Glendale College Board Discloses Management Shake-Up Plan

The Glendale Community College Board of Trustees Tuesday disclosed plans for a proposed management reorganization, which one trustee said would in part allow college President Rex Craig to “select his own team.”

The proposed changes call for the elimination of three management posts that would be absorbed by the creation of two other positions and the retitling of five other jobs. Administrators whose jobs will either be eliminated or changed under the reorganization will be strongly considered for the new positions, Craig said.

He said that the changes would “result in a more cohesive and efficient organizational structure” in college management and save the school about $24,000 a year in salaries, although some faculty members and administrators have disputed that.

Trustees to Vote May 7

The board of trustees will vote on the proposal at its May 7 meeting. In the meantime, the board has encouraged comment on the plan from college employees because, “if things aren’t broken, we might not decide to try and fix them,” said trustee Phillip Kazanjian.

“Dr. Craig has said that this reorganization is in the best interest of the school,” Kazanjian said after Tuesday’s meeting. “It will allow him to select his own team to help run the college, and we will continue to study the plan and try to receive input on it from the school at large.”

Craig was hired by the board of trustees in July, 1982, after stepping down as president of Contra Costa College in Northern California.

Among the changes that he has proposed is the elimination of three posts--the dean of instructional support services, the director of library services and the coordinator of parent education. All three jobs, in any case, will become vacant by the end of the semester because an administrator who held one of those positions has already retired, another has announced his retirement and one died earlier this year.

2 Posts Proposed

Craig has also proposed the creation of two postions--vice president for administration and director of special programs and services. Both posts would include some responsibilities that are now handled by other college employees, who would be reassigned to other jobs, Craig said.

The salary for the new vice president position would be $60,277 a year, second only to Craig’s, which is $68,000 annually.

The plan will go into effect July 1 if it receives approval from the trustees, although the new director of special programs and services will probably not assume full responsibilities until next summer, Craig said.

Trustee Ted Tiffany urged approval of the proposal Tuesday.

Will ‘Move Rapidly’

He told those at the meeting, “We do want your input, but we’re going to move rapidly on this.”

Although changes in the college’s management have been discussed privately by trustees for several months, faculty members and administrators were not told the specifics of the proposal until Tuesday’s board meeting.

Of particular concern to some faculty members is the proposal to eliminate the position of director of library services.

Jeanette Stirdivant, a counselor at the school, told trustees that “doing away with the head librarian would put our library in a second-class state.”

‘Unfavorable Reports’

She added that other community colleges that have abolished the head librarian position have received “unfavorable reports” by state accreditation teams.

Craig, however, said that several community colleges in recent years had eliminated the head librarian post and that the change had not harmed the libraries. Under Craig’s proposal, the library would be overseen by the dean of support services, a position that would be retitled dean of college services.