Fifth in a series
Re “Dr. (Okay, I Will Talk) Rocha Says No to a Divorce at Pasadena”
[img]1769|left|Dr. Mark Rocha||no_popup[/img]He claimed somebody was impersonating him.
Presumably, he was kidding when he said he would go to the police and find out if somebody who looked like him has been masquerading around campus as an odious personality.
Hoping to stave off dismissal, Pasadena City College President Dr. Mark Rocha told the school’s Academic Senate two afternoons ago that the anti-student, anti-faculty Mark Rocha he has heard described sounded foreign to him.
To counter the recent twin no-confidence votes from PCC’s largest factions, Dr. Rocha suggested, calmly, as is his manner, that they do tea.
When he said “Come on down,” no one in the room thought of Bob Barker’s legendary invitation.
“On a personal point,” Dr. Rocha said, “I am always hopeful, always hopeful, that if we can get to know each other, that you can come through my open door, that we can make some progress.”
Two faculty members told the newspaper they cringed when they heard that message. “Not One word was true,” said one professor. “This is his third year. Where has he been? We know him. He knows better than to think we would swallow this.”
The president, never altering his expression, continued:
“My door is open to each one of you. Those of you who have come through it, I think you always have had a respectful conversation.
“I continue to open that conversation. You know what? I am not sure that conversation is about us getting to know each other. And I am not sure we know each other as well as we need to know each other.
We Need to Huddle
“Me knowing you, you knowing me because I know, I know, I have reported to the police there must be an imposter running around this campus, making Khomeini-controlled decisions, autocratic decisions in the privacy of his office, just handing them to the Board, and the Board is taking them and saying, ‘Whatever you say, Mark’ and so on.
“That’s not the Mark Rocha, if you have worked with me and come into my office, had a conversation with me, had a cup of coffee with me, certainly that I know.
“We can have a great college to work for, and we will. This is our bump that we are going to have. We have been having this bump for a long time.
“This is our time, our opportunity, to get after it.
“I pledge my good faith in that. I want to start – you see the Board of Trustees’ statement – you can’t kill a guy twice.
“One of the ways to move forward in a disagreement is to look for those things you agree on.”
What Does This Mean?
In a weird outtake, Dr. Rocha said he wished the Ad Hoc Faculty Committee had sent him a ballot when the fulltime faculty was polled and last week voted 92 percent for a no-confidence stance against him.
“I am a fulltime faculty member,” he said. “I teach English.
“If you had sent me a ballot, I would have voted for it, too.
“I would have read all of that stuff and said, ‘Gosh. Absolutely.’ But you know what? Votes, procedures and so on…”
Faculty veterans became angriest when he cast the fissure as a labor negotiation ploy.
This tactic, claiming that labor union dissatisfaction is the cause, is being sprayed about the PCC campus by Dr. Rocha and his allies, a group of indeterminate size but of unquestionable authority.
“As an actual faculty member who is teaching alone upstairs on the third floor, “ Dr. Rocha said, “talking to other adjunct faculty members about how you feel about things, this is what I get from it. This is what I get from it.
“This is what I hear. What is going on? What’s going on? I am just trying to do my job, to take care of my students, to teach my classes, and all the administration does is keep piling tasks – t-a-s-k-s – on me. I don’t understand it, and there is no support. Task after task after task. And there is no support.
“I don’t know if you feel that way. But a lot of faculty I talk to does. And I say, ‘You know what? It’s not supposed to be that way.
“Not to argue the point” – a sure clue that was his objective – “but I propose having the faculty department chairs who are part of the labor union, is to pay faculty to do that work that, I believe, only faculty can do.
“You may disagree on that proposal. But if that is not the proposal, we need to work together on a proposal that would enable faculty who feel the way I just stated to get some help.”
(To be continued)
