Santiago Canyon President Resigns

After just a year as president of Santiago Canyon College, Mark W. Rocha is leaving to join the company that owns Western State University School of Law in Fullerton.

Rocha will begin his new job as president of Argosy University/Los Angeles-Orange Campus in September, according to a release issued Friday by the Rancho Santiago Community College District, which includes Santiago Canyon in Orange and Santa Ana College.

Rocha will be in charge of meshing the operations of Western State and the University of Sarasota.

Argosy Education Group Inc., which owned Western State, recently merged with the Educational Management Corp.

Before coming to Santiago Canyon, Rocha was provost at Seton Hall University in New Jersey and dean of the college of arts, humanities and social sciences at Humboldt State University in Arcata, Calif.

In a news release Friday, Edward Hernandez, chancellor of the Rancho Santiago District, said, “Our district and the college benefited tremendously from the academic acumen Dr. Rocha brought during his tenure with us and the stronger ties with the community he forged.”

Santiago Canyon expects to nearly double the size of its student body to 17,000 by 2007. To make room for them, the two-year college will undertake $100 million in construction.

The board of trustees is expected to appoint an interim president at its Aug. 27 meeting.