Sfcc President Is Finalist For Post In New Orleans

Spokane, which has lost two college presidents this year, may soon lose another.

Vern Loland, president of Spokane Falls Community College, is one of three finalists to become president of the largest two-year school in Louisiana, officials said Tuesday.

Directors of Delgado Community College in New Orleans will name a new president Oct. 24. They hope to fill the position by Jan. 1.

“Don’t pack my bags,” said Loland, who became the Falls’ fifth president in 1988. “These positions are so competitive, anything can happen.”

Loland faces competition from an administrator at Florida’s largest community college and an executive at one of Delgado’s four branch campuses.

If hired by Delgado, Loland would be the third college president this year to announce plans to step down.

The Rev. Edward Glynn, president of Gonzaga University, resigned in May. He was followed in June by Eastern Washington University President Marshall Drummond, who resigned effective next year.

“I’m not unhappy with SFCC,” Loland said. “It’s a wonderful college. But if there were an opportunity to do something new and different, I want to look at that.”

For Loland, landing the job as president of Delgado would be comparable to taking charge of the Community Colleges of Spokane system, which includes Spokane Community College, the Institute for Extended Learning and the Falls.

Delgado is about three times larger than SFCC, with 14,000 students, 1,200 employees and a budget of $53 million.

However, both schools offer about 70 degree and certificate programs and pay their presidents $98,000 per year.

Loland said he and his wife, Gonzaga French professor Joyce Loland, decided last summer to explore a possible move back to the Southeast. Loland worked for five years at a North Carolina community college in the 1980s.

Under Loland’s watch, the Falls has added several new programs, and weathered two state budget cuts. , DataTimes