Joe Bertolino, finalist for the Lyndon State College presidency, is stocking up on Green Mountain Coffee just in case he has to switch from his usual Starbucks.
Bertolino is vice president for enrollment management and student affairs at Queens College/City University of New York. He is waiting to her back from the Vermont State Colleges’ trustees to see if they will offer him the job after having his final interview.
“I’m excited and petrified all at the same time,” he said. “This is a major life decision for me.”
Bertolino still does not know if he has made that decision.
“Today is a very important day for me, more so than my last visit. What happens today and the interactions I have today and the questions I ask today determine, should I be offered the job, what decision I make,” he said, but he made sure to append that statement. “I wouldn’t have wasted the chancellor’s time coming back here to be in the final two if I wasn’t seriously going to consider that. That is not fair to the institution, that is not fair to the students, and it’s not fair to the candidates.”
That decision was made easier after his first visit to LSC and he spent some time in the community.
“People are pretty passionate about what they do,” said Bertolino. “Nobody is here for the pay. People work really hard here and there are a lot of people who really care about the institution. There is something about the values here; there is something about the community here that I just love.”
He sees the president’s job as being the face of the school and would use that position to bring in money in order to help the institution and the students financially. He thinks that what LSC is about with first in family students and being the only school in the Northeast Kingdom.
“The disadvantage of this job is that you’ll see a president, but you won’t see a president because your next president needs to raise dollars,” he said.
When he found out he was one of the final two candidates he was not
“My initial reaction was, ‘can’t we just skip that part and can’t they just offer me the job?’ Because I really enjoyed myself and I felt ready (to take the job),” Bertolino said.