“Oh man, you're not going to believe this,” Jason Troia says into the receiver. Troia is the student trustee at Long Beach City College who hasn't made waves, but launched a tsunami against the school's Board of Trustees last week by calling for their resignation in the wake of them cutting 11 of the school's vocational programs.
“They've totally underestimated me,” the 32-year-old trustee says. “They're not going to get away with this.” And the timing could not be more perfect; just a few days after Troia bitch slapped the administration, the Academic Senate released a report that shows the LBCC faculty ain't happy with dem trustees, either.
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In a poll conducted for the report, 66 percent of full-time faculty and 85 percent of professors that were directly impacted by the cuts said they had issues with the discontinuance. At least 75 percent of both groups said the problems were moderately or extremely serious. The Academic Senate also asked the faculty about whether they had experienced intimidation by the administration: 40 percent of full time faculty and 75 percent of those affected by the discontinuance said yes.
“This is where it gets good,” Troia says.
The report clearly recommends that the faculty take a vote of no confidence against the administration in regards to program cuts because of “serious inconsistencies and errors.” The Academic Senate also said that the survey should be included in LBCC's accreditation report that will go out sometime near the end of the summer.
“At this point, I really commend the Senate on their leadership,” Troia says, “The only way we're going to save this is by being proactive.”
As if that won't freak out the Trustees enough, the report also said that if substantial changes aren't made, then the Senate will consider taking a vote of no confidence against LBCC Superintendent Eloy Oakley and the entire board.
Check and mate. More to come, no doubt…
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