fernandofigueroa

When Fernando Figueroa was a senior at Loyola University in New Orleans, he wasn’t entirely sure what he was going to do with his life. Then, on a whim, he entered an empty classroom and did a little role-playing as a teacher.

“It was me and some chalk and I did a fifteen-minute lecture on Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn and there was something that felt so right about that,” Figueroa said.

His life in education began then, and he headed north to Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge where he would earn his master’s and doctoral degrees in English. While teaching at the University of New Orleans, his career path in education would be altered. “I had an experience with a student who couldn’t hand in a paper because her ex-husband had stolen her children,” he said. “Coming through LSU as a grad student and starting my career there, my biggest trouble there was not having kids showing up for class on Friday because of Thursday night binges. (New Orleans) was a commuter campus and there was a shift between the people I saw in the classroom and their issues were much larger than reading the assignment and taking the test.”

When Baton Rouge Community College was established in 1998, Figueroa jumped at the chance to be a part of it.

“I wanted that position to teach there because it was all about providing an opportunity for people that didn’t think they had the opportunity or didn’t deserve the opportunity or had life circumstances that prevented them from having that opportunity. So, that became part of my mission.

“Education is not for the elite. It is not just for a few. It really is about leading out of a person the awareness of their own power and creativity, and to respond to the challenges of their lives. It became more than teaching a composition class. It became about these people learning to have trust and faith in themselves.”

His passion for community college education led him to campuses in Texas where he moved into administration, eventually rising to the role of vice chancellor in the Dallas County Community College system. 
 
In May, he was appointed to his most prominent position yet.
 
Figueroa sat down with The River City News at the Boone County campus of Gateway Community & Technical College, where he is now president – the fourth person to hold that title in less than a calendar year. The abrupt departure of founding president Dr. Ed Hughes last fall after years of a strained relationship with a board of directors and the local manufacturing industry led to two different interim presidents leading Northern Kentucky’s community college and its campuses in Boone Co., Edgewood, and Covington. 
 
Now enters Figueroa, tasked with developing a new relationship with the manufacturers that rely on the educational pipeline promised by Gateway, and with guiding the development of an urban metro campus, already in progress in downtown Covington – but clearly cutting back from its original ambitious plan.
 
Figueroa welcomes the challenges at Gateway.
 
“The proximity to Cincinnat was a big, attractive thing. My wife and I have come to realize that we have to enjoy the mix of an intimate community and being close to a metro to be able to take advantage of different cultures. That was the first thing: you have to be happy with where you’re living.”
 
Then, of course, there is Gateway itself. “In Texas, (the schools have) a strong alignment to the business needs and finding multiple ways – not just one type of degree or credential – and there is listening to and understanding the business side of the skills-gap equation.
 
At Gateway, Figueroa recognizes the potential of the Kentucky FAME and enhanced operator programs as initiatives that can help link a population to high-wage jobs. The new president is embarking on a six-month listening tour, which will include conversations with industry leaders as well as local government and civic figures to diagnose problems, evaluate needs, and establish goals.
 
As for the Covington campus, “First, I have to get my hands around it,” he said. Four years ago, Hughes laid out the plans for a sprawling urban campus that would attract upwards of 5,000 students and help in the revitalization of a resurgent downtown Covington. Already operating in the former Two Rivers Middle School building, Gateway would renovate multiple historic commercial buildings for classrooms, construct a new science center, establish a veterans program center, maintain a bookstore, and operate a creative arts center. Now, with two buildings renovated for classrooms and the bookstore, there is talk of shuttering Two Rivers and placing it up for sale, and movement on other projects, save for one other classroom building to be renovated, has stalled. 
 
“I want to sit down with Covington city planners and get a feel for what is the goal for that urban development. That will give us a better sense of what our role would be,” he said. “I think we are, right now, in review-mode for everything. The commitment is to make sure the spaces are purposeful and meaningful and fill a need in the downtown Covington area.
 
“I want to learn about what downtown Covington is attempting to do and that will help me.”
 
Figueroa also inherits a board that was often hostile towards Hughes, and some of its members support legislation that has been tossed around in Frankfort that would give more power to the local boards, which are largely ceremonial in authority, with most of the power concentrated in Versailles where the Kentucky Community & Technical College System is based. The new president says he is optimistic about his relationship with the board and has experience in handling “dicey” situations professionally.
 
“I have found that what is usually at the heart of that edginess is a perceived trust issue,” he said. “What I tend to do is over-communicate. To say ‘transparent’ seems trite. I keep the lines open and most importantly, I want to hear what you’re thinking and if you have a question, if you’re confused and you are not sure, then please contact me. That has calmed a lot of situations in my career.”

But, should “drama” arise, Figueroa has some experience with that, too. He flirted with theatre as a possible path at one point. “If I had a different drama teache rin high school I might have gone that route because I think it fascinating to learn about people through literature. I had a strong liberal arts background at Loyola,” he said. “Being able to put together puzzles from Chinese history and economics, and psychology, and international literature. That was the focus of the whole curriculum.

“I just ate it up.”

He also understands the financial difficulties associated with school. He calculates that his stepdaughter will be 55 by the time she is able to pay off her student loans. “I am very sensitive to that.”

“The opportunity of community colleges and the new thing is to focus on dual credit in high schools, is really about offering as much college credit as possible,” he said. Gateway will need to cut the timeline of graduation, evolve with business and industry, offer more types of credentials, to remain competitive.

“If we get focused on the areas where we can create the most impact, then we can create ripples throughout the community and throughout the system,” Figueroa said. “When community colleges see themselves as isolated in some way, shape, or form, then budgets become everything. But, if we are able to see ourselves as embedded in the community that we are supporting and that supports us, then everyone has a responsibility and an opportunity to participate and contribute.”

Figueroa and his wife are building a home in Union. All the kids are college-aged or older now, with one son at college in Utah, and another aiming to become a jazz pianist, with a similar passion that Figueroa had for music. “He fell in love with the culture of jazz and the meaning of jazz rather than just learning how to play. When I learned to play guitar, I didn’t want to learn to play the lead to ‘Stairway to Heaven’. What I told my teacher on my second day of lessons is, I want to know how this thing works, and that’s when he knew I was serious.”

He aims to bring a similar seriousness to his new role leading Gateway.

“When I got here, at the interview I was told, we’re the best kept secret in Northern Kentucky,” Figueroa said. “It’s time to end that. It’s time to pass the secret on. It’s time get from behind the curtain and tell people the secret.”

Written by Michael Monks, editor & publisher