New Post for Wolf : Pierce President’s Exit May Rekindle Farmland Dispute

Pierce College President David Wolf resigned Wednesday to take a job at a Northern California college in a move that could rekindle a dispute over development of the west San Fernando Valley’s remaining farmland.

Wolf, 46, will become vice president for academic affairs at Santa Rosa Junior College in Sonoma County on Oct. 1, officials said.

As Pierce’s president for the past three years, Wolf has been viewed as the school’s most outspoken protector of the farmland and of the Woodland Hills campus’ struggling agriculture program.

The college’s 200 acres of pasture and cropland at the intersection of De Soto Avenue and Victory Boulevard have been threatened by development in next-door Warner Center.

Wolf, however, had repeatedly vowed that the 40-year-old school farm would remain untouched by developers “as long as I’m here.”

His resignation, revealed in a memo distributed Wednesday to a few staff members at the campus this summer, “caused quite a bit of surprise,” said Paul Whalen, Pierce’s dean of academic affairs.

Board to Pick Successor

Officials of the Los Angeles Community College District said it will be up to the district’s Board of Trustees to pick a successor to Wolf for the $75,000-a-year job.

In Santa Rosa, college officials said Wednesday they are eagerly awaiting Wolf’s arrival. They said Wolf will help oversee a thriving agriculture and campus farm program there.

“We have a 375-acre farm up here with our own vineyard and a good agriculture program,” said Roy Mikalson, Santa Rosa Junior College president. “Of course, his farmland down there is much more valuable than ours is.”

Mikalson said that Wolf, who will earn about $76,000 a year, will be second in command at the 30,000-student campus. He said Wolf could be in line to succeed him when he retires in a few years after serving 20 years as Santa Rosa president.

“David’s a very talented man and a very practical man at the same time,” said Mikalson, noting that Wolf edged out about 90 other candidates for the post.

Before Wolf took over the 18,000-student Pierce campus, he was vice president of Harbor College, which also is run by the Los Angeles college district.

At Pierce, Wolf found himself in a series of disputes over development of campus farmland left from the time 40 years ago when the college was formed as an agricultural school.

Under pressure from builders who approached him with farmland development ideas ranging from subterranean parking lots to retail shops and high-density housing, Wolf has moved to obtain a permanent agricultural preserve designation for the campus.

Curriculum Dispute

More recently, he negotiated with operators of the San Fernando Valley Fair over a proposal to permanently relocate the summer event at the campus and recommended rejection of a private proposal to build a $10-million equestrian center on part of the farm.

At the same time, Wolf sought to overhaul the college’s struggling agriculture curriculum to increase enrollment in the program--in the process becoming involved in a nasty agriculture faculty curriculum dispute.

Wolf said Wednesday he hopes “to get as much secured for the farm as I can in the next six weeks before I leave”--perhaps including preliminary district-level approval for a smaller college-run equestrian center. He said the agriculture curriculum could be expanded to include equestrian courses.

He said the much-publicized agriculture department feud did not play a part in his decision to leave.

“I think Pierce has perhaps more promise than any campus in the district,” he said.