Juan L. Maldonado

Juan Leandro Maldonado
Maldonado at the Laredo Community College Veterans Day celebration in 2008
Born	November 28, 1948 Nueva Ciudad Guerrero, Tamaulipas, Mexico Reared after 1950 in Laredo Webb County, Texas, USA
Residence	Laredo, Texas
Alma mater	Martin High School Texas A&M University University of North Texas Texas Woman's University
Occupation	President of Laredo Community College since 2007
Spouse(s)	(1) Gloria Eloisa Torres Maldonado, later Gloria Longoria (1971-1984, divorced)[1] (2) Peggy Jo Connally Maldonado (married 1986-2001, divorced)[2][3] (3) Linda Elevi Garcia Giddens Maldonado
Children	From first marriage: Erik Juan Maldonado (born 1976) Stepchildren from third marriage: Timothy Mark Giddens, Jr. Christina Marie Giddens Jacklyn Jeannette Giddens[4]

Juan Leandro Maldonado (born November 28, 1948) is a higher education administrator who is the sixth and current president of Laredo Community College in Laredo in Webb County in South Texas, USA. In August 2007, upon the sudden retirement of Ramón H. Dovalina, Maldonado assumed the LCC presidency, a highly-visible position in his city and county.^[5] Maldonado has confirmed his own retirement from LCC effective August 31, 2016.^[6]

Background

Maldonado was born in Nueva Ciudad Guerrero in the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico,^[1] a small city opposite the Rio Grande from Falcon Heights, Texas. He moved to Laredo on January 3, 1950, at the age of thirteen months.^[7]

Maldonado is considered a native of Laredo^[8] because he was reared there in the historic Barrio Azteca.^[9] In 2009, Maldonado in an interview described how Laredo in its pioneer days developed out of necessity an independent spirit because of its remote location. Though the community was compelled to become self-sufficient, he noted how people from the early years of settlement became dependent on one another. This situation, he added, fostered an impressive community spirit.^[10]

Education

Maldonado attended the former Central Elementary School and in 1967 graduated from Martin High School, at which he was the co-captain of the "Tigers" football team, the senior class president, a member of the National Honor Society, and was voted "Most Likely to Succeed". In 2008, he was named a "Tiger Legend", along with several other alumni, including Andres Ramos, Jr., a former county judge for Webb County. As a Tiger Legend, Maldonado urged graduates to be "committed to what you want to achieve in life and help others. In helping others, you help your community [to] be a better place [in which] to live."^[9]

After high school, Maldonado attended Texas A&M University in College Station, at which he majored in Engineering and Business Administration. In 1970, he transferred from Texas A&M to the University of North Texas in Denton, from which in 1972 he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology with a minor in Psychology. In 1975, he received a Master of Education degree in student services from the University of North Texas. In 1986, he was awarded a Ph.D. in child development (elementary education) from Texas Woman's University, also in Denton. In both of his graduate degrees, he carried minor studies in sociology.^[11][12] For his doctorate, he wrote the 276-page The Relationship of English Oral Language Proficiency, Cognitive Tempo, Locus of Control, and Specific Language Acquisition Factors of Mexican American Preschool Children.^[13]

Earlier positions

From 1973 to 1975, Maldonado was a social worker for the Mexican American College Education Fund, which had been established in 1970 to offer scholarships to Hispanic students entering college. From 1975 to 1996, he served in numerous capacities, including counselor and psychology instructor, at Tarrant County College, a community college in Fort Worth. From 1991 to 1996, he was the chairman of the Tarrant College Business and Sciences Division. He came to Laredo Community College in 1996 as vice president for student development and human resources. In 1998, he became vice president for instruction and student development, a designation he retained until 2006, when he was elevated to the position of executive vice president prior to the assumption the next year of the college presidency upon appointment by the trustees.^[11][12]

As LCC president

LCC was established in 1947 under auspices of the Laredo Independent School District. In 1970, the college established its own board of trustees with property taxing authority. In 1993, the nine-member board of trustees changed the name of Laredo Junior College to Laredo Community College.^[14] Maldonado considers LCC a "family" organization which does not "just teach [but] cultivates [student] development by providing a nurturing environment to enhance learning. Students attend LCC because they prefer the student-friendly, supportive atmosphere created by our faculty, staff, and administration."^[15]

Two-campus institution

The Laredo Community College South Campus opened in 2004 off U.S. Highway 83 in south Laredo. On April 26, 2014, Maldonado addressed the tenth anniversary ceremony for the South Campus, with U. S. Representative Henry Cuellar of Texas' 28th congressional district as the keynote speaker. A second Palomino mascot statue, this one donated by Steve and Linda LaMantia of Laredo, was unveiled at the ceremony. An original statue is located at the swimming pool on the main campus.^[16]

In 2010, Maldonado and the trustees announced a $120 million building and renovation project, originally estimated at $96 million,^[17] on the original Fort McIntosh Campus in downtown Laredo near the Rio Grande. Two buildings opened in January 2012: the Lewis Education and Academic Center, named for San Antonio businessman and philanthropist Rodney Lewis, who gave $1 million toward costs of the facility,^[18] and a Visual and Performing Arts Center.

