Community Colleges Chief Smith Resigns

California community college Chancellor Joshua Smith, a former New York educator who was hired two years ago to resuscitate the state’s struggling community college system, has resigned to take a job as president of a public college in New Jersey.

The Harvard-educated Smith said in a telephone interview from Sacramento on Wednesday that he had been frustrated in California by the “myriad of control agencies that make it impossible to accomplish anything,” and that he looked forward to going to New Jersey where he “can be an educator again instead of a state bureaucrat.”

According to a statement released by the Board of Trustees of Brookdale Community College, which serves Monmouth County in New Jersey, Smith was appointed as the fourth president of that 21-year-old campus at a board meeting Wednesday night and will assume his duties by Dec. 15.

sh National Reputation

Gordon N. Litwin, chairman of the Brookdale board of trustees, called Smith “a nationally recognized leader in community college education” and said the school was “honored by his acceptance” of the presidency. Smith, 52, will be the first black president of the college.

In California, Smith pressed for a major overhaul of the state’s community colleges, a loosely knit system of 106 campuses divided into 70 districts, each with its own locally elected governing board. He advocated strengthening the office of the chancellor and giving greater power to the statewide board of governors, which does not wield the same degree of authority as the University of California Board of Regents or the California State University trustees.

He was able to win a substantial increase in community college funding from Gov. George Deukmejian this year, which he cited as a major accomplishment. Nonetheless, Smith said he was doubtful that he could convince the governor and the Legislature to give him the freedom he needs to make substantial changes in the way the system operates.