Volume CXV, edition 8
Since 1949
May 14, 2008
Graduation Edition
Photo by Joseph Rios
Dr. Ned Doffoney will take over for Jerome Hunter as Chancellor of the North Orange County Community College District on July 1; he will oversee over 70,000 students and staff.
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ManApart
Photo by Joseph Rios
Dr. Ned Doffoney shakes hands with Head Men’s Backetball Coach Ed Madec after his team won the state title in 2007.
“I feel lucky to not only have worked for him, but I feel lucky to have met him.”—Ed Madec “I don’t think we’re going to get another president of his caliber.”—Anita Foust
Fresno City College prepares for the departure of a president who took a uniquely human approach to administration by Joseph Rios Editor in Chief Dr. Ned Doffoney will step down from his post as President of Fresno City College on July 1 and take up his new role as chancellor of the North Orange County Community College District. He takes over an office that oversees over 70,000 staff and students – equivalent to total population of Clovis in 2000. “Fresno City is a great place to work. I don’t just want to run off and leave it unattended. At the same time, you look forward to a new challenge,” Doffoney said. Dr. Doffoney became the president of FCC in 2002 and has since built a reputation of being humble, charming, and simply down to earth. “Dr. Doffoney is real. He is a real person,” said Anita Foust, Food Service Director for Taher. “When he comes over here, he’s not the president. He doesn’t go off and have lunch with the big guns and stuff like that. He comes here. That’s the way he operates, that’s why a lot of people love him around here.” Dr. Doffoney has been known to spend his Fridays eating with faculty in the staff dining hall. He bounces from table to table sharing stories and sharing laughs. “At lunch, he makes an ef-
fort to be in the staff dining room – and that’s huge,” said Activities Director Gurdeep Sihota. “He makes an effort to be with his own.” “There’s no president that does that,” Foust said. Doffoney, however, would just call it stewardship. And it makes the college better. “I don’t think words can describe what it does for the college,” said Head Men’s Basketball Coach Ed Madec. “It’s the backbone; he’s the backbone, the lifeline of this institution. When you have a great leader like Dr. Doffoney, it’s very easy to follow suit.” The openness is all part of his light-handed approach to administration. He trusts that the people under him will do their jobs to best of their ability, and he expects it without being belligerent. The way Doffoney puts it: he is “just a conductor who guides each musician to play beautifully in unison.” “When we do events for him and something goes wrong, he doesn’t jump on you,” said Foust. “He just trusts that people know what they’re doing. I don’t know if he’s like that with every employee, but he’s like that with me.” The neat thing, Sihota said, is that he doesn’t always dictate orders. Often he asks, “What can See Doffoney, page 5