The Mountaineer

Issue date: 6/4/07 Section: News

Media Credit: James Jimenez New President John Nixon busy at work. Nixon took over June 1, 2007, after O'hearn's resignation. [Click to enlarge]

In Christopher O'Hearn's absence, John Nixon has taken over the reigns as President of Mt. SAC. In a letter to the campus community, O'Hearn said he was leaving for personal reasons.

"It was appropriate for him to leave, it was just time." Nixon said.

Students still have questions though, especially those who noticed O'Hearn was not at last June's graduation ceremonies.

"It just seemed weird that he would disappear so quickly, and not even come to the graduation ceremony," Michelle Gonzalez, 19, and a student at Mt. SAC said, "especially since he worked so hard to make this school better."

Even though the transition was sudden for Nixon, he said he is up for the challenge.

"There is great faculty, great staff, a great board of trustees, a great relationship with the surrounding communities. Enrollment is growing, fiscal is sound. It's a great college to be President," Nixon said.

Nixon has been in the education industry since the early 70's, which has led to opportunities all over the world.

To begin his career in education Nixon and his wife entered the peace core in 1974. He began teaching English as a second language in North Africa.

With the birth of his daughter in the country of Tunisia came the reality that he needed to get a job that would support his family. He worked as an English teacher at Oceanview High School where he had the opportunity to work on a project involving grants. He enjoyed the work which led to his first administration job as a director of grants in Huntington Beach Unified School District in 1979.

After his administration job he decided to go back to school to get his Ph.D. from USC. In 1980 he was hired on at Santa Ana College where he worked for 24 years.

"For three years I went back to administration. The last twelve years I was the Vice President of Academic Affairs. Then I thought I would like a change, but I didn't have the fire in my belly to be President so I wanted to try V.P at another college. I saw an opportunity at Mt. SAC."

While O'Hearn is credited with starting the construction project at Mt. SAC, Nixon plans to support the ongoing efforts. In addition to the construction, Nixon would also like to "enhance communication because it [Mt. SAC] is a big college. My goals are to work with everyone at the college to achieve this."

Although Nixon has taken over the presidency of Mt. SAC, he said the appointment is only temporary.

"Those sincere candidates should commit three to four years to the college to be fair," Nixon said, "I don't have that many years. I will be retiring, it can't be me. I will do two, maybe three more years."

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