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A FIRST AMENDMENT PUBLICATION Volume 120 - Issue 7
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Former football player gives back...................PAGE 7
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
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Preparing for Union Presidency
Nominees debate platforms for upcoming elections Jordan Utley-Thomas Roundup Reporter
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andidates debated in the Great Hall April 17 in order to woo faculty members in a campaign that will decide the next Pierce College union chapter president of the Los Angeles College Faculty Guild, American Federation of Teachers Local 1521. Turnout was high as faculty gathered around tables for talk and lunch, with one executive board delegate remarking that she “had never seen so many at one of these meetings before.” “Our guild could not function without thoughtful membership
stepping forward to fulfill various leadership in the guild,” said former Chapter President Bill DeRubertis, who also served as a moderator for the debate. First to speak was Fernando Oleas, department chairman of the modern languages department. Oleas recounted his four-year experience as a grievance representative, involvement on the union’s executive board and participation in various committees for over half a decade. He also mentioned the Associated Students Organization’s decision to reward him with the teacher of the year award in 2011 and his political involvement, citing his support for proposition 30 being his “biggest accomplishment”.
“To vote for prop 30 was to save the education system,” Oleas said. Joseph Perret, professor of computer applications and office technologies, spoke after Oleas in the debate. He mentioned his past committee work as well as his experience in the Academic Senate and as a Fortune 500 executive at Litton Industries. Perret modeled his speech off of what he calls “the three P’s”: Peace, Participation and Progress. “Peace” refers to Perret’s goal to harmonize relations between the Academic Senate and the union. “Participation” involves replacing presidential appointments with input from the union and allowing membership to have a say in regards to the union’s political
Erick Ceron / Roundup
Union Presidency candidates: LEFT- Fernando Oleas MIDDLE- Joe Perret RIGHT- Mitra Hoshiar spending. “Progress” means increasing faculty pay and benefits from Pierce’s current position in the lower third of the state to the upper third. “No matter which one of us wins, we’re going to have a great president,” Perret said. Last to speak was Mitra Hoshiar, associate professor of sociology. A recurring phrase in her speech was
Farm Walk: Animals paraded on Mall
“shared governance”. For Hoshiar, it is important to bring shared governance to the union by spurring creativity in management and allocating resources to departments in a “fair and consistent manner.” Hoshiar also invoked her involvement on the Pierce Diversity Committee for eight years and her immigration from Iran to the United States after earning her bachelor’s
Foundation considers downsizing staff Jessica Boyer Roundup Reporter
Nicolas Heredia / Roundup
Pierce President Kathleen Burke and Leland Shapiro pet 3 month old Jersey dairy cow Mae behind the Great Hall Monday, April 21.
Campus hosts two marquee events on same day Annual Farm Walk and Vintage Market to take place Sunday Tim Toton Roundup Reporter The Los Angeles Pierce College Farm Walk and Topanga Vintage Market will share the campus on April 27, but running both events on the same day is causing confusion about parking, security and costs.
Parking and shuttle buses
Dr. Leland Shapiro, chair of agriculture, is under the assumption that they’re going to have market parking on the other side of campus and the Foundation for Pierce College will finance shuttles. “When they asked me if we could do the same day I said, ‘Well, I need parking Lot 7 for me,’” Shapiro said. Foundation Financial Manager
Kathy Zanghi agrees there will be shuttle buses to help with parking, but disagrees with where visitors park. “First come – first served,” Zanghi said. Floriya Borzenkova, the senior program director for the Foundation, said they were planning to make market patrons park in Lot 1 but said they cannot control where someone parks their car. “We just have to put some signs up that say, ‘Additional parking this way. Shuttle buses available,’” she said. Topanga Vintage Market cofounder Lori Wolf Rotblatt said she wasn’t comfortable telling her patrons they might be shuttled from a parking lot to the market. “The shuttle idea is not our
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idea,” she said. “At this point we will follow.”
