By Jesus Figueroa
The Los Angeles Community College District board of trustees have chosen Francisco Rodriguez, Ph.D., superintendent/president of the Mira Costa Community College District, to be the next chancellor. The final vote will take place at next Wednesday’s board of trustees meeting.
The board unanimously decided to appoint Rodriguez as the chancellor during a closed session meeting last Wednesday.
Rodriguez will take his new position on June 1 after 11 years of being involved with community colleges and a commitment to higher education for almost 30 years.
He has both a bachelor’s and master’s degree from UC Davis and a Ph.D. in education from Oregon State University.
Transfering from being president of a community college district to being chancellor of a district will be a change. Rodriguez said it will just be an issue of scaling the work as well as having an excellent staff and support.
Rodriguez said he is excited to work with the LACCD college presidents and to getting to know the student body of each college.
The Mira Costa Community College District was struggling with both accreditation and financial problems, which Rodriguez is credited as helping turnaround.
Rodriguez said that improving student success is his top priority as well as trying to ensure insureing funding for LACCD for strong academic programs.