After months of searching and interviewing potential candidates, the El Camino board of trustees unanimously voted to employ Dena Maloney as the college’s sixth president at yesterday’s board meeting.

Maloney will officially start her new position on Feb. 1 and will meet with current president Tom Fallo a few times before taking over. She will be the first female president in the college’s 68-year history.

“This has been an incredible process as a candidate,” Maloney said. “You really get to have a sense of place when you come into an organization as a candidate and you start to interact with people and figure out the spirit of the organization.”

Maloney said that she’s planning on living in the area and she and her husband are currently looking for a place in the area.

“I’m looking forward to be part of an institution that is so dynamic and so focused on student success,” Maloney said. “It’s going to be very exciting to be leading that effort and supporting everyone’s energy towards that.”

During the meeting, Eman Dalili, the student trustee, brought up that in the near future all students will be required to have an education plan and he voiced his concern that this will be disadvantageous to some students.

Student and Community Advancement Vice President, Jeanie Nishime, said that the requirement is not meant to be a punishment but it will be mandatory for all new students.

Nishime also said that the college has hired eight new counselors for the spring semester to handle the extra work load. Students who don’t get an education plan will lose priority registration.

The board of trustees had a first reading on board policy 3540, a sexual gender based misconduct policy for the college.

Bill Beverly, board president, said that in the past the college has gotten in trouble for sexual misconduct reporting.

“The thing I note when reading this is that it doesn’t address the largest single problem relating to this issue.” Beverly said. “The comfort level of persons who feel that they’re suffering harassment in approaching somebody to solve the problem.”

Beverly would like to see more attention toward language in the policy that would make people, who are victims, more likely to seek assistance.

“We have not come up with a way to address that concern,” Beverly said. “I don’t disapprove the policy, but we need to go a step further.”

The next board meeting is Dec. 14 at 4 p.m. in the Administration Building Board Room.