AS presents no confidence vote to Board

The Associated Students officially presented its vote of no-confidence calling for the removal of the college president to the Board of Trustees on Mar. 13.

[wppa type=”slideonly” album=”17″ size=”0.75″ align=”center”][/wppa]

“The AS has passed two resolutions,” said AS Board President Simon Fraser in his presentation to the Board. “A resolution to censure PCC administration with regards to the academic calendar change of Aug. 29, and a resolution of no-confidence in PCC.”

The official resolution passed by the AS and presented to the Board goes into greater detail on the charges brought against PCC President Mark Rocha’s administration.

In the no confidence resolution, the AS calls not just for censure but for the removal of President Rocha.”…to hold Dr. Mark Rocha, Superintendent/President, personally responsible for the actions and mistakes listed above, and therefore calls on the Board of Trustees to remove Rocha as the Superintendent/President.”

The main basis for the charges is the Board of Trustees removal of the winter session at the Board meeting in August, and the ensuing problems this has caused for the staff and students.

Despite being assured by the administration that there would be no problems with the transfer of summer classes to four year colleges, according to the AS many students have been turned down by UC or CSU because those schools do not allow the use of summer classes for concurrent fall transfer.

According to Fraser, the Associated Students has taken on the work that should have been done by the administration, of hearing student problems with transferring and calling colleges in an attempt to sort out the situation.

John Fraser, the Associated Students vice president for external affairs, announced at a news conference prior to the meeting that on Wednesday afternoon the Student Senate of the California Community Colleges told him that they would also be working to help students transfer.

But the problems that AS has raised run deeper than just the cancellation of winter session, according to its resolution, an include a deeper problem with shared governance.

“[T]his administration has repeatedly failed to ensure [students] right to participate effectively in district and college governance,” the motion says.