Chadron State College president visits Sidney

SIDNEY -- In April of this year, Ron Patterson was selected by the State College System Board of Trustees as the new president of Chadron State College.

He stopped in Sidney this week to as part of his tour of the Panhandle area. The Sidney stop was part of his presidential listening tour. The Sidney visit was held at Beans and Steams Coffee House 

"I've been in my role a little more than 90 days; since June 20. As the president here at Chadron State College, I'm very excited about serving Chadron State College, the city of Chadron and surrounding communities. As part of my search process, I shared that I would launch a presidential listening tour. So I've been the last few weeks reaching out to surrounding communities in the 13 counties that we serve; meeting with K12 partners, community leaders, business leaders, alums, to share with them and really to listen about what their shares and dreams and visions would be for the next five years and beyond," CSC President Patterson said. 

He said the stop in Sidney gives an opportunity to listen to the community, and to provide context to the next five years of the college. 

"I really want to listen, ask a couple of questions, but also just really just listen and engage the community members about their stories and what we can do better," he said.

He added the college is undergoing some major infrastructure projects on campus. Work includes completion of upgrading the math and science building and work on the Coffee Agriculture Pavilion.

"There's two questions I want to ask you today: one is what are we doing well, and the other question is what can we do better or advance at Chadron State College? Before we get to that, I'll tell you and wrap it up. After we visit about 22-23 communities, the plan is to take all of this qualitative/quantitative information and launch our next strategic plan for Chadron State College, " Patterson asked those in attendance.

Patterson said CSC and Western Nebraska Community College have a strong relationship, including a path for students to transfer from WNCC to CSC.

"President (Greg) Dart and I are very new in our roles. As soon as he got on board, I reached out to President Dart. I scheduled a meeting and we've been down and visited with him. We have subsequent meetings that are scheduled and we will continue our dialogue. We'll talk about the 2 + 2 programs; any opportunity that we can collaborate with WNCC as well as our K12 partners as well," Patterson said.