The new president of Black Hawk College believes that educational planning begins with students. Dr. Jeremy Thomas reflected on his first seven months at the helm of the dual campus community college at a “meet-and-greet” Tuesday night in the Community Room of the Kewanee Public Library. The program was hosted by the League of Women Voters of the Kewanee Area.
Dr. Thomas, who brings 25 years of experience in higher education, said he is a first generation college student with parents who were first generation high school graduates and grandparents who were tenant farmers. He grew up in the four-corners area of northeast Texas where he learned the importance of hard work from his grandfather, a World War II veteran and welder. His grandparents were tenant farmers.
“We went from eighth grade to a doctorate degree in education in two generations,” Thomas said.
Throughout his 25-year career in higher education he said he has always been involved in some aspect of student affairs, including serving four years as vice president for Student Affairs at Oklahoma City Community College where he was named Provost in 2020.
In an interview with the Quad Cities Regional Business Journal, Thomas said he was looking for a college with the potential for innovation and growth when a former colleague said he should look at Black Hawk and said he feels the college has that potential.
Thomas said growth is important, but believes attention to the needs of students who are already here is, in some ways, more important than recruitment. In forming a new strategic plan, Thomas said “Students drive the plan which leads to things that will increase enrollment.” To that end, the college is bringing back the position of vice president of Student Services who will devote time to both campuses. The position was eliminated several years ago.
Thomas also said recruitment still has a vital role and, to that end, the college now has three full-time recruiters, including one at the East Campus. He said all three are products of Black Hawk, which he feels is essential to “selling” the college to prospective students.
He also said Black Hawk’s student board trustee is also something unique which he had never seen before on the local level. Students from alternating campuses are elected to one year terms and, as Thomas pointed out, are involved in all decision-making by the board of trustees. The current student trustee is Jonwyn Ayres, of Kewanee.
Another new position to be filled soon is that of a grant writer who, Thomas said, will not only seek out grants and write applications, but will also oversee implementation of the grants.
The college administration is also spending more time at the East Campus these days. Thomas said he is at BHE at least every Tuesday, the day when the most students are on campus, and often more often when called for.
Beginning last year, a vice-president-level administrator, Richard Bush, has been spending several days a week at the East Campus. He is Associate VP for Economic and Workforce Development. The new position of Community Liaison was also created at the East Campus last year which is now filled by Danielle Williams, executive director of the Black Hawk College East Foundation.
Thomas, who lives in Geneseo, said he has made an effort to visit every community in the district in the seven months he has been here and confessed he has probably spent the most time on the East Campus side. In Geneseo, he said he and his wife, Rachel, attend their high school daughter’s athletic events and school activities which has given them both an opportunity to become acquainted with the community.
“There’s great people here like there (Oklahoma City),” Thomas said.
He has also made it a priority to reach out and establish relationships with legislators who serve the district to communicate which legislation is good for community colleges and which is not. He and two trustees recently went to Washington, D.C. to talk directly with respective legislators.
“Facetime is important,” he said. “If they know you, you get to meet face-to-face. If they don’t, you are just one of a group.”
Jodee Werkheiser, a professor, said they have seen more legislators this year at the East Campus than in the 20 years she’s been there which gives them a better understanding of what Black Hawk does and how legislation can have an impact.
Thomas said the role of community colleges in education is changing and must change to meet the needs of the times for both the students and the communities it serves and Black Hawk is doing just that today and for what lies ahead.
***This copy has been edited to clarify that Dr. Thomas’ grandfather, not father, was a WWII veteran.
