Luna finalist names may be released

The committee conducting the search for a new president at Luna Community College may present its recommendations at a meeting Friday.

Under state law, the committee must present at least five names to the Board of Trustees at least 21 days before the trustees make a decision.

The committee had originally been told to present three names, but officials uncovered the state law requiring five.

With its changed instructions, the committee agreed on five of the six candidates it would recommend. But one of the five, Marjorie Villani, withdrew. So the committee had to meet again. It struggled to make a decision at its next meeting.

When the Board of Trustees held its monthly meeting last week, committee Chairwoman Terri Mares, a Luna employee, informed trustees that her panel hadn’t reached an agreement, pleading for a few more days.

After that meeting, she wouldn’t say whether the committee had any other candidates under consideration. There wasn’t a deadline to apply, so at least one other candidate, Las Vegas City Schools Superintendent Pete Campos, also a state senator, submitted his name. But because he did it so late in the process, the committee didn’t interview him and he didn’t have to undergo a public forum like the other candidates.

Mares said this morning that the committee reached an agreement Monday. She wouldn’t say whether the five came from the original list of interviewed candidates.

Besides Villani, the candidates who were interviewed were Dan Chacon, vice president of student support with San Luis Obispo, Calif.-based Cuesta College; James Alarid, a professor and director of a leadership institute at Highlands University; Hans Kuss, former president of Maysville Community College in Kentucky; E. Clayton Alred, vice president of instruction at Odessa College in Odessa, Texas; and Sharon Caballero, a former Highlands University president.

At a glance

What: Special meeting of the Luna Community College Board of Trustees.

When: 5:30 p.m. Friday.

Where: The trustees meeting room in the student services building on campus.

Information: Call Maria Paiz in the president’s office at 454-5322.