Southwestern Michigan College has announced there are four internal candidates in the running to be the next college president. On August 6, SMC President David Mathews announced he’ll be retiring at the end of this year after 22 years with the institution. The SMC Board of Trustees voted to conduct an internal search for a new president first. With the deadline now passed, the four candidates who have put in for the job are Dr. David Fleming, Dr. Lucian Leone, Dr. Joseph Odenwald, and Dr. Stacy Young. SMC says Fleming has served as SMC’s Vice President of Instruction since 2011, Leone serves as SMC’s Director of Admissions, Odenwald has served as SMC’s Vice President of Student Services since 2017, and Young has served as SMC’s Dean of the School of Business and Advanced Technology since 2013. Now that the four candidates are known, the board of trustees is taking public input. Those with comments are invited to the next regular board meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. on September 16 at the Dowagiac campus. It’s likely the board will talk about interview at that time.
