The Santa Monica College Board of Trustees voted Monday, April 18, to hire the national nonprofit Association of Community College Trustees to assist in its search for a new college president.
The decision came after the board heard presentations by and interviewed representatives from ACCT and two other finalists – Ventura-based Community College Search Services and the Los Angeles office of the executive search firm Korn/Ferry International.
ACCT’s fee will range from $20,000 to $25,000, plus expenses. The ACCT consulting team will work closely with an SMC search committee, still to be established, in developing a president profile and recruitment materials, identifying prospective candidates throughout the nation, doing detailed background reports on top candidates, conducting extensive reference checks, and more.
The search process is expected to take the rest of the year, with a new president selected around the beginning of 2006.
ACCT has had 30 years of experience in community college executive recruitment, having completed nearly 300 searches for chancellors and presidents throughout the U.S. Recent ACCT searches have included presidents for such institutions as De Anza and Skyline colleges in Northern California, Dallas Community College District, and Kingsborough Community College in New York.
SMC is seeking a successor to Dr. Piedad F. Robertson, who resigned the presidency January 31. Thomas J. Donner is interim president.The ACCT team that will work with SMC is made up of Abel B. Sykes, Jr. of Fairfield in San Francisco’s East Bay, who served as president of three community colleges and also held administrative and teaching positions, and Del M. Anderson of Oakland, retired Chancellor of the San Francisco Community College District who has also held top administrative two-year college posts.
