Community college put new HCC president on right course

Ken Atwater knows about the distractions that can derail a new college student. He was 25 by the time he got his bachelor's degree from Murray State University in Kentucky.

But as a graduate student in education, he began studying community colleges, where classes tend to be smaller and instructors focus on teaching, rather than getting their research published.

"I was hooked," Atwater said.

And he's still hooked.

Last week, Atwater, 58, signed a contract to become the new president of Hillsborough Community College.

He overcame his 38 competitors with his apparent love of the work and a resume devoted to community colleges from his home state of Tennessee to Arizona. He comes to HCC from the president's job at Phoenix's South Mountain Community College.

Atwater won over faculty union representative Liana Fox with a firm handshake and direct gaze. "He looked straight in my eyes and said, 'I'm looking forward to working with you,' " she said. "He seems genuinely excited to be coming here."

His task at HCC will be nothing like the one he faced when he took over struggling South Mountain in 2001. The Phoenix college, part of the Maricopa Community College system, had a reputation for low achievement, largely because of its location in a poor, high-crime area.

Atwater turned that image around by working closely with people from the college and the surrounding community. He helped set up computer labs for people in the neighborhood and opened the college to the community for arts performances and church and high school events.

Faculty members were initially suspicious of Atwater, wrote HCC trustee Daniel Coton, who visited South Mountain in early May. But that soon changed to a "healthy respect" as Atwater met with instructors and incorporated their ideas into his decisions.

HCC is not a troubled institution with glaring problems waiting to be fixed.

When Gwen Stephenson took over 13 years ago, she stabilized HCC politically and financially. As enrollment soared, she helped expand its foundation to provide more scholarships, Fox said.

Coton describes HCC as a strong institution trying to get to the "next level." Atwater's job is to figure out how to do that.

"There's no one particular thing we're looking for," he said. "Certainly there are plenty of areas where we can improve, not to say those areas aren't good now. We just hope he will look at everything and see what he can do."

He impressed the board with his "great personality" and enthusiasm, Coton said. "We're hoping that enthusiasm spreads."

Atwater credits a faculty advisor at Murray State with getting him interested in community colleges. He didn't attend one as an undergraduate, "but I should have," he said.

At Murray, "I got caught up in the nondirectional atmosphere, the large classes. I didn't have the discipline I needed for that environment. Working with people focused on teaching rather than research would have helped me."

He grew up in Jackson, Tennessee, to working parents who hadn't attended college but insisted on it for their three sons. He got a bachelor's and master's from Murray and returned to his hometown to become a counselor at Jackson State Community College.

Within seven years he was Jackson's Dean of Student Affairs. After getting his doctorate from Southern Illinois University, in Carbondale, he moved on to progressively bigger community college jobs in South Carolina, Maryland and Michigan, all focused on student services, until taking over troubled South Mountain in 2001.

Coming to HCC, he leaps to a well-regarded college five times the size of South Mountain. And he's "excited," he said. Beyond that, he offered few details.

He helped start a charter school on the South Mountain campus. Would he do the same thing here?

"I don't want to be prescriptive at this early stage. My goal is to respond to the needs of the community as those needs are identified," he said.

Across Florida, two-year community colleges are creating new four-year degrees. What about HCC?

"Again, I don't want to be prescriptive, but if that's what the community needs, we need to look at it," he said.

"My goal is to learn about the communities HCC serves and focus on what they need. That's what community colleges do - find out what the community needs and respond immediately. And I know the team in place already has ideas. I want to listen to them and learn."

Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce president Bob Rohrlack wants HCC to keep doing what it's been doing. "It's been incredibly attuned to figuring out what the business community needs in retraining and helping people who've lost jobs and need new skills."

Fox and her faculty colleagues have some needs of their own.

HCC's computing infrastructure can't handle the demands of a growing student body, she said. It breaks down every semester when instructors are recording grades while students are registering for new classes.

Atwater responded, "We have an obligation to provide high quality services to students and staff. If there are technology issues, that's high on my agenda."

Also, Fox said, faculty often don't find out about administrative decisions until long after they are made. Atwater pledged to deal with that, too.

In addition to making the acquaintance of Hillsborough's business and community leaders, and meeting new faculty and finding a new house and getting settled in his new city, Atwater has one more task: To start watching Community.

The offbeat NBC comedy about life at a Denver community college started last fall and was recently renewed for a second season. It stars Chevy Chase.

"I've heard about it," Atwater said. "But I've never watched. I guess I need to."