Board of Trustees Report
District Office
September 17, 2008
Ad Hoc Committee on Public/Private Partnerships
The first part of the session dealt with a proposal to lease up to nine acres of a
parking lot at West LA to LAUSD for the building of a middle school or high
school, one that would include up to 500 students. The current plans are to
restrict the students’ access to the college, though Sylvia Scott-Hayes
questioned the appropriateness of this. She referred to the objection of faculty to
a high school at East LA nine years ago, and criticized faculty fears of gang
trouble on campus as narrow-minded (see comment below).
(I did not stay for the rest of the meeting, which dealt with food court proposals at
West and Southwest.)
Open Session
Jesus Encinas, an employee here in the District Office, spoke against any district
involvement with the Gene Autry Museum at their Southwest Museum location,
as proposed in Proposition J. Board members replied that they were not
committed to this project, that any use of facilities there would be in the library,
not the museum itself, and that the Gene Autry Museum was a non-profit
institution.
Nikita Shen from Asians for Miracle Marrow Matches spoke about the need for
bone marrow transplant donors, and material was given to all the college
presidents to disperse. Mona Field asked that the Senate leaders also work to
get this material disseminated.
A report was given on the Ad Hoc Committee meeting at noon (see above).
A resolution in opposition to Proposition 4, which would require a waiting period
and parental notification for any minor receiving an abortion, was unanimously
approved. Mona Field cited the potential damaging effect that the proposition
could have on many of our students.
In his report to the Board, the Chancellor cited the irresponsible action of the
legislature in Sacramento in pushing the budget problems over to next year. He
said that the Prop. J campaign was going well, with fundraising and
endorsements all on track. He noted, however, that there isn’t much “buzz” about
it at the colleges. Finally, he cited the fact that a sheriff at Pierce was one of the
two first people on the scene of the train crash last week in Chatsworth. Bob
Garber gave details of the extensive involvement of Pierce sheriffs.
There was some discussion about the loans the district provides to small
businesses to encourage their involvement in bond projects.
The student recruitment efforts in Vietnam were questioned again. East and
Trade are involved in this effort, with East reporting around 30 new students from
Vietnam and a significant overall increase in its F-1 numbers recently. Trade
numbers were lower.
The new I-PASS, now called I-TAP, was again discussed. It goes into effect in
January, and students will only have to pay $15 per semester for a pass that is
worth $141 otherwise. This is the result of an agreement between the district and
MTA. MTA is offering us a steep discount, and the district is subsidizing the
balance with bond money. This is allowed as a “traffic mitigation” measure, at
least for a few years. If we subsequently obtain more growth money from the
state, we can then institutionalize this. The cost for the district is $2.8 million per
year. Students must be full-time to participate, however, due to MTA regulations.
City’s Northeast Center (at Atwater) will be completed in the spring of next year,
and the investiture for Dr. Jamillah Moore, the new president at City, will be on
Oct. 7. This will be an opportunity to get inside the new library, which has opened
to great reviews.
Comment
The comment in the committee meeting was unfortunate, as it left the wrong
impression. To review the story briefly: the faculty was actually divided on this,
with roughly half willing to go along in order to obtain the $50 million promised by
LAUSD so that we could build a parking lot. The other half objected primarily
because the planned high school would have had over 2,000 students, an
enormous number, especially when you consider that East had only 5,000-6,000
day students at that time. They were also concerned about the persistent
negative public perception of East, and that a large, general high school on
campus would not help matters. Gang fears never came up in any discussion I
can recall, though I gather some faculty communicated to the Board privately. As
it happens, two colleagues and I led the opposition, with then-Monterey Park
Councilperson Judy Chu also working closely with us. Subsequent events proved
us correct. Ten months after the project was abandoned, the district passed Prop
A, providing us with far more than $50 million. President Moreno has since
acknowledged more than once that he’s glad we prevented the high school from
going forward.
I do think that we should be open-minded about having high school students on
campus, and that middle colleges have a role, if their size is kept under control,
and their interaction with the regular college is carefully worked out. In any case,
such proposals need to be thoroughly consulted, as was not the case at East
until late in the process, when the Senate insisted.