David Sam marks five years at ECC

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Elgin Community College President David Sam, who celebrated his fifth year at the community college with an open house Wednesday in its Jobe Lounge, 1700 Spartan Drive.

Updated: March 13, 2012 8:11AM

ELGIN — Community College District 509 Board of Trustees Chairman Robert McBride tried to find the perfect song to describe Elgin Community College’s “dancing president,” he said.

He settled on: “How do you think he does it? / I don’t know! / What makes him so good? / (He) ain’t got no distractions, / Can’t hear no buzzers and bells, / Don’t see no lights a flashin’ / …Sure plays a mean pinball.”

Yes, that’s “Pinball Wizard” by The Who.

But, McBride said, “that kind of really describes our president,” David Sam, who celebrated his fifth year at ECC with an open house Wednesday in its Jobe Lounge on the campus, 1700 Spartan Drive.

Last month, Sam competed in the 2012 Elgin Stars Dance for PADS (Public Action to Deliver Shelter) fundraiser, which might have further enhanced his dancing credentials.

In his brief remarks, the chairman pointed to several of Elgin Community College’s achievements during Sam’s tenure, including its highest enrollment ever and its biggest graduating class ever. He mentioned the college’s participation in the Achieving the Dream initiative, a multi-year national initiative to improve student success, particularly among students of color and low-income students.

Sam also listed the partnerships the college has built within the community and the referendum voters approved in 2009 among his proudest achievements.

“It’s a huge blessing. I’m grateful for this wonderful community that supports its college,” he said. “I’m grateful also to the staff, students and board who have made this an amazing five years. We did everything together.”

Jay-R De Leon of Carol Stream, drinking coffee around a table with friends in the Jobe Lounge, asked if Sam was responsible for the new construction on campus, including the health careers center that opened this semester. That was part of the $178 million referendum passed three years ago.

“He’s definitely doing a good job of that,” De Leon said. “This school is really great among nursing students. The nursing program is getting bigger and bigger, and it was a really good idea to have a bigger building.”

De Leon is in his final semester studying nursing at the community college and had considered moving to attend Chamberlain College of Nursing, which has campuses in Addison and Chicago. But the training facilities in ECC’s new health career center were “actually better,” he said.

Above all, McBride said, “The thing (Sam) has brought to the college is a true gift-giver and change agent because he embraces the idea of ‘we’ and not ‘I.’ ”

“I think it takes a lot of courage to be a ‘we’ leader and not an ‘I’ leader.”

Before he became the eighth president of Elgin Community College in February 2007, Sam — a native of Ghana, West Africa — previously was president of North Harris College in Houston, Texas.

He graduated cum laude from Illinois State University with bachelor of arts degrees in economics, political science and history, according to the community college website. He has a master’s in law and diplomacy; a Ph.D. in international economic and political relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University; an MBA in finance and marketing from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University; and a J.D. degree from the University of Akron Law School.

Sam said Wednesday he is “not often at a loss for words, but I am today.”

“For me, it’s not a celebration of my five years here. It’s a celebration of the college.”

Looking back at the speech he gave at his induction, the president said in the next five years, he hopes to do “the same — student completion, people achieving their dreams, inspiring people to learn.”

“I read this five years ago. My hope is that we collectively have made progress toward these goals.”