3 Finalists Interview for Chancellor’s Job at College District

After a prolonged search to replace the chancellor it lost almost a year ago to a fast-moving infection, the Ventura County Community College District has narrowed its hunt to three educators with extensive administrative experience at community colleges in Texas, Illinois and California.

Following interviews late Monday night with the three finalists, Trustee Allan Jacobs said one candidate appeared to be pulling ahead for the job of chief of the three-college district.

He declined to name the favored candidate, saying “They were all very impressive.”

“Basically we felt that one of the candidates would appear to be ahead of the others at this point, but a background check is going to invalidate or validate that.”

Within the next two weeks, a committee of district officials will visit one or more of the candidates’ campuses to check references and collect background information. By November, they hope to name the chancellor who will replace Thomas G. Lakin, one year after the former chancellor’s death.

His death left district initiatives, ranging from hiring to organizational changes, on hold.

The candidates interviewed Monday included Philip Westin, president of Golden West College in Huntington Beach; Charles A. Green, former chancellor of the Houston Community College System; and Richard Fonte, president of South Suburban College in South Holland, Ill.

Trustee Pete Tafoya said each candidate has unique qualifications that are under special consideration.

Green is the only candidate with experience running a multicampus district--the six-school, 55,000-student Houston Community College System. But Green resigned as chancellor of the district in June amid accusations that he spent too much on administration and not enough on instruction.

Before his interview Monday, Green said he resigned because he opposed the board’s move to centralize operations of the district’s six colleges. One of his first acts when he was appointed chancellor in 1990 was to decentralize the system.

Tafoya said Green openly discussed his resignation with the board.

“His explanation was that it was just a difference of opinion in how he felt the district should be run,” he said. “That occurs in business. That’s not unusual.”

Before joining the Houston district, Green served as president of two community colleges in Phoenix, Ariz.

Westin’s background spans 25 years in the California community college system, where he began as a music instructor at Cerritos College in Norwalk. In 1993, he was unanimously elected chancellor of the 12,400-student Golden West College, where he had served as the vice president of instruction for two years.

Some trustees said Westin’s California experience is a bonus. Following a 50-minute interview with the board, Westin said that he has had his eye on the Ventura Community College district for some time.

“I think this whole district has a long history of service and the community clearly supporting the district,” he said. “The next step is to provide some leadership.”

Fonte, in addition to working 16 years in the Illinois community college system, spent seven years as a cost-cutting and employment consultant to the state government. The 10,000-student college he currently heads shares many of the same challenges facing the Ventura County community colleges, he said.

“I am interested in addressing the issues I think all of the institutions in California are attempting to address, . . . such as at-risk youth and transfers,” he said.

Board members are hoping to find a replacement as soon as possible.

The district received 55 applications for the position in September and chose 10 applicants for interviews with a special selection committee. Four candidates withdrew from the search process. Of the remaining six, Green, Westin and Fonte were selected for interviews with the board, which makes the final decision. District officials hope one of the three will take over the chancellor’s office no later than January.

“I personally hope that we are able to name a candidate at our November meeting,” Trustee John Tallman said. “That would be appropriate since it’s been about a year since Lakin died and that is long enough to go without a chancellor. We need to get along with it.”