COCC board still weighing president choices
The Central Oregon Community College Board of Directors will meet in executive session on Thursday afternoon to continue discussing the four finalist candidates to be the next president of COCC.
The 4 p.m. meeting will be in the Christianson Board Room at COCC.
The four candidates are Leah Bornstein, president of Coconino Community College in Flagstaff, Arizona; Jimmie Bruce, vice president of academic success at Northwest Vista College in San Antonio; Tony Miksa, vice president of academic and student affairs at McHenry County College in Crystal Lake, Illinois; and Jerrilee Mosier, the chancellor of Ivy Tech Community College Northeast in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
The COCC board members met for six hours on Saturday and began deliberations, following visits to Central Oregon by the four finalists.
The first few hours Saturday were spent meeting with representatives of the COCC student body, various employee groups and the community who all gave input from their constituents. After that, the board received detailed referenced reports from the consultant who has been working with the board on the search.
Members then discussed the candidates and their strengths and weaknesses, but determined they needed additional information before determining which candidate or candidates to move to the next phase of the process. That step will likely be a site visit by a small group from COCC to the candidates’ campuses.
COCC Board Chair Laura Craska Cooper issued the following statement following the meeting: “This has been a great process and I want to thank everyone who participated. The Board believes we had four great candidates and those who presented to us today all confirmed that. Saturday’s meeting was quite challenging for us because of the strength of the candidates. We are moving forward and will be looking at making one or two site visits to find out more about our top choices.”
It’s a repeat of the process conducted last year, when COCC chose from a field of 36 candidates Patrick Lanning, an administrator from Chemeketa Community College in Salem. But COCC halted the process and decided to redo its search last April after learning that Lanning was accused of raping a colleague and placed on administrative leave, something he had not told COCC.
Dr. Shirley Metcalf is serving as interim president, following the retirement of Dr. Jim Middleton, who served as COCC’s leader from 2004 to 2014.
