Ventura County’s Westin Welcomes E-Mail Update From Chancellor

When the chancellor of the California Community College system sends an e-mail into cyberspace each Friday to more than 100 colleagues, one always finds its way to the computer of district chancellor Philip Westin.

Thomas J. Nussbaum is in charge of the big picture--106 colleges in 71 districts--while Westin oversees Ventura County’s three-college district.

Although still a challenge, communicating with that many district leaders is made slightly easier through weekly e-mail updates.

“One of the things that I find about Tom is that he’s really worked hard to communicate with district leaders,” Westin said. “The e-mail he sends is in a very relaxed, laid-back kind of style.

“He’ll tell a few little jokes or about riding his bike to work” before summarizing the latest college system business, Westin said. “Frankly, I look forward to it every week.”

Westin says Nussbaum’s work with the college system’s board of governors, the state Department of Finance and legislators may well have spurred a financial upswing for the system.

On another front, however, is an unprecedented challenge--the task of taking in thousands of welfare recipients and preparing them for work.

“We probably have not had enough time to do as thorough of a job as we had wanted with planning so that it is a smooth transition,” Westin said. “That doesn’t mean we won’t do it well, it just means we’ll jump in and be swimming to keep up with it.”

Meanwhile, there is some question as to how much control Nussbaum should have over the local districts.

“This is probably the biggest governance issue that is on the plate for the California Community College system,” Westin said. “I credit Tom with confronting that issue and at least putting it out there to be discussed, although he’s probably gotten criticism for doing so.”

Westin said Nussbaum got resounding support when he brought this issue up at a conference last month, suggesting a move toward more central control. Westin said he supports this move because “as a system we fare better than 71 individual districts.”

“If the system is going to be fully accepted as a member of the higher education community, we must speak with one voice,” Westin said. “One of Tom’s greatest strengths is his ability to diplomatically coalesce the sometimes competing interests of local boards and bring that single voice to our representation.”