YOUNG NEW LACCD CHANCELLOR DISTRICT SELECTS FORMER PIERCE COLLEGE LEADER.

Byline: Lisa Sodders Staff Writer

Former Pierce College President Darroch ``Rocky'' Young was named Wednesday to head the Los Angeles Community College District, overseeing nearly 130,000 students and a $2.2 billion construction campaign.

Young has been senior vice chancellor for the nine-college district since January 2004. He previously was president of Pierce and worked at Santa Monica College, earning praise for improving the campuses' performance.

``Rocky is one of the most highly qualified and gifted community college leaders in the country,'' said LACCD board President Kelly Candaele.

``Our board has outlined an agenda of academic excellence, training the new workforce, fighting for student access and following through on our commitment to rebuild and expand our nine colleges. We expect Rocky to help us make those commitments a reality.''

Young will begin serving as chancellor July 1 and said his first priority will be to review the structure of the district office to ensure all of the campuses are benefiting from the organization. A strategic plan also will be key.

``I'm thrilled and relieved,'' said Young, 57, of Thousand Oaks. ``I really wanted this job because I really do believe that the Los Angeles community colleges are on the threshold of being something great.''

Brendan Huffman, director of public policy at the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, hailed the board's decision.

``We think the district made a good choice,'' said Huffman, who was a student at Santa Monica College in the 1980s during Young's tenure.

``This is a very unique region and our businesses have some very unique needs in workforce development, and we're confident that Rocky Young can continue the growth in the district in providing an educated workforce for our economy.''

Pierce College President Tom Oliver also greeted the news enthusiastically.

``Rocky is the person who can take the district to the next level. He's innovative, he's insightful and he's creative. And he's respected at the state level - in the past, we lost some of our clout, but it's come back now and he can help us become the leader again in the state.''

The chancellor's post pays $221,017 a year.

Young has a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a master's in business administration from UCLA.

He worked at Santa Monica College for 28 years, first as a business instructor and then as vice president for academic and student affairs from 1986-97 and as vice president of planning and development from 1997-99.

He helped SMC increase its enrollment by 75 percent in the last 15 years of his tenure, and strengthened its transfer program. He applied for the president's position in 1995 but was passed over.

Four years later, he became president of Pierce, arriving when the campus was millions of dollars in the red and had only 12,000 students. Today, it has more than 18,000 students and will end the year several million dollars in the black.

While there, Young also scrapped a controversial plan to put a golf course on the 400-acre campus, and spearheaded a drive to create a campus master plan, helping the school to become the first of the nine campuses to complete one.

Young's appointment caps a yearlong nationwide search for a new chancellor to replace Mark Drummond, who became the state chancellor in January 2004.

Lisa M. Sodders, [phone]

lisa.sodders(at)dailynews.com

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``Rocky'' Young earned praise for reviving campuses.