Trustees Reject 2 Candidates for President of Oxnard College

Angering a group of instructors, community college trustees decided Tuesday to reject two favored candidates for the presidency of Oxnard College and launch an expanded search.

Chancellor Philip Westin announced that trustees had voted unanimously in closed session to select a recruiting firm to help with the continued search. Westin added that the five-member Ventura County Community College District board also decided to first find a new acting president who is not a district employee.

Ruth Hemming, acting president of Oxnard College, was one of two finalists for the permanent post. Darlene Pacheco, the other candidate preferred by a special hiring committee made up of instructors and community members, is a vice president for instruction at Moorpark College.

“The two finalists’ performances during the interview process proved that they are without question the finest candidates the board can consider,” said Carmen Guerrero-Calderon, vice president of the Academic Senate at Oxnard College and a member of the hiring committee. Before the meeting, Trustee Allan Jacobs said most of the candidates who applied for the president’s job came from within the district.

“There was a dearth of candidates, which was surprising,” Jacobs said. “We didn’t have many candidates from the outside. It was a short field.”

Board President Pete Tafoya would not elaborate on the trustees’ decision to begin a new search, citing the confidentiality of personnel matters.

“This board fully realizes the amount of effort by all the parties involved in the selection process,” Tafoya told the two dozen members of the audience.

Despite the board’s rejection of the hiring committee’s top two candidates, the trustees hired Michael D. Gregoryk to fill a newly created position--deputy chancellor and chief financial officer.

The board gave Westin-nominee Gregoryk the $114,000-a-year job as part of a reorganization plan that Westin announced earlier this year. Gregoryk, 44, is vice president of administrative services for the Palomar Community College District near San Diego. The Ventura County district job gives him responsibility of overseeing district finances and assuming the helm when the chancellor is away.

Westin’s plan elevates the district’s top budget official from a vice chancellor post to a deputy chancellor position, a move trustees have said will make the district a better-run operation.

Although the audience applauded Gregoryk’s appointment, some left the meeting disappointed because neither Pacheco nor Hemming was selected for the top Oxnard job, which pays $102,000 annually.

“It is a disservice to the community,” Ralph Smith, an Oxnard College counselor, said. “It is a disservice to the college. We need leadership now.”

Elise Schneider, former president of the 5,500-student college, left the job in February for a newly created position as a recruiter of foreign students at the district’s headquarters.

It was unclear how long Hemming would remain as interim head of Oxnard College, but Westin said he would ask her to stay until the board appointed a replacement.

Westin said he hopes to come up with names of search firms and potential candidates for the temporary president’s job by the next board meeting on Aug. 6.

He appointed Hemming to the temporary position shortly after Schneider’s departure five months ago. Westin said Hemming, who holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from UC Berkeley and a doctorate in education from the University of La Verne, would return to her previous position as vice president of administrative services at Ventura College.

Pacheco, who has a bachelor’s degree from Colorado State University and a doctorate in psychology from the University of Colorado, taught psychology for 17 years at Moorpark College before becoming vice president for instruction.

At the end of the meeting, Trustee Timothy Hirschberg surprised his colleagues by announcing he would give up his seat in November after nine years on the board. “I feel that I am leaving the district in very good hands,” Hirschberg said, adding that his replacement could be picked in the November election.