New S.D. Community College Chief Upbeat About Challenges

Even after three months as chancellor of the San Diego Community College District, J. William Wenrich remains surprised by the depth and breadth of its educational offerings.

“I knew that with 90,000 students and 3,300 faculty, we are doing a lot of unique things, but I didn’t know how ubiquitous we are,” Wenrich said in a recent interview, in which he looked back on his first days on the job and sketched out future initiatives and plans.

“We have classes in churches, in shelters, in hospitals; we respond to problems of single-parent learners, of training volunteers for literacy programs, of running honors programs in some of our vocational fields.

“And, in general, I’m pleased that we are doing a quality job.”

At a Major Crossroads

The lanky, gregarious 51-year-old Wenrich has assumed the reins of chief executive officer at a major crossroads for the district. A new state law promises to change the methods of funding community colleges and selecting faculty, and it defines their educational role more clearly by setting priorities for preparing students for transfer to four-year institutions and for vocational education.

Wenrich also faces local issues of faculty morale, of meshing his goals with that of a new Board of Trustees, of a new master plan for programs and capital projects, and of the effects of a short-term $2.3-million budget deficit for the four major components of the district: Miramar, Mesa and City colleges and the Continuing Education Centers.

But Wenrich professes optimism in facing these challenges, although he concedes that critics have seen in his past management style a propensity to look at the downside less than he should.

“Maybe I am a cockeyed optimist, but, at the same time, I do believe in self-fulfilling prophecies,” he said.

The Princeton-educated Wenrich came to San Diego last summer after four years as president of Ferris State University, a 10,000-student school in Big Rapids, Mich., north of Grand Rapids. Prior to his Michigan post, Wenrich (who is fluent in Spanish) was chancellor of the Rancho Santiago Community College District, which oversees the 32,000-student Santa Ana Community College in Orange County.

Approved on Narrow Vote

His appointment came on a 3-2 vote of the Board of Trustees, seemingly far less than the ringing endorsement an administrator would hope for in starting a new job. Retiring Trustee Gene French said he had doubts about Wenrich’s ability to work with the district’s far-flung faculty because of tensions that occurred with professors during Wenrich’s Michigan tenure. And Trustee Charles Reid, while having no gripes personally with Wenrich’s record, voted no because of concerns over the procedure used by a search committee to come up with a replacement for retiring Chancellor Garland Peed.

“I had some faculty ask me how did I feel with that vote,” Wenrich recalled. “I guess I am optimistic and am confident that I can prove to everyone that it was the right decision to put me in the job. I haven’t been inhibited in any way.”

Indeed, Wenrich has been given high marks by both board and faculty members for his willingness to listen and learn during the past three months. Many praise his management style, which emphasizes decision-making at individual campuses, a change over the previous chancellor that augurs well for boosting morale throughout the district.

“He’s been a breath of fresh air of spring throughout the district,” said Allen Brooks, president of Mesa College. “He’s picked up a great deal of information and understanding about a complex district in a short period of time. In the past, some people from the outside have been confused by just a portion of the district.”

The two new members of the board elected last month--Evonne Schulze and Fred Colby--say they look forward to working with Wenrich, having observed his informal style during meetings at various campuses.

‘Must Listen a Lot’

“I think that if you have good people and some agreement on an overall vision, then you should give them as much freedom of action as possible,” Wenrich said. “That means that I must talk to a lot of people and listen a lot, and be open to suggestions that are out of the ordinary.

“That is critical for me to do before I articulate my positions and synthesize critical points that must be addressed,” he said.

Wenrich is pleased at the willingness of the faculty to give him its ideas and opinions. Among the concerns he has found are those of maintaining and expanding the district’s buildings and labs, of how to decide when declining academic programs should be cut, and of how to put peer evaluation into effect for a faculty accustomed to more rigid salary and promotion schedules.

Peer evaluation is contained in the new labor contract giving the faculty a 15% pay raise over two years and is an outgrowth of state legislation passed earlier this year that calls for a more professional, full-time faculty at community college campuses.

“The faculty has told me that they want to make sure there will not be political maneuvering, since anytime you have peers evaluating other peers, it can be difficult,” Wenrich said.

