Las Positas College administration is ready to walk down the aisle again, fresh off of running from the altar.
The search for a Vice President for Academic Services didn’t have a great first run, getting their final two candidates to the last stage before ultimately deciding they didn’t want to hire any of them. The second search has begun and ended quickly, with only six weeks standing between the opening and closing of the position.
According to Diane Brady, Vice President of Administrative Services, the public forums for the search will take place on May 22. Brady, who also serves as the chairman of the search committee, has said that the position has since received over 20 applications. The committee is hopeful to make a permanent hire by July of this year.
While the search may be on its second go, Brady remains confident that it will be successful. So far, her prediction of the amount of applicants has been proven correct, showing that one unsuccessful search did not discourage crowds from applying. The search is the third administrative search that has occurred in the past academic year.
When the district looks to hire an administrative position, CLPCCD creates a hiring committee whose responsibility it is to open a position, outline it and see the search through ultimately to a hire, unless otherwise struck down by the Board of Trustees (which happened in the December 2018 search for a chancellor). The hiring committee will sort through the applications, which are scored on a rubric. The rubric scores determine who will move on.
First level interviews will take place throughout the week of May 13, 2019.
The public forums are the second round of interviews, in which students and employees of the college or district are able to ask questions.
“It was disappointing that we didn’t get a person the first time, so we wanted to start (the search) up again,” said Brady. “Sometimes we might keep it open longer. Sometimes we might keep it open for almost two months, somewhere between six to eight weeks for someone at the vice president level. But we wanted to make sure that we got the process going before the end of the semester, while faculty (and students) are still here.”
Ultimately, Brady said, they chose to open the position back up for the stability of the college. Her sentiments echoed those of Interim President Roanna Bennie.
Bennie had previously served as Vice President of Academic Services before she was offered the interim presidency. After she became the Interim President, she continued in both roles before deciding that there needed to be a permanent fill-in.
“We’re really excited to have a permanent Vice President of Academics,” Bennie said in January, when the search initially began. “I really think it was the right decision, for the stability of the college, to have the same person carrying out tasks and duties.”
Public forums with the candidates when they are chosen will be held at Las Positas College on May 22, which Brady hopes will have a large audience. She encourages anybody with any questions or concerns to come to the forums and meet the candidates.
