Why can’t Modesto JC find a president who might actually stick around awhile?

Here we go again.

In May 2021, when Modesto Junior College was between presidents, this Modesto Bee Editorial Board pondered MJC’s misfortune at having the worst record for retaining executives among California’s 115 community colleges. The guy chosen then is gone now, too, 18 short months after he was hired.

Which won’t do anything to cure MJC’s dismal place at the state’s rock bottom in terms of executive retention — at a time when our community needs MJC to stand up and perform like never before.

Did MJC President Santanu Bandyopadhyay think it through when, a few months ago, he quietly put in for a job as chancellor at the three-campus San Mateo County Community College District? Did he think his then-bosses —Yosemite Community College District Chancellor Henry Yong, and the YCCD Board of Trustees — might not notice when San Mateo announced on Nov. 23 that Bandyopadhyay was a finalist, and then publicly interviewed him?

Or did Bandyopadhyay sense that things weren’t right between him and YCCD and decide to try his luck elsewhere before they could terminate him? Yong and trustees aren’t shedding any light, except for Yong’s brief statement Thursday to Bee reporter Adam Echelman confirming that trustees had fired the president.

Bandyopadhyay’s loyalty to Modesto was in question soon after he took the MJC job — and a $240,548 starting salary. The Editorial Board pounded him for turning around and interviewing with a Southern California junior college just two weeks later. It turned out that he was a finalist at three different colleges, including MJC, and remained in the running at the other two for a time even though he already had accepted the position here.

To calm the waters, YCCD in June 2021 offered Bandyopadhyay a two-year contract extension, through June 2024, and a $5,000 bonus, which he said he would donate to the MJC Foundation. Who could blame trustees if they’re enraged that he’d resumed his job search less than a year and a half later?

It’s not easy to come up with a comprehensive report card on Bandyopadhyay’s performance in the (characteristically) short time he was here. No doubt he made friends and accomplished some things at a time when all institutions of higher learning have been struggling to rebuild enrollment after large swaths of students left during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In his recent public interview with the San Mateo district, Bandyopadhyay said MJC managed to improve enrollment this fall 13% over the previous year, when the pandemic raged. That’s encouraging.

Job seekers say the darndest things

He also said he would try to strengthen campuses in the San Mateo district by improving dual enrollment, where high school students obtain college credits by also taking courses at a junior college. It’s a head-scratcher that he would go there, when MJC’s dual enrollment with Stanislaus County high schools is the worst in the Central Valley and among the worst in California, Echelman reported earlier this month.

Bandyopadhyay also told San Mateo viewers he would like stronger relationships with industry there — another curious statement, given MJC’s weakness in providing students with the type of job training desperately sought by some of our large employers.

Regardless of whether Bandyopadhyay lands the San Mateo job, MJC will keep its disappointing place in the cellar of California’s executive retention.

Why is it so important that college executives stick around?

In 1995, alarmed at presidents and chancellors coming and going with increasing frequency, the Community College League of California — an association providing professional development for such leaders, plus elected trustees — commissioned an every-other-year survey concluding that more should stay put.

The longer a college president remains in the job, the better chance she or he has at improving campus culture, according to the survey and subsequent studies. Long-tenured presidents are better equipped to handle prickly problems and to make tough decisions, the commission says.

Those managing to keep a president 13 years, for example, inspire innovation on a much higher level than those which struggle to retain leaders. Longer-tenured presidents cultivate relationships with other community institutions and are better able to respond to local workforce needs.

Worst among 115 JCs

Since 2000, MJC has had 16 presidents or interim presidents. The statewide average is 4.2.

The average presidential tenure in that same time frame for MJC is 1.7 years. The statewide average is nearly double that: 3.2 years.

This discouraging turnover doesn’t just affect MJC but the entire community.

MJC, which celebrated its centennial last year, by virtue of its job-training mission will play a pivotal role in Stanislaus 2030, a broad-based effort to jump-start our economy. The promising effort needs a strong, healthy, committed MJC to fulfill its mission of bringing 40,000 well-paying jobs, defined as making $29 an hour.

Perhaps it’s time that MJC were led by someone raised and schooled in these parts, someone who knows Modesto’s heart and actually wants to be here.

Finding a community college president who is more committed to Modesto than to climbing her or his own personal professional ladder must become Job 1 for Yong and for YCCD trustees.

This story was originally published December 16, 2022 at 6:30 AM.