Academic Senate President Eduardo Cairo ended a two-week dispute over the fate of $2.9 million in funding for student counseling services and signed a document to secure the money after the administration agreed to add recommendations from the senate, Wednesday morning.
Cairo had initially refused to sign the document because he said none of his input had been added to it. He also insisted that he wouldn’t sign it because he said he was only given 24 hours to review it.
“This is how it should have occurred in the first place,” Cairo said on Wednesday. “We met today and the process went really well. The document we will be sending to the [Chancellor of Community Colleges Office] is much better than the original.”
Cynthia Olivo, the associate vice president of Student Services, said that the collaboration between the senate and administration was a testament to the college’s climate improving.
“This is a great indicator that our college is moving forward,” Olivo said. “What a great topic to bring about our unity: student success.”
The grant money would go toward the Student Success and Support Program (SSSP) plan. The goal of SSSP is to increase student access and success by providing more counselors, advising, and other education planning services, among other things.
Olivo got an extension for the school so that the senate could discuss the matter. She said she was happy with how Monday’s special senate meeting went.
The senate voted to support Cairo’s signature to the document at the meeting. While talking about the document, multiple senators said that they would like to hear what Cairo’s concerns were with the document in the first place.
“I would have liked to have seen what [Cairo’s] issues with the document were,” Senator Mark Whitworth said. “I’m sure we would all like to hear what they are so that we could discuss them here.”
Cairo then went through his notes and the senate talked about each of his problems with the document. The senate voted in support of Cairo signing the document after being assured by Olivo that its recommendations would be incorporated into the document.
“If there are any more changes that need to be made we can always send those changes to the [Chancellor of Community Colleges Office] after the document is sent,” Olivo said.
Both Cairo and Olivo said that they believe the administration and senate worked well together during the process in the end and would continue to work well in the future.
“We are looking forward to continuing to work together to make more progress on improving our campus climate and this is a huge step forward,” Olivo said.
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