As the State Center Community College District finds itself in the midst of a daunting budget crisis, several key positions remain vacant or on interim basis.
Currently at Fresno City College, crucial positions of the admission and records manager remains vacant while the post of the president and the vice president of instruction are on interim basis.
Additionally, other prominent members such as John Cummings, vice president of admissions and records, Michael Guerra, VP of administrative services, as well as James Tucker, dean of library and student learning support services have departed, leaving their seats unfilled.
“One can only speculate as to why so many faculty and administrators have resigned in such a short amount of time,” said English instructor, Lynn Campbell. “It is troubling though that so many key positions are either designated interim or left unfilled.” Campbell said that currently, only the position of president of Fresno City College is advertised.
Although the current economy adds to the challenge of filling the vacant positions, Campbell says that should not be an excuse. “Fresno City College has a legacy of 100 plus years and has much to offer.  I would like to see an aggressive effort at recruiting high quality individuals for these vacant positions,” she said.
Campbell said that in her 13 years as an instructor at Fresno City College, she has not seen so many unfilled positions.
“Even when highly qualified individuals are in interim positions, they are still in interim positions,” said Campbell. “This does negatively influence continuity of planning, efficiency, and thus effectiveness across the district.  Everyone is affected– staff, faculty, students.”
Women’s studies and Psychology instructor Linda De Kruif, former president of the Academic Senate, has been with the district since 1994. She said she cannot recall seeing these many changes in a short amount of time.
“Every year we have some changes, but the extent to which we have had administrative changes, I haven’t seen,” said Campbell. In a time when the district is facing changes in the budget and classroom availability, De Kruif says the learning curve is really steep for those taking up new positions. “The time period to learn is very small so that presents challenges,” said De Kruif.
She added that the changes affect many different aspect of the campus, and while some changes may not be bad, they create a set of challenges. “I don’t necessarily equate changes in administrative leave with negative things, so it’s not that they have to adjust to negative things,” said De Kruif. “It’s just that they have to adjust to changes. And we all have to adjust to changes. All aspects of the campus do.”
Interim President Tony Cantu remains optimistic despite all the changes. “The interims are familiar with the district. They have a sense of how things work,” said Cantu. Among the interim are Kelly Fowler who is currently vice president of instruction and Janell Mendoza who is vice president of administrative services. “They have a lot of experience which allows them to do a good job,” Cantu said.
Mendoza began her employment with the State Center Community College District in 1988 while Fowler Previously served as the dean of instruction and technology at Willow International Center. Cantu is also familiar with his position as he has also held administrative positions at Reedley College and served as the interim president at Reedley College from 2003-2004.
In the coming months, more changes are expected as the search for a new president continues. The selection of the president will then affect the VP of Instruction. Other interim positions could also bring more changes as they are filled on permanent bases.
As for the current interims, De Kruif says some of them are working fine and others can work better than what they currently are. Still De Kruif said that administration, faculty and students must work together to overcome the challenges caused by the transition period.