Health and safety
Organizers agree the cost of security is higher because officials are being cautious. “Last year I paid $750 for sheriffs. Now they want to charge me $2,200 and I don’t have any money,” Shapiro said. But the Foundation maintains that the Agriculture Department is raising money and can therefore pay. “The new procedures, according to the [Los Angeles Community College District], is that everybody that does anything has to pay,” Zanghi said. Shapiro said the sheriffs are hired here anyway, seven days a week, 24 hours a day.
NEWS: M.E.N.D.
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“We have a contract with them,” he said. “Why am I paying for time and a half for seven hours of security for a fundraiser for the college? It doesn’t make sense.” Zanghi said Paul Nieman, director of Facilities at Pierce is responsible for the [Farm Walk] security and they’re going to have volunteers with radios tuned in with the sheriffs. “They’re worried -- I understand. I’m not knocking that down because I want everybody to be safe. But it should be paid for by the college, not my department,” Shapiro said.
Money raised and spent
Shapiro said all the volunteer workers at Farm Walk have meetings every month for a whole year to put it on. [For the full story visit theroundupnews.com]
at Tehran University. “It was a huge cultural change, but it went fast,” Hoshiar said. “I can’t believe it’s already been two decades since I’ve been here.” I’m giving back to my community.” The final event of the meeting provided an opportunity for faculty to question the three candidates. [For the full story visit theroundupnews.com]
The board of the charitable arm of Pierce College is considering laying off an employee to save funds. The Board of Directors for the Foundation for Pierce College met Wednesday, April 16 in the Student Services Conference Room to discuss the future of the organization. They were unable to come up with a resolution and will resume the discussion at the next meeting on Thursday, May 15 at 4 p.m. “We might want to consider laying Kathy [Zanghi] off,” said Donna “Obie” Slamon, board chair of the Foundation’s Board of Directors. “I don’t want to do that, possibly she can collect unemployment and she had said she would be willing to volunteer, come in and work because her job is pretty vital here.“ Zanghi is the account manager for the Foundation and opted to be laid-off by the Board in order to save funds. “I can do the same, if it comes but this way, we can save money in the general funds, if it comes to this,” said Floriya Borzenkova, senior program director for the Foundation. Borzenkova and Zanghi are the only paid employees of the Foundation, costing about $5,775 so far in April from the general funds. The Foundation currently has about $11,000 in the general funds, said Zanghi. The Foundation’s general fund relies on certain grants and donations including the Amgen Foundation Grant that brings in $9,600 per year. They also have a restricted fund where the funds are allocated to specific programs at the college. “When you give money to the Foundation, we make it clear that this should be given to the Foundation for Pierce College,” Norm Chapman, a board member, said. “If given to the college instead of the Foundation, we have no idea what they will do with it
‘Downtown’ because that becomes District money, when you give it to the Foundation, absolutely if someone wants to support the Agriculture Department or the Music Department, the Foundation has to legally give it to that organization or entity in the college.” Chapman said they have $700,000 of restricted funds that the board cannot touch. “All of us feel this way, it has to be done the way the donor says it has to be done when the money is given to the Foundation,” Chapman said. Many organizations on the campus use their funds from the Foundation to run their programs, one being the Farm. “The Farm would not exist without the Foundation, the Farm Walk would not exist without the Foundation, the students who work at The Farm would not be there without the Foundation,” said Leland Shapiro, department chair of agriculture and natural resources. Borzenkova suggested that the Foundation needs an attorney to help with contracts. Other members also suggested bringing more people with fundraising experience onto the Board of Directors. Brian Chase, the previous parttime director of the Foundation in 2010 was approved as a new board member at Wednesday’s meeting. The meeting took place Wednesday at the request of the Board Chair of the Foundation’s Board of Directors, Donna “Obie” Slamon, as she will be out of town Thursday. “If the administration is not here, I don’t want people thinking that they don’t support us or they didn’t want to be here,” said Slamon. “They have a regular schedule. Hopefully somebody will be here.” Rolf Schleicher, vice president of Administrative Services and Kathleen Burke, president of Pierce College were unable to be reached for comment. “If you have a strong Foundation, it’s a great support system for the school and we can do a lot more than what the school could do on its own,” said Slamon.
A&E: Thursday Concert
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