{"id":2433,"date":"2014-02-20T22:21:17","date_gmt":"2014-02-20T22:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tidesmartradio.com\/?p=2433"},"modified":"2014-02-20T22:21:17","modified_gmt":"2014-02-20T22:21:17","slug":"john-fitzsimmons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tidesmartradio.com\/john-fitzsimmons\/","title":{"rendered":"Show 100: President of the Maine Community College System John Fitzsimmons"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Show Information<\/h5>\n

Show:<\/strong>\u00a0100
\nAir date:<\/strong> Saturday,\u00a0February 15
\nGuest:<\/strong>\u00a0John Fitzsimmons
\nHost:<\/strong> Steve Woods (Stevoe)
\nStudio Contributor<\/strong> Debi Davis
\nExecutive Producer:<\/strong> Shannon Maguire<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

President of the Maine Community College System<\/a> John Fitzsimmons grew up in Rhode Island.\u00a0 Dr. Fitzsimmons earned his bachelor\u2019s degree from the University of Rhode Island, his masters from the University of Southern Maine and his doctorate from NovaSoutheastern University.\u00a0 He served as a Sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps including a tour of duty in Vietnam in 1969 and 1970.\u00a0 He chaired the veterans group responsible for the building of Maine\u2019s Vietnam Memorial in Augusta.<\/p>\n

\"John

Steve Woods (left) host of TideSmart Talk with Stevoe welcomed President of the Maine Community College System John Fitzsimmons (right) to the studio to discuss how crucial education is for Maine’s future.<\/p><\/div>\n

From 1987-1990, Fitzsimmons served as Maine\u2019s Commissioner of Labor under Governor John R. McKernan.\u00a0 Fitzsimmons is now President of the Maine Community College System (MCCS), a post he has held since 1990<\/p>\n

In March 2003, his vision to transition Maine\u2019s technical colleges into full-fledged community colleges won the overwhelming and unprecedented support of the Maine Legislature and Governor John E. Baldacci.\u00a0 On July 1, 2003, the System officially became Maine\u2019s Community College System.\u00a0 Since that time enrollment has increased 80%, making the MCCS one of the fastest growing community college systems in the nation.<\/p>\n

Most recently, the MCCS acquired land and facilities at the former Brunswick Naval Air Station and at the Good Will-Hinckley School.\u00a0 These transactions have led to the establishment of two new off-campus locations through the acquisition of properties valued at $100 million and capacity to add over 5,000 additional students.<\/p>\n

Over the past 24 years, enrollment has increased from 3,300 students to 18,200 for The Maine Community College System\u2019s seven colleges.\u00a0 An additional 12,000 individuals are enrolled in non-credit courses and customized training.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The host of TideSmart Talk with Stevoe, Steve Woods, recently sat down with the President of the Maine Community College System (MCCS) John Fitzsimmons. The two discussed how crucial education is for Maine’s future as we transition into the future. Fitzsimmons and Stevoe also talked about how the MCCS offers the most affordable tuition in Maine and provides job placement for graduates. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tidesmartradio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2433"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tidesmartradio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tidesmartradio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tidesmartradio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tidesmartradio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tidesmartradio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2433\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tidesmartradio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tidesmartradio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tidesmartradio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}