Jones' CCC presidency extended to February

Robin Jones’ term as interim president of Clovis Community College was extended on Wednesday to Feb. 1, 2023, the date of the College board of trustees’ next regular meeting.

The board does not meet in January.

The CCC Board of Trustee’s voted 4-to-0 to extend Jones’ appointment at Wednesday’s regular meeting. Trustee Laura Leal abstained from voting, as she did for the November and October votes on extending Jones’ tenure. In October, Leal said it was time to put CCC President Charles Nwankwo back to work.

Jones was named interim president at a special board meeting on Aug. 8 and that appointment was extended at the board’s regular meetings in September, October and November. She was appointed following the board’s decision to place Nwankwo on paid administrative leave beginning Aug. 8.

Votes of “no confidence” in Nwankwo by three CCC employee groups led to Nwankwo being placed on paid leave and to an ongoing investigation into allegations against Nwankwo by the Albuquerque law firm of Cuddy and McCarthy.

Nwankwo has been CCC’s president since February 2020.

In other action Wednesday, the board

• Unanimously approved a list of 239 fall term graduates at CCC. Awards included 81 associate degrees, 72 certificates of completion, and 86 certificate of achievement.

• Awarded a contract for architectural services in the design of an Allied Health triage building to Dekker Perich Sabotini, an Amarillo, Texas firm for $383,622. The triage center, an instructional facility, is planned to be a 6,000 square-foot addition to the existing Allied Health building east of the main campus.

• Awarded a contract for campus-wide electrical upgrades, maintenance and replacement to to Snider Electric of Clovis for $385,680.41. Project documents indicate the work is necessary because “the original infrastructure is outdated and in some cases inadequate to allow for expansion of electrical capacityTrustees for approval. The contract and authorization to move ahead with the project were approved on a 4-0 vote with Leal abstaining.

In her president’s report to the trustees, Jones said she had met with city of Clovis officials to discuss educational possibilities for a regional mental health facility that would serve residents of Curry, Roosevelt and other eastern New Mexico counties.

Jones also discussed CCC’s participation in the Collaborative for Higher Education Shared Services (CHESS), which is working toward unified business processes and systems that allow participating New Mexico community colleges to share resources and information, such as accounting, student records and financial aid, according the CHESS website, https://www.chess.edu.

Jones said the collaboration could result in students taking classes at community colleges throughout the system for credit in the college they are enrolled in, and sharing of resources among colleges to alleviate staff shortages at times.

Besides CCC, participating community colleges include Central New Mexico Community College, Luna Community College, Northern New Mexico Community College, San Juan College and Santa Fe Community College.