By Tim Leeds/Havre Daily News/tleeds@havredailynews.com
The chancellor of Montana State University-Northern said he turned down a job offer from another institution because he wants to finish some projects at Northern.
"There were a lot of things that pulled me back here rather than pulled me away from there," Alex Capdeville said last week about the job he had applied for and was offered at Bates Technical College in Tacoma, Wash. "It sure wasn't anything negative about them."
Capdeville declined an offer to take the presidency at Bates, a 60-year-old school with more than 22,000 students.
Capdeville was a finalist for the president position at Sheridan Community College in Wyoming last spring, but was not offered that job.
Capdeville said he isn't unhappy with Northern or the community but that it's normal for people in his profession to look for other jobs after a number of years.
"This is my fifth year here. People stay in this job five to seven years, typically," he said.
He said the biggest problem in taking the position at Bates would have been the timing. Bates wanted its next president to start by the first of the year. He said he unsuccessfully negotiated to change the starting date to the end of the school year.
Northern has several projects under way and the school year includes a legislative session, so he wanted to stay through the end of the school year, he added.
Capdeville said he doesn't anticipate applying for another job before the end of the school year. But it would depend on the position and what the situation at Northern was, he said.
"Quite frankly, I didn't anticipate this one," he said about the Bates job.
The positions in Wyoming and Washington are the only jobs he has applied for since getting the permanent chancellor position at Northern, Capdeville said.
Capdeville was selected as the interim chancellor for Northern in September 2000, and accepted the position on a permanent basis in May 2001.
He was chief executive officer of the Helena College of Technology for 22 years before taking over at Northern.
Capdeville said improvements have been made at Northern since he took over, including repairs to the streets and parking lots, and construction of the Applied Technology Center at the university.
"I'm proud of the fact we've made the kind of improvements we've made here," he said.
