Chief to keep SLCC on the 2-year track

Salt Lake Community College will remain on course as a two-year school when President Cynthia A. Bioteau takes the helm July 18.

"I believe very deeply in the comprehensive community college mission," Bioteau told the Deseret Morning News. "I think a community college is such an important economic engine within a community that to blur into four-year territory often does not serve the community as well as it should."

Bioteau (pronounced bee-oh-toe) recently beat out four male finalists to replace H. Lynn Cundiff, who left SLCC two years ago for the private sector. She will be SLCC's first female leader and the third woman in Utah history to become president of a state college or university.

"It seems to be an exciting factor for the community," says Bioteau. Her leadership skills and knowledge base, she added, have been what really matter during her career in higher education.

"It's not part of my paradigm of how I view issues," Bioteau said of the role of gender in her professional life. She's proud of being a mom first, wife second and community member third.

The protracted two-year search for SLCC's seventh president was blamed, in part, on salary, which Bioteau negotiated up from a base salary of $142,800 to $170,000, not including free housing and transportation.

Bioteau, married with two grown children, is currently vice president of Forsyth Technical Community College in North Carolina, which has 58 community colleges. Her academic focus here will be on career training, continuing education, general education and transfer programs.

One goal is to beef up SLCC's biotechnology program — Bioteau once snagged $5 million in federal funds for a biotechnology program in North Carolina.

Another one of her plans is to bring in nanotechnology coursework.

"I feel that within five years nanotechnology will be in everyone's conversations," Bioteau said. "It's the next industrial revolution." SLCC seems open, she added, to her idea.

As for athletics, they'll continue to hold a place at SLCC as a means of maintaining student retention rates. It's a way, Bioteau believes, to keep students connected with the college while outside of the classroom.

SLCC shines, Bioteau said, because of the commitment and pride of its faculty and staff. "There's very little turnover," she said.