The long–awaited nomination for the next president of Bellevue College has been made. At just after 4:00 p.m. on Nov. 5, board member Vicki Orrico made the announcement everyone had been waiting for: “I move the appointment of Dr. David Rule as president of Bellevue College, subject to acceptance.”
A community member asked if Rule has verbally agreed. “We’re working on contract language as we speak. So there is a mutual interest in getting this done,” said Chiles. If Rule accepts the contract, he will begin his term as president starting at the beginning of winter quarter.
“It was not, I repeat, it was not an easy decision” said Chairman of the Board Paul Chiles. “There are some folks in the room that participated a great deal in this process, and we really, truly want to thank everyone. We also appreciate the forums and the responses that you all shared with us; all of that mattered in the deliberations that we as a board have had.”
“We are all very much in agreement […] I can’t tell you how much this board came together,” added Orrico.
Board member Marie Gunn also expressed how helpful the forum responses were to the board in making their decision. “We read every single comment. It took us a long time,” said Gunn. She added that the comments were very thoughtful and representative of the care for the college shared by the community. “It was moving to read some of them, really. And they came from everybody.”
One of the audience members asked the board if there was a second-choice for the position. “There was a very close second choice,” said Chiles. “I’m going to leave that to your imagination. But we actually had a wonderful group of candidates, which eventually got distilled down to two, and it was a very difficult decision.”
ASG President Takhmina Dzhuraeva had previously submitted an email to the board, listing what she felt to be the students’ two top choices. “I just said ‘David Rule is our choice number one’ […] and Jack Daniels is our choice number two,’ and this again was through the comments that I got” said Dzhuraeva. Chiles, addressing Dzhuraeva in the meeting said, “I think you called it precisely, actually…I shared your email…and she called it in the order that we ultimately agreed on.”
Ali Collucci, the director of BC’s LGBTQ Resource Center, commented on Rule’s selection, “I believe that it was the best selection that the college and the board of trustees as a whole could have possibly made.” While Collucci was not present at the open student forum for Dr. Rule, she said she was impressed by what she heard about the candidate. “I believe that anybody that can convince me that they’re the best person for the job without even meeting them definitely deserves a fair shot.”
Gabriela Gonzalez, director of El Centro Latino said of the board’s nomination, “I really liked the decision that they made because I think he’s really competent and I’m really excited because he seems to bring a different perspective and different ideas to our college.”