It began with Jean Floten. The leaving of Jean Floten sparked an exodus of employees, including, but not limited to her executive assistant, Lucinda Taylor, who announced in a recent email that she plans to move on “to accept a new position in another organization.”
Taylor was the executive assistant to the president. She said that her most important duty was “supporting the president; helping her have what she needs to be successful.” Her day-to-day duties involved managing Floten’s office and her calendar, screening phone calls, liaising with organizations on the president’s behalf, and helping to coordinate events.
Having worked as Floten’s executive assistant for five years, Taylor is staying by Floten’s side and accompanying her to the Washington branch of Western Governor’s University (WGU) as the Special Assistant to the Chancellor.
Taylor said that her WGU duties will be largely the same as when she served at BC, but even more inclusive. “I will be monitoring progress across the state,” Taylor said. “I’ll be helping with a lot more activities, and helping to spread the word of what we [WGU] do.”
However, Taylor leaves reluctantly. “I’m going to miss this place,” said Taylor. “The people I work with and the energy that they create – I’m really going to miss this.”
In her five years serving as the president’s assistant, Taylor feels that the most important accomplishment her office made was weathering the latest budget crisis. “We’ve done a phenomenal job retaining jobs. We’ve had to cut fewer jobs than almost any other community college,” said Taylor.
Their office managed this through a voluntary retirement program, which gave people the option to retire for a bonus. The newly vacated jobs were then reworked into the remaining employees’ positions.
Though this is what Taylor believes to be the biggest accomplishment, her favorite memories of BC were oriented towards the students. Taylor said that her two best memories were the Margin of Excellence awards ceremony, and her experience attending Camp Casey with student leaders two years ago.
Taylor grew up in Alaska and attained her bachelor’s degree in Psychology at University of Alaska, Fairbank. After she graduated, she worked in the University library. “One of my jobs was to scan magazines and index articles about Alaska,” said Taylor. “I was paid to read.”
Later, she became the administrative assistant in the university’s Alaska and Polar Regions department.
From there, she moved to Washington and worked for a diagnostics company and NEPCo, the National Energy Production Corporation. After this company went under, she came to work at BC as an administrative assistant, a job she occupied for three years before moving up to become executive assistant to the president.
The search is underway for her replacement – Taylor said that she would like the new assistant to have a positive, can-do attitude and a willingness to learn. She said that her job requires someone who is willing to collaborate, who works will with others, and who is easily approachable.
“Oh, and they’re going to have to have a sense of humor,” said Taylor with a laugh.
As Taylor, Floten, and many other key members of the office leave, BC’s leadership will be undergoing a revolution. However, all of the departing faculty members are optimistic in the search for replacements.