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Snead search to start
Published November 30, 2006
The search for a president at Snead State Community College is about to restart.
The state will begin advertising the position “as soon as possible, I think,” interim Chancellor Thomas E. Corts said Wednesday afternoon.
Snead has been without a permanent leader all year. Corts called off the initial search in August, saying he needed more time to consider the process since it was his first presidential search since assuming leadership of the Alabama Department of Postsecondary Education.
Corts heard from a number of local people who opposed Allen Champion’s application to become president.
Champion, a vice president at Snead, was one of many candidates for the position but the only one on campus.
At the time, Albertville businessman Thomas Whitten said a group of people wanted Corts to know their belief that a committee of area people chosen to help in the search “was basically hand-picked.”
Likewise, Champion presented several letters of support, with many from people at Snead State or Wallace State Community College, where he served as interim president.
In a statement Wednesday, Champion deferred comment about the presidential search and “any issues that are not related to the day-to-day operations” of the college to Opp attorney Wesley Laird, “the head of my legal team.”
“A number of false statements about me have been made publicly and printed in the newspaper,” Champion said. “These statements were made and published with malice and with the sole intent to damage me professionally and personally.”
Laird said he doesn’t believe Champion knows if he will seek the presidency or not.
Laird declined to comment when asked if Champion’s comments about statements made about him signal future legal action.
Corts said all previous candidates can be considered without having to submit another application.
All that will be needed, he said, is for a candidate to inform the Department of Postsecondary Education he or she is still interested.
Corts said he assumes Champion will apply again, but noted, “That’s certainly up to him.”
In September, Corts spent some time on Sand Mountain talking with people interested in the search process. Corts said he’s also analyzed data about the situation and said, “I feel a lot more assured about what we’re doing than I did before.”
His visit to Boaz left Corts convinced of the importance area people place on Snead State.
“The community’s obviously very interested in this, and I think there’s a need for some stability. … The connection to the area, to
the communities, is very important. I see that in a clearer way.”
He also was surprised about the controversy over Champion’s application.
“I think the most surprising thing about all of that is how all of that conversation, both pro and con, seemed to center on an individual when the process had not even been able to run its course,” Corts said.
Lavell Thrasher has been Snead State’s president, on an interim basis, since Jan. 1. The position came open when Devin Stephenson resigned in 2005.
Corts said the new president will need to make Snead State responsive to the growth of industry in the area, possess “very high standards” and remain aware of the importance of Snead State to the people it serves.
“You’d like to have somebody who understands the community context,” he said. “The institution is not located in metropolitan Birmingham or Montgomery or Huntsville. Small communities are valuable in this state, and they prize this institution.”
Corts said “it would be nice” for the search to occur within 30 to 60 days, but noted it is dictated by the upcoming Christmas holiday, break between semesters and obligations a potential choice might have at another institution.
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