COD President To Retire

College of the Desert President Jerry Patton announced Friday he will retire at the end of the spring semester.

“It has been an honor to serve the students, faculty and administration at and the Coachella Valley community at large during the seven years I’ve been here at the college,” Patton said.

“But my work at COD is not done yet as our board and management team, along with faculty and students will continue to re-invent our institution based on what is essentially a new normal scenario because of the greatly reduced state funding of community colleges.”

Patton began his tenure at COD in June 2004 as vice president of business services. He was selected as COD’s sixth president in July 2007.

The college’s board will discuss the search and selection process for a new president at its next meeting.