Time to Govern SMC Democratically

By Ryan Flegal

In the United States of America, democracy is our most basic right. Democracy is our basis of governing from the White House to City Hall. We believe that the people should not just have a voice, but also a vote, in how our public bodies make decisions. Why then should Santa Monica College be any different?

In an effort to keep control of public colleges in the hands of the public and the population they serve, state law mandates a system of “shared governance” on each public college campus. This means that the people who make up the college population -- the students, the faculty, the staff, and the administration -- work together with the community to achieve the best results for education. Working together means that all of these groups should have full participatory roles in shaping campus policy and decisions with real votes.

At Santa Monica College, in contrast to state law, this does not take place. Under the current structure of campus hierarchy, shared governance is impossible. It is impossible because the college president, who is hired and fired by the Board of Trustees, is in control of the Board of Trustees herself.

Who sits at the head of the table during Board Meetings right next to the Board chair? The college president. Who writes the agendas for the Board of Trustees meetings, thereby shaping what issues the Trustees will or will not address? The college president. On top of that, the college president doubles as the college district superintendent. The executive, judicial and legislative branches of government are all wrapped up under one person.

The college has done a good job of making it appear that shared governance takes place. After all, there is a student member on the Board of Trustees. But the student trustee, elected to serve the interests of the 30,000 plus students of Santa Monica College, is not given a vote at board meetings. The Lookout's recent article (SMC Slashes Jobs, Sept. 16, 2003) quotes current student president Chason Smith’s frustrations which are echoed year after year at SMC. The students are only invited to the negotiating table when there are not any decisions to be made.

The faculty has clearly expressed how dismayed they are having taken the extraordinary step to advance a clear majority vote of “no confidence” in the college president/district superintendent. Did the Board of Trustees address their concerns? No. Did the trustees open a review of the college president and evaluate whether the faculty’s concerns were valid? No. Instead the trustees countered the faculty vote by voting their support for the college president.

The staff (all the people hired on campus that are not faculty or administrators) has had to resort to picketing on Pico Boulevard. My heart goes out to the staff employees who are working so hard to find a local solution to the budget shortfall handed down from Sacramento. Rather than see 18 of the staff members laid off, the staff voted to propose a voluntary pay cut to make up the difference and keep full student services and college operations functioning.

But the Board of Trustees didn’t say, “wow, thanks for working with us on this to meet the budget in a tough year.” No, the trustees vote unanimously to lay off those 18 hard working staff members and then leave their attorney/administrator to talk to the staff about possible options. Options like you, the staff, give us all of your concessions up front and we will promise to maybe or maybe not give you what you want in return. Unfair and undemocratic.

Because this is a college campus, the educational soul of our democracy, this all seems even more unfortunate. The college campus is filled with professors and thinkers and people who know the history and have the tools to shape the future for the betterment of education and the community.

These are people who have been hired precisely because they have the knowledge to teach solutions to strengthen our society. The faculty, staff and students have really great ideas and proposals that fall on deaf ears on an administration that has been so separated from the voices on campus they decided they might as well move their offices blocks away down the street.

The college campus should be the incubator for democracy. Santa Monica College and our community can only gain from a balanced separation of powers and an increase in influence from the campus and the community.

It is time that the voters hold the Trustees accountable and the trustees open the decision making process to a true shared governance, not just the college president. It is time to govern Santa Monica College, in the interest of the community it serves, and with the democratic voices that serve our community.