Victoria College presidential finalists to participate in public forums June 8-11

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The public will have an opportunity to hear from the four finalists for Victoria College’s president position during individual open public forums scheduled for consecutive days in June.

Each candidate will participate in two general open forums – one from 10 to 11 a.m. at Victoria College’s Student Center located at the main campus at 2200 E. Red River St., and another from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at VC’s Emerging Technology Complex, located at 7403 Lone Tree Road.

Following is the schedule of forums:

· Monday, June 8 – James Dire, chancellor of Methodist College in Peoria, Ill.

· Tuesday, June 9 – Mickey D. Best, campus president of New Mexico State University-Grants in Grants, N.M.

· Wednesday, June 10 – Jennifer Kent, senior vice president of Ranger College in Ranger, Texas.

· Thursday, June 11 – Robert Exley, president of Snead State Community College in Boaz, Ala.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, seating capacity at the public forums will be limited as measures will be implemented to ensure social distancing. Attendees should plan to arrive to the forums early as each will be screened before allowed entrance to Victoria College facilities. The health screening will include a temperature check. Guests are recommended to wear facial coverings.

All forums can be viewed remotely. A livestream will be available at VictoriaCollege.edu/PresidentialSearch and on VC’s Facebook page five minutes prior to the start of each forum.

“Selecting Victoria College’s next leader is a very important process, and we greatly value input from the public during this search,” said Bland Proctor, chairman of Victoria College’s Board of Trustees. “That’s why we have made adjustments due to the COVID-19 pandemic to allow the public to attend these public forums in person or via livestream.”

Each candidate’s biography is posted at www.VictoriaCollege.edu/PresidentialSearch.

David Hinds, VC president since 2015, announced in September his plans to retire in August.

Following his announcement, a search committee was formed and several forums were held to gain input from VC employees and students as well as community members. Ideas gathered at the forums were used to create a presidential profile, which identifies the college’s future priorities and the ideal characteristics of the future president. The search committee interviewed semifinalists in April and recommended the four finalists to the VC’s board of trustees.

The search committee is composed of VC Board of Trustees Co-Chairs Catherine McHaney and Ron Walker, as well as representatives from VC administration, faculty, staff and students, the University of Houston-Victoria, Victoria ISD and the Victoria community.

In addition to the open forums, each finalist will be interviewed privately by VC’s board of trustees.

The sole finalist will be announced in mid-June. The board of trustees plans to approve the final contract and hire Victoria College’s sixth president at the July board meeting.

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