Third in a series
Re “92 Percent of Pasadena Faculty Plead: Stop Ignoring Us. Fire President Rocha”
[img]1769|left|Dr. Mark Rocha||no_popup[/img]Facing a verbal firing squad, not for the first time in his increasingly colorful academic career, Dr. Mark Rocha, the President of Pasadena City College for three years, told the newspaper this morning he will remain silent as campus turmoil swells over his angrily disputed style of leadership.
Starting last week, four telephone calls were placed to Dr. Rocha’s office, which became his professional home after he cloudily departed from West Los Angeles College.
Walking into the stiff, biting wind of back-to-back no-confidence votes, by organized faculty and student groups, this morning’s call to Dr. Rocha was the first to bear fruit.
Over his signature, the following 56-word email was sent:
I will make no comment or response to your calls.
I will say that the unattributed comments on your website about my decisions at WLAC are not correct.
If for some reason the community of Culver City would be served by information on any events in Pasadena, please contact Mr. Juan Gutierrez, Director of Public Relations.
Sincerely,
Mark Rocha
Perhaps he will yet speak out today as the campus accusations – heavily criticizing his abrupt, lone wolf-style of governing – accumulate on his formerly orderly desk.
He may have had a change of heart after his succinct email was sent.
At this afternoon’s regularly scheduled Academic Senate meeting, sources said the original agenda was starkly different from the latest edition.
“Dr. Rocha’s name just magically appeared,” a source told the newspaper. “We don’t know what he is going to do.”
The Ad Hoc Faculty Committee, that last week called for Dr. Rocha’s ouster with 92 percent support, planned to ask the Academic Senate this afternoon to endorse its action.
Speculation was that Dr. Rocha would talk out against it, and possibly defend himself.
Sources said that when Dr. Rocha held the presidency of Santiago Canyon College, Orange, in 2001, he also was confronted by a potential no-confidence vote.
However, the person said, “Dr. Rocha unexpectedly left Santiago not long after that,” evidently as mystifyingly as he vanished from West L.A.
No open goodbyes, much less a sendoff.
“What is disconcerting,” said a member of the Pasadena City College family, “is that our board knew about this. The Santiago people let our board know. And still they hired Dr. Rocha.”
Pro-Rocha forces on the Pasadena campus are said to be calling the uprising against the President a disagreement over labor relations. “But that really is not the case,” said a well-known person.
“Let me show you something that sounds too familiar to PCC,” the gentleman said, handing over the minutes from Dr. Rocha’s first meeting at West L.A. in 2006 when he, who seems to prefer to govern unilaterally, advocated for the opposite philosophy.
“You will see,” said the source, “that he made the same promises he gave to us and broke, to govern collegially, and he never did.”
The minutes from Aug. 21, 2006, summarized Dr. Rocha’s observations this way:
“President Rocha emphasized that we are in the process of strengthening and clarifying our shared governance on campus. The president would like to see the committees implementing the governance structure. The College Planning Committee (CPC) and the Budget Committee are policy-formation driven; each committee should be cognizant of their charge in making decisions and submitting their recommendations to the College Council who in turns forwards it to the President for a final decision. This process allows each committee to be ‘free to do your work.’”
(To be continued)
