Vega made mark on Coast

For 10 years, he has kept a district with more than 60,000 students

each semester running smoothly. Last week, Coast Community College

District Chancellor William Vega announced that he would retire in

June.

Vega took over as the district’s fifth chancellor on Nov. 1, 1993.

With three colleges -- Orange Coast College, Golden West College

and Coastline Community College -- and KOCE-TV, the district’s public

television station, it is the seventh-largest community college

district in the nation.

Vega is credited with bringing the three schools together as a

whole. He worked to create on open and communicative environment on

and between the three campuses.

“He’s done a great job forging a bond between the different

campuses,” OCC spokesman Jim Carnett said. “Before he took over,

there was quite a bit of antagonism and suspicion among the different

colleges.”

It was no small feat considering the size and scope of the three

schools.

Vega also fought to keep state funding for community colleges, and

he kept the moral up when it disappeared anyway.

It was under his watch that the Coast Community College District

passed the $370-million bond to modernize the library at Golden West

College, to renovate the Robert B. Moore Theatre at Orange Coast

College and to construct a permanent home for Coastline College’s

Westminster Learning Center.

Vega was one of the men behind the institution. He didn’t come out

and take a bow very often, but you knew he was back there working for

the students.

While the institution will go on, Vega will be missed and

remembered for his many contributions.