SANTA ANA : Consultant to Assist Chancellor Search

The Rancho Santiago Community College District has hired a consultant to assist in a nationwide search to find a replacement for Chancellor Robert D. Jensen, who will leave the district in June.

The district’s Board of Trustees on Monday voted to pay $18,500 for the services of the Assn. of Community College Trustees, whose representative, Elizabeth Rocklin, began meeting with college representatives as well as local government and community leaders this week for their input.

“I think we do need a consultant and it’s worth the expense because this district has no policy on hiring a chancellor,” said Trustee Charles W. (Pete) Maddox. “I hope we can establish one from here.”

Jensen, 50, announced last month that he has accepted a job in Contra Costa County in Northern California. He has been chancellor of the 25,000-student district, which has campuses in Santa Ana, Orange and Garden Grove, since 1984.

The trustees also unanimously approved a new hiring process that will allow a 12-member committee of students, faculty and classified staff to select eight finalists for the job. The trustees will then choose a new chancellor from among the finalists.

Rocklin and a member of the college’s affirmative action committee will be non-voting members of the committee, which will review applications, conduct preliminary interviews in July and present the trustees with the eight finalists by August. The new chancellor will be selected in September.

The trustees voted to delete a controversial aspect of the hiring procedure that would have allowed them to recommend additional candidates after the committee’s initial screenings.

Trustee Rodolfo Montejano, who has participated in the selection of two chancellors during his 20 years on the board, was unhappy with the change in procedure.

“It’s unduly complex, time-consuming and wasteful,” Montejano said. “We have chosen two chancellors with simple processes. I don’t see why we couldn’t do it the same way as we did it with Jensen and (J. William) Wenrich. No one can argue with their qualifications.”

Board President Shirley Ralston said the new procedure is part of a board commitment to include the college community in the governing of the institution.

“They are full participants,” Ralston said. “We are going to be completely dependent on them to screen out perhaps upwards of 100 people.”