Mission Viejo : Sneed New Chancellor of Saddleback District

Richard Sneed, vice chancellor of academic affairs for the Rancho Santiago Community College District in Santa Ana, has been named chancellor of the Saddleback Community College District.

The district includes Irvine Valley College in Irvine and Saddleback College in Mission Viejo.

Sneed, 57, who will assume the post July 28, won the unanimous endorsement of the district’s board of trustees, which voted Wednesday night to hire him. Sneed succeeds former Chancellor Larry Stevens, who agreed to resign in January after two years of faculty agitation aimed at getting him fired. The board of trustees agreed to buy out the remaining 18 months of Stevens’ contract.

David Habura has been Saddleback’s acting chancellor. Habura will return to his position as executive vice chancellor when Sneed assumes the post.

Sneed, of Santa Ana, has been with Rancho Santiago Community College District since 1971 and has been its vice chancellor for academic affairs since 1973. Before coming to Rancho Santiago, Sneed was an administrator at Chapman College in Orange. He was president of St. Gregory’s College in Shawnee, Okla., from 1964 to 1969.

Sneed received his doctorate in 1962 from Catholic University of America.

His salary as Saddleback’s new chancellor will be $76,000 a year, plus a $6,000 annuity. His current salary as a Rancho Santiago vice chancellor is $71,105, plus $4,800 yearly in a tax shelter allotment.