BRCC begins search for Perkins’ successor

WEYERS CAVE – The chancellor of the Virginia Community College System said he hopes to have a new president for Blue Ridge Community College by August, when current President Jim Perkins will retire after 20 years.

Addressing the college’s board meeting Wednesday, Glenn DuBois outlined the process for finding Perkins’ successor. DuBois recalled that when he started his position as chancellor in 2001, he visited Blue Ridge among his stops at all 23 of Virginia’s community colleges. While there, DuBois got an indication of the sentiment toward Perkins.

“When I took my first question at Blue Ridge … the first question was, ‘you know, chancellor, we don’t know really what we would do without Jim Perkins,’ ” DuBois said. “We’re going to find out what you’ll do without Jim. Jim’s done a tremendous job.”

The search process for Perkins’ successor is “not rocket science,” DuBois said, but it is thorough.

The college, DuBois said, must come to a consensus on three to four goals for its future accomplishments, and base the search off of that. 

DuBois said it will be a national search and, in the next month, the position will be advertised in the Chronicle for Higher Education and other publications. He said he’s already received calls of interest in the position.

One of the state’s community college presidents will chair a search committee, to include three members of the Blue Ridge board – Pam Huggins, Bob May and Bruce Bowman – along with stakeholders from area colleges. Perkins himself was the chairman in the recent search for a president at Lord Fairfax Community College in Middletown.

DuBois said he anticipates “quite a few” applicants. For the current presidential opening at Eastern Shore Community College in Melfa, 70 people have applied.

The search committee will winnow the candidate pool down to about a dozen, who will then interview – likely by late April, DuBois said – before the State Board for Community Colleges.

From there, three to four applicants will be named finalists for the job and undergo extensive background checks. They will also spend a few days visiting Blue Ridge, meeting with faculty, the college’s board and other stakeholders before the state board chooses the new president.

DuBois said his hope is for the finalists to visit before the school’s summer break to try and have a replacement for Perkins announced before he leaves. 

“My job is to help in this process so that when we get to this group of finalists, we have the very, very best,” DuBois said.

Huggins said that the person chosen will need to be enthusiastically welcomed to the community, but said the school is glad to hold on to Perkins for a few more months.

“We have to do a teensy bit of grieving around here,” Huggins said.