The Search for a Permanent Chancellor Begins

By John R. Adkins

jradproduction@gmail.com

The Association of Governing Boards (AGB), just closed their 10-day window of listening to the community’s desires for what they’d like to see in a new City College chancellor.

On Sept. 6, the recruitment firm responsible for seeking a new chancellor sent out an email notifying the college of the beginning of their nine-month-long search process that would include “multiple opportunities for participation.”

A link to an online survey was provided as well as the notification of eight scheduled “listening sessions,” whereby AGB representatives would listen over Zoom and take notes on what was said about the search process. However, the question remains how many students actually participated or had knowledge of the survey opportunities.

“I didn’t know about the survey, I would’ve liked to have known what we can suggest. I actually think there’s room for improvement for students being able to provide feedback to the administration,” student David Kon said.

From Sept. 9-13, a total of eight listening sessions were conducted by AGB search consultants Jeanne Jacobs and Pam Krepchin, who kicked off the sessions with brief introductions before asking a series of questions.

The questions posed during the listening sessions were mostly identical to the questions presented in the online survey:

“What are 2-3 of the most important talents, skills, and attributes that the successful candidate for the chancellor position should possess?”

“What are 2-3 of the most important opportunities that await the new chancellor?”

“What are 2-3 challenges that the new chancellor will face in this role?”

“What priorities should the new chancellor focus on in the first year?”

“What do you value most about City College?”

“What does your fantasy campus look like?”

“We look to the college to better understand what’s important to you, but also learn about the culture at City College. While we have a starting point that shifts a bit and gets informed by the opinions and perspectives that we hear from others,” Krepchin explained, adding, “ I think experience in education is very important as a starting point, and understanding community colleges as well is important, because different education institutions operate differently.”

AGB made it clear they try not to come into the search with a pre-determined perspective. 

“It’s very important to us to hear the input from the broader community because you all know what kind of a leader we need more than we do. So it’s our role to listen to that, and to distill some themes from that to create the ‘leadership profile.” Krepchin said.

It was made clear that the combination of surveys and notes from listening sessions are distilled to create the leadership profile. The leadership profile is then passed on to a screening committee to guide their search. 

The screening committee is made up of people at City College, so AGB’s role is to help facilitate the process, but the decision is ultimately made by City College and the Board of Trustees.

Once the leadership profile is created in conjunction with City College, AGB will then advertise the role and conduct the search. The screening committee will review applications and determine which individuals they would like to interview. From there, that subset of candidates will visit City College campus and have final interviews. 

Typically a survey is then sent out to everyone who met with the candidates on campus. The screening committee chair and the committee will then review that feedback and determine how to progress with the candidates. Ultimately the decision is finalized by the Board.

AGB expressed the importance of community feedback because they provided examples of past searches where the screening committee had disregarded their selections in favor of the community’s preference.

The first of the listening sessions had only a handful of individuals expressing their opinions. The final session was populated with the attendance of the Associated Students’ Executive Council. The council only discovered the opportunity after Advisor Amy Coffey notified the council that the session was taking place, and provided the organization for council members to participate via Zoom during their regularly scheduled meeting.

“I had no idea they were asking for feedback. If I, as a student would’ve had the opportunity to give my opinions on the search, it would’ve been nice to know. It affects us more than anyone else since we are the ones that are studying here,” student Marcus Gonzales said in response to the window for survey responses being closed on Monday, Sept. 16.

At this time, all members of the screening committee have been filled and will begin their work of interviewing candidates in the early spring semester.

Update: Colleen Thornton, Senior Assistant Director for Client Development at AGB Search has made the following clarification: “AGB is a not-for-profit association. AGB Search LLC is a for profit business. AGB owns AGB Search but is not involved in its business or its search engagements.”