ACC Chooses Robert Aguero

The Austin Community College board of trustees Monday night decided to offer the job of president to Robert Aguero, a vice-chancellor in the Dallas Community College system. If Aguero accepts, he will replace Stephen Kinslow, who became interim president when long-embattled Richard Fonté quit in January, a year before his contract was to expire.

The 6-1 vote, with trustee Lillian Davis giving a thumbs-down and Nan McRaven abstaining, came after an hourlong executive session where the trustees discussed the findings of a trip to Dallas to interview Aguero's co-workers.

"We're getting a person who is tremendously experienced and tremendously collaborative," said board Chairman Rafael Quintanilla after the vote.

Collaboration is key. Fonté's term was a strife-ridden battle zone where the administration, board, faculty, and staff were frequently at odds, and when board "meddling" in administrative matters (among other things) led ACC's accreditation reviewers to put the college on warning. However, the endgame of the presidential search included plenty of drama of its own.

At the previous board meeting on April 6, faculty senate President Daniel Traverso urged the board to delay the choice of a president. He had put in calls to faculty at Eastfield College in Mesquite, where Aguero had been president in the 1990s, and heard things that made him wonder if Aguero would be enough of a break from Fonté's (as Traverso describes it) "Mussolini-Saddam Hussein school of management" style. At least one candidate for the ACC board, Marc Levin, also urged the board to hold off.

Last week, a four-member delegation representing the board, faculty, and staff went to Dallas as part of what trustee Barbara Mink called ordinary "due diligence," not as a specific response to faculty concerns. But Larry Willoughby, president-elect of the faculty senate, did look into the rumors Traverso had heard. (The second finalist, Beverlee McClure, did not consent to a similar visit to Clovis Community College in New Mexico, where she is president, saying it would be too disruptive to that school.)

Eastfield faculty told Willoughby there were some "bumps in the road" during Aguero's term. However, Willoughby thinks these reflect not on Aguero but on changes in Eastfield College itself, which has grown more diverse in recent years. For example, Aguero had been the target of ethnic slurs during some of the bumpy times.

"When I heard that, I began to try to separate the legitimate concerns from the petty," said Willoughby. "I don't want to call anyone racist, because I don't know them, but I think some people just had very conservative attitudes toward having a Mexican-American president."

Mink said she heard only positive things. "People kept using the word 'knowledgeable,' and they kept talking about how he could 'bring people to the table,'" she said.

Davis, the sole "no" vote, said she had no problem with Aguero but with the timing of the transition; she wanted to extend the interim president's term until after the board election and the college's accreditation issues were sorted out.

Traverso says the delegation's findings have satisfied his concerns. "They made their site visit and got a positive enough response, and he looks good on paper," he said. "I hope he's as collaborative as Quintanilla says he is."