Faculty Victory in 2008 Elections

by Martin Goldstein

If you vote in Santa Monica, as part of the upcoming election on November 4, after the Presidential election and Congressional and state races, and City Council and School Board candidates, you’ll find the candidates for the Board of Trustees of Santa Monica College, along with a local bond proposition for further development and reconstruction of the SMC physical campus, Measure AA.

Even if you don’t vote in Santa Monica, but only work here at the College, both of these matter to you, and you should know why.

The trustees of a community college are the the persons really in charge of the College, unlike those of a university, where they have more distant oversight (and more fund raising obligations).   These 72 local Boards of Trustees of the 72 individual community college districts (some with multiple colleges, like LACCD, with nine) are responsible for choosing the college president and overseeing the administration,  as well as the faculty and staff.  Unlike the UC or CSU system, this is local control, set up that way as an alternative to the two centralized state systems.

Given that these trustees hire and supervise the people we negotiate our contract with, and deal with every day as part of our union responsibilities, it seemed wise for us to get to know them, and to get involved in such a way as to help decide who they are.  In a nutshell, it is in the best interest of our union members for us to help choose and elect them.

Thus beginning eight years ago, the SMCFA (Santa Monica College Faculty Association, the union, us) started to build up our PAC, a Political Action Committee with the ability to raise and spend money on the elections of our college trustees.  We were involved heavily in the endorsement and election of two out of three Board seats in 2004, Susan Aminoff and Rob Rader.  In 2006 we faced a tougher test: there were four seats open, and Tom Donner, a retired former Executive Vice President of SMC, was running.  In order to avoid his being elected we had to win all four seats.

And we did, re-electing Nancy Greenstein, and electing David Finkel, Louise Jaffe, and Andrew Walzer – the latter an ex faculty member here at SMC.  This year it’s easier – there are three seats up and we are supporting for re-election all three incumbent trustees, Susan Aminoff, Rob Rader, and Margaret Quinones-Perez.

We should note that Margaret proved to be a real advocate for faculty during the last negotiations, and any opposition to her we had under Piedad Robertson four years ago has long since vanished.  We have an excellent contract and our trustees helped get it for us, and we appreciate each and every one of them.  We look to the future, and don’t hold onto the past. That, too, is good, even wise, politics.

We as a faculty association are also supporting Measure AA, a bond issue for the continued rebuilding of the SMC infrastructure, some of which dates back to the 1950’s. The K-12 classroom teachers have also supported this, as has SMRR, our Board of Trustees, and many other community leaders.  But as a bond issue in a troubled economic time, nothing is certain, so if you do live in Santa Monica, we urge you to vote Yes on AA as well as voting for Susan, Rob, and Margaret. They are good people, and good friends of public education, of Santa Monica, and of our college.