Wharton Grad and Penn Ph.D. Finds a Fun Job at a Community College, Stays 46 Years

During his distinguished career, Thomas R. Hawk, Ph.D., helped Community College of Philadelphia grow in prominence and influence, regionally and nationally.

He is widely respected by peers as a practitioner and an academic. In 2006, Dr. Hawk became the first business officer from a community college ever selected to receive the Distinguished Business Officer of the Year award from the National Association of College and University Business Officers. “In the end, you succeed because of the colleagues with whom you work on a daily basis,” Dr. Hawk said recently. “I have been blessed to work with a large number of truly smart and creative people.”

A long-time champion of open-access institutions, Dr. Hawk began his community college career on the faculty. “I first walked in the doors of the College in 1967, when I was 22. It was an ‘Introduction to Business’ class and the chance to teach it was an amazing experience for me. The students were bright and engaged. Many were older than I was and had life experiences that gave them far greater wisdoms than I had in many areas,” he said.

In January, following 46 years of service, Dr. Hawk, Vice President for Planning and Finance, will retire. Over the years, he assisted or led efforts to:

• Maintain financial planning and budget management strategies which have enabled the College to sustain stability and quality in programs and services, and deal responsibly with fluctuating patterns of public support.
• Develop and oversee the implementation of the College’s Facility Master Plans which have led to the development of three permanent Regional Centers and major expansion and renewal of the College’s Main Campus. He oversaw the development of seven new buildings at the Main Campus and Regional Centers, as well as extensive renovations and expansions.
• Provide leadership for the strategic planning and institutional research efforts, which have provided a basis for understanding and strengthening institutional effectiveness and helped to identify strategic directions.

Having earned a Masters of Business Administration from the Wharton School and a Doctorate in Higher Education from the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Hawk could have worked for a Fortune 500 company, but instead he signed up for a rollercoaster ride at a community college. Why has he stayed so long?

“It’s the mission of the college,” Dr. Hawk explained, during recent remarks to colleagues. “How can you not get excited about helping to transform thousands of lives on an annual basis? It’s the great people I have worked with and for; the quality and commitment of my professional coworkers and institutional leadership at the senior and board levels...”

On December 5, the College threw a festive retirement party that drew more than 100 well-wishers from all walks and ages of life, along with family, present and former trustees, staff and Foundation board members. Dr. Hawk said his decision to put his advanced degrees to work for a community college was a strategic one. “Despite the occasional facility breakdowns and the periodic budget crises, it has been fun and very rewarding.

Dr. Hawk used the platform to reflect upon how much the College had changed over the decades, and offer newcomers — anyone here 30 years or less — a recap of some of the milestones.

“In its early years, the College had no developmental programs, few career programs and operated from one relatively small leased facility. Other major cities were creating complex multi-campus institutions. But things changed rapidly for the College in the 1970s and 80s.” Among the challenges and opportunities the college has faced:

• Returning Vietnam vets transformed the nature of the student body
• BEOG, which became Pell, created true financial access by allowing lower income students to enroll with little or no out-of-pocket costs. As a result enrollment growth greatly exceed intuitional planning projections
• The adoption of a truly open admissions policy resulted in the need for a massive commitment to developmental education and academic support services
• Development of a regional center model to ensure off-campus students had access to essential academic programs and support services
• New technology has transformed how teaching and learning occurs, how the College is managed and the nature of the College’s physical facilities

"In the variety of positions I have held during my career, I was lucky enough to be able to help play a role in assisting the College to respond to all these issues and many more," he said.

As retirement nears, Dr. Hawk is working on the big plan for the next chapter of life: he’ll spend more time traveling, grandfathering, walking the dog, riding rollercoasters, and gardening.