Three candidates are running for the Area 1 Board of Trustees seat and have begun campaigning ahead of the election scheduled for Nov. 5.
Three new candidates Dianne Philibosian, Alex Keledjian and Ross Selvidge are vying for the open seat currently occupied by Geoffrey Baum, who will not be seeking reelection.
Philibosian has 40 years of experience as a university administrator and professor in the CSU system and said she would like to see more PCC students university bound.
“During my 14 years of service on the PCC Foundation Board, I developed a deep appreciation of the true gem we have in our community,” Philibosian said. “PCC offers private school quality in a public setting. My primary commitment will be to continue that legacy for generations of students bound for university and for the workplace.”
The candidates have all stated that they intend to help the students as best they can.
“We need to maintain the current quality of education at PCC,” said Selvidge, who went to PCC when he was younger. “Students have to be able to concentrate on classes. I hope it gets better.”
Keledjian, 19, who is the youngest applicant running for the seat by far, said that he believes that being a student currently at PCC gives him a tremendous advantage.
“It’s a huge plus,” said Keledjian. “I’m the only candidate who has been affected by their winter intersession cut, by the budget cuts, by the protests. All of that has affected me as a student. I’m bringing a different type of perspective and a different pair of eyes and a new way to try and think about what our 30,000 plus students need.”
Student Trustee Simon Fraser said that he hoped whoever wins will be prepared to collaborate with students.
“They will be responsible for setting policy that will be effecting 30,000 [students.],” he said. “I look forward to working with whoever is elected.”
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Pound-for-pound…I think Beth Wells-Miller was the finest trustee thus far. She slept through the election cycle the year she was “tossed.” Beth had no idea she lost the election, until showing up to a Board meeting, only to discover her seat filled with another human !
Philibosian is friends with current trustee Jeannette Mann – that’s enough for me! Selvidge, who went to PCC “when he was younger” – well, I’m sure times at PCC were much different. Even in the last 4 years, PCC is much transformed (for the worse– with the mismanagement on campus, the haggard-running faculty-administrators running from meeting to meeting clutching their iPads, the student protests, the removal of administrators who disagree openly with people at the top, threats from the Board to “revisit” the Associated Students funding as soon as they start to pipe up…)
Where does that leave PCC? With Mr. Keledjian, a teenager! But who at least has the political savvy to show up to every single Board meeting, start making the rounds at the faculty senate meetings, and to take a picture in AT PCC.
Ignore her, anyone with the name ‘madame senator’ is obviously a maroon, so I would suggest doing the opposite of everything she suggests.
Why ignore? Madame speaks the truth.
She’s a “maroon” …Hahaha