Madison College president Jack E. Daniels III announced Wednesday that he will retire, effective June 2024.
Daniels made the announcement at the Madison College District Board of Trustees meeting at the Goodman South Campus, perhaps the crowning achievement of his 10-year tenure. He said he informed the board of the decision a month ago.
“This college stands head and shoulders above most,” he said, praising faculty, staff and board. “Madison College is elite in what it does and what it provides, but is also understanding of its role in the community and how we can be the best in serving that community.”
“Dr. Daniels’ leadership and vision leaves Madison College in a strong position for the future and uniquely suited to meet the opportunities ahead,” Board Chair Donald Dantzler, Jr said in a statement issued after Daniels’ announcement. “Both the college and community have benefitted from his guidance, voice and steady hand, and we are indebted.”
Daniels became the first Black president in the college’s history in 2013.
In 2016, he recommended the college move out of its downtown campus and build a new location on Madison’s south side. The move, he said, would save the college nearly one million dollars a year in maintenance of the aging downtown building, and would help fulfill the college’s mission to serve marginalized communities. He also hoped a south side campus could become an anchor for a revitalized south side. The Madison College District Board approved that recommendation unanimously a month later.
In 2017, the college announced that it would purchase the building that housed the Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds on the corner of South Park and Badger Road. The purchase and construction costs were largely funded by a $10 million donation from the Goodman Foundation and $1.3 million for the American Family Dreams Foundation — the largest single gift of its kind in the foundation’s history to that point.
At the same time, Daniels and then-superintendent of Madison schools Jennifer Cheatham announced a partnership to allow some Madison students to spend their junior and senior years studying STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) full time at Madison College, earning both a high school diploma and college credit.
The Goodman South Campus opened for the fall semester of 2019 with enrollment that exceeded expectations. Today, it serves about 3,600 students, and Daniels’ vision for the campus as a part of a revitalized south side has begun to become real; The Black Business Hub has gone up across the street, the Center for Black Excellence and Culture and new Centro Hispano headquarters are well underway.
That campus – along with all others – closed down the following spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Daniels joined education leaders across the world in navigating the pandemic.
In 2020, Madison College announced the George Floyd Memorial Scholarship, seeded with a donation from Daniels himself.
In 2022 the college was honored with the Eduardo J Padrón Award for Institutional Transformation.
Daniels was named to Madison365’s first-ever list of Wisconsin’s Most Influential Black leaders in 2015.
Daniels said he has no intention of slowing down as he heads toward retirement.
“Mark my words, we will not be stagnant over these next few months,” he said. “We will continue to innovate, we will continue to create, we will continue to improve.”
He took the helm at Madison College in 2013 after stints as president of Los Angeles Southwest College; Lincoln Land Community College in Springfield, Illinois; and Houston Community College.
In a press release, the college said it will launch a national search for its next president in the coming weeks.
