Monroe Community College's Board of Trustees Executive Committee met this morning with Robert Parilla, president of Academic Search Consultation Services, to hammer out the criteria for the college's second go-around at finding a new president.

Parilla, a former college president, took great pains to frame a step-by-step process. He used his two-day trip to MCC to talk to faculty and students and he warmed up his presentation by saying that almost everyone he spoke to went to great lengths to tell him how important the college is to the region. Some students told him that attending MCC finally helped put their lives on the right track.

But Parilla told the committee that suspicion of the board still lingered among some faculty members.

"I would say that there is still tension with the board," he said.

Even the MCC Foundation expressed concern, Parilla said.

Parilla has already begun talking to potential candidates and said that he didn't sense apprehension despite the problems with the first search.

There is no change in the qualifications for the candidate, which leaves open the option of selecting an individual with academic experience or someone with non-traditional experience. This was one of the sticking points among some faculty and students, who favored a president with college leadership experience. Selecting the actual search committee is one of the next steps.

Parilla also pushed for an adherence to a schedule - a calendar of key dates that begins almost immediately with advertising for the position and culminates with a selection sometime in April. It was a subtle but potent reminder of how easily things can get derailed when people don't work as a team.

No calendar was used in the last process, committee members noted. And when Parilla was asked what would happen if board members couldn't keep an interview date, he recommended that they not be allowed to vote on the candidate.

Board chair Richard Guon chaired the meeting, which was attended by board members Ken Goode, John Bartollata, Richard Mackey, Raymond Shea, Howard Konar, and interim president Larry Tyree.

The calendar of key dates will be made available shortly, Guon promised.