Chancellor to Inherit District in Fiscal Shape : Education: Philip Westin will be able to focus on boosting enrollment and reputations at the three community colleges he will lead.

When Ventura County Community College District officials chose Thomas Lakin as their leader four years ago, his charge was to regain fiscal control of a district wracked by financial crisis and personal scandal.

His replacement, Golden West College President Philip Westin, is inheriting a system in far better financial shape.

For the first time since 1988, the three-campus district is off the state watch list for colleges on the brink of financial ruin, and cuts in state funding of higher education appear to have bottomed out.

As a result, district and college officials say they expect their new leader to direct most of his energy toward rebuilding the reputation of the colleges by boosting enrollment, increasing course offerings and updating facilities.

“Lakin handed Westin a district in repair,” said board President Timothy Hirschberg. “We are off the watch list, reserves are up and there is an increasing awareness that community colleges are a good investment for the state. That means Westin can focus on enrollment . . . and curriculum development.”

When Lakin, who died last November of a bacterial infection, joined the district in 1991, budget reserves were at less than 1% of the budget. Today, at more than 5%, district reserves are higher than they have been in six years. And officials are hopeful that enrollment, which has dropped districtwide by about 14% since 1991, will swell next spring with the expiration of the state’s $50 fee per unit for students with bachelor’s degrees.

Although some financial questions remain--such as how the district will subsidize the construction of three new academic buildings not fully funded by the state--officials say the economic forecast looks brighter than it has been in years.

Still, administrators say the district has a long way to go to fully recover from the recession, and they expect one of Westin’s top priorities to be getting students back in school.

“We are turning students away” because of a lack of classes, said Gary Morgan, president of Oxnard College’s Academic Senate, an advisory panel of instructors to the board. “And until we increase enrollment, we cannot increase our income.”

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That means replacing faculty members lost to early buyouts and courses that were cut in the Lakin era, as well as improving instructional materials and facilities.

“The campuses have been woefully neglected,” said Barbara Hoffman, current president of the teachers union. “There are lots of needs that must be met. In all three campuses, biology sections weren’t offered this semester because there was no equipment.”

The call to mend the campuses is one Westin says he is not only anxious to heed, but to take a step further.

A self-proclaimed “computer nerd,” the 50-year-old administrator says he wants to usher the district into the 21st Century.

Although reluctant to discuss his agenda before canvassing the district, he already has impressed officials by calling for the replacement of “arcane” computer software used to keep enrollment and administrative records, as well as computers in the classrooms.

“I really like his ideas about technology,” said Ron Jackson, vice president of student services for Oxnard College. “He wants to bring us into the technological age. It will be hard with our limited resources, but it is something that needs to be done.”

But while Westin concentrates on boosting the college’s image in the eyes of the outside world, officials say he must also deal with internal tensions left over from the Lakin era.

Lakin took over the district shortly after a trustee was convicted of fraud for padding travel expenses, a college president was demoted and a vice chancellor resigned amid charges of mismanagement and the IRS penalized the district for bungled bookkeeping.

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Lakin also left to Westin a district plagued with low morale at the time of his death--especially among faculty members who felt snubbed by a management style they described as autocratic.

An “aggressive and resurgent” faculty union is probably the greatest political challenge facing Westin, according to Hirschberg.

Both faculty members and non-teaching staff say that to win their support, Westin must quickly prove his claims of being a consensus-building team player.

“It sounds as if he is a lot more user-friendly than Lakin,” said Gary Morgan, president of Oxnard’s Academic Senate. “But only time will tell.”

Already, leaders of the teachers union are asking why Westin’s salary, at $125,000, is $6,000 higher than Lakin’s and disputing Trustee Hirschberg’s assertion that the statewide average salary for chancellors of multi-campus districts is $137,000.

According to a 1995 survey by the Assn. of California Community College Administrators, the average salary of the state’s six multi-campus districts closest in size to the Ventura County district is about $131,000.

But Deborah Ventura, Ventura College’s Academic Senate president, said the yearlong lapse between Lakin’s death and Westin’s appointment has helped heal the rift between administrators and faculty members.

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Larry Miller, who is running unopposed this month for president of the teachers union, agrees. “I would give morale a C+ to a B- right now,” he said. “And just before Lakin died, morale was right around a D-.”

Most credit Moorpark College President Jim Walker, who served as interim chancellor, with the difference.

“Walker talked to people,” Miller said. “He treated you like a human being. He created a collegial type of atmosphere where you felt like you could walk up to him and talk.”

They are now looking to Westin to continue relations in that manner.

The special selection committee formed to screen the 50 applicants for chancellor contained a strong faculty component, which was pulling for a chancellor who would create a more relaxed working environment, Ventura said.

“Collegiality was a big issue,” she said. “It was really something the faculty and union representatives were looking for.”

Westin, who will take over as chancellor Jan. 2, said he’s not bothered by their doubts.

“If I say ‘trust me,’ the first thing they are going to say is ‘yeah, right,’ ” he said. “Trust is something that is earned over time by walking the walk.”