Tenure Gives Lake Forest Resident Unique Perspective

College of Lake County (CLC) Board Chairman William M. Griffin may be the only sitting community college trustee in the country with this unusual resume: community college graduate, elected community college trustee and tenured community college faculty member.

Griffin, a Lake Forest resident, serves as chairman of the CLC board of trustees, and is a professor of business and chair of the Accounting and Business department at Triton College in River Grove.

He was granted tenure by the Triton board of trustees Feb. 21.

“I am very pleased to now be a tenured faculty member at Triton College,” Griffin said. “Each year I vote on tenure decisions for CLC faculty members. It was an interesting experience, to say the least, to be on the other end of the decision-making process waiting for the Triton board’s approval. I’m honored that they granted me tenure.”

Griffin graduated from CLC in 1977. He then earned a bachelor's degree and an MBA with a concentration in corporate finance from DePaul University. In May 2011, he received a doctor of education degree from National Louis University in Chicago.

Griffin was hired as a business faculty member at Triton in 2009. Previously, he served as chief operating officer of XTnergy, a New York City based firm, and as general manager of Commonwealth Edison’s Chicago Region. He also taught as an adjunct at the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management, Carthage College and the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

First elected to the CLC board of trustees, in 1995, Griffin has served as CLC board chairman five times previously in addition to his current term as chairman. He is active in state and national higher education organizations, including serving as an associate member of the Finance and Audit Committee of the Association of Community College Trustees. 

“Because I’ve been a student, an instructor and a trustee, I have a lot of perspectives on what community colleges are about,” Griffin said. “I am deeply aware that when a board takes a vote, that decision affects real students in real classrooms.”

“There’s no question that experiencing a community college in different roles helps make you a better board member,” said CLC board vice chairman Richard Anderson, who also was a CLC student before going on to attend Northeastern Illinois University and Marquette University, where he earned his law degree.

“When you’ve been a student, a faculty member and a trustee, you just know more about community colleges, and it helps you ask the right questions on issues,” Anderson said.    

Understandably, Griffin, who also serves on Illinois Congressman Robert  J. Dold’s education advisory committee, is an unabashed proponent of community colleges.

“Community colleges help people get the knowledge and skills that lead to better lives and stronger communities,” he said. “I’m very proud to be involved with community colleges in so many ways—as an alumnus, a board member, instructor and community advocate."