Home OP-ED Mr. Speaker? Mr. Speaker? Anybody Got a Mr. Speaker ‘Round Here?

Mr. Speaker? Mr. Speaker? Anybody Got a Mr. Speaker ‘Round Here?

94
0
SHARE

[img]2571|right|||no_popup[/img]Dateline Pasadena — “Disgusting,” sneered an unhappy longtime member of the official family of Pasadena City College ahead of this evening’s 7 o’clock emergency meeting of the also disheveled Board of Trustees.

The Board’s assignment is to identify a speaker. By Pony Express, FedEx or snail mail, the Wise Men will forward their choice to the bunker of the college’s much disliked president. He, robotically following all regulations, will contact the Chosen One. 

Finding a commencement speaker for the partially denuded program a week from Friday – what is the hurry? – has devolved into a terminal, not to mention tragic, costly, circus act.

Sad because the shaky leadership of the school airily has blown off two speakers. One may sue. The other may have needed an army of like-believing living followers to protect his skin.

At least figuratively, formerly hallowed PCC keeps shoving prospective orators off the roofs, down the rusty drain spouts of tall old buildings.

If graduation, heaven forbid, were tonight, the grads might have to accept the dreaded president of the college – except they would have to pass the hat to cover the police protection he could require.

Or The Prez could shlep a change of clothes, a large mask and a name change.

Under the almost unanimously booed, creaking, anger-fueled leadership of Dr. Mark Rocha, the once proud, once fashionable community college may have to trick an unsuspecting pedestrian along Colorado Boulevard into stepping inside and imparting a few words in exchange for a used cup of cold coffee.

A corps of  intensely motivated, enterprising PCC students rounded up the information that follows:

Five things you really should know, that PCC doesn't want you to know –

  1. The PCC full-time faculty conducted an evaluation of President Mark Rocha, sponsored by the Academic Senate.  A hard copy is available in the Academic Senate Office in C-227, but if you can't get there, the results of the evaluation are available here. Unsurprisingly, they are very negative.
  2. The intimidation and bullying from the administration to the faculty just doesn't stop at PCC. Just when you thought it was safe to ask for data…. Read more here.
  3. The Commencement Controversy has generated a lot of bad press for PCC, thanks to the PCC Board of Trustees and PCC's administration. Not only did they rescind the respectable offer to an Oscar-winning PCC alum because he's gay, but they offered it to someone (who has rescinded his acceptance) who believes evolution is the work of the devil and that Disney's “Lion King” teaches voodoo, according to the L.A. Times.   Some media coverage is here. (Faculty and students continue to be dumbfounded and ashamed at the poor judgment and blatant homophobia of the administration.)
  4. The lawsuit against the PCC General Counsel and President Mark Rocha was dismissed this month by the plaintiff's lawyer.  Is that taxpayer money, by the way?
  5. There are two upcoming Board of Trustees meetings at PCC: 1) tonight (agenda) and 2) Wednesday, May 14.

A few more highlights from our website:

PCC Policies and Title 5 Violations, lack of collegial consultation, lack of transparency –

Unfair Labor Practice – Ruling Against the District – Fall 2013

 

PCC Coalition of Students & Faculty for Student Achievement
Website:
http://takebackpcc.wordpress.com/about_us/