Shirley sees great things ahead for CC

Clarendon College President Phil Shirley is looking ahead as he prepares to step down this week and says there are many good things in store for CC.

“I feel like a farmer who has planted seeds for someone else to harvest,” he told the Enterprise last week. “I see so many great things happening.”

CC officials will bid farewell to Dr. Shirley with a formal luncheon before Thursday’s Board of Regents meeting, but the college will benefit for a long time from his three-year tenure in which Clarendon received nearly $3 million in grants, donations, and gifts.

“We have not remained still these last three years,” Shirley said.

Shirley says he believes the Panhandle’s oldest college broke new ground in the last three years. This fall CC received a Title III federal grant worth $2.25 million that will help launch a new Registered Nursing program. That marked the first time the college has received federal grant money other than Perkins funds.

Shirley brought in a Title III grant-writer he had known in Arkansas for that project, and Clarendon ultimately was one of only two schools in Texas to receive funding. The other was the University of Houston, and of the two, CC received the most money.

Under Shirley’s leadership, Clarendon formed a coalition with the two other Panhandle community colleges – Amarillo and Frank Phillips in Borger – and pledged to work together and even go into each other’s traditional service areas.

“It was one of those times in history where we had the right people at the right time,” he said of himself, AC President Paul Matney, and FPC President Jud Hicks. “We broke the golden rule of protecting our service areas, but we all wanted one thing… to serve students.”

Under that agreement, CC will open its first class center in Amarillo next January to offer cosmetology classes in that area – an endeavor that could net CC as many as 80 new technical students.

Shirley also sees great promise in Clarendon being able to soon offer classes in correctional facilities in Amarillo and particularly welding classes at the Clements Unit.

One of the most important developments under Shirley’s watch was an anonymous donation of $275,000 that will add bathrooms and other upgrades to the Livestock & Equine Center to make it more functional and more marketable for hosting events.

Shirley is also proud of what he calls the college’s march towards excellence with its track record of student success. CC was ranked number one in Texas by CNN/Money for graduation and transfer rates and was listed by thebestschools.org as one of the 50 best community colleges in the United States.

Clarendon has also undertaken several improvements of the physical plant over the last three years with a focus on improvements that enhance students’ experiences in the dorms. Those improvements and other student-focused initiatives – such as the new academic help center in the Dickey Library – have helped halt a decline in enrollment and set the college up for growth.

With all the opportunities awaiting Clarendon College, Shirley says he hates to leave but family and his wife are calling him home to Arkansas.

“I must get back to my wife and children,” he says. “But I have a real love for Clarendon and want to see it succeed so badly.”

Shirley hopes to lead an active retirement back home and says he will stay in the educational arena.

“I want to be part of a movement to help better education,” he said. “Higher education should not be bound to traditional semesters; it needs to be available year-round. And kids should not need developmental classes. Every student should be prepared for college, and excellence should be an option for each and every kid.”