DiPasquale

Ray DiPasquale, president of the Community College of Rhode Island, is one of three finalists for the top job at the Suffolk County Community College in New York, the largest college in the SUNY community college system.

DiPasquale, 59, who became CCRI’s interim president in January 2006 and was officially appointed to the post later that year, earns $202,910 a year. He also has use of a car and a house on the Warwick campus as part of his compensation package. CCRI has 17,800 full-time-equivalent students on four campuses this year.

Before coming to Rhode Island, DiPasquale worked for the State University of New York system for seven years, serving as a vice president at SUNY Brockport, a four-year institution in upstate New York. Before that, he was a vice president and dean at Springfield (Mass.) Technical Community College for 20 years.

In a short statement issued by CCRI on Monday afternoon, DiPasquale said he was approached by a national search firm to apply for the position and will interview for the job on Wednesday.

“If I am offered the position, I will seek the counsel of family, friends and associates before making my final decision,” DiPasquale said. “I very much enjoy my work here at CCRI, and I particularly enjoy the close relationships I have formed with students, faculty and staff.”

A consultant for the search firm Academic Search said the college’s board of trustees had not yet determined a salary range for the new president.

DiPasquale is credited with increasing CCRI’s enrollment and with improving administration and faculty relations following a tumultuous period in the presidency of his predecessor, Thomas D. Sepe, who resigned in December 2005.

During most of DiPasquale’s tenure, the state has been mired in a recession, and CCRI has faced severe budget cuts. Last week, the Board of Governors for Higher Education announced it would approve a 2-percent pay cut for the three public college presidents and 300 other nonunion, administrative employees.

The other two finalists for the job are Shaun L. McKay, interim executive vice president at Suffolk, and Jack E. Daniels III, president of Los Angeles Southwest (Community) College in California.

Suffolk County Community College serves 23,000 students and has three campuses on Long Island — in Selden, Brentwood and Riverhead. Former President Shirley Robinson Pippins stepped down March 1 after a five-year term, and is now senior vice president of the American Council on Education in Washington D.C.

Pippins’ compensation for 2008-2009 was $237,000 — about $214,000 in salary, $13,500 housing allowance and $9,200 in car expenses.

Interim President George Gatta Jr., the college’s executive vice president, agreed to not apply for the president’s job, and received a pay increase from $165,000 to $200,000, according to the SUNY’s online press releases.

If DiPasquale gets the New York job, he would be the third public college president to leave in two years. In 2008, John Nazarian, the longtime president of Rhode Island College, retired and was succeeded by Nancy Carriuolo on July 1, 2008.

This year, Robert L. Carothers, president of the University of Rhode Island since 1991, stepped down and was replaced by David M. Dooley on July 1, 2009.

jjordan@projo.com