Tsang has been president of San José City College, where enrollment tops 10,000, for nine years. Santa Monica College is a campus of 31,000 students.

Tsang said he's looking forward to overseeing a larger student body.

"It presents me with a lot more opportunities to create new programs because of the resources that come with a larger college," he said.

Tsang also found it attractive that Santa Monica College boasts the highest transfer rate of students to University of California campuses among all the state's community colleges. At San Jose City College, he helped establish two programs to bolster that campus' transfer rate.

"[Santa Monica College is] close to UCLA and has built a relationship with that college and others," he said. "My job now is to maintain existing relationships and cultivate new ones to provide a greater number of transfer opportunities for more students."

At Santa Monica College, Tsang will be able to continue his focus on bringing technology to students. As dean of applied science and technology at City College of San Francisco, Tsang consolidated that campus' trade and technology programs.

Both San José City and Santa Monica colleges recently established technology centers to create more opportunities for students to keep abreast of the latest high-tech developments.

"It's a very quick-change industry where technologies come and go," Tsang said. "What we need to set up is career training for students that will allow them to participate in the work force. Santa Monica College has decided that it's something they want to devote time and resources to. We need to find out more in depth about the needs of the industry down there and how they're affected by changes in technology."

Tsang, 54, who emigrated from Hong Kong as a child, considers the diverse student bodies at both San José City and Santa Monica College an asset. About 3,000 students at Santa Monica College are from other countries; the campus has an International Education Center to administer services and programs to these students.

"It really adds to the vibrancy of the campus," Tsang said. "I'd like to develop more education with global content so local students can take advantage of the presence of these students to learn about other parts of the world."

The Santa Monica College board of trustees named Tsang college president over two other finalists: Dr. Deborah Blue, who works for the community college system in Novato, and Dr. G. Jeremiah Ryan, president of Raritan Valley Community College in New Jersey. Tsang, who succeeds Dr. Piedad Robertson, is due to take over the $175,000-a-year job in February.

To make the move, Tsang will have to cut ties with myriad community groups and charitable organizations in the Bay Area. He co-founded Stanford Students for Boat People to aid Vietnamese refugees and has been active with the Bayview Hunters Point Foundation, the largest provider of social services to African Americans in San Francisco.

In the South Bay, Tsang has served on the boards of Asian Americans for Community Development and Goodwill Industries of Santa Clara County. He is also chairman of the national Asian Pacific Islander Scholarship Fund. Tsang was honored as a "local hero" in May 2004 as part of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

"This [service] is how I'm connected to the community and the people here," Tsang said. "As I leave, I'll have to let go."