They say the customer is always right.
Dr. Rick Young, president of East Mississippi Community College, thinks they are on to something. To Young, the students he has taught and administered in his 40 years at EMCC are just that — customers. And like any good businessman, Young has worked to keep his customers happy.
“We try to tailor whatever we do to what the people want,” Young said. “The whole, driving force is to create opportunity to people to move on to higher education or to go work.”
Young’s 11 year tenure as school president will end June 30. He is retiring.
He will miss his colleagues and his students, graduations and football games, but he will leave behind a legacy that EMCC and community colleges nationwide will strive to uphold.
Developing partnerships, building relationships
Young was always an innovator at EMCC.
In 1974, he was encouraged to come up to the Golden Triangle and meet with Aaron Langston, an EMCC administrator who founded the school’s Mayhew campus in 1969. Langston wanted Young to launch and lead an EMCC marketing program in the Golden Triangle.
Young, a native of Webster County, jumped at the opportunity. He has been helping EMCC develop and grow ever since.
Young, 64, was promoted to vice president of the Golden Triangle campus in 1986. He helped develop the Center for Manufacturing Technology Excellence in 1998, something he credits with establishing the college’s tradition of attracting business to the region. EMCC wanted the facility accessible for students who had already put in an eight-hour work day. It became a call center for Gateway computers, all the way out in Mayhew. It marked a new era in partnering with industries and bringing jobs to the community. Young has done it by developing relationships.
“The key to success is partnerships, leveraging resources,” Young said. “We are all hopefully doing what we’re doing to help improve life in our community and quality of life. With what we have now, and I can look back to the ’70s when this area east of here, where you now have PACCAR and what will be the global air space park, there was nothing there.”
A hard driver
Young’s passion for improving the quality of life in his community is noticed and respected by those he has worked with over the years.
Joe Max Higgins, CEO of the Golden Triangle Development LINK, first met Young when he interviewed for his job with the LINK. The two developed a friendship and a great amount of trust in each others’ abilities.
“Anytime we asked him or the school to make something happen, he made it happen,” Higgins said.
Higgins admires Young tough, fun and determined attitude.
One cold Saturday, the two had planned to ride their motorcycles towards the Delta. Higgins asked if Young still wanted to go, and Young said he did. Higgins rode behind Young’s Harley Davidson for four hours freezing, wondering when he his friend would want to stop. Young never did.
He never stopped expanding EMCC and the definition of what a community college can and should be.
Since Young became school president in 2004, EMCC has pushed forward in academics, athletics and infrastructure. He has added facilities to the campuses in Scooba and Mayhew, and added campuses to the West Point-Clay County Center and Lion Hills in Columbus. A student center named in his honor was built in Scooba to help promote a sense of community.
“One of my favorites is the F.R. Young Student Center, because it has my name on it,” Young joked. “But it was sorely needed, because the students down there did not have anything.”
The Scooba campus is beginning construction of a residential hall this year. In the Golden Triangle, construction on a new student union and new Center for Manufacturing Excellence Technology are underway.
Young hopes EMCC will attract international students who can share their cultures with locals. In the next six months, the Golden Triangle campus will host a radio station, 92.7 WGTC, that will reach Columbus, West Point and Starkville. Young said he always wanted to be a disc jockey. For him, it’s all about giving his students more.
“We’re customer driven in that, day and night whatever it takes, we try to provide as many amenities as we can,” Young said.
Other Mississippi community college presidents said they admire Young and will miss him.
“I count Rick as a friend and an inspiration,” Jones County Junior College president Dr. Jesse Smith said. “He has led the faculty, staff, students, and administration to strive toward excellence as evidenced by having the premiere work force training program, having one of the strongest colleges that advocates student success, having one of the greatest college athletic programs, and being the cohesive unit in bringing world class industry to Mississippi.”
“Dr. Rick Young is truly a living legend at East Mississippi Community College,” said Dr. Mike Eaton, president of Itawamba Community College. “He has been the face of the college for many years, and his accomplishments have been extraordinary. Through his leadership, he has taken East Mississippi to new heights. He has great understanding of the importance of marketing and effective communication. Dr. Young will certainly be missed by the Mississippi Community College Presidents Association.”
Seeing success
Young has fond memories of those who have come to EMCC to improve their futures over the years.
He remembers when former EMCC student Anna Marie Hailey went to Boston with her parents to receive her Phi Theta Kappa scholarship. Hailey is now a medical doctor in the Jackson area.
He remembers sitting in EMCC’s football stadium and talking to former EMCC student LeGarrette Blount about his life. Blount will be playing in the Super Bowl on Sunday.
He remembers watching an EMCC football player graduate on the same day and the same room as his mother last December.
Young has been able to enjoy the success of Jose Arellano, an EMCC graduate who is the principal architect of the $17 million student union in Mayhew, expected to be finished in 2016.
“That’s the wind in my sails,” Young said. “Those people that are out, that this school has made a difference, that it’s been a game changer. That people can do better, because of what they can learn here.”
Young’s favorite graduations are GED graduations. EMCC offers those who obtain their GED through the college two years of tuition as long as they are full-time students maintaining a C-average. He believes in the power of education, and throughout his career has tried to make education as easily-available as possible.
Young is retiring to help care for his mother and spend more time with his family. He’s thinking about learning Spanish. He will stay involved in the community. He will miss those he has fostered relationships with over the years.
“It’s special,” Young said. “We’ve got a good family here and it’s awesome. And that’s something I’ll miss, but it can’t go on forever.
“This whole world is better off with folks being educated,” he added.
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