, the Historic Preservation Commission and the Zoning Board of Appeals. She is a longtime educator who said she will use her skills on the board.

Garena was appointed to the board in November and is seeking a full term. A member of the Waukegan Housing Authority Board and pastor of the Christian Fellowship of Lake County church, he said in an email he is running to enhance, “the power of education to transform lives.”

Abernathy served two terms as a village trustee in Mundelein between 2013 and 2021. She said in an email she is running because with education changing rapidly, she wants to make sure CLC is at the forefront of everything new about learning.

Growing the student body is part of the college’s mission, and Iftekhar said he will increase publicity to reach “all geographic sections of the county.” He said he will also use relationships with industry to learn what meets the needs of manufacturers.

With the anticipated number of high school graduates expected to peak in the next two years, Newsome said the board must work with the administration to develop a strategy  to combat the “high school cliff” that is “loaded with imagination, creativity, innovation, teamwork and more.”

Gibson said one way to grow the size of the student body is to concentrate on the Advanced Technology Center, where students are trained for careers local manufacturers need. Though the college offers 1,740 courses, the school, “also needs to explore what’s next.”

Supporting policies “which enhance student opportunities” is one way Garena said the school can increase the size of its student body. Starting to work with students while they are in middle school will also help.

Yusuff said he has several ideas for growing enrollment, including flexible learning options, community outreach with an emphasis on underserved parts of the county, developing partnerships with industry “to offer internships” and marketing.

Zodda said the best way to increase student enrollment is, “two words — free college (without taxpayer expense).”

Abernathy said learning why students choose CLC is the start of determining the best ways to grow admission. She said she will also, “meet with the local corporations and small business owners and ask what they want in their workforce.”

In 2021, the college decided to hire a director of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) which was met with intense support and criticism from the community. An individual was brought aboard and the issue has since grown in intensity.

Yusuff said a current public opinion survey will help, “ensure that any adjustments align with the evolving needs and perspectives of the community, students and stakeholders because of the changing landscape in diversity, equity and inclusion.”

Abernathy said she will follow state and federal rules regarding DEI, in part because, “I do not want to lose any funding for our students. Right now, CLC is a very small part of our tax bill, and I want to continue to offer an excellent education at a reasonable cost.”

Saying DEI is a “complex” issue, Zodda said. It “heralds a commendable commitment to fostering an inclusive academic environment,” but it also has a “perceived ideological bias which could be viewed as promoting specific ideological perspectives leading to tensions and hostility within the community.”

Garena said the board made the right decision at the time, and it continues to be a position that “in particular aligns with the mission of the college.”

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Gibson said, “From the look of the healthy spread of diversity on the campus with the students and the support staff, it appears as though CLC is doing a great job.” She too does not want to see any loss of funding should the college run afoul of federal regulations.

Newsome said, “For me, student success is my number one priority and if we are prevented from meeting our students where they are, due to lack of funding or a lack of programs or destroying DEI, that harms every one of our students in the short run and our entire community and future students in the long run.”

Iftekhar said, “The important thing is we should ensure diversity, equity and inclusion (for the) college at all levels. Discrimination based on race (or) religion should not be tolerated.”