College Shopping – The Hiring Game master – Final 3 at College of DuPage and Butte College –

By Dani Anguiano, Chico Enterprise-Record

Posted: 03/29/16, 7:58 PM PDT | Updated: 1 week, 5 days ago

Butte Valley >> Butte College is down to two finalists in the search for its next president after one candidate withdrew herself from consideration over the weekend.

As previously reported by this newspaper, the college announced last week that it would hold forums for each of the three publicly-announced finalists, that included interim Butte College President Samia Yaqub, Navarro College President Barbara Kavalier and Omid Pourzanjani, the chief instructional officer and chief student service officer at Golden West College. Both Kavalier and Yaqub were scheduled to speak at forums Tuesday afternoon, but the college announced Monday that Kavalier had withdrawn herself as a finalist.

“Over this past weekend, I was informed by Dr. Barbara Kavalier that she is removing herself as a finalist for the Superintendent/President position. While this is unfortunate news, the board of trustees understands and will continue moving forward with interviewing the other two finalists as scheduled,” William G. McGinnis, Chair Superintendent/President Search Committee wrote in a campus-wide email on Monday.

While the event with Kavalier has been cancelled, the schedule otherwise remained the same. Yaqub spoke and answered questions from McGinnis for nearly an hour Tuesday afternoon, and Pourzanjani will do the same at an event on Wednesday afternoon.

The session with Yaqub was held in the Black Box Theater at the main campus, and functioned largely as an interview. More than 100 people watched as Yaqub talked about her background and the work she’s done at the college, and McGinnis asked questions submitted by various campus groups. Audience members were not permitted to ask questions, but provided input via candidate feedback forms, which McGinnis said the committee would refer to in making the final decision.

Yaqub began by describing her upbringing as the daughter of an American woman and a Palestinian man, her father’s experience as a first-generation college student, the experiences of first-generation students at Butte College and the time she has spent there. She also spoke about her goals of reducing the achievement gap between minority and non-minority students, and increasing enrollment and retention at the college, among others.

She has been the interim president since July 2015 after President Kimberly Perry resigned to accept another position, and has worked at Butte College for more than 30 years. She spent 15 years teaching ESL and developmental reading and writing, and the last four years as vice president of student learning and economic development. She holds a bachelor’s degree from UC Davis, a master’s degree from Chico State University and a doctorate in education from Oregon State University.

Yaqub said that even after she was appointed interim president, she initially wasn’t interested in holding the position permanently.
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“When I took on the role of president I was not aspiring for this role permanently. I was very happy in my job as vice president of student learning, but as I’ve continued over the last eight months, it felt right, and that’s why I’m applying for the president position,” Yaqub said.

The forum with Pourzanjani will be held Wednesday from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. on the main campus at the Black Box Theater in the Arts Building, and is open to the entire campus community and members of the public.

Reach reporter Dani Anguiano at 896-7767.

Reach the author at danguiano@c

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