- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
New Woodland Community College president, chancellor meet with staff, community leaders
CLEARLAKE, Calif. — The new president of Woodland Community College made her first visit to the Lake County Campus on Friday, hearing from staff and community leaders about their hopes for the future and what’s needed to rejuvenate the campus.
Dr. Lizette Navarette, accompanied by Chancellor Dr. Shouan Pan, received a warm welcome and, in turn, shared her hopes for the college’s — and the campus’ — future.
The Yuba Community College District Board named Navarette the new college president in November and approved her $208,869-per-year contract in December. The contract is for two and a half years, from her official start date on Jan. 8 through to June 30, 2026.
The visit came at the end of her first week on the job.
While Navarette is still getting adjusted to her new position, Dr. Pan said he wanted to make sure she came to visit the college as soon as possible.
Last fall, ahead of Navarette’s selection, college staff, students and community members had begun to raise pointed concerns about the future of the Lake County Campus, now in its 51st year, and whether it could survive a lack of resources that to many have looked like a purposeful campaign of attrition against it. At the same time, staff have pointed to more resources being given to the main Woodland campus.
Those concerns came to a head on Nov. 9, when the college board held its annual meeting at the Lake County Campus. At that meeting, a room filled with community members made their alarm clear to the college leadership and demanded the help needed to expand the college in order to benefit Clearlake and Lake County.
Pan said at Friday’s reception that Navarette watched that meeting online, so she was aware of what community members were concerned about when it came to the campus’ future.
Laying out priorities
Those in attendance included Clearlake City Council members Russell Cremer and Dirk Slooten; City Manager Alan Flora; college Trustee Doug Harris; District 2 Supervisor Bruno Sabatier; professors Dr. Laurie Daly, Jennifer Hanson and Dr. Annette Lee; retired instructor Sissa Harris; Chef Robert Cabreros, head of the Culinary Arts program; and numerous college classified staff.
During a reception that lasted more than an hour and a half, Navarette thanked everyone for the warm welcome and outlined her three priorities: Listen, learn, collaborate.
Navarette is a first-generation college graduate who most recently served as executive vice chancellor at the California Community College Chancellor’s Office.
She hails from Southern California, and is the daughter of immigrant parents who worked as laborers, and who benefited from community college.
Navarette said she sees the college’s primary role as helping cultivate the aspirations of people like her family.
She said she plans to be in Clearlake once a month to build connections not just with the campus but the larger community, its businesses and leaders, explaining she wants to reinvigorate the campus and is looking forward to the collaboration process.
In response to the continuing belief among some community members that the campus could be lost, Pan assured the group that’s not the case. “It’s not going away.”
He said he, Navarette and the board are committed to the campus. “That’s not just saying the words. That’s commitment.”
However, Pan has emphasized that there are many challenges ahead.
During the reception, Doug Harris said he sees as essential the campus’ revitalization. To get there, he said it will require putting together a strategic and thoughtful set of plans for how the college and community can work together.
“This campus is the pinnacle of higher education in Lake County,” he said.
Harris added, “It needs to be brought back to a position of growing that importance rather than watching it dwindle.”
Pan said Harris’ sentiments are consistent with what college leadership has heard from others.
Staffers including Natasha Cornett emphasized the need for guided pathways and a different approach to handling classes that doesn’t include canceling them too early.
Leadership is key
As he has done in other discussions, Pan emphasized the importance of key leadership positions. With Navarette now in place, they next need to hire a permanent dean for the Lake County Campus.Once that new dean is selected, Pan said he believes there will be a closer working relationship between the Woodland Community College leadership and the Lake County Campus.
He also pointed to the impact of a large amount of staff turnover in college leadership that occurred over the past year. “We’re beginning a new page, a new time for the system.”
Daly, a professor of early childhood development, said she remembered when the college had been busy, and now it isn’t.
“This campus to me, means, just hope,” she said, adding that she believes education is the way out of poverty.
Shared governance between the campus and the administration is important, and she questioned what happened to it, pointing to a top-down approach that has led to disconnect. One example: Her requests for class sections were ignored and, as a result, a key class needed for students to finish their certifications was left off the schedule.
“This place means the world to me,” said Sabatier, a former student and employee at the college, who credited everything he is doing today as coming from the campus.
He said about 30% of Clearlake’s population is in poverty, compared to about 16% countywide. Only 8% have bachelor’s degrees.
To get out of poverty, students need peer support. When rust is lost, it erodes the capability of people to get out of the system, Sabatier said.
Sabatier said there will be tough conversations, but that they are going to build strong relationships.
Hanson, who said she remembers the campus’ glory days, added that she has yet to see the resource attrition for the campus stop. She said she is concerned about the intense inequity between what happens at Woodland Community College and the Lake County Campus.
Lee followed up by giving an impassioned overview of the campus’ needs, from organizational efficiency to taking better care of students.
Nearly a decade ago, when the Lake County Campus was realigned with Woodland College, Lee said the campus community was torn down and disrupted.
She said they are now getting great new programs like the Caring Campus, designed to increase student retention and success in community colleges. But she said they’d had programs like that and were told to stop.
Positions need to be made full-time, counselors need to be hired and they need to look at ways to get new people onto campus — such as through career technical education — with Lee explaining that students who are doing well online won’t be coming back.
Lee said staff knows how to bring the campus back. “It’s just such a grind working with this organization because we are so dismissed.”
However, she said she’s excited for the new leadership and believe Navarette and Pan can succeed.
Slooten said people felt Woodland College didn’t pay attention to what the community needs are and that the college administration felt they knew better than the campus leadership, which they didn’t.
“The city of Clearlake really needs this campus to flourish,” Slooten said.
Cremer said he wants to see more agriculture classes, and more willingness by the college to invest in new programs.
Cabreros, whose culinary program is one of the campus’ great successes, said all of his classes are over-full and have waiting lists. He said he’s looking forward to meeting with Navarette to share his vision for the campus.
Flora joked that Pan had told him Navarette would solve all of the campus’ problems.
“We feel like the campus has been squeezed beyond where it can be successful,” Flora said.
Mary Wilson, student engagement and outreach specialist, said 20% of the Clearlake population doesn't have a high school diploma, and they also have a high percentage of people who don’t speak English. As a result, she said they need adult education skills classes. The college doesn’t have those now due to the elimination of the LEARN program.
Patricia Barbara, the Lake County Campus’ interim dean, said many students continue to struggle, especially after the impacts of having to go online during the pandemic, and the LEARN program helped address that.
Pan thanked the group for coming and speaking candidly and forcefully about their concerns. “We’re committed to working with you.”
He said leadership matters but it can’t solve every problem, and it will take everyone working together.
Navarette said she plans to follow up with people about their comments and concerns.
She recognized that Lake County has challenges and has endured disasters.
However, she said, “There is hope.”
Navarette asked for patience as they worked through the process of getting people back on campus.
Learning is a great privilege, but Navarette said that at the end of the day, students come to college to get a better job.
A key question she raised is how they prepare the workforce to be ready, and she wants to brainstorm together on finding the answer.
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