By Dylan Bradley/editor-in-chief
Allen Goben stepped into the NE Campus presidency with high expectations and matching support.
Coming from Western Governors University in Missouri, his first day at the office was Sept. 2.
One of the first things he noticed about NE Campus was the atmosphere of high expectations.
“I like the focus on excellence here,” he said. “I think that the people I’ve met have been collectively really engaging, and they want to really do well, and they really want the students to do well.”
He also said the environment and campus are really nice.
“It really feels good,” he said. “It feels like a place you’d want to go to college.”
Chancellor Erma Johnson Hadley said Goben will ensure the NE Campus team is working on the goals the board has set for the district.
She said he stood out because of his background at other colleges and national organizations.
“I liked the fact that he had a short stay with the Western Governors University in Missouri because they do a lot of things that I know TCC is looking at doing in the future, such as competency-based degrees,” she said.
Goben has experience in student retention and hopes to bring the success he found at other institutions to TCC. While serving as president of Hazard Community and Technical College in Kentucky, he saw a 24 percent student persistence increase in credential-seeking students.
“They often pick a college, then they start taking classes, and then they pick a major and then a career,” he said. “If you really look at the best way to do things, that’s the worst way to do things.”
He said most colleges don’t have a systemized approach to helping students plan and that the best way to do things is through a more engaging and robust planning effort. Career counseling, advising and goal-setting help students decide what they really want to do.
“Students who plan successfully follow through on the plans,” Goben said. “When the going gets tough, if they don’t have a real concrete plan of what they want to do, it’s too easy to drop the classes.”
He also understands the valuable position the college holds in the community.
“We’re right in the middle of the educational pipeline,” he said. “We work equally well with K-12 districts but also with other community colleges and universities. We help students transition in and transition on.”
The business and industry sector also have unique relationships with community colleges. He said when an entity needs training for employees, the college is in the perfect position to respond quickly to those needs.
“When you think about all those roads coming through the community college, we’re really in a unique leadership position to help people come together and collaborate,” he said.
Goben got his doctorate at UT Austin and has family around Austin and San Antonio, so this is actually his return to Texas.
“It feels really good to be back,” he said.
