An executive reflection

New president prepares to finish first semester at Pierce

CHRISTOPHER TORRES Editor-in-Chief @chris_t_torres

Experiences can be one of life's greatest teachers.

In the first five months of Pierce College President Alexis Montevirgen’s tenure, he experienced a faculty external investigation, a student body president impeachment and his campus turned into an emergency animal evacuation center.

The life of a college president may seem daunting, but for Montevirgen, staying true to his morals throughout the problems he faced helped him power through his first semester.

“I think for me it helps to be grounded by what I shared with the campus community from the very beginning of my commitment in terms of transparency, collegiality and respect and using that as a foundation for the college,” Montevirgen said.

Despite the challenges, Montevirgen said he fully understood what he signed up for when he accepted the position.

“The college operates and so we have things that come up and I think that anyone that fills a role as a college president just knows and expects that you can't foresee everything that’s going to happen,” Montevirgen said.

“But then you are aware that these things can happen and you just have to roll with it and address it the best you can.”

As his first semester at Pierce comes to a close, Montevirgen said it’s hard to believe that it’s now been five months at the helm.

He said his biggest challenge so far has been dealing with the investigation of Head Football Coach Carlos Woods and the failed hiring of an athletic director.

Although these were tough circumstances to deal with early in his presidency, Montevirgen said it gave him a chance to show the campus how he can resolve problems in a professional manner.

“I think to be able to have addressed something like that at that point which was only two or three months into the position was definitely not the most ideal,” Montevirgen said.

“But I think looking through the silver lining in everything and having to work through a situation like that actually helped show the campus how I approach these types of things that can and will happen in the future.” Montevirgen’s first move was to put Coach Woods on temporary leave and then went to speak with