Educators, community leaders share concerns over future of Woodland Community College’s Lake County Campus
- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
CLEARLAKE, Calif. — A year ago this month, community members, staff and students — past and present — gathered at the Lake County Campus of Woodland Community College to celebrate 50 years of changing lives through education and the opportunities it brings.
Much can change in a year, and that was illustrated in a Monday afternoon gathering of local leaders who wanted to communicate to the new college chancellor their concerns about the future of the campus and their belief that it is headed for closure unless it gets the support it needs.
Listening to the group’s concerns and taking notes during a two-hour “open door” session was Dr. Shouan Pan, the new chancellor of the Yuba Community College District, which includes Woodland Community College.
The district board hired Pan in April. He began work in June, overseeing a district that crosses eight Northern California counties.
As he was preparing to sit down with the group, Pan told Lake County News that it was understandable that people are concerned. “There’s no question, it’s such an important campus for the county, for the city.”
Among those in the room for the discussion were Lake County Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg; Jill Ruzicka, the Lake County Office of Education’s director of communications and government affairs; District 2 Supervisor Bruno Sabatier; Dr. Annette Lee, a full-time faculty member in the Business and Management faculty who served as executive dean of the Colusa and Lake County Campuses of Woodland Community College from 2015 to 2018 and filled the job on an interim basis last year before Ingrid Larsen was hired; Clearlake City Councilman Dirk Slooten; Patricia Barba, director of special programs at the campus and its interim supervisor; Yuba Community College District Board Trustee Doug Harris, a former instructor; retired instructor and wife of Doug Harris, Sissa Nelson Harris; and Mary Wilson, student engagement and outreach specialist.
After just four months on the job, Pan is confronting a host of problems that have, in some cases, existed for decades, while others have intensified in recent years due to myriad issues.
The campus’ challenges include the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting impacts on education, legislative changes and a struggle to improve enrollment numbers.
Lee and Doug Harris both pointed to dropping numbers of staff, which Harris said now are “significantly less” than they have been. He said the campus has bled staff going back to the fires and COVID even before positions were cut.
However, Harris said shedding staff positions is a misdirection taken by the district due to dropping enrollment. “We need to rebuild the local infrastructure to engage the community more.”
Then there has been persistent turnover in key leadership positions.
Case in point: The job of executive dean of the Lake County Campus has increasingly become a revolving door.
Ingrid Larsen, who worked as an instructor and counselor at the campus for several years, was appointed dean by the board in December. She left the job Sept. 19 for a job at Mendocino College. Harris said her departure was unexpected.
Sources at the college reported that the Woodland Community College leadership had offered her more money to stay, when what she wanted was the support to do the job the best way possible.
“We know she did a good job,” Pan said of Larsen.
Other concerns raised by staff in conversations with Lake County News — which were echoed and confirmed at Monday’s meeting — included the unilateral dismantling by an administrator of a remedial education program, failure to backfill or to fill empty positions, lack of resources for the Lake County Campus, the loss of its bookstore and no staffing for its library, and microaggressions from district leadership at the main campus.
They also pointed to a pervasive and toxic attitude that Lake County students, staff and residents are not as deserving or worthy of investment and resources.
District staff at the meeting said they have felt “handicapped” in doing their job, and Harris and Lee, along with Pan, confirmed there is no specific strategic plan specifically for the campus.
Lee and others also raised issues with the district alignment process completed several years ago that placed the Lake County Campus under the leadership of Woodland Community College rather than Yuba College.
They say that realignment has been a failure, and one that has damaged the campus. Lee said it has resulted in years of neglect for the Lake County Campus, which has a student population that already is underserved.
“It feels like Woodland had made their decisions without consultation with the community,” said Falkenberg.
Part of that misalignment comes from where Lake County residents travel for work. It’s not to the valley; Falkenberg said one third of Lake County’s workforce goes out of county each day, primarily to Napa and Sonoma counties.
It also was pointed out to Pan that the college campus has long enjoyed broad community support. The group met in one of the campus’ state-of-the-art buildings, funded by the 2006 Measure J bond that raised $190 million for the district’s campuses across the eight-county coverage area.
The Lake County Campus received $9 million in investment in the form of three new buildings which house the library, media center and student services, culinary arts and the multipurpose room, and biology and chemistry rooms. Harris pointed out that Lake County voters strongly supported the bond.
