10 outside candidates make up interview list for presidency of Hillsborough Community College

TAMPA — None of the four Hillsborough Community College administrators who applied to be HCC's next president made the list of 10 applicants to be interviewed next week.

This week, the college's search committee culled through the 38 applicants to replace HCC president Gwendolyn W. Stephenson, 66, who is scheduled to retire in June.

The only candidate from Florida to be invited for an interview is B. Kaye Walter, a Valencia Community College administrator who also is one of the four finalists to lead St. Petersburg College.

HCC's internal candidates were campus presidents Bob Chunn (Dale Mabry), Felix Haynes (Plant City) and Carlos Soto (Brandon), as well as senior vice president for operations Robert Wolf.

Any one of the four would be qualified to run the institution, said Daniel Coton, a Plant City lawyer and HCC trustee who chairs the search committee.

But the committee, which includes faculty and community representatives, identified the 10 it wanted to interview through an informal scoring system and discussion of the candidates. Coton said he thought going in that the list for interviews might be shorter, but "we really got some qualified people that applied."

"We're trying to be more inclusive than exclusive," he said.

All 10 of the remaining candidates have doctorates, a qualification the college said was highly preferred but not required.

Interviews are being scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday. After that, the search committee will likely recommend three to five candidates to HCC's trustees, Coton said.

Richard Danielson can be reached at Danielson@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3403.