Share:

The Associated Students has scheduled a vote of no confidence in the administration for its meeting on Wednesday.

The reasons are outlined in a lengthy memorandum of grievances about the administration’s handling of the transfer problems created by the removal of winter session sent to President Mark Rocha by AS President Simon Fraser on Friday.

“Both a motion to censure the college for the calendar change and its impacts, and a vote of no confidence in the administration, are scheduled for ASPCC’s meeting on February 27, for discussion and possible action,” said Fraser in the memo.

When asked for comment on Monday afternoon Rocha responded: “ I would refer you to Dr. Bell for comment on this,” he said by email.

According to the memo, when the Board of Trustees voted to eliminate winter intersession in favor of a three semester calendar on Aug. 29, the Board made multiple assurances that the calendar change would not affect fall 2013 transfers.

The central problem with the change of calendar was a decrease in units available to students planning to transfer because of the elimination of the winter intersession.  UC and CSU do not accept summer classes as transferable units into the concurrent fall semester, and according to the memo the administration did not convert the name of Summer 1 to Late Spring until Feb. 13,  too late for students to use the classes to transfer.

Additionally, the administration never took documented steps to ensure student transfers. “No recorded communication occurred with four year institutions in any attempt to mitigate the impacts on Fall ’13 students,” the memo says.

Because of this the AS has taken the stance that it “will no longer rely on college administration to solve these issues for students,” and the AS “will no longer refer students experiencing difficulties with Fall ’13 transfer to any PCC office other than our own.”

According to Fraser, on Feb. 8 a student contacted AS about his inability to transfer to Humboldt State University, but after AS intervention with the Humboldt admissions director, 48 PCC students now have the ability to use both spring and Summer 1 classes for transferring.

Follow: