Madison College President Bettsey Barhorst announced her retirement at Staff Convocation on Jan. 11. THe President of eight years has chosen to retire now to move closer to family and transition back into teaching. She will stay through the summer and has hopes that a new president will be in place by July or August.

During her time at Madison College, Barhorst spearheaded a groundbreaking $133.7 million referendum to revitalize and expand facilities across Madison College campuses.

She also presided during a time of transition in classroom technology and of state budget difficulties.

The Clarion had a chance to sit down with Barhorst and discuss her time at Madison College and what lies ahead.

What Barhorst has demonstrated from arriving in 2004 at the college is an ability of knowing who to reach out to, how to reach out and how to propel the college forward.

She has served as president since 2004 and has 45 years of teaching experience. She has also served as president of Waterloo Iowa’s Hawkeye Community College prior coming to Madison College.

“When I first came I felt like I was this little wave runner and the school was this big boat, this ginormous boat,” she said,” here I was trying to pull, push, move, make waves.”

She recalled a time five years ago when a New York Times article on philanthropy led her to University of Chicago Economics professor, John List.

She had seen the challenges of fundraising while constantly competing for donations with UW-Madison. After reading about List, she said she knew she had to get in touch with him to help the college raise money. She sent him an email asking for his help.

“He started to plant the idea that I could do something. He said, ‘I will help you.’”

He advised her to run the $133.7 million referendum that would become the largest in Wisconsin history,

When asked about the power harnessed through her outreach, Barhorst said: “A lot of it is vision. You have to see where we could be so you’ve got to be connected nationally. You’ve got to read and read and read to know not just in the educational world but in everything else so you know where we need to push”

Technological advancement in the classroom has increased under Barhorst. She came to Madison College at a time when mobile devices became integrated into the educational experience. She has strived to stay on top of technology trends, being mindful that education is changing fast.

She emphasizes that the most important thing is what happens in the classroom.

“I try to make a fertile atmosphere for innovation so if you have ideas for innovation, I can help encourage them if I can find resources”

Reflecting on her experience at Madison College, she says it is characterized by the talent she’s seen here at the college and the wider Madison community:

“There’s a good attitude here, a good attitude of people working together for students.”

That’s something she’s been able to gauge during her daily check-ins with students, catching them on their way to class or at the coffee machine, asking them about their favorite teacher or how their day is going.

Barhorst plans to move to Peoria, Ill., a place where she’ll be closer to family and explore options to teach speech coaching and business communications courses. Also, she would like to get involved with the Chamber of Commerce and carry her skills to the community there.

In the coming months, the Madison College District Board of Trustees will start identifying potential candidates to fill Barhorst’s shoes in July; the task has been assigned to three committee members: John Bales, Janice Bultema and Carolyn Stoner.

“We’re going to miss Bettsey. She was good for the college, inspirational. She showed great leadership in the community,” said Board Chairwoman Frances Huntley-Cooper.

She said an independent search firm would be employed to help decide on a candidate.

One of the biggest challenges for Barhorst’s successor will be managing the financial challenges due to the college’s budget shortfall of approximately $11 million. Figuring out a way to balance the budget and make up for that gap may present the new president with tough choices. “We’ve struggled with the lack of state funding,” Huntley-Cooper said.

While so far, the college has been able to avoid staff layoffs through attrition, she said “we’re not able to hire the staff we need.”

Barhorst agrees that financial situation will be a challenge for the next president, but there’s a bigger picture he or she must be aware of in order to succeed.

“Finances are difficult, they’re difficult everywhere but it’s really a bigger thing, it’s a bigger arena. It’s how much education is changing and much of the technology you need for the change costs money,” Barhorst said.

While keeping in mind the changes to education and budget difficulties, the new president must also be able to engage with the community.