Columbia Union names interim leaders, offers presidency to candidate

Scott Steward, the school’s spokesman, said that the board had agreed upon a permanent replacement for outgoing president Randal Wisbey and all that remained was for the candidate to accept or reject the offer.

Colon, who is a professor of religion and director of the college’s Center for Metropolitan Ministries, said the potential president is from an outside institution but declined to say from where.

The interim officers will continue to prepare for the start of the academic year during the transition, Colon said.

‘‘Our major concern is to be able to maintain the momentum for the beginning of the school year — to do everything we can to have a smooth transition and give students a sense of stability and the faculty and staff a sense of the momentum we have,” said Colon, who has taught at Columbia Union for six years. ‘‘[We want to] move into the school year with eager anticipation.”

The search began this spring when Wisbey accepted an invitation to become president of La Sierra University in California after seven years at Columbia Union College. Only a month before, Dr. Robert Young, then-vice president of academic administration, had announced that he would be leaving his post after more than 25 years at the college to become senior vice president of academic administration at Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, Tenn.

Francis was out of the country on vacation and could not be reached for comment, but Colon said that her replacement would not be chosen until the permanent president has assumed his duties.

‘‘They would wait for the president to be in place and have him be part of the search process,” Colon said. ‘‘We don’t want to have a situation where we find out that his idea of the function of that position is different.”

Francis was approved by a 20-member academic council, a committee of department chairs and three student representatives.

‘‘The thing I have learned about her over these few years is that she has a true passion to not only ... be a service to her students but to her fellow faculty members as well,” said Aaron Wilson, former executive vice president of the college’s Student Association and one of the three students on the academic council.

Wilson is a junior history and music major and is advised by Francis.

Colon graduated from Atlantic Union College in Massachusetts and went on to get a master’s degree in divinity from Andrews University in Michigan, a master’s in public health from Loma Linda University School of Public Health in California, and a Ph.D. in religious education from New York University. He previously served as director of the Office of International Relations and director of Disaster Preparedness for the Adventists Development and Relief Agency International.

Francis is chairwoman of the college’s Department of History and Political Studies. She graduated from Atlantic Union College and went on to earn a master’s degree and then a doctorate in history from Andrews and Carnegie-Mellon universities, respectively.

The transition comes during a time of uncertainty at Columbia Union College. The school, which is home to 1,115 students, is dealing with the repercussions of a $7 million debt. When the board earlier this year raised the possibility of selling the school to Adventist HealthCare as a potential solution to the financial crisis, students feared that the college would lose its liberal arts agenda in the process — a concern that was eventually relieved with the decision to keep the college’s academic focus but create a school of Nursing and Allied Health.

And since Wisbey announced his resignation, some students have worried that the loss of the president will affect plans for campus revitalization and fundraising.

Columbia Union College is operated by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. The school offers both undergraduate and graduate programs and draws students from more than 40 states and 50 countries.