Presentations

Presidential Search 

Chair Hamilton introduces Narcisa Polonio from the Association of Community College Trustees.

Polonio explains her association with COD since 1988, a stellar institution with a great reputation. Presidential search gives whole community a chance to step back, identify priorities and challenges. Understand role of the president who guides and supports faculty and staff. Need permanent president to focus on teaching and learning. Search is a change to bring institution together and connect with community and its expectations for the next leader. Look at trends for community colleges nationally – mentions bacc degrees as significant example. Role of president is to stay in touch and help board decide on direction to take.

Presidential profile: important document to guide what kind of leader is being sought.

Have to be careful that candidates do not see us as a career destruction. Have to be able to be successful here. Candidates always ask, what happened to the previous president, and what’s the board like to work with? You are a divided board. You have to come together. Our commitment will be to try to help you find common ground to find the right leader, who will help you come together. If you don’t do that, there will be students who will suffer.

ACCT has been involved in searches since 1972. Confidential. 24/7 access to consultants and resources. Use influence to find best candidates. Would be possible to be in final stages by January 2016. Proposed timeline provided, starting in October. Will require discipline and effort but will be worth it, a new leader is just what the doctor ordered.

McGuire asks her what her last contact with COD was. Response is that she has kept in touch all along. She advised the board not to hire Breuder, wrong leader at the time. Sad thing that happened was that it became about his pride, not about collaboration.

Napolitano: thank you for your candor, then and now.

Polonio exits from podium and Hamilton comments positively on the presentation. Next week there will be presentations from two other consultants, and there may be others. Hamilton and Napolitano are working on finding community stakeholders to be part of the search process. A press release issued earlier today naming 16 members of search committee. These people will screen candidates to bring a short list.

Napolitano read out list of names, includes Hamilton, Napolitano, Glenn Hansen, Jeanne Ives, Maren McKellin, CODAA president, a number of community members.

Wozniak seems agitated and asks why there are not more trustees on the committee, says aggressively that he wants to read all the resumes himself. Mazzochi says he will have a voice in the process. Hamilton says that there should be community stakeholders represented. Wozniak objects, saying that the committee is too broad, and that the president will be working mostly with the board. There is more discussion and Polonio comes back to the podium and comments on the process, the need for confidentiality as well as trust for the sake of the community. There can’t be too many trustees on the committee because then they would have to have open meetings, and open meetings are not confidential. The board ratifies the presidential profile, which guides the process.