SAN MARCOS -- It took only about five minutes to seat three members -- one new and two returning -- on the Palomar College Governing Board.

One by one, incumbents Nancy Chadwick and Darrell McMullen and newly-elected trustee Ruth Larson stood and raised their right hands, vowing before a sparse gathering of college employees to "support and defend" the state and national constitutions and stating they take their obligation "freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion."

After interim president Richard Jones finished administering the oath, all three joined board members Michele Nelson and Mark Evilsizer on the dais.

As soon as the three took their seats Nelson, the board's vice president, declared that the newly-seated board would immediately adjourn to a closed session where they would prepare to interview two finalists for Palomar's vacant president position. The board will announce its choice at its next regular meeting Dec. 14.

"This is very exciting for us," Nelson said before declaring the meeting closed with a pound of her gavel.

Both presidential candidates are in town and will be interviewed individually after the board agrees on which questions to ask them. Palomar spokeswoman Cindy Sabato said Monday that it is impossible to say how long the interview process will take because the board must also examine public comment made about both candidates during two on-campus public forums.

Katie Townsend-Merino, a Palomar psychology professor and chair of the college's faculty senate, attended Monday's swearing-in. Townsend-Merino, also a member of a local political action group that lobbied strongly on behalf of Chadwick and Larson, said she was excited that the board will soon select one of the two finalists.

"Now they're going to do some really exciting stuff for us," she said.

In the Nov. 2 election, Larson, a dermatologist from Poway, came in second for three seats, beating 12-year incumbent Ralph Jensen. At its next regular meeting the board will select a new president to replace Jensen.

The two presidential candidates are Robert Deegan, currently vice president of student services at Santiago Canyon College in Orange, and Richard Jarvis, former chancellor of Oregon's university system.

Both candidates were the unanimous choice of Palomar's 18-member presidential search committee.

Deegan holds a master's degree in counseling and a bachelor's degree in psychology from San Francisco State University. He expects to receive a doctorate in community college leadership from Oregon State University this fall. He has served as vice president of student services at Santiago Canyon College since January 1999. Before joining the staff at Santiago, Deegan was a professor at Irvine Valley College for 18 years, and he was vice president of student services at Valley in 1989, 1990, 1993 and 1994. He also holds lifetime credentials as a community college psychology instructor and community college counselor.

Jarvis has served as a state chancellor in Nevada and later in Oregon. He served with the Interinstitutional Faculty Senate, the Oregon Student Association and Oregon's State Board of Educaton. Jarvis was born in Nottingham, England, and raised in Barbados, West Indies. He began his career as an instructor at Durham University in 1973. He's taught at Truckee Meadows Community College, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and Reno, Rio Salado College and Western Oregon University. Jarvis earned his bachelor's and doctoral degrees in geography from Cambridge University in England.

Contact staff writer Paul Sisson at (760) 901-4087 or psisson@nctimes.com