Tarleton in Transition

Outgoing university president McCabe presided over period of rapid growth, change

Outgoing Tarleton President Dr. Dennis McCabe recently donned a hard hat to check on construction of the new campus dining hall.

Photos by Jeanne McEndree.

By Paul Navarro, Texan News Service

Outgoing Tarleton State University President Dennis McCabe summed up his 17 years at the institution with one word: students.

“It’s all about the students,” McCabe said during a recent interview in his small but well-appointed office.

Discussing his tenure and his vision for the university, McCabe encouraged campus growth. While he was president, enrollment increased by more than 3,000 students to almost 9,500 students. That growth has spurred a period of campus expansion.

McCabe’s administration has completed the construction of two major facilities -- the Barry B. Thompson Student Center and a new science building – and renovated the math building. Last fall a new 70,000-square-foot sports recreation center opened. Work will be completed soon on a new $13 million dining facility next to the student center.

In addition, three new major projects have been funded and scheduled to begin within the next three years. The next project to begin after completion of the dining hall is a new $24.3 million nursing facility.

Other planned projects include a new $11 million technologically advanced dairy facility and a $15 million upgrade to the heating and air conditioning systems. The upgrade will expand the central plant and tie the HVAC systems of the various buildings into a more efficient loop, thus linking all the buildings together.

Also being discussed are improvements to and construction of residence halls on the campus’ north side. Two living areas were added recently, increasing bed space by 1,800. Discussions are underway to work out a timetable for razing several older residence halls, with possible replacements in the future.

In the academic area, enrollment increases have enabled the budget to increase from $34 million in 1992 to more than $113 million for the current academic year. Funding for the budget increase has come from tuition hikes, although Tarleton still ranks as one of the most affordable four-year universities in Texas.

The cost of attending two semesters at Tarleton in 1992 for an incoming freshman was about $6,000. For the 2007-2008 year, that cost was $11,700.

However, in 1992 students only had a choice of 15 master’s degree programs for their post-baccalaureate education. Those seeking doctoral degrees had to go somewhere else. Now they can choose from 27 master’s programs. Currently only one doctoral program is being offered, although talks continue between Tarleton and Texas A&M to offer a joint doctorate in agriculture in the near future.

“The student will be allowed to take courses at both places. Both schools (will be) allowed to confer the degree,” McCabe said.

McCabe also presided over a period of transition as Tarleton expanded beyond the little ag college of the past and began to attract more students from urban areas seeking non-agricultural degrees. As campus enrollment increased, it also diversified, as did the faculty. But like many growing campuses, Tarleton has experienced problems such as crime and racial insensitivity.

Last year the university found itself in the eye of a racial storm after a small group of students held a party on the Monday that Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday is observed with a national holiday. When photos of the students’ activities, which including wearing costumes that mocked racial sterotypes, surfaced on Facebook.com, media organizations reported on the event and a campus uproar ensued. The university held a community meeting to discuss the incident and condemned the actions of students who took part in the MLK party.

“I am particularly proud of how the faculty and staff responded to the MLK incident,” McCabe said in his self-evaluation for his 2007 performance review, which was obtained by a Tarleton journalism student as part of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas’ “Light of Day” project. “Even though I rate this response as a positive and that this campus experience has strengthened us as a community, I must also register a negative mark simply because it happened to Tarleton students. Somehow, I can’t get past the idea that it never should have happened.”

Despite the campus and program improvements made during McCabe’s tenure, he recently announced that he is stepping down as president to return to teaching and is staying on at Tarleton. He said he felt it was the right time for him to make this transition.

“I came into this business teaching; I wanted to go out teaching,” McCabe said. “The chancellor allowed me to do that and I’m very thankful for that.”

The only finalist selected to replace McCabe, E. Dominic Dottavio, who has been president and a professor of biology at Heidelberg College in Tiffin, Ohio, recently visited the campus and met with students and faculty. The Texas A&M Board of Regents is expected to vote soon on whether Dottavio will be Tarleton’s next president.

Looking back on his years at the helm, McCabe said that the best thing to happen to him at Tarleton was the “opportunity to work with hundreds of thousands of students in a way where I could have an impact.” He said that the worst thing was being “unable to bring forces and decision points together to fulfill some of the kids’ aspirations and dreams.”

Before coming to Tarleton, McCabe served as dean of the College of Education at Lamar University in Beaumont. He was also assistant to the vice president for academic affairs and head of the Department of Secondary and Higher Education at East Texas State University (now Texas A&M-Commerce). He began his career at Pan American University at Edinburg as an assistant professor.

McCabe received his bachelor of art’s and masters of science degrees from New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, N.M. He received his doctorate in 1972 in Education Administration and Supervision from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.

The 65-year-old Rio Hondo native and his wife, Mary Louise, have two sons, Brian and Timothy, and five grandchildren.

Despite more that 40 years in teaching and educational administration, McCabe said he isn’t ready for retirement yet, although he has given some thought to what he’d like to do after his service at Tarleton ends.

“I see myself trying to find something that’s going to be exciting and kinda throw myself into something that goes beyond just a hobby,” McCabe said. “I don’t know what that is, but I look forward to searching for it.”

Whitney White-Ashley contributed to this report. The Texan News Service is a project of Tarleton State University’s journalism program. Contact us at texannews@tarleton.edu.