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TCL's Thomas C. Leitzel wants to teach the high-tech skills the workforce needs

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Thomas C. Leitzel has been on duty a scant week at one of this region's most important institutions.

But the Technical College of the Lowcountry's first new president in more than two decades had an important early observation.

"I'm very impressed with the faculty," he said.

Leitzel replaces Anne McNutt, who retired from TCL to pursue other career opportunities. She leaves a solid record at a school that was broke, rundown and poorly thought of when she arrived.

Leitzel has moved to Beaufort from the Tega Cay community near Fort Mill. He comes with a doctorate in community and junior college education from Virginia Tech and 30 years of academic experience.

He's a Methodist preacher's kid who is himself a graduate of a community college in Pennsylvania, where he was born. He earned a master's degree in education from Temple University, and has worked the last 12 years at Pfeiffer University in Charlotte, first as a dean and then vice president.

In a conversation last week with Leitzel, TCL commission chairman Angus Cotton, TCL Foundation chairman Gen. Art Brown Jr. and TCL Foundation executive director Dianne Garnett, we aired the challenges and dreams of the school.

First, it's in good shape, financially and academically.

Enrollment was up 12 percent this fall, Cotton said. To him, that's a signal that the school is offering what is needed, and helping both employers and students.

Leitzel said it's a challenge to meet high-tech skills the work force needs. That requires capital outlays, and thinking a good two years ahead of the demand.

His experience elsewhere tells him there's a growing gap in computer literacy among students. What's missing is not a familiarity with computers, but an understanding of the algorithms and programming behind the screen.

"They need to think the way the computer does," he said.

Then there's another gap the college faces. It's a widening gulf between the math and science skills the students bring with them, and what they need to succeed.

But that's why TCL is so important. It has ways of pulling these students up if they'll try. It's working on new ways to do that. The reward for students can be a good-paying health sciences job, with benefits.

The TCL leaders want to see the business community make more connections with the school. They want small-business owners to let their people off for classes, and to support them with tuition.

The foundation wants more resources to help students, especially with the high cost of books.

They say technical colleges statewide feel a need to tailor education for the skills employers need. They hear that "in South Carolina, we have jobs with no people, and people with no jobs."

TCL can fix that. For example, it works with hospitals and Gulfstream, the business-jet builder in Savannah, to help see that local people can fill jobs. It partners with the Academy for Career Excellence to offer culinary classes. Culinary training has great growth potential, the leaders say. But the next big thing will be a proposed port on the Jasper County side of the Savannah River, they say, and TCL wants to help local residents get those jobs.

TCL hopes to build a $10 million to $12 million, three-story technology building on its New River Campus across from Sun City Hilton Head.

Leitzel has a great opportunity. He can help TCL continue its rise as a beacon of hope in a four-county region of the Lowcountry known for poverty, poor public schools, low wages, unemployment, "under-employment," high dropout rates and families where education is not the top priority.

But TCL offers an affordable, accessible avenue to success. It offers hard-working individuals the means to dramatically improve their quality of life -- and reverse negative trends that have bogged down the Lowcountry for generations.

That's why TCL matters, and why Leitzel deserves community support.

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