By Joyce Flores
Dr. John De Leon has spent most of his professional career in universities, though he never intended to.
At a forum April 20, De Leon showed faculty and staff a binder with his dissertation on industrial education with an emphasis on community colleges.
De Leon is one of four candidates applying for the position of dean of arts and sciences.
The candidates met with the president, the vice president, the chairs of the arts and sciences departments, faculty and staff in a daylong interview.
De Leon explained how he ended up in positions at universities instead of at community colleges, where he always intended to work.
He explained that in 1993 after graduating from Texas A&M, his father became sick. The native of Martindale found a job at Texas State University in San Marcos as an associate professor of engineering and technology to be closer to his family.
De Leon went on to spend 12 years at Texas State until he transferred to Kansas State University to become the engineering technology department chair.
Many in the audience wanted to know why De Leon was applying for a job at a community college when he seemed to be doing well in universities. De Leon explained that universities’ primary focus is research. Over the last two years, he said he has explored who he is and what he wants to do in life.
“I wanted to make a difference,” De Leon said. “It appears to me that where I am is not where I want to be.”
De Leon said he is applying at other community colleges but hopes to make this his last stop.
He said he has always been interested in the Alamo Community College District; when he was at Texas State, he had many transfer students from the district, especially from this college, he said.
He even visited the colleges to meet with the presidents a few years back.
De Leon was asked how he felt about strategic planning and the first-year experience. He explained that when he became department head at Kansas State University, he held sessions with all of the department personnel to brainstorm what the department should be focusing on.
The three goals they focused on were recruitment from community colleges, enhancement of the quality of teaching and improvement of community outreach.
“Now how is it going to get done?” De Leon asked. “Strategic plans should include who is going to be responsible and a baseline. How can I ask the department to increase retention if they don’t know the baseline? It should also include who is going to do it, when do you want it done by and how much is it going to cost.”
De Leon has experience writing grant proposals; while at Texas State, he secured more than $1.2 million, and since 2005, he has received half a million dollars in scholarship money for Kansas State University students.
He recently drafted a $2 million proposal to the National Science Foundation; he explained that companies and the government are willing to give money to colleges because the money helps the students who they will eventually hire.