Mission College Chief May Leave to Raise Funds

Mission College President Jack Fujimoto may soon leave the college to help the financially strapped community college district raise desperately needed revenue.

But Fujimoto and Los Angeles Community College District officials stressed that the move would only be temporary, despite its coming at a time of expansion, decreasing enrollment and low morale among some faculty members and students. Also, Fujimoto recently has come under fire because of remarks published in a Times interview last month.

On Monday, Chancellor Neil Yoneji convened a special, districtwide meeting at the college, where he said it was likely that Fujimoto would be tapped for his fund-raising expertise. Yoneji mentioned the names of at least two vice chancellors who may fill the job during Fujimoto’s absence, college officials said.

Fujimoto confirmed that he may be leaving Mission College--the district’s newest and smallest college--but stressed that no final decision has been made and that his absence would probably only be temporary.

“If I leave, I’d like the status of my position to be reviewed every six months,” said Fujimoto, who took over at Mission in 1989, one year before the college’s expansion from a collection of storefronts in San Fernando to its present, 22.5-acre site adjacent to El Cariso Regional Park in Sylmar.

“That’s what I’m asking for,” Fujimoto said in a phone interview. “It’s not my decision. It’s up to the district.”

Fujimoto said the move could take place “anytime between now and February.”

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The potential personnel change comes as the district, the state’s largest, focuses on generating outside sources of funding including federal grants, in the wake of state budget cutbacks and other financial stresses. Fujimoto is considered an expert at obtaining outside funding, district officials said.

If Fujimoto is transferred Downtown, Mission College would be left without steady leadership during a year when enrollment is down nearly 19% from its peak in 1992. Enrollment dwindled to under 6,000 this fall, possibly a result of the Jan. 17 Northridge earthquake.

The anticipated change also occurs just before the college’s 20th anniversary this February. Some faculty members said they are concerned that a personnel change might delay a planned 40-acre expansion of the college or slow down other projects--like construction of an $11-million library and learning resource center that began in late September.

Reaction to the news of Fujimoto’s possible departure among faculty and student leaders was mixed.

“There’s so much change going on right now, everyone is a little unsettled,” said Gerald Scheib, chairman of the college’s arts and letters cluster and past president of the Academic Senate.

“Morale is kind of low right now,” Scheib said. “We’re very concerned about who the interim president will be, somebody from inside or outside the district. The school’s vice president also took a job Downtown in the past year. It makes us wonder why all our top administrators are leaving.”

Former college Vice President Victoria Richart left early this year to become the district’s senior director of instructional student services.

A source inside the district said the names of at least two administrators--both district vice chancellors--already have been proposed for the job of interim president.

Some faculty members said Fujimoto had been criticized in recent weeks regarding comments he made about Mission’s student body in a recent Times interview.

The comments, published Oct. 18, prompted the president of the college’s Associated Student Organization to demand an explanation. In a letter to Fujimoto dated Nov. 2, John Sobanski, president of the student organization, wrote:

“From the students’ point of view, we feel as though you actually believe that students’ ‘expectations are a little higher than what their abilities are’ when in reality this can’t be further from the truth.”

Fujimoto made the comment about students’ expectations in response to a question from a Times reporter about the kinds of goals pursued by Mission College students after attending the school.

Sobanski wrote that the remark and a few other comments made by Fujimoto during the interview were “belittling to students attending Mission College.”

Fujimoto acknowledged having to “explain why I said some of the things I said” to disgruntled students, but denied intending to disparage the student body.

Yoneji did not return repeated phone calls Tuesday and Wednesday. Fausto Copabianco, the district’s public affairs director, said Wednesday that he did not know about the possible transfer.

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But some Mission faculty members said the possibility of Fujimoto’s departure was not new: “We’d had an inkling of it for some time,” said Dale Newman, president of the Academic Senate and director of the college’s learning assistance center.

“Jack has gone to bat for us with the politicians in Sacramento before,” Newman said. “He’s a fantastic asset and it’s not really fair of us not to share him with the rest of the district. And he told me he’s going only if he was assured of his return. I know that his feelings about this are mixed.”

Julia Li Wu, a member of the community college district’s Board of Trustees, refused to comment on Fujimoto’s possible transfer, saying it has not been finalized: “Dr. Fujimoto is very versatile and has good working relationships with many levels of government. That’s all I can say about it.”