Laredo Community College

Budgets and taxes

The 2012–2013 LCC budget was approximately $50 million. The student tuition and fee share of the budget doubled in a decade from 18 to 36 percent.

The 2011–2012 LCC budget was $48.3 million, or a decrease of $1.43 million from the preceding year.

The college property tax rate of $0.2365 per $100 of assessed valuation declined slightly in the 2012–2013 budget. Unlike many other community colleges in Texas which can reach into the county or adjoining counties for purposes of taxation, LCC can levy property taxers only within the City of Laredo. Some 40 percent of the 2012–2013 LCC budget is derived from property taxes.

Enrollment figures

Enrollment for the fall of 2013 was 8,732, a decrease of 602 or 6.4 percent from 2012. Enrolment peaked in 2011 at 10,046.

In 2010, LCC had 210 faculty and 300 classified staff personnel.

LCC enrollment dropped for the fourth consecutive year in the spring of 2015 by 4.3 percent from 2014, attributed to changes in the local employment marked.

In the fall of 2015, enrollment was 5.3 percent above that of the previous year. There were 8,749 registrants in 2015, compared to 8,307 in September 2014.

Accreditation

In 2010, LCC had a three-year graduation rate of 14 percent from students pursuing either associate degrees or completing specialized certificate programs.

In July 2012, Laredo Community College was placed on twelve months of probation for failure to comply with 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". President Juan L. Maldonado said that the institution will meet any deficiencies required but that the situation would not impact instructional programs or other operations of the college.

SACS contends that LCC failed to correct deficiencies in its reports on institutional effectiveness. If the deficiencies remain uncorrected, LCC could forfeit its accreditation. LCC sought the services of an outside consultant and an editor to convert the accreditation data into narrative form. Vincent Solis, LCC vice president for student services, discounted the possibility that the probationary status was a cause of the decline in enrollment in the fall of 2012. Solis noted that despite the probationary status, LCC accreditation remained fully in place.

On June 20, 2013, SACS restored accreditation after the process was completed to correct past deficiencies in the reports LCC submitted to the agency.

Having overcome the accreditation controversy, LCC was ranked tenth in 2015 among Texas' two-year colleges, which number more than seventy, by the website BestColleges.com; LCC was cited for its two campuses, affordable tuition, the variety of associate degree programs, and in the quality of its nursing and allied health programs. In 2016, LCC retained its tenth ranking in the same listing.

In 2016, LCC ranked first in the nation in the least amount of debt accumulated by its departing students. The average debt of $2,000 at LCC is a fraction of the national average of $27,000. As of 2014, student debt nationwide had increased more than 50 percent over the preceding eleven years.

Construction projects

Construction is in progress at LCC on a $120 million master facilities plan first unveiled in 2008. The initial phase is the now-completed construction of the $14.7 million Lewis Energy Academic Center, named after industrialist Rodney Lewis, who donated the furnishings for the building. The three-story, 111,045-square-foot (10,316.4 m²) facility, opened in January 2012,.

On March 2, 2011, LCC launched construction on the $9.6 million Visual and Performing Arts Center located on the north end of the campus, opening along with the Academic Center.

Main campus

The main campus, also known as the Fort McIntosh Campus because of its location on historic Fort McIntosh, is situated at the west end of Washington Street in downtown Laredo. The campus has many of the original United States Army buildings from the old fort along with modern buildings from the 1940s to the 21st century. The campus is situated on a small hill on the bend above the Rio Grande. The campus has more than thirty buildings. Its founding president, W. J. Adkins, a native of Ellis County, Texas, served from 1947 to 1960.

In 1964, Ray A. Laird, the second LCC president, commissioned a master plan for a college of 1,500 students. By the 1974–1975 term, under Laird's successor president, Domingo Arechiga, enrollment totaled 3,925.

The Martin Building, dedicated in 1970 and renovated in 2016, is named for Joseph C. Martin Sr., late president of the Laredo Independent School District board of trustees, and the father of the late Laredo Mayor J. C. "Pepe" Martin. The structure houses the information technology department, including the offices of (1) institutional research and planning and (2) institutional effectiveness.

In the spring of 2000, under President Ramón H. Dovalina, LCC had 177 full-time faculty and 7,317 students.

South campus

The Laredo Community College South Campus, located at 5500 South Zapata Highway (U.S. Highway 83) at coordinates 27°26′N 99°29′W, was established to extend the college's mission to the growing residential area of south Laredo. More than 80 percent of voters approved a $50 million bond issue to construct the second campus, which was completed in the spring of 2004. The 60-acre (240,000 m²) campus contains seven buildings and will be expanded in the future to develop athletic and recreational fields and courts. The second campus sits on a small valley near the bank of the Rio Grande.

In April 2012, the LCC trustees approved feasibility studies for a new health science center and student union building on the South Campus. If considered needed, LCC would add these proposed projects to the list of some forty improvements still underway on the Main Campus.

LCC president and administration

In the summer of 2007, Juan Maldonado (born November 1948), a Ph.D. graduate of Texas Woman's University in Denton and formerly the LCC executive vice president, succeeded Ramón Dovalina as president. A graduate of the Community College Leadership Program at the University of Texas at Austin, Dovalina had served as president since 1995.

In mid-December 2014, Maldonado announced that he would step down as president after eight years in office in August 2015. Then a week later, Maldonado reversed himself and sought the annual evaluation from the trustees with plans to remain president past the expiration of his current contract in August 2016. College policy requires the evaluation to be conducted at least once a year. There was no 2014 evaluation, as the process was deferred until March 2015. Maldonado claimed that trustee Rene de la Viña, a former public school special education teacher and teacher's union official, lacked impartiality and should refrain from the presidential evaluation process.

In January 2016, a nine-person search committee was appointed to recommend a successor to President Juan Maldonado, who steps down from his position after nine years on August 31.

Notable alumni