Once again, the college will be in a state of transition with the leaving of Guy Lease, the Las Positas College’s current Interim President. Janice Noble, who is LPC’s current Vice President of Academic Services, will be taking over as the new Interim President.
In a previous interview with Lease, he mentioned that he wanted to be able to sit down with the new permanent president and talk to him or her about all of the work that is currently happening at the college, while he or she get used to the college and how it works. But because of the retirement system, he can no longer stay at the college.
“I’m really sorry to leave, sorry the retirement system is set up so that I can’t stay,” he said.
Lease also commented on his feelings towards the college early in the semester by saying he was “leaving [the college] more unfinished than when [he] came.”
He went on to explain that there were many different processes that were currently being worked on that he would not be able to see through to the end because of how long they would take to do. Other tasks that may need to be done are being held off until the next person can come by and make sure that the task is done from start to finish.
He also spoke about how the college is on a cycle for strategic plans. It’s almost time for a new strategic plan.
“I can see the need. I can talk to people and say, ‘OK, this has got to happen next spring.’ But I don’t want to go out and hire a consultant to come in and do it, because whoever the new president is should have the opportunity to lay out what kind of process they want to use, and how they are going to get there,” Lease said.
But even with the few problems that may be left behind, when Lease leaves, he says he feels that Noble will be able to carry on the work that is currently under works.
“I am very confident that Dr. Noble knows what needs to be done, and she knows what needs to be worked on,” he said.
Noble also seems to feel the same about trying to keep the college moving on and not hitting a stand still.
“Clearly, the one thing that’s really important for the college is to maintain the stability and keeping it in the direction we’ve been moving,” Noble said in a previous interview with The Express.
Even with Guy Lease leaving his seat in the middle of the semester, he does not feel that there will be too much at risk at the present time. It is what will be happening in the long run of the college that may have more things that will need to be dealt with later on. Though there may be some changes to the college because of the transition, Guy Lease does not feel that there will be a noticeable change in what the students may see.
“I don’t think in terms of impact on (the) students that it will be invisible to the students,” Lease said. “I think it will be invisible. They won’t really see much of a difference. Programs won’t just suddenly go to hell in a handbasket, and nothing is going to go wrong. It’s just for the longer range future of our college there are things that we need to get done, and some of those are going to be very difficult to do with just two people in office.”
So even with the changing of one Interim President to the next, it looks as if the college will not have to worry about too many changes happening or problems occurring until the new permanent president comes into office. Both the current Interim President and the next in line feel that they know and understand the college enough that they will be able to keep the college going along at a stead