GREENFIELD — The sun appeared just in time Thursday afternoon for Greenfield Community College to inaugurate Dr. Yves Salomon-Fernández as its 10th president.
The ceremony was held under the large white tent that will also host the college’s graduation on Saturday.
It appeared more than 200 were in attendance, including state legislators, education leaders from across the state, town and city leaders and business leaders from across the county and beyond.
Those who spoke about Salomon-Fernández used the same descriptors over and over: energetic, smart, passionate, vibrant, mighty.
“Yves, you belong here,” retired GCC President Robert Pura said as he symbolically “handed over the keys. “She’s the real deal.”
State Rep. Paul Mark, D-Peru, said GCC is “everything that’s right with our community,” and Salomon-Fernández will lead well.
“I couldn’t be more excited about Yves,” he said. “You belong here as GCC’s 10th president.”
Salomon-Fernández has been serving as president since last fall. The inauguration made it official. She is a researcher, educator and data analyst who began her education career as a data analyst working on the No Child Left Behind policy. In March 2018, she was named one of the Top 25 Women in Higher Education by Diverse Issues in Higher Education.
It was about an hour and a half into the ceremony that Salomon-Fernández stood at the podium, after receiving her medallion.
“Every season, every day, the quarter-mile drive to the building is simply glorious,” Salomon-Fernández said.
Salomon-Fernández, who grew up in Haiti, a country damaged by acute deforestation, said to be surrounded by green mountains and hills astounds her.
“One of the things that I appreciate most about our college is our fervor for preserving this natural beauty, our commitment to environmental sustainability, our belief in better environmental stewardship here and across our global community,” Salomon-Fernández said.
She said when she realized just how committed the college is to those values, she knew it was the place she wanted to devote her energy.
“But I fell in love with GCC during my open sessions with our educators — faculty and staff,” Salomon-Fernández said.
She said the depth of intellectual vitality on the campus and deep commitment to social justice is impressive. She said GCC is united in advocating for the underserved, in giving voice to those not heard and to empowering them so they can speak for themselves.
Salomon-Fernández said she admires her colleagues’ passion and enjoys their idiosyncrasies, like when Stephen Harris “runs down the stairs and strides with an inimitable cadence” or Linda Cavanaugh and Terry Boyce “go from laughing hard and bantering to feeling passionate” or David Ram challenges her with books that even as an avid reader she struggles to finish.
She said GCC’s immediate and long-term future rests in the hands of its students, who will follow in the footsteps of their educators. She said their challenges will be many, including climate change, fossil fuels dependence, clean water, food and shelter, all among the biggest threats to humanity.
“We are preparing our graduates to steward and lead with courage and conviction,” Salomon-Fernández said. “We are preparing them to contribute to discoveries in science, technology, to contribute to better race relations in our country, to help close race-based, gender-based and income-based inequalities.”
She said it is a time of “great promise” for higher education.
“It challenges us to build on our culture of innovation and on our strengths to create new knowledge, to be more entrepreneurial, to think in non-linear ways, across multiple dimensions, and to take bolder risks and embrace a transdisciplinary approach in deeper ways than we have in the past,” Salomon-Fernández said.
According to the Greenfield Community College Foundation, in 1962, the regional community college opened on Federal Street with an enrollment of 130 students. Within two years, it bought 163 acres — where it is today — and opened that campus in 1974. Twenty years later, it opened its downtown campus, and today, its annual fall enrollment is more than 3,000 students.
She said going forward under her leadership, GCC will build on its strengths in liberal arts, an area where it distinguishes itself. She said the college will integrate the area’s workforce and technical training with liberal arts and build upon its renowned Sustainable Agriculture and Green Energy program, as well as its Outdoor Leadership program. GCC’s Gender and Women’s Study program will work to increase the number of graduates and transfer students, who will help advance gender equity and broader social justice agendas. And, she said, the college will invest in programs to support local entrepreneurs.
“Let us dream together, and let us build together,” Salomon-Fernández said.
GCC Board of Trustees Chairman Robert Cohn said there was never a doubt that Salomon-Fernández should be the next president.
“It was unanimous for Yves,” he said.
Cohn said there were 49 applicants. The committee chose five finalists.
“We did a period of interviews,” he said. “It was clear to me Yves was going to be our candidate. She’s the Energizer Bunny.”