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 One thing Lone Star Community College System (LSCS) is not is timid. In the face of major changes in higher education and its primary service area, the leaders at the system have one goal in mind.
“We have a clear agenda and intend to be the premier community college in the country,” said Dr. Richard Carpenter, president and chancellor.
LSCS was created in 1972 when residents from three Independent School Districts (ISDs) created a junior college district and founded North Harris County College. Over time, eight additional ISDs joined the founding three, and the college expanded. Today there are five LSCS campuses, six satellite centers, and a university center.
The largest higher education institution in the Houston metro area, the system offers two-year associate degree and certificate programs, arts and sciences courses that can be used for transfer, continuing adult education, developmental education and literacy programs, and student support services. It is currently in a growth phase, welcoming an additional 5,000 students every 24 months. It has 52,000 credit-based students, 17,000 non-credit students, and 16,000 online students.
This rapid growth for LSCS is due to several factors. One major reason is the change in perception of community colleges overall. They are beginning to be seen as a first-tier choice for many students looking to start their pursuit of higher degrees because of the cost of traditional four-year institutions. But many are choosing an LSCS education because of its success in transferring people to top-quality schools.
“Our big focus is as a transfer school, although we do offer vocational training,” said Carpenter. “Last fall, we transferred students to schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, UCLA, Duke, and Purdue. We do that every year, which says a lot about our academic reputation.”
In fact, LSCS takes a proactive approach to helping prepare students for the challenges that lie ahead. It sets aside about $1 million a year to provide additional student services for those with academic problems. If a student misses a class in one of first three class periods or does poorly on his/her first exam, the college conducts what Carpenter called intrusive advising.
“We call them and let them know we have additional resources for them that are free. Whether it is child care, financial assistance, or whatever the issue is, we try to address it immediately,” Carpenter said. “If they stumble and you don’t see it, they leave and you can’t get them back. If we catch it early, we can intervene and help them ultimately succeed.”
Managing change
By measuring current growth trends and looking at projected enrollment, it is clear LSCS’s infrastructure must adapt to meet its future needs. The system is currently investing $420 million in improvements, such as seven general classroom projects, four of which are medical training facilities. In addition, it recently purchased a former office park property located next to a hospital, which it will use as a medical training health-related center and leased physician offices.
The college also bought a 1.2 million-square-foot property from HP. It is a 45-acre campus with eight buildings and a large, fully equipped conference center. It is valued at eight or nine times the price LSCS paid for it, thanks to the current real estate market. Stairwells and restrooms are being enlarged, and the first buildings are expected to open in January.
The exact makeup of that campus is still to be determined. A new university center will be located there for students to pursue bachelor’s degrees through LSCS’ partnerships with higher institutions in Texas. Carpenter said the system is closing one satellite center and will move those operations to the new campus as well.
“By January, it will look like a new campus, but we will still have abundant space there,” he said. “We are working with a team of individuals from across various industries inside and outside education to dream about what this campus should become in the next three to five years. We didn’t want to establish a sixth campus right away because we envision this location as a synergistic multiuse university park, and we didn’t want to stifle the thinking about what the campus could become.”
For the time being, there is no reason to expect LSCS’ growth to abate. The 11 ISDs it serves are experiencing rapid population growth and demographic shifts, and a higher percentage of those students are choosing community college. And because of the deregulation of university tuition by the Texas state legislature, costs have skyrocketed at four-year schools. Last fall, 76% of freshman in Texas attended a community college—Carpenter said that is unprecedented.
“Affordability is driving more students to community college, especially those with good transfer rates,” he said. “Most of our students intend to get a four-year degree, but they can get it at a better price by doing two years here.”
LSCS is also seeing growth thanks to its reputation among area employers, especially in the healthcare and first-responder fields. When the system tried to get a bond issue passed, all 10 regional hospitals in the area took a full-page ad out in Houston Chronicle to tell people how important LSCS is to them, urging the bond’s passage. The system’s alternative teacher certification program is helping people switch careers and enter education, and the system has partnerships with private companies where it will customize training programs and take them to their partner’s premises to offer instruction.
“Online enrollment continues to rise as well. It is our fastest growing segment, slowed only by a shortage of online instructors,” Carpenter said. “Our objective is to offer entire academic programs online, not just selected programs.”
As the system prepares top handle the continuing influx of student, Carpenter is concerned about ensuring the system has the best leadership going forward. The system is putting in a new ERP system to help manage the organization, but Carpenter is convinced that the system’s success or failure in responding to the challenges of the day comes down to one thing: leadership.
“Our resources are abundant, so we can’t use that as an excuse for not being excellent. However, change management is still a challenge. But our leadership team has all the right people in all the right seats, and when we had vacancies, we didn’t advertise,” he said. “We looked for people making news around the country and recruited them because who we will become is dependent on our leaders.”
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