A photo gallery of noteworthy graduates stretches across two walls in the
office of the Community College Leadership Program, or CCLP, at the
University of Texas at Austin. Dr. John Roueche, the director of CCLP,
points to the photos with pride, listing the accomplishments of his former
students. Scanning the portraits, one of his greatest accomplishments also is visible: recruiting a record number of minorities and women into the program.
After 42 years leading the nation’s most highly regarded and successful training ground for community college presidents, Roueche, 73, is retiring this summer. Roueche is set apart from his peers not just for his prolific writing, ground-breaking research and exceptional teaching on community college leadership practices, but also for his uncompromising commitment to diversity and inclusion. CCLP has graduated more women and minority college presidents than any program of its kind in the country — beginning with the recruitment of Paul Meacham, its first Black student. A photo of Meacham, distinguished Regents professor emeritus at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and former president of Clark County Community College, appears in the gallery of notable graduates.
“[CCLP] was a program for White males, and out of his own deep value system he started changing that,” says Dr. Terry O’Banion, former president of the League for Innovation in the Community College and Roueche’s longtime friend and colleague. Of the more than 500 graduates of the program during his tenure, 60 percent are women and students of color.
