We Will Miss You Dr. Ned Doffoney!!!

The African American Faculty and Staff Association of Fresno City College wish to take this opportunity to congratulate Dr. Ned Doffoney on his appointment to the position of Chancellor for the North Orange County Community College District.

We would also like to thank him for his support of the organization and the life long friendships he has established with members of this association.

Dr. Ned Doffoney exemplified African American collegiate leadership in his role as president of Fresno City College. He has been a role model for students, staff, faculty, management and for the community at large.

Lists of his collegial accomplishments as the executive leader of Fresno City College are:

1. His role as supporter of the successful Measure E bond to renovate the Historic Old Administration Building.

2. His role as a strong supporter of the capital campaign to renovate the
auditorium of Historic Old Administration Building. The first capital
campaign initiated by a California Community College.

3. His role as a mentor and academic advisor to faculty and staff who were
pursuing graduate degrees.

4. His role as a public intellectual in making numerous speeches concerning the community college mission and related issues in higher education to the wider Fresno County community.

5. His role in leading the college out of probationary accreditation status with the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, an institutional accrediting body recognized by the Commission on Recognition of Postsecondary Accreditation and the U. S. Department of Education. The accreditation violations were already apparent before Dr. Doffoney’s tenure at Fresno City College started.

6. His role in hiring a diverse representation of race, class, political viewpoints
and higher education curriculum vitas of faculty and staff to the college.

7. His role in establishing a women’s water polo sport at the college.

8. His historical role as the culminating African American certificated employee in reference to the first African American female, Alma Palmer, Nursing, 1963; the first African American male, William Day, Chemistry, 1964 and Dr. Ned Doffoney, the first African American president, FCC, 2002.

9. His tenure as president, six years, was the longest of any of the past five
presidents. This is indicative of his desire to serve students, faculty, staff and
the FCC community.

10. His role in supporting the development of the SYMBAA (Strengthening Young Men By Academic Achievement) Program. A program that targeted at risk African American Males.

11. His role as an instructor in the CSU, Fresno Division of Continuing and Global Education: Certificate Program for Community College Faculty Preparation.

12. His role as a mentor to both classified and certificated FCC employees.

13. His role in abolishing the college of an entrenched caste system that the college was cited for by the accreditation team by the establishment of the Strategic Planning Council. The council is organized in such a manner that all constituents have equal say or participatory governance in the decisions that has an impact upon the future direction of the institution.

14. His role in supporting the highly successful Speakers Forum.

15. His role as the key note speaker for the 2006 City of Fresno’s Martin Luther King Unity Celebration.

16. His role, support and guidance in developing a decision making process whereby decisions pertaining to the college’s planning and budgeting are done by consensus by all member constituent representatives on a given committee.

17. His role in supporting the inaugural African American Graduation Celebration.

18. His role in encouraging staff, faculty and students to pursue their higher
goals and objectives and not settle for their current position, but to strive to change their live and to have an impact upon the community in which they live and work.

19. His role as the key note speaker at a conference on the campus of CSU Fresno, sponsored by the Central Valley Institute for Regional and Historical Studies. The conference, whose theme “Beyond the City Limits: African Americans in the American West” was the first of its kind to highlight aspects of the rural African American experience in the San Joaquin Valley.

There have been many presidents of Fresno City College in her long history since 1910; however, Dr. Ned Doffoney is the one president that faculty, staff, students and the community will miss. In the opinion of many in the community and employed at Fresno City College, he was the best president that Fresno City College has ever had!