The Roanoker July/August 2022 - 73

The
Transformational
Leader
written by Dan Smith
Bobby Sandel became just what the Virginia Western Community College
board wanted, although it didn't know that at the time he was hired.
W
hen Bobby Sandel
took over the president's
chair at Virginia
Western Community
College at the turn of
the millennium, the college's place and mission
were unclear ... at best.
VWCC was often derisively called UCLA,
the University of Colonial Avenue. Its identity
was murky, neither high school nor college
in the minds of most people in the Roanoke
Valley. It had become Virginia's first community
college under Governor Mills Godwin in
1966, and is one of 23 today.
Former VWCC President Charles Downs,
whom Sandel replaced (four presidents in
50-plus years), once said, " We were not the
red-headed stepchild, but we were the new kid
on the block " and there was no real precedent
for what VWCC would accomplish or what it
would cost. To that point, it had accomplished
little, but it hadn't cost much, either.
What Sandel found when he sat down at
VWCC was " a dated, old campus with facilities
that were very poor. We needed course offerings
and to be more responsive. We needed to
add the right faculty and there was no grants
program, although there was a ton of money
available. " Morale was in the outhouse.
All that was about to change on July 1, 2001,
when Robert H. Sandel, a now 76-year-old
native of Orangeburg, S.C., moved to Roanoke
from Mountain Empire Community College.
That was a world away in every sense, situated
as it was, in far southwest Virginia's remote
Big Stone Gap. Sandel-nobody calls him
" Robert " ; he's " Bobby " -outlined his vision
to the board at the time, leaning in, rarely taking
a breath as he talked, jumping from goal
to goal to goal, always emphasizing what was
possible, not what was expected or what had
been done. He knew the reality and the reputation,
and he wanted to change both. The board
bought his pitch. He set to work.
Since the day he pulled his big leather
chair up to his big desk in Fishburn Hall,
Bobby Sandel has delivered. Consider a few
highlights:
* A megatronics program that has proved
to be a major lure to manufacturers.
* Opening the Fralin Center for Health
Professions.
* The Student Life Center built and
opened.
* $30 million spent on a STEM building
and program.
* Development of a spectacular Culinary
Arts Program (in conjunction with
Higher Education Center in downtown
Roanoke).
* An Education Foundation base of $1
million that has soared to $28.8 million.
" People like to support success, " Sandel
says.
During the Sandel years, enrollment has
doubled (13,224 head count at its highest point
pre-COVID, and 5,048 full-time equivalents).
The most recent numbers are 7,827 headcount
and 3,367 FTE. There has been $200 million
in upgrades and new facilities. " Today it is the
finest facility in the system and is the closest
to a four-year environment, " Sandel says without
hesitation.
" Somebody once called us 'a high school
with ashtrays,' " Sandel cracks. " We had to make
the facility more conducive " to the students'
needs. The student and fitness centers helped a
lot. So did teaching designer courses that pretty
much guaranteed a job at a specific industry
(or solidified one already held). " We designed
courses for industry and business, " says Sandel,
" even if that meant for the third shift and the
class being held at 3 a.m. Community colleges
need to be economic drivers. "
His success did not go unnoticed. He was
elected president of the Roanoke Regional
Chamber of Commerce, named Roanoke's
Citizen of the Year in 2013 and received the
Roanoke/Blacksburg Technology Council's
prestigious Ruby Award.
Sandel joins the Virginia Community
College System (VCCS) when he is
named president of Mountain Empire
Community College in Big Stone Gap, Va.
Sandel is named
Virginia Western
Community College's
fourth president.
The Virginia Western Community
College Educational Foundation
launches its first major gifts campaign
and raises nearly $4 million, enough to
double the size of its nursing program.
Sandel hires VWCC's first grants director.
1992
2001
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JULY/AUGUST 2022 73
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