College president who sued his district becomes chancellor. (around the nation).

MISSION VIEJO, Calif. -- A college president who sued his own district and survived faculty votes of no confidence has been appointed chancellor by the trustees he once took to court.

The South Orange County Community College District's trustees voted 5-2 on Feb. 1 that Irvine Valley College President Raghu Mathur, 53, was the best man for the job, despite his being ranked fourth out of five finalists by a nine-member selection committee.

The district, which operates Irvine Valley and Saddleback College in Southern California, serving 33,000 students, has been plagued in recent years by high staff turnover, lawsuits, financial struggles, protests, low morale and political in-fighting.

Despite a 90 percent vote of no confidence from faculty and student demonstrations against him, Mathur has received regular commendations, raises and contract renewals from the politically conservative majority on the seven-member Board of Trustees.

Mathur did not return phone calls seeking comment on his new position, which he started Feb. 4. In a prepared statement, however, Mathur said, "I would like to express my gratitude to the Board of Trustees for their expression of confidence in my ability to serve as the chancellor." He also lauded SOCCCD as a "wonderful district."

Lee Haggerty, a political science professor at Saddleback College and the union president who sat on the selection committee, said afterward that the top two finalists were qualified "head and shoulders" above Mathur. During the meeting at which Mathur was appointed, Haggerty publicly asked the Board of Trustees to readvertise the position and start over.

Haggerty said he told trustees that Mathur "wasn't a good fit because he brings so much negative baggage with him."

A former chemistry professor, Mathur was appointed president of Irvine Valley College in 1997 by a closed-door trustee decision that a judge later found in violation of California's open meetings law.

In September 2000, Mathur sued his own district in Orange County Superior Court, alleging he was a victim of negligent supervision, racial discrimination and harassment.

In the suit, he asked a judge to order the district to pay $40,000 in legal fees from an earlier, unsuccessful personal lawsuit he had filed against Irvine Valley College philosophy professor Roy Bauer and former administrator Terry Burgess, who is now president of San Diego City College.

In that earlier lawsuit, which was thrown out by the court, Mathur alleged that Bauer and Burgess had stolen damaging information from his personnel file and published it in a campus newsletter. However, a judge ruled that Mathur did not have enough evidence to prove his case, and he was ordered to pay the two defendants' legal fees of $40,000.

Mathur then sued the district to recoup the fees. Ultimately, four months later, trustees voted 5-0 with two abstentions to settle the case for $36,000.

In October 2000, 90 percent of instructors at Irvine voted no confidence in Mathur and also overwhelmingly disapproved of the job then-Chancellor Cedric Sampson was doing. Sampson left campus for sick leave a month later, and trustees voted not to renew his contract the following January.

During that period, it also came to light that Mathur had requested and received an unusual $200-per-month "security stipend" from the district, which trustee Don Wagner said was necessary because Mathur had received death threats.

In recent weeks, district employees began to hear more and more persistent rumors that Mathur was to be appointed chancellor, even though he wasn't rated highly by the independent selection committee.

The rumors led board President Don Wagner to issue a formal statement describing the selection process, saying that the district opened its search in August 2001 and that it was "national in scope."

On Feb. 1, after a two-hour closed session, trustees appointed Mathur to the district's top spot. The job of running the two colleges, which employ about 1,500 people, is expected to pay $150,000 to $200,000, interim Chancellor Richard Jones said.

Trustee Nancy Padberg, who sat on the selection committee, said the committee did not look at Mathur's performance as Irvine Valley president in its deliberations.

"The committee went through an identical process for each person," Padberg said. "They didn't look at no-confidence votes Or whether they had sued somebody or not. That would be part of a reference check, and that wasn't their job. Their job was to look at the applications and be part of the scoring process."

Wagner said Mathur was selected because he understood the district's problems and challenges and could be expected to work constructively with the board on solving them.

Irvine philosophy professor Roy Bauer, a longtime legal and political adversary, of Mathur, said after the vote that many faculty members were in shock, although some had previously posted mock racing forms over the photocopy machine in the faculty office building, listing the odds of Mathur being appointed.

"People are amazed that someone so unpopular and incompetent could rise to such a position," Bauer said. "People are using the words, `Peter Principle.'"