Candidate for SEARK chief kicks around ideas

Although he’s associate vice president of academic affairs at a Houston-area college, Dometrius Hill traveled thousands of miles to Pine Bluff for his public interview to become Southeast Arkansas College president.

Hill had been with a martial arts class from Lee College for a Songahm Taekwondo championship in Europe.

“What I’m trying to do is expand the minds and horizons of our students,” said Hill, a self-described martial arts aficionado. “What better way to do that than travel?”

Students and Taekwondo school owners traveled with Hill to see how students and teachers in Europe interact with each other.

“When the sun goes down and I’m relaxing, I get to see who you truly are,” he explained. “How do you interact with people? How do you carry yourself? Do you hold the door open for people? A lot of those things (the students) get to see. Then, also, they get to strike up conversations between businessman and student or businessman and, now, new soon-to-be potential business owner. It’s all part of the college.”

Songahm Taekwondo instruction is a program Hill said he created at Lee, which helps students qualify to become employees of the American Taekwondo Association and receive an associate of applied science degree.

Luckily for Hill, the ATA is headquartered in Little Rock, which won’t be far from his new home if he is selected from a trio of finalists as SEARK’s new chief. Hill met the SEARK public Friday in the Welcome Center, a day after Utah State University Eastern chief Douglas Miller and four days after Mississippi Delta Community College President Tyrone Jackson visited the campus.

SEARK officials hope to bring on a successor to Steven Bloomberg by June. Bloomberg resigned in February to become chancellor of California’s Kern Community College District.

A Navy and Marine Corps veteran, Hill displayed his penchant for relating to community members with a lighthearted but direct-to-the-point approach.

“I believe they need to get to know the real me,” Hill said. “If we’re going to be working together, getting in the trenches together, I can’t ask you to stay late if I’m not willing to stay late. And if you can’t stay late because you have a family, I ask you to break bread with me during lunch so we can get stuff done. You need to know that I’m about business, and that’s why I made that quote about time: That is the one thing you can spend that you can never get back. Only God can give that back to you.”

Hill said SEARK should establish “a pot of money” for faculty to use before they are asked to establish a new program.

“When you tell me, ‘Let’s shop for groceries,’ we’re talking about we’re going to get some,” Hill said. “You’re telling me we’re going to shop for a new course, why are we shopping and there’s no money in it? And then, how do you decide who’s going to do it? I let the faculty decide. I say, ‘This is the greatest need based on the numbers. Let’s see what the markets say.’ And how do you do it? Through the foundation or — if it’s going to be oil and gas, we’ll go to someone in oil and gas and say, ‘We want to create this course for you.'”

Hill acknowledged SEARK could consider designing classes related to the gas-to-liquid industry, since a large facility is being constructed in northern Jefferson County.

“I would also say that we look at the drone technology,” Hill said. “A lot of people say, ‘OK, I can fly a drone,’ but can you repair it? Do you have the different cameras for night on? Can you check for leakage? Can you check the power on it? You have to be accredited and certified to do a lot of those things.”