Deadline is Thursday for SUSCC president applicants

The application deadline for the presidency of Southern Union State Community College was extended to March 29 due to the impact of significant severe weather on the state and out of an abundance of caution, although it is still Chancellor Jimmy Baker’s stated goal that all committee meetings, interviews and reference checks be completed by the end of April.

To meet that goal, the Alabama Community College System has named 10 members of a community council to assist in the Southern Union State Community College president search.

The council will consist of Opelika Mayor Gary Fuller; Auburn Mayor Bill Ham; Dave DeBaets, vice president of global engine operations at Briggs & Stratton; Don Fulbright, board chair of Ashland Housing Authority and former Clay County superintendent; Randy Howell, a science faculty member at Southern Union; Carol Bugg Knight, a member of the Southern Union Foundation Board; Richard Laird, former state representative; Mark Neighbors, Opelika City Schools superintendent; David Scott, vice president of Opelika-based Scott Bridge Company; and Debra Riley, a SUSCC alum.

When asked about the group’s meeting last Wednesday in Opelika, Carol Bugg Knight declined to comment.

“The chancellor asked for recommendations for Community Council members directly from members of the Southern Union community, which resulted in a diverse set of appointments, ranging from local elected officials and community leaders, business and industry representatives, and college faculty and staff,” ACCS spokeswoman Rachel Adams wrote in an email.

The council’s function is to provide ACCS Chancellor Jimmy Baker with input on attributes and characteristics that the new permanent president of Southern Union should have. The school, which has campuses in Opelika, Wadley and Valley, has been without a permanent president since 2008.

In addition to receiving suggestions from the community council, the chancellor also will receive guidance from an advisory search committee. Baker himself is on the committee, as well as Janie Prickett, a secretary at Southern Union’s Opelika campus; Robb Railey, manager of facilities and equipment maintenance for Pharmavite LLC; Larry Wiley Jr., an instructor at Southern Union’s Wadley campus; and Linda Young, president of Wallace Community College in Dothan.

Following the interview process, Baker will make a recommendation to the ACCS board of trustees.

“It’s my plan – unless something derails my plan, but I don’t anticipate that -I’d like to have someone in office in time to plan the fall semester,” he said after last month’s board meeting. “So we’re talking, maybe June.”