Share:

Unhappy with the candidates, the Associated Students made an official request to the Board of Trustees to add more to the final two that have been announced for the PCC president position.In a 7-0 vote, the AS Executive Board recommended that the trustees “supplement the current candidates for president/superintendent with additional candidates for consideration.”

Chief Justice Michael Lance and Student Trustee Brian Abadia also voted in favor of the motion with their advisory votes. Erica Liang and Natalja Karniouchina, vice presidents for student services and cultural diversity, respectively, were not present.

The recommendation came on the heels of a lengthy discussion during which several board members expressed their dissatisfaction with Desdemona Cardoza and Mark Rocha, the two candidates for president selected by the trustees out of the selection committee’s final candidate pool of six.

After getting the opportunity to have dinner with each of the candidates, some felt that both Cardoza and Rocha lacked certain desired characteristics, such as charisma, the ability to make time for students, and knowledge of some of the integral aspects of PCC.

“They’re both not PCC material,” said Jason Herbert, vice president of academic affairs.”This is a special environment and we need a special person.”

“It’s hard to talk to her,” said Vice President of Campus Activities Mladenka Grgic, who was present only at the dinner with Cardoza. “It seemed like she was picking favorites [at the dinner].”

AS Secretary Jamie Hammond, who was present at the student forum with Cardoza, had a different impression of the CSULA provost.

“She made it very clear that she makes time for students,” Hammond said. “We need someone who is pro-student.”

AS President Allen Tsay backed up that statement, saying that he had called several student groups at CSULA, including its student government, to ask about Cardoza.

“The consensus seems to be that she is there for the students when they need her,” he said.

“If you asked me about any of her ideas . I wouldn’t be able to tell you,” said Grgic.

Vice President of Business Affairs Jacobo Quan, who was also present only at the dinner with Cardoza, said, “She only brought up ideas to change the campus. Our campus is not the most technologically advanced campus nor the most beautiful campus, but it’s still a really nice campus compared to CSULA.”

Vice President of External Affairs Robert Morgan, who was unable to attend the dinners, questioned whether or not charisma was really an important characteristic for the president of a college to have.

“It’s bloody important,” said Herbert. “You need someone to inspire students.”

Tsay added that the trustees and the college were “looking to broker partnerships across the community. A charismatic president is needed for those types of things.”

“All the candidates being considered are highly qualified, but they need that extra something,” said Quan.

Current PCC President Lisa Sugimoto’s name was often brought up in discussion as an example of what the ideal college president should be like.

“The current president knows my name and my major, and that’s huge,” said Hammond. “It makes me want to do more things here.”

“It’s impossible to find another Sugimoto, but if we have a model, that’s the line we want to follow,” said Quan.

“The number one thing we need to ask for is time [to consider other candidates],” said Lance. “I don’t think we should reject the current candidates, but we should ask for more.”

“It would be a prudent idea to allow the campus to meet the other candidates,” said Abadia, who sat on the presidential screening committee.

“This is not an emergency,” said Herbert. “We have Captain Sugimoto at the helm of our ship right now. We’re in good hands.”

“The last time the Board [of Trustees] rushed we ended up with [former PCC President Paulette] Perfumo,” he added. “We don’t know, one of these [final two] could be a Perfumo, like a black sheep in disguise.

Follow: