Meldrum enjoying his job at OC

So far, Jason Meldrum has found his time at Odessa College very fulfilling.

He recently took over as the vice president for Academic Partnerships after serving as associate vice president for Student Services and Enrollment Management. But this isn’t his first rodeo, having spent his entire career in higher education.

A native of Helena, Montana, and a longtime Idaho resident, Meldrum said it was partly family and partly the job that drew him to West Texas. He and his wife, Julie, have four children and one grandchild.

Meldrum saw the job opening for associate vice president and it matched his skill set, but his youngest child was still in high school so he wasn’t interested yet.

When he got the job, he moved to Odessa and his wife, Julie, and his son stayed in Idaho for six months until his son finished his senior year. His wife is from Midland.

“It was partially family that brought us down here but it was also just the opportunity to work for Odessa College. It’s got such a great reputation. I knew that it would help me out professionally; it would challenge me a lot, so that was something I was looking for as well,” Meldrum said.

He loves it at OC.

“It’s very cliche to talk about how amazing the people are, but the people here are great. I’ve had just an outstanding team that I’ve been able to work with in my previous role and I’m really excited about the team that I get to work with in this new role. But Odessa College, they do so many things for the community and it’s a lot of fun. It really is. We get to be involved in so many different things and I think the variety is really, really nice,” Meldrum said.

One of the things he gets to do is be the announcer for the men’s and women’s basketball teams.

Meldrum earned an associate degree in broadcasting from Ricks College, now BYU-Idaho in Rexburg, Idaho. He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in communications from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and then a master’s degree in education from St. Mary’s University in Winona, Minnesota. He is finishing up a doctorate in higher education leadership from Idaho State University in Pocatello, Idaho.

“We’ve been experiencing record enrollment growth. … We’d like to continue to break enrollment records. One of my goals is I’d like to improve and increase our student retention and we want to really build our Wrangler Promise program. Those are the main things that are driving us right now,” Meldrum said.

Wrangler Promise is a last-dollar-in scholarship opportunity that covers the cost of tuition and fees for eligible high school graduates.

He said OC has started on increasing student retention with Unlocking Opportunity, a network of 10 two-year colleges from across the nation that have partnered with Aspen Institute and the Community College Research Center to focus on this issue.

“They’ve given us some some frameworks we can operate within. But it’s really helping students understand the career component of their education, and getting them connected to careers earlier and earlier. I think that that will help them stay motivated to finish these degree programs and even pursue our bachelor’s degree programs that we offer.

“I think having more frequent check-ins with our coaching and advising teams will be really important. Oftentimes, we actually get a lot of information from our students through surveys and things they tell us the things that are having an impact on them. If we can be maybe a little more proactive or put together resources that anticipate some of the challenges that they’re going to have, then I think we can have an impact on retention, rather than having resources that come up after the fact,” Meldrum said.

Meldrum replaces Jonathan Fuentes, who was named president of Clovis Community College in Clovis, N.M.

He said they have already started talking to school districts and will continue to build partnerships.

“Because of the work Dr. Fuentes has done, we’ve had additional communities reach out to us wanting more dual credit offerings, more extension offerings, wanting extensions, period. They want an extension center out in some of these communities. … We need to be really responsive to that because they’re seeing the impact that it’s having in places like Andrews, Pecos and Seminole where we have extension sites and we have strong relationships,” Meldrum said.

“It requires us to be really good at delivering what it is that they need and staying on top of understanding those local areas. It’s a challenge for sure, but we’re definitely going to keep building that and maintaining it.”

OC also is in partnership with the Permian Basin Innovation Zone to reach out to districts like Grandfalls and Royalty.

“There’s nothing wrong with wanting to stay local. In fact, I think that’s part of our charge is to help people see that there’s a future for them here in the Permian Basin. They don’t have to leave and go somewhere else and leave behind everything, but they can come back well educated and well employed and make a real impact in their own communities,” Meldrum said.

OC’s goal is to reach 10,000 students, but Meldrum said it won’t make them any less nimble.

“A lot of what will make us a larger institution will be dual credit. We have a lot of help carrying that weight with our local school districts. They do a bulk of that lift. I think we’ll always be able to be very nimble because we have so many partnerships that help us be nimble. That’s just part of being a successful community college is being able to adapt quickly. … I think we still have a lot of room to grow before we ever run into that problem of not being able to be nimble enough,” Meldrum added.

At the OC Board of Trustees meeting where Meldrum was named vice president for Academic Partnerships, President Gregory Williams said Meldrum has served the college very well.

“He’s done a wonderful job with everything he has been given so far. He and his team led the outreach efforts for the Promise Program and he has been an able assistant in the Student Services and Enrollment Management area as the associate vice president to Kim McKay (Vice President Student Services and Enrollment Management),” Williams said.