College District Chancellor Reportedly Chosen : Education: Trustees interview four finalists and make a tentative decision. A visit to the top candidate’s campus will be the next step.

After interviewing four finalists Saturday, Ventura County Community College District officials tentatively selected a candidate to be the new chancellor for the three-campus system.

The four finalists include two community college presidents from Orange County and two from Los Angeles County.

But the identity of the top finalist will not be revealed until after the trustees visit the campus where he or she is working, said Jerry Pauley, associate vice chancellor for personnel.

“We were thinking about scheduling the campus visits during April 3, 4 and 5, but that’s when the L.A. colleges are on spring break,” Pauley said. Nonetheless, he added, the trustees want to announce their final choice by April 11.

In a closed meeting Saturday, trustees conducted separate hourlong interviews with California community college presidents Robert Jensen, Thomas Lakin, William Vega and Mary Lee in an attempt to reduce the field to one.

“We haven’t made any official determination or decision,” warned Timothy Hirschberg, president of the board of trustees. “All four of the candidates were impressive and each one is fully qualified, but we’re scheduling only one visit at this time.”

However, visits to other candidates’ campuses may be scheduled if the first one does not go well, Hirschberg said.

Jensen, who was interviewed first Saturday, has been the chancellor of Rancho Santiago Community College District in Orange County since 1984.

Before heading the Santa Ana-based campus, Jensen served as president of American River College and deputy chancellor of the Los Rios Community College District, both in Sacramento. Jensen was named in a national survey as one of the country’s top 50 community college chief executive officers in 1988.

That year, Los Angeles Southwest College President Lakin was inaugurated after having served as acting president since 1986. He has been credited with reviving the predominantly black college after years of declining enrollment and poor morale. Before coming to Southwest, Lakin was a vice president at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College.

Coastline Community College President Vega has headed the Fountain Valley-based campus in Orange County since 1985. Before coming to Coastline, Vega was a dean at El Camino College in Torrance.

The only female candidate, Mary Lee, has served as president of Los Angeles Valley College in the San Fernando Valley since 1981. Before that, she served for three years as the college’s dean of administrative services. She went to the Van Nuys-based campus after serving as a dean of college development and acting dean of instruction at Pierce College in Woodland Hills.

The four finalists were picked from a group of about 60 applicants by an 18-member selection committee composed of faculty, students, administrators and members of the community.

The new chancellor, scheduled to take over July 1, will replace Barbara Derryberry, 58, who gave her resignation to the trustees in June, 1990, but agreed to stay on until a successor could be found, Pauley said.