***image1*** SFR talks with Dr. Beverlee McClure. SFR: So did you survive your first legislative session as Cabinet Secretary of the Higher Education Department?
BM: I would say that we did better than that. I think we thrived. When you look at the budget, we really fared well.
What do you attribute this new-found attention to financing higher education to?
I think what you're seeing is really the fulfillment of [Gov. Bill Richardson's] campaign promises. In the state of New Mexico we talk about how we want more high-paying jobs, we want to diversify our economy and we want our minority students to succeed. But you can't talk about those things and not talk about education.
Speaking of economics, some people are afraid that higher minimum wages will result in higher dropout rates. Is that one of your concerns?
You know, it's not a concern and I'll tell you why…If you have two high school students sitting side-by-side, one chooses to get the minimum wage job and the other chooses to get their education, studies have shown that the college-educated student will still earn at least $1 million more over the course of their working lives. People will still want to obtain an education because of that.
How many of the problems in higher education can be traced back to the public education system?
In our two-year institutions, about 70 percent of our students have to take one or more remedial classes. We're going to start looking at every incoming freshman that takes two or more remedial classes and trace that back to a high school. We're going to look at the curriculum they took and we're going to look at the teachers and the teacher prep program and do a full quality assessment. What we want to know is if this is a state-wide problem or if some schools are just so bad that they skew the information for the rest. We hope to have that information within the next few months so that we can correct those problems. The other thing we're looking at is aligning high school exit requirements with college entrance requirements. If we do that, I think we're going to find that we will have better prepared students and better prepared students are more likely to succeed.
What's more critical for higher education in New Mexico, recruitment or retention?
You have to look at it hand-in-hand. How do we get them in the door but, more important, how do we keep them in and allow them to be successful?
Are there other benefits beyond economics that you can point to in order to convince students to enter college?
One thing we know is that if we can get one person in a family to complete their college degree, the odds of the others in that family completing is a lot greater. I can give you an example. No one in my family had ever been to college and I was the first one to go and to graduate. Consequently, my two younger brothers went to college and graduated. I had always been told in high school, because I was from the wrong side of the tracks, that I wasn't going to be successful. But I had some great college instructors…and if it wasn't for that support system, I wouldn't have stayed.
Have you considered where you would be if you didn't have that support?
Absolutely. I had just enough time on the way here to go through the drive-through at McDonald's and I always think that 'there but for the grace of God go I.'
What was your favorite class in college?
My favorite class was actually tort law. Have you ever looked at those cases, like the lady that stands on the dresser to look at her hemorrhoids in the mirror and falls off and sues? I just remember those stories, you know, and I remember thinking, 'You've got to be kidding me.' Then of course when you're broke and a hungry college student you start to think, 'How much would [losing] a finger get me?'
What did you do your dissertation on?
The overall concept was that I applied business principles to higher education and came up with a model for community colleges to participate in economic development. The University of Texas actually had that model copyrighted. It's the McClure Change Model for Community Colleges.
Do you ever check to see if people are using the McClure Method without copyright permission?
You know, I haven't. The program I came from was really for aspiring [college] presidents and I get to go back there as a visiting professor. It's kind of fun because [the students] are forced to read that; I mean, when else is anyone going to read it? [Laughs]…It's all kind of ironic when you look back at a young kid who used to get the school bus to let me off a mile from home because I didn't want anyone to see where we lived. My brother and I would get off with the kids on the other side of the track and then walk home.
So you're literally from the wrong side of the tracks?
Literally. We lived in a mobile home. Of course as much as we moved [McClure, whose father was a minister, had attended 12 different schools by the 11th grade] it was kind of nice I guess. A mobile home is easy to pack and pull [laughs]. We would also wear hand-me-downs and I can always remember that feeling of thinking you would come to school and somebody would recognize what you had on…I think those experiences are why, when people give me their excuses for why they can't succeed, it's really hard for me to accept that because I know that you can succeed if you're given the opportunity.
