Vega Will Head Coastline College : El Camino Dean to Be President of No-Campus School

William M. Vega, a dean at El Camino College in Torrance, has been appointed president of Coastline Community College in Fountain Valley.

Trustees of the Coast Community College District made the appointment late Thursday night, shortly after they voted to name David A. Brownell chancellor--the district’s top administrator. Brownell had been president of Coastline when he was appointed interim chancellor.

Vega, notified of his appointment after the meeting, said he was “elated.”

“It’s a job that I’ve felt especially qualified for,” Vega, 42, said in an interview Friday afternoon. “A good more than half of my career has been in off-campus instruction.”

The district has two campuses--Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa and Golden West College in Huntington Beach--but Coastline has only an administration building in Fountain Valley. Its classes meet in rented facilities throughout the district. Some course instruction comes via the district’s public television station, and classes have been taught via local radio stations and newspapers.

Administrative Background

Vega, who started his career as a history teacher in East Chicago, Ind., public schools, was director of off-campus programs at Los Angeles City College from 1974 to 1977 and performed similar duties as associate dean of instruction at Contra Costa College in San Pablo, in the San Francisco Bay Area, from 1977 to 1980.

He has had administrative experience, as vice president for academic affairs at Compton Community College, and taught economics and business administration at Los Angeles City College and the University of Maryland. He holds a bachelor’s degree in management from Indiana University, a master’s in economics and business from Appalachian State University in North Carolina, and is studying for a doctorate in education from USC.

Vega has been dean of curriculum and instructional development at El Camino College since last September. He will begin his new job at Coastline March 1.

Vega’s contract, extending until June 30, 1986, will pay $63,300 a year plus a $350-per-month allowance for driving his own car, according to district spokesman John Chappell.

Vega said he will spend the first weeks of his administration learning the details of Coastline’s operations. “It would be presumptuous to say what I’m going to do there” before discussing matters with Brownell, Vega said.

Brownell, too, was enjoying his appointment Friday. He had served as interim chancellor since April to allow the trustees time to find a successor to Norman Watson, who retired last June.

The board, in a surprise move, named Brownell permanent chancellor because, according to trustee president Armando Ruiz, Brownell had performed “beyond expectations.”

Brownell said Friday that the appointment was something of a surprise. “The board president had asked me to pull together some information for him several days earlier, and I was aware they were having discussions,” Brownell said. “I can’t deny that I am very pleased with the outcome.”

Longtime trustee George Rodda Jr., the only one of the five trustees to vote against Brownell’s appointment, explained Friday: “I’m not opposed to the person in any way. I have a legal concern about the process. That’s all I’m going to tell you. I don’t have anything further to say.”

(In Thursday night’s board meeting, Ruiz had said Brownell’s appointment without consideration of other applications did not violate state equal-opportunity or affirmative-action guidelines for hiring.)

Richard Olson, who frequently sides with Rodda in key trustee votes, voted for Brownell. “I have nothing, really, against Mr. Brownell, and never have,” Olson said Friday. “. . . I voted for the person and the job he had done.”

But Olson complained that the other three members of the board, who were elected in 1983 as a slate with the support of the district’s teachers union, had not consulted with him or Rodda. “I had no knowledge that the appointment was being considered until Wednesday night (the night before the board meeting),” Olson said.

“This is my own opinion: I believe that he (Brownell) did want to be the chancellor, but I think he was a little embarrassed in the way it was handled and brought to the board.”

Brownell, however, said he felt no embarrassment.

“Mr. Olson is certainly entitled to his perception,” Brownell said. “I can say that embarrassment was not a part of my emotional arsenal at that time. . . . The disagreement was over the procedure, not over me. The action on my contract was unanimous.”

Brownell’s contract will be retroactive to Jan. 1 and will extend four years. He will be paid $77,700 annually plus a $400 monthly car allowance.

Brownell said he hopes the trustees will soon make permanent appointments to two top administrative positions, which are now filled temporarily. Art Martinez is interim president of Orange Coast College; Phillis Basile is acting vice chancellor for human resources, the district’s top personnel officer.