In 2008, NHMCCD changed its name to Lone Star College System, and Montgomery College became Lone Star College-Montgomery. As then-college president Dr. Tom Butler noted in his speech at the new logo unveiling, "In the end, it doesn't really matter what we're called. It matters more what we're called to do. And that is to help our students improve their lives through learning." That is -- and always will be -- the college's focus as it moves forward.
Later in 2008, Dr. Butler left to become president at Victoria College (Victoria, TX). An interim president (Penny Westerfeld) was named for the 2008-09 academic year. This was an eventful year for several reasons. First, a major hurricane devastated much of the area, including the LSC-Montgomery campus, which closed for a week to recover from flooding, downed trees, and lack of electricity. Later in the year, a new bond referendum was passed that resulted in the most significant campus expansion in its history. This included construction of three new buildings on the main campus, as well as a new northside center in the Conroe/Willis area - a new LSC-Conroe Center. The college added a new 75,000-square-foot academic classroom building; a 60,000-square-foot health science center; a 20,000-square foot arts instructional building; and a 1,000-space parking garage to handle growth on the main campus. An 83,000-square-foot, full-service satellite facility in Conroe allows the college to extend its reach to the north, where significant population growth is taking place. The new LSC-Conroe Center offers a mix of academic transfer courses and programs, as well as workforce- and industrial–oriented programs. All told, by 2011, when the new buildings opened, the college increased its total square footage by almost 60 percent.
The college was also honored recently as a "Hometown Hero" by The Woodlands Development Company, and received the prestigious "Drum Major Award" sponsored by the Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Celebration that is held annually in The Woodlands. In 2009, LSC-Montgomery was named to the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, the hightest federal recognition a college can receive for its commitment to volunteering, service-learning, and civic engagement. The college was also selected to participate in Foundations of Excellence, a prestigious program designed to evaluate and revitalize the campus' services for first-year services.
Dr. Austin Lane, formerly vice president for student affairs at Tyler Junior College, was hired in 2009 as LSC-Montgomery's third president following an extensive, nationwide search.
"Our continuous growth is a reflection of the commitment to excellence that our faculty and staff exhibit every day for our students," said Dr. Lane during the college's celebration of its 15th anniversary in 2010. "I talk all the time about taking LSC-Montgomery to new heights. They are the ones making it happen."
From 2010-14, Dr. Lane led the college's extensive strategic planning and visioning efforts, helping the college manage continual growth, and rallying community support for the passage of a 2014 bond referendum that would take LSC-Montgomery into the future with exciting new opportunities.