Other projects in the second phase of the Facilities Master Plan include:

• Kazen College Center, $6.3 million for new kitchen, serving areas, and student health services section; the Kazen is named for the late Abraham Kazen, a former member of the United States House of Representatives from Laredo.
• West Building, $2.8 million for consolidation of administrative offices and a new trustees board room, is named for Elpha Lee West (1917-1994), an Austin native, former business instructor, director of student activities, and LCC registrar who retired in 1989.^[19]
• Athletic Housing Village, $1.1 million
• Post Buildings 34 and 35, $1.4 million
• Post 14, a former military hospital, $600,000.^[20]

Community college issues

In 2007, LCC received a $440,000 grant from the United States Department of Agriculture to assist Hispanic or other minority students to complete degrees in agricultural science and business so that they might qualify for jobs with the national department. One LCC student received a $30,000 scholarship from the grant for pursuit of agricultural studies.^[21]

In 2010, testifying before the Higher Education Committee of the Texas State Senate, Maldonado explained LCC's services to prepare students for academic success: "We hire faculty whose sole purpose is to be the best instructors that they can be in providing a learning environment that is student-centered."^[11] According to Maldonado, student success can be enhanced through the following: (1) emphasis on middle school to work with students to overcome academic disadvantages, (2) more rigor in high school courses, (3) improved student financial aid programs, and (4) stronger community and business support.^[22]

In 2010, LCC had a graduation rate of 14 percent for the preceding three-year period among students pursuing either associate degrees or completing specialized certificate programs. That number excludes certain non-traditional students, transfer students, or those taking credits for use at four-year institutions but who do not obtain associate degrees.^[23] The graduation rate increased to 18 percent in 2013.^[24]

Maldonado has served on the executive committee of the Texas Association of Community Colleges. In 2011, he joined colleagues in signing a letter to Texas House Speaker Joe Straus of San Antonio and Jim Pitts of Waxahachie, then the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, to protest, with success as it developed, the proposed closure of four community colleges, Frank Phillips College in Borger, Ranger College in Ranger, Brazosport College in Lake Jackson, and Odessa College in Odessa. The TAAC leaders referred to state budget restrictions at the time:

Community colleges are fully aware of the state's budget crisis, and we understand that we will have to bear our share of the budget pain. We pledge to work with you to reach a fair and equitable solution ... the decision to close these four colleges is unfair and inequitable in that it appears to be arbitrary and ill-advised. We stand in support of our sister colleges ...^[25]

In July 2012, LCC was placed on twelve months of academic probation for failure to meet certain standards required by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. In a document reviewed by KGNS-TV, the NBC affiliate in Laredo, the accrediting body said that LCC had not demonstrated "compliance with comprehensive standards." Maldonado said that LCC would address any deficiencies cited but that the matter would not impact the instructional programs or operations of the college.^[26] SACS contended that LCC failed to correct deficiencies in its reports on institutional effectiveness and faced the forfeiture of accreditation. Had the deficiencies not been corrected, degrees would have become meaningless, credits could not have transferred to accredited institutions, and LCC would have experienced funding cuts and loss of enrollment.^[27] LCC obtained an outside consultant and an editor to convert the existing accreditation data into narrative format.^[28] On June 20, 2013, SACS restored accreditation after LCC submitted reports showing correction of past deficiencies.^[29]

In the spring of 2011, LCC began a four week, 160-hour professional truck driver training course and announced an upgrading of the diesel engine mechanics program, both on the South Campus. The college received the gift of a Peterbilt tractor with a utility trailer from Rush Truck Center in Laredo, a division of Rush Enterprises of New Braunfels, Texas. The company also committed to providing the use of newer model vehicles to support the expanded curriculum.^[30]

In September 2010, LCC trustees granted Maldonado a contract extension, salary increase, performance bonus, and a $5,000 contribution to his tax-sheltered annuity retirement fund. His pay through August 2013 was $163,211 annually.^[31] In 2013, the trustees extended Maldonado's contract to 2015 and increased his compensation by $20,000, or $185,000 annually. He also lives in a presidential home on the Fort McIntosh campus.^[32]

In 2014, Maldonado signed an agreement with Texas A&M International University, the four-year institution in Laredo, to streamline the transfer of LCC students into the TAMIU Bachelor of Science degree in systems engineering. The agreement splits the coursework evenly between the two institutions.^[33]

In the summer of 2014, LCC acquired through a federal grant the technology to transmit audio, video, and data information worldwide from Ka You Systems of Silver Spring, Maryland. LCC also has its own high-tech television studio. Maldonado predicted the new technology will keep the institution in the forefront of the regional telecommunications industry.^[34]

Wendy Davis on campus

On August 9, 2014, Maldonado hosted Wendy Davis, the unsuccessful Democratic gubernatorial nominee, on a tour of the LCC campus.^[35] Davis said that she could not have reached the political success as a then state senator from Fort Worth without the availability of community colleges. In her words, Tarrant County College, where Maldonado had previously worked, "provided a door to higher education, making the first step possible."^[36] Maldonado stopped short of an actual endorsement of Davis but said that she had "a track record as a champion for education. We're very glad to bring her here to highlight our community college." Davis told the gathering at LCC that Texas needs greater funding of education. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Davis claimed that she is "always looking out for the real people." She took the occasion of her visit to LCC to blast her Republican opponent, since Governor Greg Abbott, as one who "defends and protects chemical companies."^[36] In the last week of the campaign, Davis made a return visit to Laredo to shore up her Hispanic base support.^[37]

Retirement looming

In June of 2015 The LCC Board of Trustees took formal action to not extend the president's contract another year. This action forced Maldonado into a forced retirement. The Board has still not accepted his retirement, choosing instead to acknowledge that his contract was not renewed.

