Our college has been through hell and back in the last five years. Our faculty has felt endangered. Our accreditation has been threatened. Our worth has been hidden under piles of district-wide postcards and Waterleaf receipts. And suddenly, silence.

We as a college have had a long, hard run. Through legal battles and community outcries, our college has become a war zone. After the board of trustees elected Ann Rondeau to be our new president, we have been baffled by the lack of commotion. In fact, we have been pleasantly surprised at the genuine excitement in each hallway. While Rondeau was not our first pick, we at the Courier are very excited for for her to lead our school.

Rondeau has made it clear she is coming in with a plan to take care of our probation and possible loss of accreditation. We feel this is the obvious start, but to do this will take greater detail, starting from the ground up to rebuild the college’s relationships and reputation. This summer, we feel visible advancements are necessary on behalf of Rondeau and the board of trustees, to propel the college forward in the fall semester.

In the past year, College of DuPage has stumbled trying to get back on its feet after the firing of former president Robert Breuder. As May rears its head, things are finally starting to look up. The college no longer feels trapped under a veil of tension and insecure predictions.

Our biggest concern moving forward is Rondeau’s ability to interact peacefully with faculty and students. Faculty previously felt belittled and endangered by the Breuder administration. We hope Rondeau’s instant approval and effort to gain student insight diminishes that tension.

After the announcement of her election the COD faculty Facebook group erupted with excitement for our new president. The faculty has a president they are passionate about. This is the first time in a long time we’ve seen our faculty and staff excited about someone, or anything related to COD politics for that matter, and it’s imperative that we support their choice if we want our school to have great communication and collaboration.

When discussing our presidential endorsement, we at the Courier got into a heated debate between David Sam and Rondeau. While we thought they were both strong contenders, we worried Rondeau lacked the approachability that made Sam such a strong candidate in our eyes. Rondeau has quickly made us realize our concern may be unnecessary, already forming a relationship with Student Trustee Luzelena Escamilla, and in an interview with the Courier, mentioning ways she’d like to interact with students. While this is encouraging, we’ll wait to see how fall semester plays out before repealing our initial worries.

This summer, we’re also hoping Rondeau’s positivity and Navy-style leadership rub off on the board of trustees. The board has always had a tendency to act a little immature about working together, but the voting on Rondeau’s selection was downright childish. Three of the seven people refused to vote at all, two of whom refused to acknowledge she was even being discussed by marking “present.”

It’s no secret the board needs to grow up. We’ve been saying this for what feels like years. We have written time and time again what we expect from them, and we believe if individual members are not going to participate in school matters in a thoughtful and professional way, it’s time to resign.

Before the fall semester begins, we want to see Rondeau establish relationships and make plans. We want to see the whole board behave accordingly and realize the only way to move forward is to put the past behind.

The Breuder era is over. The administration left from it will soon be challenged to prove they can interact with faculty and embrace the new COD. Time will tell how big of a challenge this will be, but what’s important is we feel our institution coming together. It’s a sensation we haven’t felt for years, and that alone is inspiring. We’re left with more than a glimmer of hope that our new president will leave any sliver of arrogance at the door, along with any collection of hunting knives and ivory memorabilia, and lead with her ability to form stable relationships built on mutual trust. We encourage the board to do the same. We believe this is truly the start of a new era at COD and we couldn’t be happier to end our semester by starting a new chapter.