Slooten, who in 2021, worked to establish the city of Clearlake’s “Promise Program” to help city residents get an education, made clear throughout the discussion that Pan needs to address changes of culture and morale at the college in order to stop turnover of key positions and keep the campus operating.
During the course of the discussion, Pan assured those who came to speak with him that he recognized their concerns.
“I’m committed to this campus,” Pan said.
Pan’s perspective
During the Monday discussion, Pan explained a key focus of his in the near term — recruitment of key leadership positions.
“We do have a major retention problem at the dean level and above,” Pan explained.
Pan said, for the most part, higher education is having the same retention problems as other professions.
He said that the district’s deans are not well paid. Slooten replied that money “is an important part, but it’s not the most important part,” adding the work atmosphere is key as well.
“I don’t disagree,” Pan said, adding, “We have to look at morale issues.”
In addition to the Lake County Campus dean — both the interim and permanent positions — Pan is now overseeing the hiring of a new Woodland Community College president.
He said a nationwide search yielded 36 applicants. Pan believes it’s a “very viable” group of candidates, which have been narrowed to 11 semifinalists who are going through additional interviews this week.
By month’s end, the finalists should be selected, Pan said, and they will be presented to the district’s communities through online Zoom forums. In December, he expects to make a hiring recommendation to the board of trustees, with the new president to be in place early in 2024.
At the same time, Pan hopes to have an interim dean for the Lake County Campus in place by November.
The drop in overall staffing was a key point of concern during the Monday meeting.
“That is why there is a perception the district wants to close this campus,” Slooten told Pan. “How are you going to change that?”
Pan explained that Harris has raised that issue with him, and that’s why he believes leadership is so important in order to support and keep staff in place.
Pan added that he wasn’t there to defend what had happened before, but that he couldn’t make promises that lost positions would be restored.
Drops in enrollment have changed the district’s finances. “To keep a campus open, you need a minimum level of resources,” Pan said.
That’s where he said he comes in, adding he knows how important the campus is to the community.
The college president’s job is clearly important to the campus’ future. Lee said it was well known that the former president didn’t hold the Lake County Campus as a priority and was willing to sacrifice it.
Lee — who said during the meeting that she was now at the point of taking the gloves off to fight for the campus — recounted being told by district leadership that campus staff were not working hard enough to improve enrollment and the overall conditions there.
“Morale is really low at the Lake County Campus,” she said.
She said that if Caltrans suddenly stopped paving roads, you wouldn’t expect the guy holding the traffic signs to fix the situation; likewise, college staff can’t be expected to fix all of the campus’ problems or fight the battle alone.
Rather, Lee and others during the meeting communicated that the entire community needs to be engaged in saving the campus.
Sabatier, who was concerned about the amount of changes that have taken place and how long it will take to build relationships with new leadership staff, also expressed frustration at efforts to bring in new courses and programs that are in demand and would benefit the campus and the community.
Specifically, he recounted efforts to add a new emergency medical technician course that is being headed by the Lake County Fire Protection District. The campus previously had such a program.
However, when Sabatier — a graduate of the Lake County Campus who also worked there — tried to get Woodland Community College about adding the course, he was told no.
“All I want is parity,” Sabatier said.
An opportunity to speak to the board
Pan had some good news to report during the meeting.
He said enrollment is up districtwide by about 8% percent. However, enrollment numbers have not quite returned to pre-pandemic levels.
The Yuba Community College District’s 8% enrollment rebound puts it in about the middle of the pack for community colleges across California, which Pan said also are seeing improved student numbers.
He said they are also seeing some interesting phenomena when it comes to what students want when they enroll.
More students are wanting face-to-face interaction, Pan said. “That’s a very encouraging thing.”
At the same time, online courses tend to fill up first, he said.
As questions were raised about leadership and its intentions, Harris made clear that it “would be a mistake to believe there is little or no support for this campus on the board.”
He said he doesn’t think the board of trustees understands the extent to which staff attrition has impacted the campus.
Harris urged the community to attend the board’s next meeting, which will take place at the Lake County Campus on Nov. 9.
Pan agreed. “Speak up. I think the whole board needs to hear your concerns,” as well as the ideas the community has.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.