Community members of West Kentucky Community and Technical College got a chance to meet the new interim head of the college yesterday. Dr. Charles Crestman took office as Interim President/CEO July 1st while the college's board searches for a replacement for Dr. Barbara Veazey.
Veazey, the college’s first president, announced her retirement in March after serving in the position since 2002.
Crestman’s career in community colleges spans more than 40 years, and spent 10 years as president of Robeson Community College in North Carolina.
Crestman spoke to WKCTC faculty and staff Thursday at a meeting and says that after only a week he’s already seen evidence of the quality education community in western Kentucky.
“Anytime that you’ve got higher education in your community that does a great job and you combine that with great public schools you really have a wonderful education formula in place," said Crestman. "Everything I’ve seen so far has been first class.”
Crestman says he knows that all Kentucky higher education institutions face a difficult situation under state funding cuts. But given that he’s only serving until a new president is found, he doubts he’ll need to make any major changes.
“We’ll be very careful with the budget until we get the fall semester up and started and if we need additional faculty to take care of class offerings we have or other services the colleges provides then we’ll pick those people up and keep right on moving.”
He will remain at WKCTC until the board selects a new president in the fall.