College vice president to retire

GLENDALE — After more than 20 years as vice president of instruction at Glendale Community College, Steve White is retiring on the last day of 2006.

He came to the campus in 1984 as a professor of economics. He was the chair of the social science division for about six years before being appointed vice president of instruction five years ago.

And while he officially retires on Dec. 31, it won’t really be retirement for White.

“I feel like a change,” White said. “There are lots of different careers out there. I want to do something else before I get too old.”

His wife, a former Peace Corps volunteer, has inspired him to want to travel and volunteer.

White, 61, received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in chemistry. But while organizing protests against the Vietnam War, his interest shifted to social science and he returned to school to get his masters degree in economics.

“I never really intended to do administration work; I was drafted,” White said. “However, I’ve always been involved in campus activities.”

He was appointed to the vice president’s job on an interim basis, but everyone liked the job he was doing and he was appointed, said Ann Ransford, director of public information.

“If you have good functional people, there’s no reason to make changes,” she said.

There are three vice presidents at Glendale Community College who report to the superintendent: the vice president of instruction, vice president of college services and student affairs, and vice president of administrative services.

The vice president of instruction is in charge of the direction of academic and vocational programs on the campus. White works with a committee of three deans, six associate deans and 14 division chairs, making it the biggest division at the college, he said.

“The faculty at the college is really second to none,” White said. “The decision-making here is very elaborate and a large number of faculty participate. The goal of my office is to constantly upgrade and improve academic programs.”

And White thinks he’s done that, based on the high number of students who move on to four-year schools and the number of students who go through vocational programs.

The best possible candidate for the position he’s vacating, White said, will have experience teaching at the college level, will be familiar with all of the laws and regulations of the state and will have experience with administration work, college curriculum, policy-setting and classroom experience.

Glendale Community College serves 15,000 day and evening students, and approximately 10,000 others through its adult education program each year.

The vice president of instruction is in charge of motivating the faculty to educate the students to become successful, White said.

Four finalists for the position will have final interviews Monday and Tuesday at the college. One of those final candidates is Kathleen Burke-Kelly, who stepped down from the college’s board of trustees on Sept. 19. She also recently took the position of vice president of academic affairs at Los Angeles Mission College in Sylmar.

The academic senate and the faculty union will interview each finalist separately for 45 minutes. On Tuesday the finalists will participate in public forums on campus starting at 1 p.m. The location has not been determined.

“Academic policies are the most important thing,” White said. “They all have the background.”

The new vice president will be announced on Nov. 20 at the board of education meeting, White said. The new appointee will start Jan. 1.