Chancellor of 2-Year Colleges to Step Down

The chancellor of California’s community colleges will step down in January, leaving the top post as the 108 colleges in the system face climbing enrollments, as well as the prospect of student fee increases and deep budget cuts.

Thomas J. Nussbaum, who will retire from the job he has held since 1996, said he was making his plans known because he wanted to give the Community College board “plenty of time to conduct a search, find a successor and have things in place before I leave.”

Nussbaum said his decision was prompted by his turning 55 later this year, when his retirement benefits will increase.

Nussbaum said he will use his remaining time to lobby the governor and Legislature against proposed budget cuts. “We’ll be fighting a huge fight for funding in the next nine months,” he said.

Because of a shortfall in tax revenues, the Legislature passed a midyear cut of $141 million to the state’s community colleges. The governor’s budget for the next fiscal year proposes $404 million in cuts, a 6.2% reduction. Next year’s budgets for the state’s other two college systems, the University of California and Cal State, are slated to increase.

Nussbaum said he will focus on seeking from legislators “a much more proportionate reduction” in the community colleges budget.

Nussbaum will leave a position with some lobbying clout but little authority over the management of the state’s community colleges. The campuses are divided into 72 districts with their own elected trustees.

“It’s difficult for anyone to do the job,” said Mark Drummond, chancellor of the Los Angeles Community College District. “The local boards make about 80% of the policy decisions.” After Nussbaum’s departure, Drummond said, a strong political advocate will be needed to reverse the funding declines the community colleges have suffered.

Cal State Chancellor Charles Reed said Nussbaum’s successor “is going to face huge funding problems, huge enrollment problems and huge problems in getting everyone to pull together.”

He credited Nussbaum with managing such challenges. “I’m going to miss him,” Reed said.

Cathy Unger, president of the state’s Community College Board of Governors, said Nussbaum told her of his plans earlier this week. Unger said she had been surprised, but she praised Nussbaum for providing “very generous lead time.”

Unger also repeated Drummond’s view that the next chancellor should be “someone to advocate for more funding.”

Despite the threat of budget cuts, Nussbaum was able to win several budget increases during his tenure. He also oversaw the system during a period of substantial enrollment increases. In seven years, enrollment climbed by 34%, to 1.79 million last fall.

Nussbaum, whose salary is $176,000, has spent his entire professional career with the California Community Colleges. He joined the office as a lawyer in 1976, shortly after his graduation from California Western School of Law in San Diego.

He served as general counsel and vice chancellor of legal affairs before his appointment as chancellor in 1996.

Nussbaum brought an informal style to the post, which he described as heading “the largest public higher education system in the world.” He often commuted by bicycle to his Sacramento office, and sent a weekly, often humorous e-mail message to thousands of administrators and faculty members.

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Times staff writer Nancy Vogel contributed to this report.