Dr. James J. Linksz, the college’s president, announced last week that he will be stepping down and retire after 19 years of service. His colleagues and students from Bucks said that Linksz’s ingenuity and dedication will be sorely missed.
Director of Student Life Programs Matt Cipriano has worked alongside Linksz for the last 10 years. Cipriano said that it’s going to be a challenge to find someone as good as Linksz.
“It has been great to work with him,” Cipriano said. “I’ve always felt that he gave the college staff as a whole, the flexibility to work together in a lot of ways.”
Cipriano and Linksz have worked together on commencement planning, committee work, policy procedures, and helping student leaders who wanted to meet with Linksz.
“I’ve also worked with him on planning for facilities,” Cipriano said. “[Dr. Linksz] is very open-minded and creative.”
Cipriano and Linksz have also worked together on generating ideas for renovations at the Upper Bucks and Lower Bucks campuses over the years.
“We try to get as creative as possible and bounce ideas off each other,” Cipriano said.
Linksz, who has served as a professor of art at Catonsville Community College, now known as the Community College of Baltimore County, would draw out ideas and blueprints to better visualize their concepts.
“I would say that in a lot of the renovations of the facilities he adds his own flavor to it,” Cipriano said.
As for Linksz’s replacement, Cipriano said that it will most likely come down to the board of trustees looking for someone who possesses what they want in a CEO.
“You always want to take the qualities of what a person had and raise that bar further,” Cipriano said. “Linksz has worked here for such a long time and has done so many things for the college and the community that it’s going to be tough to raise that bar.”
Assistant Academic Dean of the Department of the Arts at Bucks, John Matthews, said he is confident that the school’s Board of Trustees will select an apt leader to replace Linksz.
“His encouragement of the arts has given me enthusiasm to lead the department in innovative and advanced directions,” he said.
Matthews said he remembered working with him on the renovation of the Artmobile, Bucks’ traveling museum.
Students were surprised to hear of Linksz’s upcoming departure.
“I didn’t know he is retiring,” said Alejandra Lewandowski, a 22-year-old journalism major. “It makes me wonder if the next person to fill his role will bring Bucks in the right direction as Linksz did during his time here.”
Lewandowski said she thought the president had done a good job during his time at the college.
Dan Shields wasn’t aware of the pending retirement either.
“I didn’t know that the president is leaving,” the 28-year-old engineering major said. “I can imagine the school will undergo some new changes. A position this big usually means big changes as well.”