300 petition for Hobbs to be TSTC leader

HARLINGEN - About 300 staff and students want Texas State Technical College's next president to be the man who is holding the job now on an interim basis.

A 300-signature petition was presented to TSTC's chancellor in support of the Harlingen campus' interim President Pat Hobbs, an official said Tuesday.

Chancellor Bill Segura, who will appoint the campus' new president from a field of four finalists, received the petition Tuesday, said Eliska Flores, assistant vice chancellor for marketing and communications at TSTC's main campus in Waco.

"Pat Hobbs is a strong, effective leader who has shown dedication and aptitude in his current position as vice president for student learning,"
the petition states. "Mr. Hobbs has demonstrated his ability to work with and listen to students, faculty, staff and the community."

Segura, who's expected to make an appointment within two weeks, could not be reached for comment, Flores said.

"It was very encouraging to see so many of the Harlingen faculty and staff show so much support for Mr. Hobbs," Flores said. "He is a finalist and rightly so."

Hobbs, the college's vice president for student learning, said he heard about the petition Monday.

"It was kind of a surprise to me," Hobbs said. "I'm flattered. I do appreciate the support. I've been here for 17 years and hope I built a reputation people will respect."

Carlos Martinez, a technology lab assistant who signed the petition, said Hobbs' 28 years in secondary education gives him the experience for the job.

"Who better than someone who knows us and knows how everything works?" Martinez said in an interview.

"Since he is in the interim position why not just keep him there?"

Matt Mire, an agriculture instructor who signed the petition, called Hobbs a "very straight-forward" administrator who "really takes care of his faculty if there's something we need for classes.

"I think he's got a very good idea of where he wants to take us - progressively into the future," Mire said. "He wants to make this campus a campus of higher education that teaches the latest technology."

Martinez said he and many others signed the petition to support Hobbs because they believe finalist Cesar Maldonado's position on the college's board of regents appears to make him the front-runner.

"He has, of course, an advantage," Martinez said of Maldonado, a Harlingen businessman and engineer who also sits on the Harlingen school district's school board.

The other finalists include Hector Castillo, assistant vice president for academic affairs at the University of Texas-Brownsville, and Thomas Boyd, a former president of William Penn University in Oskaloosa, Iowa, and Lambuth University in Jackson, Tenn., who serves as president of Business & Management Consultants of America Inc.

Segura's appointee will succeed Gilbert Leal, who retired after serving 30 years as the college's third president.