As he prepares to leave for National American University, Dr. John E. Roueche, the longtime director of the Community College Leadership Program at the University of Texas at Austin, is criticizing the direction of the program that he helped develop.
Roueche said he’s concerned that at a time when community college enrollment is growing, UT’s College of Education is making cuts and other decisions that could jeopardize the future of the nearly 70-year-old program. “Why tinker with a program that is needed, and when community colleges are a point of entry for two out of three students of color, and most women?” he asked.
The loss of senior staff at CCLP and a decision to include master’s students in the doctoral program were “directions in which I could not be supportive and helpful,” Roueche said. Those changes prompted him to accept a two-year buyout from UT, which offered early retirement packages to several faculty members in the College of Education in response to steep cuts in state funding for higher education. He’s among 12 people across the college who accepted the packages.
Roueche says though he respects his colleagues and their abilities, the program doesn’t have people with significant experience in the community college field — starting with interim CCLP director Norma Cantu, a former assistant secretary of education for civil rights in the Clinton administration. “She is a world-class civil rights attorney,” he said of Cantu, “but this is not her field of specialization.”
Cantu, head of the Department of Educational Administration, which oversees the program, said UT is grappling with an unprecedented loss of state funding, but remains committed to CCLP. “We’re acting in a responsible way to deal with deep budget cuts and to preserve the unique nature of the community college program,” she said.
In an interview with Dr. Manuel Justiz, dean of the College of Education, Cantu pointed to a decision to tap the expertise of educators
with longtime community college experience. Dr. Barbara Mink, a trustee at Austin Community College, will work closely with her and the staff, helping them address critical issues in the field such as completion and retention rates.
