8/21/2009

CONCORDIA — Richard Underbakke, president of Cloud County Community College, has been hired to lead Black Hawk College in Moline, Ill.
Underbakke has been president at Cloud County for the past four years and said his first interview at Black Hawk was in February. He will start his new job on Jan. 4.
“It’s a little bit bigger school, and there are a lot of opportunities for workforce development,” said Underbakke.
He said that Black Hawk is more oriented to technical education, which is more in keeping with his background. His first education after high school was the auto mechanics program at Northeast Iowa Community College.
Black Hawk has nearly 12,000 students, compared to about 2,600 at Cloud County.
“I feel good about the accomplishments of the past four years,” said Underbakke, mentioning an upgrade of the campus’ physical facilities and the new wind energy program.

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