Bellevue College’s Board of Trustees has announced that Governor Gary Locke’s contract as interim president has been extended for an additional two years. Locke was unanimously appointed interim president in May 2020 following the resignation of Jerry Weber. Previously serving as the Washington State Governor, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce under the Obama administration, and the U.S. Ambassador to China, Locke brought an unprecedented level of financial knowledge and government experience to the Bellevue College community. In an email sent last week, the Board of Trustees said about Locke’s extension, “We believe this decision allows for stability as we all work together to find our “new normal” in what everyone can agree has been an extraordinary year. It also gives us time to launch a thoughtful and thorough national search for a permanent president who would come on board when Governor Locke’s interim presidency is completed.” Locke says he is “Honored to continue on as Interim President to focus on tackling the many challenges before us. Working with faculty, staff, students, and the community, we still have much work to do—from delivering high quality education despite the pandemic to firmly embedding a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion on our campus.”
The Board of Trustees continues to encourage those in the BC community to share their voice, and wrote that they were “thankful for everyone in the college community who participated and shared their opinions and information with us in some way over the past few months as we worked to determine our path forward.”