He also wants to be certain that the process does not result in new faculty members being brought in at salaries too low to be competitive with other institutions, particularly regarding new minority instructors, whom the district wants to attract.

“If we always bring someone in at a low level, people are going to say, ‘Hey, that’s lower than what my level of experience and my (academic) degrees would bring elsewhere,’ ” Wenrich said.

Long-Range Challenge

The future of academic programs presents a more long-range challenge.

The state reforms clearly make the primary functions of community colleges those of preparing students for transfer to four-year universities and of enhancing vocational education. The legislation also recognizes the need for skill remediation and English-as-a-second-language training because the community colleges receive many students deficient in academic or language skills.

The district has a 2-year-old agreement with UC San Diego and San Diego State University to guarantee transfer admissions in the junior year for its students who take a required schedule of courses.

“For example, we’re getting more students in business at Miramar because of the guarantee they can transfer to State’s business program,” Wenrich said. Many SDSU students already take one or more courses in their freshman or sophomore years at a community college because the same classes at the four-year school are overcrowded. The community colleges also administer the remedial writing program required of many UCSD students.

“The public perception has been that because of all the other things we do in vocational areas, such as job training or continuing education for immigrants, that we can’t do the hard academics as well,” Wenrich said. “I have no hard data, but my impressions so far are that we are able to carry out the honors program well.”

Will Make Value Judgments

Given the possibility that state funding could continue to be tight, Wenrich said the district may have to consider ways of altering continuing-education programs, which typically are short-term classes, to meet the state-mandated priorities.

“I don’t have any hard or fast answers for this, but we will have to make value judgments that include what is best for meeting the needs of San Diegans,” Wenrich said.

“People should have the opportunity to learn English or to take a short-term class for a better job. So one answer could be to give a student the 30- or 60-day class for getting a job, but encourage them to continue with more general job skill classes and learn a higher level of technical skills offered in the regular vocational education program.”

Wenrich believes that the three major campuses must offer a full line of the core science and humanities courses. “But maybe we don’t want duplication with under-utilized majors,” he said. “That means perhaps we don’t offer all languages at all institutions, that maybe we have the advanced technology center at City College and the animal technology at Mesa.”

Based on his visits and talks during the first three months, Wenrich already is aware of different emphases at the various campuses.

“Miramar offers a lot of the public-service courses, such as the Police Academy, but with the new campus (now under construction) there will be a broad expansion into other areas to meet the growing population in that area,” he said.

Mesa continues to enjoy a reputation for its occupational programs in health fields, for its many academic departments and for the large numbers of transfer students it sends to SDSU, as well as for its successful athletic programs that send students to four-year colleges nationwide with full scholarships, Wenrich said.

Civic Center Impact

The 75-year-old City College campus continues in a transition period, with academic and vocational programs being strengthened and additional outreach being made to minority students, he said. At the same time, plans for a new Civic Center just south of the campus could bring a demand from the many public-service employees who work downtown for courses that offer upgrading of their skills, he said.

At the Educational Community Complex in Southeast San Diego, Wenrich hopes for strengthened programs for the disabled as well as for more students who otherwise would never have a chance to go to any college.

Wenrich has given the campuses the autonomy to cope with budget cuts of as much as several hundred thousand dollars each for the upcoming year.

“That will be difficult since no one likes to cut, but I think all the operating units should have the responsibility to decide how they should apply the percentage cutbacks,” he said. “I told the presidents to work with their faculty, assess the risks and do what they think is correct.

“I am hoping that this will be temporary because a lot of variables about state funding are not yet clear.”

Wenrich expects the long-running controversy among some faculty members about the district’s foundation not to be a continuing policy issue. For many years now, the foundation has been the symbol for a general dissatisfaction among faculty with the board and with former Chancellor Peed.

The foundation is now the subject of a legal battle between the district and disgruntled faculty members, who allege that the foundation has illegally used revenue belonging to the district and has competed with the district in gaining contracts for outside educational programs.

“The legal question now is: Where should the foundation assets go? Because of that, the issue is pretty much out of my hands,” Wenrich said. “I think there are enough other issues of importance where I can make my impact better.”