Interview with Patrick Lake, November 7, 2007

Interview Summary

In this interview, Dr. Patrick "Pat" Lake (President of Henderson Community College, 1985-2010) discusses his educational background as a community college student at Ashland, Kentucky in the sixties, his early administrative career at Jefferson Community College as Dean of Academic Affairs, and finally, his twenty-five year tenure as President of Henderson Community College. He discusses the strong affiliation of Kentucky community colleges with the University of Kentucky (UK) and how this relationship changed in the nuanced Kentucky political climate of the late eighties, a climate wherein discussion of structural separation of community colleges from UK became more prevalent. Lake also talks about his own, colleagues', community college students', and UK administrator's responses to policy makers' initial propositions of structural separation and details some of the ensuing discussions of suggested modifications to House Bill 1. He acknowledges the strong leadership that made the transition of separation from UK and consolidation with technical colleges a smooth one and highlights some accomplishments of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System, but also suggests how improvements might be made.

Interview Keyword

Community College community college history community college system Henderson Community College Higher education Higher Education Reform House Bill 1 KCTCS Kentucky Community and Technical College System Lake, Patrick McCall, Michael Pat Lake Patton, Paul Technical Colleges University of Kentucky

Interview LC Subject

Community colleges--Administration Community colleges--History Community colleges--Kentucky Education, Higher Lake, Patrick Lake, Patrick--Interviews

Interview Rights

All rights to the interviews, including but not restricted to legal title, copyrights and literary property rights, have been transferred to the University of Kentucky Libraries.

Interview Usage

Interviews may be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries.