Whoever replaces Shirley Reed as president of South Texas College has at once some big shoes to fill, and a strong example of leadership that can help move the college toward a bright future.
The STC Board of Trustees has begun the process of searching for their next president, and we hope that process is both thorough and transparent.
Initial steps are positive, and inspire hopes that it will be.
The board officially began the search last month after Reed, who had helmed the institution since it was founded in 1993, left at the end of January. Reed had announced her decision to retire in November, however, and an earlier start might have helped moved the process forward more quickly or produced more candidates.
Early indications, however, suggest that the search will be wide and comprehensive, with the appropriate consideration of the needs and opinions of the people this college serves.
The STC board has contracted with the Association of Community College Trustees to conduct the search. The organization has reached out to the community, posting a survey that drew more than 125 responses, and held a series of internet-based public forums that allowed hundreds more to address the group directly.
ACCT used the public input to craft the notice of the job opening and set the criteria for applicants. The organization said it hopes to select several of the top candidates and bring them to the Valley to visit the STC campus in May and engage in public forums with the community,
This is good news. All too often, institutions release the name of only one finalist, depriving the public of the opportunity to know who else might have applied for the position and comparing the qualifications of each finalist. The people don’t even know how many other candidates might have applied for the job.
Such public assessment is critical for any institution, but especially one as unique as South Texas College. Although it is one of the state’s youngest community colleges, it enjoyed rapid growth, and today it is the only community college in the state that also offers five bachelor’s degrees. In addition, it has a strong dual-enrollment program in 70 Valley schools that has enabled nearly 120,000 students to get a head start on their degree plans even before they receive their high school diplomas.
Despite that initial growth, the college has endured several semesters of declining enrollment, even before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the closure of most classes and campus activities. Added to this is the fact that most STC students are the first members of their families to pursue higher education in any form, and might need special assistance learning the basic functions of preparing for college, finding financial aid and transferring to four-year universities.
All this surely makes STC one of the more challenging institutions to manage, and calls for a strong president with diverse skills that can effectively serve the needs of the students, faculty and staff, and community it serves.
It all begins with the right search, one that is most open and responsive to the students and taxpayers they serve.
