Dick Robertson: MiraCosta's man with three hats

By: PHILIP K. IRELAND - Staff Writer | Sunday, August 5, 2007 8:21 PM PDT ∞

CARLSBAD ---- Dick Robertson works full time at MiraCosta College as acting president. He also works full time as the college's temporary vice president of instruction. And if that's not enough, he also works full time as the vice president of student services --- the job he was hired to do in 1987.

Robertson, 64, said last week he's starting to feel the weight of his three hefty hats.

"I'm outside any area of expertise I've ever had," Robertson said in his office in the student services building on the Oceanside campus.

In normal times, each of those full-time jobs requires an educated, experienced and highly paid professional. But these are not normal times for Oceanside's college on a hill. Trustees publically snipe at each other and at employees from the dais. The college faces four lawsuits growing out of an investigation into the illegal sale of palm trees from the college horticulture department. Employee morale and trust are at an all-time low, faculty members say.

Robertson collected the two extra high-responsibility positions as a survivor of the palm tree investigation.

Last October he was asked to replace longtime vice president of instruction Julie Hatoff, who was put on administrative leave while under investigation for her role in the palm-tree imbroglio. She was cleared of any involvement by the San Diego district attorney's office.

Then, on June 30, the board negotiated a $1.5 million deal with then-president Victoria Munoz Richart ---- the focus of political firestorm for her handling of the investigation. Again faced with a void that threatened the college's accreditation status, the board turned to Robertson, this time to run all aspects of the college as acting president while they mounted a search for an interim president.

"I thought I was barely hanging on, and this (acting president job) adds more work and more responsibility," Robertson said.

Reached by phone Wednesday, board president Charles Adams said did not have time to comment on the reasons for Robertson's selection.

But Trustee Carolyn Batiste did.

"It's an honor to have someone in this position who has a commitment to serving students," she said. She declined further comment, citing Robertson's due process right not to be evaluated in public.

Three jobs

Robertson now fills three of the college's highest positions ---- and the most highly paid positions in the college, said Jim Austin, the school's vice president of business services.

But Robertson draws only his annual $211,000 for his student-services job overseeing 17 student programs such as counseling, student discipline and health services. He also gets a bump of about $100 a day while serving as the college president. He has not been paid extra to do the work of the vice-president of instruction.

As acting president, Robertson oversees college operations on three campuses, supervises more than 800 employees and a controls a budget of more than $88 million.

The end of his job as acting president could come any time. The board interviewed candidates for an interim president two weeks ago. On Tuesday, a closed session is planned to consider appointing Robertson's successor.

But no end is in sight for Robertson's stint as vice president of instruction, Robertson said. He is now in month nine of that "two-month" assignment overseeing all educational programs, five deans and more than 500 full- and part-time faculty. Employee morale is at an all-time low in the still-smoldering wreckage of the investigation, Robertson said.

"(The professors) were puzzled, confused, angry ---- their leader (Hatoff) had been sent away," Robertson said.

But the faculty very quickly grew to accept him, he said. And that was a good thing too, Robertson said, because the committee formed last January to find a permanent replacement for Hatoff dissolved without an outcome. The plan now is to wait until the new president is selected before searching for a permament vice president of instruction.

Robertson credits two student-service deans and five instructional deans with carrying him over the rough spots.

Jonathan Cole, president of the Academic Senate, said Robertson has done well in a difficult situation.

"I think he is doing a very good job," Cole said. "It was a lot that was put on this plate, and I think he did a good job stepping up. To do all three is very demanding."

Robertson is helping to bring the college back to some semblance of normalcy, Cole said.

"I think that since he's been appointed, there is more of a sense of open communication ----folks are feeling more hopeful," Cole said. "He is very open and forthcoming. There have been so many concerns about secrecy over the past year, that his approach is very refreshing."

Long days

Robertson, who lives a few blocks from the campus, said his commute to work usually lasts about two minutes, unless traffic slows him down another 30 seconds or so.

His 12-hour workday starts at 8:30 a.m., when he arrives on campus. For the next ten hours he runs from meeting to meeting and campus to campus trying to keep up with local, state and national changes affecting his three very big areas of responsibility, broken only by a 15-minute Weight-Watcher lunch of turkey, provolone cheese, mustard and lettuce. At 6:30 he begins the three- to four-hour process of answering 75 or more e-mails that takes him to quitting time at about 10 p.m.

He eats again with Pat, his wife of 35 years, when he gets home.

A passion for service

Robertson said he found his passion for serving students in 1965 while tutoring freshman athletes as a junior at the College of Wooster in Ohio.

As a resident assistant in the college dormitory, Robertson found that students came to him for advice and help ---- both academic and personal.

"It was the first time in my life that I felt like I was needed and as if I had a purpose," said Robertson, who described himself then as a "nerd" and a smart guy. "I found a calling, they trusted me, and they listened to me."

Robertson also found his passion for righting wrongs. He recalled a student who had received a "cold and calculated" letter of dismissal from the dean of student services; the boy had a 1.99 grade point average, just below the 2.0 threshold required by the school.

"He was dismissed from college over 1/100 of a point," Robertson said. "And he was a person of worth, a person worth fighting for."

Robertson pleaded the boy's case with the dean but failed. So he took his argument to the college president, who overturned the dean's decision.

"The dean did not treat students the way I thought they should be treated, and I thought I could do better," Robertson said. "(The experience) showed me it could be done better, and if you press the issue, you can effect change."

Robertson went on to earn a degree in political science at Wooster, a master's in college student personnel, and a doctorate in administration and higher education from Michigan State University.

Contact Philip K. Ireland at (760) 901-4043 or online at pireland@nctimes.com. Comment at nctimes.com.

First name only. Comments including last names, contact addresses, e-mail addresses or phone numbers will be deleted. Attempts to misrepresent your identity or impersonate any person will not be approved. All comments are screened before they appear online, so please keep them brief. Comments reflect the views of those commenting and not necessarily those of the North County Times or its staff writers. Click here to view additional comment policies.