Faculty Interview #1

As Dean of Educational Services at Anoka-Ramsey Community College (ARCC), Luanne Kane has her hands in many pots. Some of her current responsibilities include overseeing the business department, the biomedical division, computer networking, and the professional training center. Such diversity in responsibilities may seem unrelated, but when asked about the varied nature of her work, Kane insists that “being a dean is less about the knowledge of the area, and more about leadership, program review, and helping departments with their budgets” and not necessarily about the direct knowledge of that specific department. Dividing her time between both the Coon Rapids and Cambridge campuses, Kane’s job is never dull.

Kane’s own education began with a Bachelor’s in communications and was then followed by a  Master’s in college administration. Her history of employment at ARCC has been a winding road through several departments and certainly adds to her knowledge of college administration. “I actually started out for ARCC in grant writing and was soon asked to be the executive director of the college foundation. After that I was involved with Phi Beta Kapp, which is the national honor’s society.” Her twisty way then included becoming Athletic Director and Dean of the Wellness Division as well as being responsible for both campuses’ libraries. 

As if these areas combined weren’t enough, Kane is also one of the contacts for ARCC’s study abroad program. This was where I first encountered her name, while I was researching the locations included in the study aborad program. Two of the more related areas of Kane’s job are Dean of Foreign Languages and International Education, of which the study aborad program fall into nicely. Among ARCC’s three abroad locations include a spring semester session in Costa Rica and a fall semester tour at Oxford, England, although there has been little to no interest these last few years. The third location, and the one Kane is most connected with is the Zhaoqing, China location. Although no ARCC students have studied here recently, the relationship between ARCC and their Chinese university  counterpart is maintained through visiting Chinese students studying at ARCC and a rotating faculty postion, a visiting scholar. Currently the position is held by Profession Xia, who teaches Chinese at ARCC. 

Although Kane has “not visited [Zhaoqing], it’s been talked about many times before, but with the economies and current budgets, it doesn’t seem like a possibility any time soon.” Despite personally never visiting China, Kane has observed that the Chinese educational system is much more structured. Being involved in international studies and so varied anumber of departments has not blinded Kane to both the challenges and rewards to working within the American educational system. “I think the greatest reward is the success of our students, seeing the differences we make. I hear stories daily of student successes.” When asked about the the greatest challenges of her postions, Kane answered with budgets and asking faculty to take on more responsibilities with less money, resources, and more students in the classroom. On the upside, however, “we have and extremely commited faculty,” and that makes all the difference no matter the department.