Terry Leas reflects on higher education career

MOSES LAKE — Terry Leas said a lot has changed during his 39-year career in higher education, and many of those changes have been for the better.

Leas, 70, retired as BBCC president in early August. His successor, Sara Thompson Tweedy, took over the job Aug. 17.

His first job in higher education was in 1981, and at that time colleges measured themselves by what was available to students, such as the amount of money the college spent per student, and how that translated into equipment and resources. “How many books do you have in the library? Things like that,” he said.

Those can be important indicators, he said, but now colleges are also evaluating themselves by looking at what students are doing. “What is the success of the students?” he said.

Now colleges are looking at whether students stick with college or drop out, whether they graduate, whether they get a job. “So it’s no longer how many books do you have in the library, it is, for the books you have in the library, how are students being successful? That’s been the shift over the decades I’ve been in education.

“And I think that is much more healthy,” he said. “Why do we have these colleges and universities? Well, it’s to help people achieve their educational goals, their career goals, and that’s where we should be measuring success, is by how well students do,” he said.

But in some ways public understanding of the value of higher education has changed, he said. “In the past, higher education was considered a public good,” he said. Education helps individuals do better, and that benefits the whole community, he said.

“There’s been this change that it’s no longer a public good, it’s a private good,” he said. The benefit that higher education provides to a community is getting lost, he said.

Part of that is due to public perception, which doesn’t always distinguish between colleges. “The challenge is that people judge the whole field of higher education by those (colleges) that are so expensive but maybe aren’t delivering the outcomes that you would expect,” he said.

Community colleges are less expensive, but provide a good education in their areas of focus, he said. Community and technical colleges are a good option for people who otherwise might not have access to higher education or additional training.

In the future, Leas said, there’s going to be more cooperation between colleges, high schools and employers to show high school students how to prepare for college or technical careers. “What we’re going to do is demystify (the higher education process), to help people make those decisions in a more informed way,” he said.

Leas said his job as president was to build on the work done by previous administrations and faculty, and leave BBCC in a place where his successor could build on the work he did.

Leas was hired as BBCC president in 2012, and one of his first jobs from the trustees was upgrading facilities. Many of the technical training courses were housed in buildings that dated back to the days of Larson Air Force Base. “It took a lot of people at Big Bend working together, it took support from our local legislators, support from the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges,” he said. The effort culminated in the Workforce Education Center, which opened for classes in January, and a new facility for BBCC’s aviation maintenance technician program.

“That is really satisfying to be able to be a part of that,” he said.

Leas said one of his goals was to improve communication between administrators, faculty and staff. “I think over the eight years we’ve made progress. I don’t think we’re where we need to be,” he said. But in his opinion there have been positive changes.

The college also is working effectively with local business and industry leaders, he said, and the Big Bend Community College Foundation has grown. “The assets of the foundation, I think we’ve grown them 130 percent,” he said.

It was all done with the help of a good team. “I did this as a member of a team,” he said. “You need the rest of the college doing their parts to make it successful.”

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.