DATE: Friday, May 16, 1997                  TAG: 9705160732

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B12  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   41 lines

TCC PRESIDENT BYPASSED FOR JOB IN FLORIDA

Tidewater Community College's president, Larry Whitworth, was a finalist for the presidency at Palm Beach Community College in Florida but was bypassed Wednesday night for a Florida administrator.

Whitworth described his reaction as ``relieved.''

``The bottom line is, I very much would like to stay in Tidewater,'' he said Thursday. But he added: ``This was an opportunity to look at something else, and they had a fairly attractive financial package.''

Whitworth has been president of TCC since 1991. He said his salary is $112,000 a year. Under his leadership, the college opened a Norfolk campus, which was officially dedicated last week, and instituted a computer literacy requirement for students.

He was also a finalist for the presidency of the Milwaukee Area Technical College in 1994 but was not chosen.

``Actually, I like this assignment very much,'' he said Thursday. ``The area is a great place to live. We've got a terrific faculty; the staff and administration is wonderful to work with.''

But, he said, referring to the state community college system, ``The VCCS sometimes makes it difficult to solve problems.'' Whitworth declined to elaborate, but he has complained in the past that TCC is underfunded compared with other community colleges in the state.

Bob Cole, coordinator of marketing for Palm Beach Community College, which is based in Lake Worth, confirmed that Whitworth was among four finalists for the job.

On Wednesday night, Cole said, the college's Board of Trustees chose Dennis Gallon, president of the Kent campus of the Florida Community College in Jacksonville.

Palm Beach has four campuses, with about 53,000 students, Cole said.

TCC also has four campuses - in Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach - with total enrollment of about 18,000. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Larry Whitworth

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