College District Chancellor Chosen : Philip Westin Named to Lead County’s 3 Community Schools

After operating for nearly a year with an interim chancellor, the Ventura County Community College District selected a new leader Monday night, lifting the uncertainty that has blanketed the district since its chancellor died last November.

Philip Westin, president of Golden West Community College, accepted the $125,000-a-year chancellor’s post during a special board meeting. He called his elevation from the 12,000-student community college in Huntington Beach to the helm of Ventura County’s three-campus district “the culmination” of his 25-year educational career.

“This is the fruition of all that I have worked for,” said Westin, who was accompanied to the meeting by his wife, Ellisha.

Westin, 50, the board’s top choice after interviews with three finalists last month, said he would begin his new job Jan. 2.

“We are passing the baton,” said Trustee Pete Tafoya, referring to Westin’s beginnings as an associate music professor at Cerritos College in 1970 and later as a conductor for the Master Symphony Orchestra Assn. Inc., both based in Norwalk.

“We look forward to creating harmonious, great music from this table.”

While praising James Walker, who has acted as interim chancellor since December, faculty and board members expressed relief that a permanent chancellor has finally been selected.

“Jim Walker has been outstanding in holding the district together,” said Gary Morgan, president of Oxnard College’s academic senate. “But we have been keeping the status quo and now we can move forward.”

Since the passing of former Chancellor Thomas G. Lakin, who died of a bacterial infection Nov. 24, 1994, various district plans--from hiring to organizational changes--have been on hold.

Calling such issues his top concerns, Westin said his chief priority was to meet with board members, faculty, union representatives, non-teaching staff, students and district officials. He said he intends to attend every trustee meeting through the end of the year.

“I want to hear from them what they think the issues are, what they think is important,” he said.

Trustee Allan Jacobs said one of Westin’s first challenges will include filling empty administrative positions, sending interim officials back to their home campuses and addressing calls to decentralize district operations through reorganization.

Since Lakin died, at least five top administrators have been shuffled into interim positions at each of the district’s three colleges and Ventura College has been without a permanent president. Plans to replace Jesus Carreon, who left the Ventura College position in June to become president of Rio Hondo College in Whittier, were delayed pending the arrival of a new chancellor.

In addition, the vacancy in the chancellor’s office sparked a movement to reform the organization of the district. The board even briefly considered eliminating the position of chancellor in favor of having each of the district’s three college presidents share the position on a rotating basis. That idea was soon dismissed.

A task force appointed in December recently recommended that the district’s three vice chancellor positions, which now share the same standing as college presidents, be dropped to the administrative level of vice presidents, reporting to the chancellor. Under this proposal, those three positions would become four posts. Renamed “executive directors,” the officials would oversee business, personnel, information and students services.

The third vice chancellor position has been open since Trustee John Tallman resigned as vice chancellor of instruction and student services in 1992. Since then, Jeff Marsee, vice chancellor of administrative services, and Jerry Pauley, associate vice chancellor of human resources, have jointly taken over those responsibilities.

Another scenario suggested by the task force would include transforming the three vice chancellor positions into the four executive directors, and having them report to a new appointed administrative vice chancellor.

The board will discuss these proposals in a special meeting scheduled for Nov. 18, which Westin said he will attend.

Some board members earlier expressed concerns that Westin, who has been Golden West president for two years, did not have enough top-level administrative experience to head a multi-campus district. But those concerns were put aside Monday.

“I am convinced that he is a fast learner and that he has the proper attitude,” Jacobs said. “I have no doubt that he is a quick study.”

Before being unanimously elected as chancellor of Golden West College in 1993, Westin served as the institution’s vice president of instruction for two years. He has also served as chair of Cerritos College’s music department and the dean of fine arts at El Camino College in Torrance.

But his sights have long been set on the Ventura County district, Westin said.

“This is the one of the top two or three district in the state,” he said. “And it is the higher education system for the whole county. I am thrilled to be here.”