Nassau Community College’s nearly four-year search for a permanent president has finally come to an end.
Outgoing Farmingdale State College president W. Hubert Keen was approved by the SUNY Board of Trustees at a special meeting Thursday to head the Garden City-based institution.
“I have every confidence that Dr. Keen’s leadership of Nassau Community College will serve as an important and impactful turning point for the campus, one that will greatly benefit NCC’s students, faculty, and staff,” SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher said. “I want to thank Interim President [Thomas] Dolan for his leadership as well as Dr. [Jorge] Gardyn and the Board of Trustees at the college and the presidential search committee for their dedication to getting this appointment exactly right.”
Nassau Community College has been seeking a permanent president since Donald Astrab left the position in July 2012.
Dolan, formerly the Great Neck school district’s Superintendent of Schools, has served as interim president since September.
Keen has served as SUNY Farmingdale’s president since 2007.
Prior to heading the school, he served two years as the institution’s provost and vice president for Academic Affairs.
“I am honored that the Nassau Community College Presidential Search Committee, NCC Board of Trustees, Chancellor Zimpher, and the SUNY Board of Trustees have offered me the opportunity to work with this very important institution,” Keen said. “While this opportunity is not one I anticipated, it is one I am pleased to embrace, and am honored to be entrusted with NCC’s leadership.”
He has also served as interim president of SUNY Old Westbury, provost and vice president of Academic Affairs at the City University of New York’s York College and dean of Arts and Sciences at SUNY Cortland.
Keen will officially take office on Aug. 1. He will receive a $225,000 annual salary, NCC officials said.
The NCC Board of Trustees approved Keen’s appointment at Tuesday’s board meeting, where they announced that a permanent president had been selected but were not releasing the name until the SUNY board’s approval.
“Dr. Keen brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to Nassau Community College,” Gardyn, who chairs NCC’s Board of Trustees, said. “The board is excited about working with our next president. We look forward to a new era of growth and advancement.”
Keen’s appointment comes almost three weeks after an independent accrediting agency issued a report stating that the institution needed to hire a permanent president to keep its accreditation.
Of the 14 standards The Middle States Commission on Higher Education uses to accredit institutions, NCC was not in compliance with seven of them, with the community college’s failure to select a permanent president highlighting most of the report’s issues, according to the report.
The Middle States Commission is expected to issue a formal sanction to the institution on June 23, according to Newsday.
