THE FOLLOWING IS A NEWS-GAZETTE STORY BY JENNIFER BAILEY
ABOVE: Danville Area Community College President Stephen Nacco’s last day on the job will be Friday, thanks to an agreement with the college’s board of trustees.
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DANVILLE — The second half of this year has been quite the whirlwind for Danville Area Community College President Stephen Nacco, around a dispute with Danville Mayor Rickey Williams Jr. concerning undocumented immigrants.
The News-Gazette recently sat down with Nacco at his campus office to talk about this year, some people and employees who aren’t fans of his, his love of the community he’s called home for eight years, his legacy and why he’s happy now.
Nacco is retiring Friday after reaching an agreement with the DACC Board of Trustees. Nacco had been placed on administrative leave while an investigation occurred into the dispute with Williams. He’s finishing up his presidency splitting his time working in office and at home.
One of the last items he’s working on is a Clean Energy Jobs Act grant. It’s a state program for skills training to lead into apprenticeships and those types of jobs.
In looking back at his years as president from a grading perspective, Nacco said the grade he’d give himself as president during the last eight years is an “A for effort.”
“I did the best I could and committed myself 100 percent to this college and for students and for faculty,” Nacco said. “If my overall assessment, that would be left to others; but my effort, I never shortchanged this college.”
Nacco said regarding his dispute with the mayor, stemming from a disagreement over whether to welcome undocumented immigrants to the area and which led to Williams approaching the DACC board with a letter about Nacco’s alleged “deplorable behavior” when confronted about the issue, that he’s “come out of this with no ill will toward the college or the mayor.”
“The mayor is the mayor and I’m not his judge. There’s a point where going back and forth and arguing with somebody like the mayor is futile. I had argued with him, and it led to even more arguments. That was pointless. The college at no time recruited illegal immigrants, just so we can put a lid on that one,” Nacco said.
“What we would do though as a college, is we would teach anyone who shows up and we’ll support anyone who’s trying to improve our community,” he added.
Nacco said he doesn’t have any animosity toward anybody.
“I’m very happy to be retiring on Dec. 13,” he said. “It was a great decision in the end. It wasn’t necessarily what the original intent of a lot people were, but the way it worked out is perfectly acceptable to me and my wife. We’re happy to stay in the community and we’re happy to do what we can to support DACC (and other groups they’ve been involved with).”
As to some of the faculty members voting “no confidence” in Nacco continuing as president, saying the argument with the mayor wasn’t an isolated incident, and there were other arguments and incidents with DACC employees and complaints against him, he said, “I was here over eight years and I have about four or five people who suddenly popped out of the woodwork and became my enemies and never were prior to that.
“It is almost as if they just needed something, some reason to come out of the woodwork. And they did, they came out; but it does not by any means represent what the vast majority of the faculty or staff have thought. There was no real vote of no confidence. We have 68 faculty and according to that non-scientific way it was conducted, it was 33 who said they didn’t have confidence in me. I have to think that it doesn’t represent the faculty, and if they really did a vote of no confidence, with all 68 allowed to vote, it would never have done that. They’ve tried that, the same group, and we’re talking about three or four really disgruntled people who did it, they did it during COVID, saying that, and it also couldn’t lead to a legitimate vote of no confidence.”
“So, if there’s any consolation, I know from the faculty here and the staff here that I’ve been a popular president here and I leave here with many friends,” Nacco said. “And if there’s only a handful of enemies, that’s not such a bad thing.”
Nacco also has been accused by some employees of sending inappropriate emails. When asked if he has any regrets or anything he looks back on that maybe he shouldn’t have done, “I never ever want to offend anybody and you can write things and send things and say things where in every crowd there could be someone offended. And that’s what happens with leadership. There are times when in the crowd, there’s going to be somebody who objects. When that happens, and I say the same thing with the mayor, I want to be able to approach him and say ‘If I offended you, I’m sorry.’”
Nacco said that if someone is offended by something, he wants to know.
“If you’re going to suffer in silence and you’re offended by anything, then don’t come out five years later and try to pile on this, and that’s really what happened,” Nacco said.
He said these are just a few DACC employees, and “the people here are overwhelmingly supportive and good. And my wife and I have heard only positive things from employees, from the community, and that’s really why I want to stay here. Because if I really thought that people were the way these few disgruntled people are, I wouldn’t want to live here. But the people here are nice and they’re open-minded and they’re fair-minded. Because the ones who started, the original attackers, were not being fair-minded. They didn’t know anything. They just wanted to pile on. They have to live with themselves. I am extremely happy about being here in Danville and Vermilion County. That’s what I want to focus on.”
Nacco added that having a few faculty members not like him is not as important as Provost Carl Bridges managing all the faculty. Bridges’ position has been more important than the president in keeping everything together, he said.
Nacco said the best hire he made was Bridges, who has combined student services with academics in a way that the college has never been in better shape.
Nacco also talked about some of the highlights at the college through his years, including setting a record for the graduation rate of more than 46 percent (the national average is 22 percent) this year and returning enrollment to the pre-pandemic level of more than 20,000 credit hours.
“It’s a whole series of programs and a commitment by a lot of people from student services to faculty to get to that kind of enrollment,” Nacco said.
He said a big part of the enrollment was outreach to the African-American community and low socioeconomic community so “that’s helped build a better DACC as our students now look more like our community.”
The first floor of Hegeler Hall, the former U.S. Army Reserve Center, is now renovated. Corporate and Community Education are in the space.
The first floor consists of classrooms where students can study to become pharmacist technicians or practice drawing blood, offices, a studio and other areas. Community education programs include chair yoga, pottery, cooking and bunco club.
The new leadership will figure out what will be on the second floor, with construction continuing next year.
Clock Tower Center renovations included HVAC, asbestos abatement, plumbing, electrical and other work that were finishing up with the library, eSports and others to move back in January. Another construction phase, including the elevator and tuck pointing, still is needed.
He said other highlights through his years at DACC have included: air conditioning in the Mary Miller Gym, broadcast TV studio, branding team, All-Star Jaguars, the return of golf and volleyball and other student programs, expansion of classes and additional associate degrees.
For 2025, DACC will see the barber program start at the Village Mall.
There will be an expansion in what they’ve started in customer relationship management.
For every student walking through the door, through graduation, it’s setting up a whole intake process, Nacco said, adding that student services will go hand in hand with academics.
In academics, there’s the conversion to the new learning management system, Canvas, and improving student interaction with faculty.
There also will be an expansion of dual-enrollment classes for high school students.
Finally, high flex classrooms will allow students on campus and off to interact together.
Nacco said that when he looks back on his years as president, they were an “extremely enjoyable eight years” at DACC.
When he first came to the campus, newly living in the Midwest, he said he didn’t know what to expect.
“It’s been a wonderful adventure for eight years, and my wife and I are here and are remaining here with our heads held high because it’s a wonderful community, it’s a great community college and we like it here,” Nacco added.
For the future, after Friday, he’s running for a seat on the DACC Board of Trustees and will see if he gets elected in April. If elected, he said he can help the college from a different perspective. If not, as a retiree he still can help the college in other ways, Nacco said.
Nacco too added about Randy Fletcher, who will be taking over as interim president on Monday, “I met him while he was working at Joliet, and he seems like a great person. I wish him well.”
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