Calderon Is New Ventura College Chief

Eight months after taking over as interim president at Ventura College, Larry Calderon was appointed Wednesday by district trustees as the new leader of the 10,400-student college.

After nearly three hours of interviews, board members took barely half an hour to announce their decision to hire their “native son,” 45-year-old Calderon, over two outside candidates, both high-level administrators at community colleges in Washington state and Long Beach.

“I’m very excited and looking forward to continuing what I think we started at the college,” Calderon said.

Calderon, a Santa Paula native who was a student at Ventura College in 1968, said taking over as president has allowed him to come full circle.

“I went to school here and in Santa Paula,” he said. “To become president of a college I attended is a self-rewarding and really a kind of gratifying thing.”

Although the other two candidates--Daniel R. Chacon, vice president of student services at Spokane Community College, and Kamiran Bardrkhan, vice president of academic affairs at Long Beach Community College--were well-qualified, trustees said that Calderon’s experience as interim president made him the ideal candidate to take over.

“There’s a feeling that he is our native son, a local boy doing very good, growing up in Santa Paula, graduating from Ventura College and coming back to dedicate his professional career to our community colleges,” trustee Timothy Hirschberg said.

After serving in the district for 17 years, Calderon said he was on the brink of leaving to seek a presidency elsewhere when then-President Jesus Carreon left Ventura College in June to become president of Rio Hondo College in Whittier.

Calderon then moved from his post as vice president for instruction at Oxnard College to take over as interim president.

Now, says Calderon--after serving as vice president of instruction, student services and administration at various community colleges--he is ready for the promotion to president.

“I have virtually been in every major capacity in the community college structure,” he said. “I feel like I have a really good grounding in what community colleges are about, and I am prepared to take the next step.”

As president, Calderon said, his primary goal will be to continue building enrollment, which has risen this semester for the first time in four years.

“I think that is the single biggest challenge because of what the financial impact is,” he said. “If we don’t regain our base . . . we are subject to losing further income from the state.”

Calderon envisions boosting enrollment by targeting not only high school students, but also local business and government entities that can use the college as a training facility for employees.

For instance, the school last semester won a $250,000 contract with the county’s social service agency to update agency employees’ computer and management skills.

“It is not the kind of growth you would expect 10 or 15 years ago, when you simply looked at the high schools and said, ‘Here comes the next class,’ ” he said.

Other concerns include refurbishing the 70-year-old college’s facilities, overseeing the construction of a $17-million math and science complex, and filling a dean’s post vacated by Kay Faulconer, who left to assume Calderon’s former position at Oxnard.

Calderon started his community college career in 1977 at Ventura College, where he first taught as a part-time instructor before taking over as as the coordinator of student financial services. He then moved to Los Angeles City College, where he served as assistant dean of student services before moving back to Ventura County. From 1986 to 1992, he served as vice president of administrative services at Oxnard College before accepting a position there as vice president of instruction.

He was chosen from among 19 applicants for the job. Earlier this month, a 16-member selection committee composed of faculty members, nonteaching staff, and college administrators narrowed the pool to five candidates. After interviews with the committee, three were sent to the board for final interviews.