Field Narrowed to 3 in Coast Community Chancellor Search

The search for a new chancellor in Coast Community College District has narrowed to three candidates, including a Coast vice chancellor who rose to power five years ago in a faculty revolt against the district’s governing board.

Officials said the three finalists are Coast Vice Chancellor PhillisBasile of Laguna Beach; Ventura County Community College District Chancellor Alfred P. Fernandez, and J. Richard Gilliland, president of Metropolitan Community College, Omaha, Neb.

Basile is a former president of the union that represents the faculty and support staff on the three community colleges that make up the Coast district. She became vice chancellor for human resources in August, 1984, after being a leader in the union’s successful effort to oust a majority of the old board of trustees in November, 1983.

Second in Enrollment

Coast, with about 57,000 students, is second in enrollment only to Los Angeles among the state’s 70 community college districts. The district governs Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa; Golden West College and KOCE-TV (Channel 50), both in Huntington Beach, and Coastline Community College, headquartered in Fountain Valley.

The district’s new chancellor will succeed David A. Brownell, 55, who is scheduled to retire in October.

The five-member board of trustees for the college district plans to name the new chancellor by mid-May, according to Norma Goble, secretary to the board. The board last week voted to have a committee evaluate the work of the three finalists by making visits to their respective areas.

Basile, 63, has a background in economics and labor negotiations. She joined Orange Coast College as an economics professor in 1964. She became active in faculty labor problems and ultimately became president of Local 1911 of the Coast Federation of Employees, the union which represents faculty in the three community colleges in the district.

Basile was a dominant leader in the 1983 move to oust incumbent trustees. The action came after the board and then-Chancellor Norman Watson said that state budget cuts forced them to send layoff notices to about 100 teachers.

Recall Effort Failed

Angered by the move, Basile and other district faculty worked for a recall of the five trustees. The recall effort failed to get enough signatures to trigger a special election. But efforts against the incumbents succeeded a few months later in the November, 1983, regular election. Voters replaced three of the five trustees with three new board members endorsed by the union.

In subsequent elections, union-endorsed trustee candidates have repeatedly won election or reelection. All five current trustees were elected with union endorsements.

Watson, who had been criticized by the union, resigned in 1984 and was replaced by Brownell. Basile became vice chancellor for human resources also in 1984, succeeding William Waechter, who had been criticized by the faculty for his role in the attempted layoff of teachers the year before.

Waechter in 1984 called Basile’s appointment to his old job “a conflict of interest” because of her union background. Waechter said that Basile “would be sitting across the table from the position where she used to present grievances.”

Basile, however, noted that she had resigned from the union when she was named to her administrative post. Trustees have repeatedly praised her work as vice chancellor during the last four years, saying that Basile has an unusually good understanding of complex education budgets.

Degree in Economics

Basile received her bachelor of arts in economics from Rutgers University in New Jersey. She holds a master of arts in economics from the University of Washington.

Fernandez, who lives in Ventura, is 52 and has been chancellor of Ventura County Community College District since July, 1982. That district, composed of Oxnard, Ventura and Moorpark community colleges, has about 28,000 students.

Before coming to the Ventura district, Fernandez was president of Los Angeles Mission College. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geology from UCLA and a doctorate in higher education and administration from USC.

Gilliland, 46, has been president of Omaha’s Metropolitan Community College since 1980. The college has three campuses in four eastern Nebraska counties and has about 10,500 students. Before coming to Omaha, Gilliland was a vice president at El Paso Community College in Texas and assistant to the president of Oklahoma City Community College.

Gilliland received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Tennessee and his master’s degree and doctorate in education from the University of Florida.