After reducing expenditures by $6.8 million during the 2011-12 year, the college is staring at a roughly $8.2-million deficit in 2012-13. Included in that gap is an estimated $4.6-million mid-year chop that will fall if a November tax initiative fails.
What's more, Riggs steps into a position still haunted by an esteemed forebear. When John Davitt retired in May 2006 after 21 years on the job, he was the longest-seated community college president in California. The campus administration building bears his name, and his presence at events always garners applause.
Neither his immediate successor, Audre Levy, nor Lindsay — who logged six years in Glendale between them — sustained the level of rapport that Davitt enjoyed with faculty and other constituent groups.