Reflecting on his pending departure from LCC, Maldonado said:

During my time serving the LCC family, I have seen our great institution face good and difficult times. In the end, the college and its community have pulled together and achieved successful outcomes. ... My plan to retire in a year will give me the time to transition into new personal and professional horizons, and it will give the college time to seamlessly transition [sic] [into] the leadership of ... a new president.^[6]

Maldonado indicated that he will spend his last year at the helm to lay the groundwork for the third phase of the Facilities Master Plan, which includes construction work: a Student Union building and Health Sciences facility at the South Campus and an Oil and Gas facility at the Fort McIntosh Campus.^[6]

Despite the controversies of his last two years in office, LCC was ranked tenth in 2015 among Texas' two-year colleges by the website BestColleges.com. The institution was cited for its two campuses, affordable tuition, the variety of associate degree programs, restored accreditation, and in the quality of its nursing and allied health programs. Maldonado called the recognition "a testimonial that the leadership and vision of LCC does not go unnoticed or unappreciated."^[38]

Honors

In 2009, Maldonado received the Laredo Rotary International "Service Before Self Award" and the "Tejano Achiever Award" from the interest group, the League of United Latin American Citizens. Maldonado is a member of the Texas Association of Chicanos in Higher Education^[11] and was the president of that organization in 1997.^[39] In 2005, as the LCC vice president, Maldonado was among fourteen Laredoans appointed to the President's Laredo Advisory Council of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.^[40] He is an advisor of the Laredo Theater Guild International.^[41]

On March 8, 2013, Maldonado was named "Public Citizen of the Year" by the South Texas branch of the National Association of Social Workers because of his longstanding efforts to maintain social work education in Laredo^[42] through a joint articulation program established in 2009 between LCC and the University of Texas Pan American in Edinburg. The first five graduates of the hybrid program received master's degrees in 2010. The program was cited for excellence at a 2012 gathering in San Juan, Puerto Rico.^[43] In 2014, the LCC Marketing and Public Relations Office, headed by Steve Treviño, Jr., was honored in Oklahoma City by the National Council for Marketing and Public Relations with four Medallion awards for excellence. One of the awards focuses on the showcasing of LCC's seven-time national championship winning men’s tennis team.^[44]

Maldonado-donated bench at Laredo Community College

In 2013, Maldonado and Ray Keck, the fifth and current president of TAMIU, werer recipients of the "Imagine Award" from the Imaginarium of South Texas, a children's museum and informal science center located at Mall del Norte in Laredo.^[45] Maldonado is a member of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, the United Way, the Chamber of Commerce,^[46] and the board of directors of the Laredo Development Foundation,^[11] a non-profit organization founded in 1966 to promote economic and industrial development of the Laredo area.^[47]

Maldonado and his third wife, the former Linda Elevi Giddens, donated in 2011 a bench dedicated to LCC students and employees which is located in front of the Elpha Lee West Building on the main campus.

References

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2. ""The Marriage of Juan Maldonado and Peggy Connally"". texasmarriagerecords.org. Retrieved May 15, 2012.
3. "Divorce Records Recorded in Wise County, Texas, 1968-2001: Maldonado, Juan L.". wisecountytexas.info. Retrieved September 14, 2015.
4. "Timothy Mark Giddens, Sr. (died 2005)". findagrave.com. August 11, 2014. Retrieved August 23, 2015.
5. Tricia Cortez (March 22, 2007). "Ramón Dovalina stuns LCC with early retirement" (PDF). Laredo Morning Times. pp. 1, 15A. Retrieved August 29, 2015.
6. "LCC president to retire after 20 years of service to college". Laredo Community College. June 19, 2015. Retrieved October 3, 2015.
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15. "President's Office". laredo.edu. Retrieved September 9, 2015.
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32. Aldo Amato (November 22, 2013). "LCC president gets pay raise, contract extension". Laredo Morning Times. Retrieved September 9, 2015.
33. Christian von Preysing (August 20, 2014). "TAMIU and LCC sign engineering program agreement". KGNS-TV. Retrieved September 9, 2015.
34. "Ka You Systems Installs Cutting-edge Satellite Solution for Laredo Community Collge" (PDF). kayousystems.com. August 5, 2015. Retrieved October 4, 2015.
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41. "Advisors". Laredo Theater Guild. Retrieved October 4, 2015.
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