MIDLAND Damon Kennedy has been at Midland College in virtually all capacities all the way from student to vice president.
Now Kennedy finds himself the newly minted president of MC.
He will replace Steve Thomas, who has retired. Thomas will be available to help with the transition until Aug. 1.
Starting out as an adjunct history professor, Kennedy worked his way through the ranks from professor to dean and vice president positions.
He was a student at MC for two years and went on to earn a bachelor’s and master’s degree in American history from the University of Texas Permian Basin.
Kennedy wrote his dissertation on the Four Sixes Ranch and worked with Paul Carlson, a “phenomenal” writer and teacher. He wanted to follow in his mentor’s footsteps, but “the universe had a different plan for me.”
“In 2003, I was teaching at Texas Tech and as a result of some budget cuts, lost a visiting position that I had there and called a friend of mine who had gone to graduate school who was from Midland and was teaching at Midland College,” Kennedy said.
In 2003, with a wife and two daughters, Kennedy reached out to a friend and ended up moving back to Midland. He worked at the Petroleum Museum for a year.
“That was a great experience. In fact, one of the members of the Midland College Board of Trustees was on the board of the Petroleum Museum at the time, so it’s an interesting connection being made 20 years later,” Kennedy said. “He hires me as an archivist at the Petroleum Museum and then 20 years later, he’s on the board and hires me as president of the college,” Kennedy said.
After President Steve Thomas announced his retirement, Kennedy took the Christmas holiday to mull it over. He discussed it with his wife and two daughters, as he does with every decision, because it impacts them, too.
They decided it would be a good thing for him to pursue.
“But it’s scary at the same time because if you go after it as an internal candidate and you don’t get it, it sends a pretty clear signal. We knew it was a transition point. That decision to go for it was a transition point,” Kennedy said.
He added that he puts students and faculty first.
“I love Midland. I love Midland College. I love the folks in this institution; our students. So that was really the catalyst for me to say, okay, I’m going to go for the position,” Kennedy said.
He added that he felt good about the hiring process and has a lot of trust in the board.
“I think we have a great board of trustees. I think that this is a destination job for folks and so to have, for lack of a better term … won this job … that’s meaningful to me,” Kennedy said.
During a June 28 interview, he said he planned to post a survey on midland.edu asking faculty, staff, students, community members, business and industry to offer some insight as to what they think about Midland College and where they see opportunities.
“I’m going to commit to sitting down with anyone who would like to meet over the next couple of months prior to the start of the fall semester. I’ve heard from a lot of people already … What I intend to do is to lay out what some of the key goals are for the college,” Kennedy said.
He has a preliminary planning document and has thought a lot about them for years.
Kennedy said there are seven key areas that they want to focus on such as becoming a top-tier college and enrollment.
To do that, Kennedy said they will focus on student success and student outcomes. He said the college is doing a good job of that and stands to get an additional $4 million allotment from the state in the next biennium under the new state formula for community colleges.
They will also look at enrollment process, barriers to student success, non-academic supports and being good stewards of tax, tuition, philanthropic and business and industry dollars.
MC currently has about 5,400 students, Kennedy said.
“We want to make sure that the community and the world knows that we’re committed to ensuring that this is the best place we can make it and that their investment is worth it,” Kennedy said.
MC also wants to create meaningful, mutually beneficial partnerships and prioritize outcomes for its partners the way they would their own.
Kennedy added that they feel MC is a key part of the community and “we’re going to get engaged. Our faculty staff are going to get engaged. We’re going to reinvigorate the support for our arts offerings — the Cowan Performing Arts Series, the Davidson Distinguished Lecture Series. We do a … history symposium. We’re going to get people back to the campus,” he said.
MC also wants to give back to the community.
It also wants to prioritize compensation and work-life balance for employees.
“We want to be a destination employer,” Kennedy said.
They also want to partner with MISD on a new career and technical education building if a bond is called and passes.
But they also want to build a CTE facility on campus.
“We’re going to expand programming in phase 1, largely in energy and heavy industry. … Phase 2 is going to be a focus on health sciences. We have a lot of energy and heavy industry at the ATC (Advanced Technology Center) now that we will relocate to a new facility on the main campus freeing up space at the ATC to do some expansion of health sciences programming.
“The longer-term goal is to bring that health sciences programming to Midland College because we do so much with MISD in the form of dual credit,” Kennedy said.
He added that they are able to offer some of their exemplar programs to dual credit students. But in some cases in health sciences they are turning away two out of every three students that want to enroll.
“We need to expand that programming. It’s good for the students. It’s good for the community. It’s the right thing to do,” Kennedy said.
He added that MC has a great partnership with Midland Health.
“The kinds of supports and insight that they have provided have really shifted the way that we think about the delivery of that instruction and those programs. In fact, we just were launching in the fall our first cohort of students in radiologic technology and it’s living at West Campus, the F. Marie Hall Outpatient Center. Our investment is in faculty and curriculum. Their investment is in all the supports and facilities. … What we’re doing is we’re finding ways to efficiently deliver these programs in areas where we need the technicians in our area in our region,” Kennedy said.
Asked if MC has physical room to grow, he said they have landmass to grow, but they are landlocked.
“There is some acreage to the north of our softball field and north of our Fox Sciences Building and F. Marie Hall and north of the dorm. There’s actually a road that’s being constructed now as a part of the Texas Tech PA program expansion. It doesn’t bisect, but it kind of cords off the north third of our campus. That’s where we envision all of the CTE expansion … When we are successful at constructing that facility and bringing health sciences completely to the main campus, we will have chewed up all of the landmass. But I believe that that also positions us for the next 50 years,” Kennedy said.
He added that he thinks those projects make it possible to potentially double MC’s enrollment.
“If we could get these facilities constructed. I think within five years, we’re going to be at 8,500 students. That’s an optimistic goal, but you got to have some goals that scare you a little bit,” he said.
MC Board Secretary Steve Castle noted that it was a unanimous decision to name Kennedy as president.
“He worked at the Petroleum Museum when I was president and I’ve known Damon a long time. … I and the board believe he’ll do a great job for us,” Castle said.
MC hired a search consultant, Bill Holda, from the Association of Community College Trustees.
Castle said Kennedy has been at MC for many years and knows “all the people.”
“He’s already making some changes, which is good. Dr. Thomas is going to stay until Aug. 1 to help with the transition and we believe that Damon will do a great job for us,” Castle said.
He added that the board thought they needed to get someone from Texas that understands the way “we do things in Texas.”
“I think Damon will increase our fundraising activity for the Foundation and the school. Steve (Thomas) had to go through COVID, which was tough. We had to suspend classes. It wasn’t a good time to raise money,” Castle said.
