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Tarrant County College Southeast President Andy Bowne shows off the new Academic Building on the Arlington campus. (O.K. Carter | Arlington Report)
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Give newly installed Tarrant County College Southeast President Andy Bowne credit: His timing is spectacularly on target.

Bowne, 61, Ed.D., assumed duties July 1, replacing recently retired 12-year President Bill Coppola just in time to oversee the final stages of $187 million worth of campus improvements including two new structures: the Student Experience Building and the Academic Building. In addition, there’s conversion of the campus library into a two-level learning commons that includes traditional library fare plus a state-of-the-art speech/language lab and an experimental technology center dubbed “the sandbox.”

The Arlington campus updates are part of a system-wide $825 million bond package approved by voters in 2019. Though some Arlington renovations are still being wrapped up and will continue through the fall, students are already occupying the new buildings.

Bowne’s involvement with community colleges includes more than 20 years in leadership positions at Grand Rapids Community College in Michigan, Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana, and Johnson County Community College in Kansas, where he was president.

His track record also includes extensive fundraising experience, particularly at Grand Rapids, where he was credited with raising more than $30 million from private sources, plus another $30 million in assorted federal, state and regional grant funding. Accomplished fundraisers are always in demand.

With that kind of track record — what amounts to community college superstar status — a logical question arises: Why make a move to Texas now?

First the unsaid but obvious: He’s a bit of an academic restless spirit, and he relishes new challenges.

“I very much enjoyed my time at Ivy Tech, which was part of a statewide community college,” Bowne said. “I found advantages to the multicampus district but also wanted to focus on an individual campus that still had the resources of a bigger system — but I like the idea of a county system, not a state system. I was also really impressed by the solid leadership team that TCC Chancellor Elva LeBlanc put together.”

Bowne is also catching the Arlington campus on an enrollment surge, on track to increase about 6%this fall. Current on-campus enrollment (not counting online-only students from Arlington) is about 12,000. It’s a mix of traditional on-campus students, plus Arlington, Mansfield and Kennedale school district students taking college credit courses, some students graduating from high school at the same time they receive a two-year associate’s degree. That’s a considerable head start in the collegiate world, plus an enormous cost and time savings.

Some students, too, are focused on certifications as opposed to a degree. For example, the campus hospitality training program — from which students enjoy close to 100% employment — offers courses ranging from culinary arts to event planning, with a median starting salary of $59,000.

What TCC Southeast won’t be, Bowne said, is more of the same.

Consider the two new buildings, collectively about 150,000 square feet.

“The Student Experience Building and the Academic Building will bookend — one north, one south, with part of the old campus building between — and fundamentally alter the look and character of the campus,” Bowne said. “The Student Experience Building will serve as our new front door and will be a one-stop shop where students will find key services such as testing, counseling and registrar’s office surrounding a large, common waiting area dotted with computer terminals.

“That includes everything from applying through getting meetings with an adviser, picking a program of study, getting any academic records through our registrar’s office, paying bills — everything on the front end of the experience, students get in one location.”

Bowne added that the phrase “common areas,” used as a repeating campus design theme, is another way of saying “that the campus is designed to be a comfortable place to be and hang out between classes or events, with places scattered throughout the buildings for individual or group study or discussion.”

Of the two new buildings, the new north classroom building is the more remarkable amenity, architecturally speaking. Most of the building is elevated to create a covered, shaded outdoor event space underneath. There’s another outside hangout or event area between the building and the remainder of the campus a few steps away.

Bowne, too, waxes enthusiastic about a remake of the campus library.

“We’re really morphing it into what might be relabeled a learning commons with all the usual library assets, but also labs and tutoring areas. It would be difficult to find a higher education institution that provides more academic assistance to students than us,” Bowne said.

The statistics, he said, tell the story. Once a student successfully completes 15 hours, roughly equivalent to a semester full time, their overall completion rate increases dramatically, more so again at 30 hours, more so again if they graduate with an associate degree, which dramatically increases the probability of a future four-year degree.

“My philosophy, and that of TCC,” Bowne said, “is to pay a great deal of attention to our students’ learning. Are they mastering course content? Do they have an academic plan? Are they working on that academic plan? Are they progressing? And are they completing when they do those things? And then do they have a great outcome after they complete?”

“We’ve got a lot going on,” Bowne said. “With more to come.”

O.K. Carter is a columnist at the Arlington Report. You can contact him at o.k.carter@arlingtonreport.org