The fresh administration layout their vision for the campus.

Cynthia Vigil and Elodie Goodman are both new Deans at SFCC.

Vigil is the new interim Dean of student services while Goodman is the new Dean of social sciences, economics, accounting and human services. Both are responsible for the overseeing their departments and the management of those departments.

Before she was an interim Dean, Vigil worked for the Institute for Extended Learning as a counselor. There she helped students earn their GED or diploma. In 2010 Vigil came to work for SFCC as a student counselor and department chair. In September, Vigil was hired as interim Dean.

The hiring process for interim Dean is long and exhausting according to Vigil. It involves sending in an application, a question and answer session forum, a screening, and an interview.

“The opening for the job of interim Dean is posted by HR,” said Vigil. “I make a formal application and once selected to be interviewed, there is a 45 minute campus wide forum for SFCC to answers any questions students or staff have about me.”

Afterwards, there is an interview with a screening committee that includes a 45 minute presentation and answering questions.

When a new interim Dean is hired, their terms as dean only lasts one academic year and there is no guarantee of re-election. If this occurs she will go back to being a counselor for academics at SFCC.

Vigil’s responsibilities as Dean are many and varied. Though she is the Dean of student services this department has multiple groups that need to be addressed on a day to day basis. Under the umbrella of student services, Vigil works with the testing center, counseling, student government, tutoring, The Mosaic, Running Start and Gateway to College. For each of these groups, Vigil is responsible for making sure they have everything they need to run smoothly.

“They all have different needs,” said Vigil. “Sometimes it could be a student issue; it could be staffing and it could be issues that they are problem solving.“

Vigil set up meetings with each department lead at the beginning of the quarter and requested that there be open communication between her and the different groups and departments. This would then keep Vigil up to date on what is needed, without needing to meet every week. If there is a problem in one of the departments the department leads reach out to Vigil to get assistance.

Goodman is the new Dean of accounting, economics, and human services. Like Vigil, Goodman’s job is to make sure that each department she is responsible for has what they need to get their jobs done.

Goodman began at SFCC In September of 2000 as a French and film instructor. Goodman also worked as Department Chair during this time. She was hired earlier to the Dean’s position than Vigil was In August before working at SFCC, Goodman worked at various colleges including SCC and Whitworth University as both a French language instructor and film studies instructor.

Though Goodman has been in the Dean seat since August, she is still getting comfortable in her position as Dean.

“There is still a learning curve.” Goodman said.
Though Goodman is responsible for three departments she has help running and managing.

“I have my assistant and the department heads that all work together to get things done.” said Goodman.