Camden County College president stepping down

Camden County College's president is stepping down at the end of the 2015-16 academic year, one of several administrative changes to come in the next few months.

Raymond A. Yannuzzi, 67, who has been president since 2006, will remain at the college as a tenured English professor. His contract expires July 6, 2016, and the college will conduct a search over the next year for his successor.

"The board is beginning the process of me transitioning out," Yannuzzi said Monday. "It's customary in colleges to have the president, in the final year of the contract, [announce] what his intentions are, so that the board and the college community can begin the process.

"I've been president for 10 years, I've been at the college 15 years, I've been at community colleges 45 years. I'll be 68, and I'd like to teach again for the last few years of my career. I taught for 20 years before I became an administrator."

Another high-ranking administrator, William C. Thompson, vice president for institutional advancement, is also leaving. His last day is Tuesday, and his position will be eliminated.

Camden County College is bringing in Donald A. Borden, a longtime teacher and administrator in the Audubon School District, as executive vice president. Borden will lead an evaluation of the college as it develops plans for the future.

Yannuzzi announced the changes in a letter this month to faculty, staff, and administrators. The college has not publicly announced the moves.

The upper-level administrative changes run parallel to those at lower levels, amid shrinking enrollment and funding numbers for the school. Last fall, the school enrolled 12,051 students, down 9.4 percent from the year before. Community colleges across the region have seen enrollment dip in recent years, in part due to improving economic conditions.

At Camden County College, that led administrators to reduce staffing this past school year, laying off dozens of employees. Others retired early. Altogether, the school now has about 110 to 115 fewer employees than it did a year ago, Yannuzzi said.

"With our enrollment decline and consequent decline in funding, we're always looking for ways to divide the jobs differently," he said.

Yannuzzi said his departure - and Thompson's - are different because they are not intentional downsizing. Repeating the word evolution, Yannuzzi described a generational changing-of-the-guard.

From 2000 to 2006, Yannuzzi was Camden County College's provost, its head academic and student affairs officer. Before that, he had been an administrator at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, Delaware County Community College, and Baltimore City Community College.

He holds a bachelor's degree in English from St. Peter's University in Jersey City, a master's degree in teaching English from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and a doctor of arts degree in English from the Catholic University of America in Washington.

When he steps down, Yannuzzi will make five-sixths of his current $195,752 salary. Thompson earns $167,047, which is what Borden will make when he starts at the college July 6.

Thompson, 68, leaves Camden County College after 14 years, having joined the school in 2001 and heading its Camden campus, its fund-raising arm, and its communications office.

He previously spent 10 years at the School District of Philadelphia and 12 at the Community College of Philadelphia.

He received his associate's degree in 1973 from that school. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in 1975 and 1979.

Borden, currently the interim principal of Overbrook High School in Pine Hill, will initially focus on strategic planning and partnerships between Camden County College and local school districts.

In 1979, Borden joined the Audubon School District. He taught special education and social studies at the high school, while coaching football, basketball, and track until 1995, when he became athletic director for the district.

Borden became principal of Audubon's Mansion Avenue Elementary School in 1998, principal of the high school in 2000, and superintendent of the district in 2006. He left Audubon in 2013, when he joined Overbrook High School.

He has been president of the Camden County Principals Association, president of the Audubon Administrators Association, and vice president of the Audubon Historical Society. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Rowan University.

"He's got a lot of administrative experience, he knows the county well, he's taught here as an adjunct, so I think he'll be a good person to come in and begin the work on the transition to a new leadership team," Yannuzzi said.

Thompson was not available Monday to talk, a college spokeswoman said. Borden could not be reached Monday.

Yannuzzi said he was not worried about the college's future. The administrative changes reflect natural turnover, he said, not turmoil.

"I knew I wanted to teach again at some point . . . this became a good time, when the contract was up. There would be a question of renewing then, and I think I could have worked with the board to stay on, but 68 is the time to give the board the opportunity to have new leadership," he said.

"Bill's leaving, too. I think the board is just trying to decide what structure the upper-level administration will be in the future, and they'll have this next year to do that."