Tyler Junior College is one of the healthiest and most robust community colleges in Texas, if not the nation. This is at a time when many two-year colleges are struggling to find their place, and funding, in an environment that grows more competitive each year. Dr. Juan Mejia, president of TJC, talks about what his institution is doing that’s different than others and the community support that has laid the groundwork for its successes.
Mike Landess: For UT Tyler Radio, I’m Mike Landess. In the last few months, there have been a number of articles nationally about concern for the health of community colleges across the country. There are questions that range from declining enrollment to future viability in local communities. The exception to all that seems to be Tyler Junior College. It has one of the most aggressive marketing campaigns for a school its size in the country, and it appears to be paying off. Dr. Juan Mejia is the president of Tyler Junior College, and he’s our guest today. Welcome.
Juan Mejia: Mike, what an honor! It truly is an honor to be here with you and to be representing an institution that is very special to me, Tyler Junior College.
Mike Landess: It’s very special to this community, that’s for sure. What is your reaction to these stories of other community colleges across the country struggling? What are you doing here that they aren’t doing?
Juan Mejia: Mike, it’s important that we all do some level of environmental scanning–what’s happening throughout the country, what’s happening throughout the state and region, so that we can do our very best to continue on the mission that started for community colleges.
And many years ago, for Tyler Junior College, we were created in 1926. What is it that we’re doing differently is we just happened to live in the most caring and philanthropic pro-education community. The greater Tyler area is surrounded by philanthropists, by visionary leaders who believe in the importance of education and that the fact that education can create social mobility. It can create economic development and regional prosperity.
So, what we’re doing different is we’re monitoring what’s happening and really leveraging them, forging relationships that have been long-standing and trying to do our very best so that we can maintain the success of the institution and take it to the next level by honoring the values that are close and dear to our hearts.
Mike Landess: Now you’re marking your fourth year as president this July. How has TJC changed since you took charge?
Juan Mejia: The college is an exciting place. So, of course, we’re very proud of the academic strength of the institution. When you look at the speech and debate, the honors program, when we look at the athletics and the national victories, the conference titles–the list goes on and on.
But something that I believe is very close to what I value are authentic partnerships, and again, the previous presidents had done a stellar job. I’m blessed to have one of my best friends be Mike Metke, the former president of the college. Not that I’m doing anything different or better, but I do believe that somehow organically, relationships have gone stronger.
The University of Texas at Tyler–we have a great partnership through the leadership of (Board of Regents) chairman (Kevin) Eltife, president Kirk Calhoun and the entire leadership team because we’re focused on the overall victory. And that is that together we can do much more and get further. Authentic partnerships with business and industry with the higher ed partners, with the school districts, all are going to yield a better community.
Mike Landess: Now, I talked about an aggressive marketing campaign for TJC. Now we’re talking TV and radio and print and social media. I personally have never seen anything quite like it. How did it come to be, and then how do you gauge its success?
Juan Mejia: You know, we love the brand.
When I say the brand, it’s the brand of the institution, the colors of black and gold, the being in Apache now, the new mascot with Harry the Hawk. And it’s really trying to have that culture be in the hearts and minds of the students who join the institution. So wherever I go, I will, I may start a theme with feathers up.
Feathers of Apaches. It’s a great day to be in Apache Nation. The brand gold. We won the tidal wave of black and gold, and I believe that it is contagious. Again, I didn’t create it, but there are a lot of efforts at correlation, the recognition of an institution that has been here for many years, and it really is just saying that a little bit louder and with a lot of pride.
There are many community colleges throughout the state and country that are having a very difficult time financially. Just as with vision, and one thing that’s true to us is we remain true to the vision of we are a junior college, and we want to be a world-class junior college. And that’s why we have great partners at regional universities and senior universities because that is their role.
Our role is to be the very best junior college that we can be.
Mike Landess: In those first 2 years, those are people who perhaps are going back to school and need a more flexible schedule than a regular college education. Now forging that student-friendly relationship with UT Tyler has been a goal. It seems to be paying off.
Juan Mejia: It truly has. We’re gonna get much further if we work together. And again, we are the Patriot pathway. What a stroke of genius it is to say, “Students, if you enroll at UT Tyler, we’re gonna accept the credits from Tyler Junior College.” It makes sense. It’s good for the student; it’s good for the community, the taxpayers.
And then our commitment and accountability is to ensure that the students who are transferring are meeting all the academic rigor of the university as well. It creates a seamless pathway, and they get students to graduate with as little debt as possible and to no loss of credits to go into either graduate programs or into the workforce in the shortest period of time.
And we know there’s a great need for a workforce throughout the country. So let’s do our part in East Texas and let’s do it right.
Mike Landess: Many may not know that you and UT Tyler President Dr. Kirk Calhoun, have become good friends. He says you actually have lunches that include your individual staff members at times.
Juan Mejia: That is correct. Dr. Calhoun is an incredible leader. Very busy as well. He’s a master at the work with the legislature and what is needed to bring assets to East Texas. So I consider him a dear friend. Kirk and I go to lunch frequently and just talk about what are our shared values, our shared vision outcomes we wanna achieve.
And they’re very important. We host every semester, and that’s our term, by the way. Already I reached out to Dr. Calhoun and said, “Hey, we’re looking forward to coordinating that breaking bread together,” where his entire leadership team and our leadership team gets together. They hosted the last one, and we hosted the previous one.
So we take turns at doing that. And these are important actions that sometimes get neglected as one of those days we’ll get to them and we don’t. So I really celebrate the fact that Dr. Calhoun and his executive cabinet and our cabinet, we remain committed to these meetings for the betterment of our students and communities.
Mike Landess: Now, just as you took the reins at TJC, there was some consternation about the name “Tyler Junior College.” Someone wanted “Junior” out of the name; some wanted other changes. Is the discussion over now, or are you just TJC like you’ve always been?
Juan Mejia: You know, I love TJC. My license plate says TJC. I’m wearing a lapel pin that says TJC. I do believe it is important that we continue to assess the branding of the institution we love. At times there could be a stigma to the term “junior.” Or to the fact that we serve numerous municipalities with the name Tyler, but our TJC is important to us. So while the dialogue may continue about how, what we need to do to ensure that we have the right brand for the students. They may not understand that my commitment to TJC remains solid. I love Tyler Junior College. Together we’re going to increase the degree-attainment levels for our community, attract world-class organizations and companies, and have a strong East Texas.
Mike Landess: Our guest has been the president of Tyler Junior College, Dr. Juan Mejia. To hear this interview again or to share it, go to our website, KVUT.org. I’m Mike Landess for UT Tyler Radio.
(Transcripts are automatically generated and may contain phonetic spellings and other spelling and punctuation errors. Grammar errors contained in the original recording are not typically corrected.)
