Over the past two years, College of the Canyons has gone through a period of real instability. Leadership turnover. A failed hire. Financial questions. A loss of confidence in places where confidence matters most — donors, teachers, community leaders.
What the college needed right now wasn’t bold experimentation. It needed healing stability.
That moment has now arrived.
This Tuesday, the COC board of trustees has selected Jasmine Ruys as the college’s new permanent superintendent-president. After a period of leadership turnover, the college has chosen someone from within. Someone known. Someone trusted. Someone steady.
I’ve worked with Jasmine over the past several months in my role as president of the COC Foundation. We’ve met, compared notes, talked through priorities. Not enough to claim deep insight, but enough to understand how she operates.
She listens carefully. She processes before she speaks. She doesn’t rush to fill silence with noise. In an environment that has seen its share of turbulence, that has real value.
And I believe she is the right choice for this moment.
But that doesn’t mean the process that got us here should go unquestioned.
Before Jasmine stepped into her prior interim role, the trustees made at least two fateful decisions. They abruptly pushed out longtime president Dianne Van Hook, a decision that shocked the community and fractured trust. They hired an interim president who proved to be divisive within the COC community. These trustee missteps were very costly in terms of time, energy, money and trust.
The eventual response to these mistakes was predictable. The college turned inward. Jasmine was chosen as the second interim president because she was a steady hand, the safe choice, the person who could calm things down.
And she did.
Thereafter, the trustees launched what was described as a national search for a permanent president. On paper, that’s exactly what you want. Cast a wide net. Look everywhere. Find the best possible leader for the next decade, not just the next year.
But when the process narrowed to its final candidates, it didn’t feel particularly national. All of the finalists came from nearby Southern California community colleges; each deeply rooted in the same system.
All capable, experienced and qualified.
But no clear disruptors. No obvious innovators. No one who made you stop and think, this person is going to fundamentally change how we operate or open new ground.
And that matters because the challenges facing community colleges today aren’t incremental. They’re structural.
Artificial intelligence is already reshaping how students learn, how faculty teach, and how institutions deliver value. At the same time, budgets are tightening. Expectations are rising. Students and job seekers are looking for pathways that actually work.
At a place like College of the Canyons, that raises uncomfortable questions. What programs still lead to real jobs? Which ones don’t? What should be taught by faculty, and what will soon be handled by AI?
So the decision to choose a safe insider carries both strength and risk.
Jasmine’s strengths are clear. She knows the institution. She understands its people, its culture, its moving parts. She has credibility across groups that don’t always see things the same way. In a period where trust needs to be rebuilt, that matters more than most things.
She will be a stabilizing force. A healing influence. And right now, that has real value.
Still, in times like this, every leader has to step beyond the role they were hired for. They must grow into the job, not just perform it. They must challenge assumptions, push past comfort zones, and take the organization to new ground.
Visionaries are important. COC was built by a visionary.
Decades ago, Dianne Van Hook took a dusty lot and built something extraordinary. She didn’t just manage an institution. She defined and created one of the best community colleges in the nation.
Now Jasmine faces an equally serious challenge: Where does College of the Canyons go next?
The question isn’t whether she can manage the college. It’s clear she can. The question is whether she can transform it, facing an unknown future.
And that’s one very high bar.
This isn’t criticism. It’s reality. Not just at COC, but across every organization trying to operate in a time of rapid change and uncertainty.
Stability buys us time and credibility. That alone makes Jasmine Ruys the right choice. Now Jasmine must steer the college into that unknown future.
The first test of whether Jasmine is managing or transforming will likely involve the positive potential and disruption of AI — how COC adapts its delivery models to meet fast changing needs. This decision will come sooner than most people expect. Alongside this are budget pressures forcing hard choices about what matters and what doesn’t and ultimately, what’s affordable.
That’s Jasmine’s assignment now.
She has earned the trust of this community. That’s no small thing. In fact, it may be the most important thing.
Now, what will she do with it?
If she uses that trust to push, to challenge, to take the college somewhere new, then this won’t just be remembered as the safe choice. It will be remembered as the right one.
Jasmine Ruys deserves our congratulations, and she’ll have our full support.
Go Cougars!
Gary Horton is chairman of the College of the Canyons Foundation board. His “Full Speed to Port!” has appeared in The Signal since 2006. The opinions expressed in his column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Signal or its editorial board.
