On the same day this past summer, the presidents at Chico State University and Butte College separately sprung surprising announcements - each was retiring. Rather than two weeks' notice, each gave a year's notice. That would be ample time for each college to find a replacement, they figured.
Nine months later, Butte College has a new president identified. Chico State has barely started its search.
The response to the retirements tells a lot about each institution, the people who manage them and the importance of local control in making key decisions.

At Butte, a locally elected board of trustees appointed a search committee, hired consultants to help with the search, scanned the personal histories of 35 applicants, narrowed the field to three, interviewed the finalists and then chose a new president. Diana Van Der Ploeg will replace Sandy Acebo as president effective Aug. 1. The California Community Colleges chancellor's office had no say in the matter.

At Chico State, meanwhile, no decisions are made without the stamp of approval from the California State University chancellor's office. When a vacancy occurs in the CSU for a presidency, the chancellor's office appoints a search committee that always includes Chancellor Charles Reed and CSU trustees and staff. A local advisory panel also has a hand in the process, but the decision rests with Reed, who makes a recommendation that is then rubber-stamped by the trustees.

Reed decided to start the Chico State search after conducting two other searches this academic year, at Sacramento and Pomona. His office said it would be difficult to conduct three searches at once. Of course, it wouldn't be difficult if Reed didn't insist on having control over the process. Otherwise, the CSU could have conducted three separate searches at once and brought forward their recommendations to Reed.

With no successor in sight, Chico State named an interim president last week, Provost Scott McNall. The CSU doesn't expect to have Manuel Esteban's replacement in place until January, and the new president may not even start until after next school year. That would be almost two years after Esteban announced his retirement. So much for planning ahead.

Butte College knew finding a president was critical and treated the search accordingly. The CSU doesn't have nearly the same urgency, and perhaps that's because the people in charge of the search are in Long Beach, not Chico.