Ten candidates on list for CCC president position

CLOVIS — Ten candidates are in the running to be the next president at Clovis Community College. A week from now, the finalist field will likely be half that size.

That was the crux of the update given Wednesday by Raymond Mondragon, secretary of the CCC Board of Trustees, at its monthly meeting at the college.

Officials said 62 candidates applied for the position, which became vacant in July when Becky Rowley left to become president at Santa Fe Community College. Mondragon said the Association of Community College Trustees, which is handling the nationwide search, was wowed by the interest.

“They thought the number was amazing,” Mondragon said. “That’s a credit to CCC and the people we have here.”

The next step is to interview the 10 semifinalists via video interview before paring the field down to publicly announced finalists. The hiring timeline established by ACCT in May had that step coming in the Sept. 12-13 timeframe. Mondragon didn’t mention those dates but said “mid-September” was a fair estimate.

The committee is made up of 13 members and two alternates, working in confidentiality. The trustees are not involved, with the exception of Mondragon organizing meetings and leaving as soon as they begin.

“They have done superb due diligence in reviewing the applicant pool,” Mondragon said.

The goal is a mid-October hire and a January start date.

Robin Kuykendall, who is not a candidate for the position, is serving as interim president.

In other business at the Wednesday meeting:

• The college received permission to apply for $750,000 in state Research and Public Service Program dollars for enhancement of its enterprise planning system. The college is working with Santa Fe Community College, Central New Mexico College, Mesalands Community College, Luna Community College and San Juan Community College to make the enhancement uniform for reporting data to the New Mexico Higher Education Department. Norman Kia, CCC’s vice president of IT and operations, said each school would retain operational independence.

Enterprise systems include finance, budget, human resources, payroll and student information.

If approved, the college would supply an additional $249,427 in institutional renewal and replacement dollars.

• The board approved submission of the CCC endowment report to the state higher education department. The school currently holds $295,434 in its endowment fund — $150,000 from the state, $132,500 in matching funds from CCC and $12,966 in accrued interest.

The college is only authorized to spend the interest. Kuykendall said the money may be expended for upcoming faculty development initiatives.

• The board approved 10 appointments to its art committee.

Appointed were Carolyn Lindsey, Gayla Brumfield, Jan Lloyd, Shirley deMaio, Jan Cox, Natalie Daggett, Corey Picket, Joe Strickland, Terry Martin (board representative) and Jacob Rodriguez.

All terms are four years except for Rodriguez, who serves a one-year term as student representative. The college president also serves as a non-voting member.

• Board members heard a report on the college’s adult basic education services, including its general equivalency diploma program.

Center for Student Success Director Emily Glikas said there were 50 people who received GEDs through the program in 2018-19, up from 18 the previous year.

“We packed Town Hall (for the ceremony),” Kuykendall said, “and that’s a good problem to have.”

Staff is unsure of how Clovis Municipal Schools’ new iAcademy will impact the numbers for GED program participants.

• The board met for about 30 minutes in executive session on one personnel matter and one property matter, and took no action before adjourning the meeting.

• The next meeting is scheduled for 8 a.m. Oct. 2.