New president search begins with 32 applicants

As the new year begins, MHCC turns its attention to the chief task at hand: finding a new college president.

In a presentation to the district board Wednesday night, search consultant Michael Viera of the Community College Search Services firm announced that 38 applicants had responded by the Jan. 4 filing deadline, of which 32 met the minimum requirements.

According to Viera, the applicant pool represents 16 states due to a “good mixture of advertising and recruiting.”

Viera said the search committee is now reviewing the 32 applicants.

Current president Michael Hay announced last summer his intent to retire on June 30, 2013.

According to an MHCC press release sent out in late October, a search committee comprised of students, college employees and community with Viera as a consultant, will review the candidates and offer recommendations to the board.

Wendy Patton of MHCC Board of Education Relations said in an e-mail Wednesday that the search committee will review applicants and set up the first-level interviews during January, to be conducted in February.

Patton said the second-level interviews will follow in March. In April and May, the college and search committee will hold community forums and have candidates visit the college, and then the search committee will review the finalists.

Viera said the search committee plans to narrow the applicants to three-to-five candidates by the Feb. 13 board meeting and then release the name of finalists by the March 13 board meeting. The forums are scheduled to take place about April 1-5.

According to the October press release, prospective applicants were required to turn in a five-page letter of application that outlines “how they would address the college’s challenges and opportunities, and how their own experiences and skills match up with the characteristics desired in its next president.”

Applicants also needed to submit a resume, their own college transcripts as well as the “names, titles, business and home telephone numbers of two supervisors, two direct reports (references) including one classified or support staff, two faculty members and two business or community members.”

The brochure created by the search firm also included information about the position of college president, outlining the responsibilities and challenges that include: “effective budget planning;” accountability to students; strengthening ties with K-12 to “facilitate and improve student transitions;” hiring “talented and diverse” employees; and to “maintain and enhance advocacy and marketing strategies that will advance the interests of MHCC at local, state and federal levels.”

The brochure also listed attributes desirable in a college president, to include: long-term commitment to the college; demonstrate leadership for the college community; commitment to diversity; a transparent management style; and the “ability to articulate a vision for the future of MHCC.”

This is the first time MHCC has used Community College Search Services, Patton added in an email Thursday. There have been no problems thus far, she wrote.

Patton said that in 2007, the college used the search firm Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT). That search resulted in the hiring of John Sygielski, who served as MHCC president for three years before leaving to take a similar post in Pennsylvania in June 2011. Hay was appointed as interim president; the title interim was later dropped.