President Gets To Know HCC

YBOR CITY - Shawn Robinson is meeting students at Hillsborough Community College Ybor City Campus the old-fashioned way. He's wearing a name tag.

"So there's no doubt about who I am," the new campus president said, laughing.

He's also eating in the school cafeteria, e-mailing students, visiting classrooms and meeting with student government leaders to see what kinks he can work out.

Robinson, 38, who was hired to lead the 12,000-student campus in the middle of Ybor City's entertainment and historical district, wanted one thing to happen when classes started recently.

"The first week I wanted every student to be ready to attend class," he said.

So the rules and procedures were well-established, and the course outlines handed out; Robinson said he even "walked the line," meaning the snakelike registration line.

This methodical method to tackle a challenge is natural for Robinson. He's a mathematician who began teaching at Valencia Community College in Orlando in 1992, joining the administration ranks four years ago.

With a bachelor's and a master's in mathematics education, he earned a doctorate in education from the University of Central Florida and recently completed his law degree from Florida A&M University.

"He has an interesting set of credentials," said Tom Keating, president and chief executive of the Ybor City Chamber of Commerce, before introducing Robinson at a chamber luncheon Tuesday at the Columbia Restaurant.

Robinson said the law degree (he's studying to take the Bar exam in February) will help with contract negotiations and employee relations.

"But it's basically to expand on my degrees so I have other options in the future," he said.

That's his goal for HCC students on this 15-acre campus centered around Palm Avenue and 15th Street. Robinson wants them well-prepared, whether for a job or to go on to a four-year university.

Divorced and the father of an 8-year-old son, Ryce, Robinson is living in Lakeland to be between family in Orlando and the HCC campus 45 minutes away.

Chatting after the chamber luncheon, he said he has seen the campus' new master plan, which includes a 61,000-square-foot student services building that will bring together services spread over three buildings.

The structure will be finished within three years. Robinson announced at the luncheon that the price is $18 million, adding coyly, "This includes the furniture."

HCC librarian Alicia Ellison said she can't think of a more needed building for the hodgepodge campus, where it's not easy to see where HCC stops and the rest of Ybor starts.

"Right now, student services has little cubbyholes on the bottom floor of the library," she said.

Robinson said the new building will include a fitness center as well as computer space, classes for orientation and room for advisers.

The 35-year-old campus recently had its classrooms redone with technology updates. The campus has grown from three buildings to nine, and HCC and the city joined to build a parking garage a few blocks away at Palm and Eighth Avenue.

Keating said HCC is especially good about community partnership. A recent example is the opening of an HCC art gallery in empty retail space at Centro Ybor.

"HCC provides our culture," he said. "The arts, music, theater - all on a regular basis."

Robinson said he wants to keep those ties to the neighborhood strong. But first he wants to know the students.

"Whether they want to come here to learn first aid and then leave with a certificate or are in for a longer haul with many classes, we want to help them out," he said. "We want to remove that administrative hurdle so they can get what they need."