OCC appoints new president

Michael Miller

Bob Dees, who has served as Orange Coast College’s vice president of

instruction for the last seven years, has been appointed as the

college’s new president.

The Coast Community College District Board of Trustees selected

Dees over three other candidates after interviews on March 30 and

announced their choice on Monday. At the board’s meeting this

Wednesday, Dees will be sworn in to replace the college’s eighth

president, Gene Farrell, who retired at the end of March.

“I’m very excited about it, and I look forward to working more

closely with the chancellor and the board and to do what I can to

help the college move ahead,” Dees said. “I’m just delighted to have

the position and am looking forward to being president here.”

Board member Jerry Patterson said it was Dees’ history at Orange

Coast College, more than anything, that put him past the other three

candidates.

“I think any of them would have been a good choice,” Patterson

said. “I think what gave Bob Dees the inside track was being in the

position of an OCC administrator for a number of years. He’s a known

quantity, and that can work both ways. Sometimes it works against

them, sometimes for them, and in his case it worked for him.”

Dees, 60, first came to Orange Coast College as an English

instructor in 1978. From 1981 to 1984, he chaired the campus English

department and later spent 14 years as dean of the school’s

literature and languages division. In the mid-1990s, Dees also served

on the statewide English Council of California Two-Year Colleges,

acting as its president for one year.

During his time as vice president of instruction, he has

co-authored the college’s accreditation and midterm reports and

helped to develop the campus’s new master plans following the passage

of ballot Measure C in 2002. Under the measure, Orange Coast College

will add more than $250 million in new facilities and also renovate

its academic programs. Over the last year, Dees helped to develop the

college’s new Learning Campus Program, a faculty-based system

designed to enhance student learning.

“I think he’s a great choice mainly because he’s been there 27

years,” said Jim Carnett, director of community relations for Orange

Coast College. “He’s been a faculty member, an administrator, a dean,

a vice president; he’s come all the way up the ladder.

“He is so familiar with this place that there really won’t be a

transition. He’s going to hit the ground running. When he officially

starts Thursday in that position, he’ll be at a full sprint.”

A Monrovia native and Laguna Niguel resident, Dees earned his

bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from San Jose State

University and also pursued doctoral work at UCLA. Before joining

Orange Coast College’s faculty, he taught English at UCLA, Cal State

Northridge, Los Angeles City College and Los Angeles Trade Technical

College.

* MICHAEL MILLER covers education and may be reached at (714)

966-4617 or by e-mail at michael.miller@latimes.com.