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The Board of Trustees extended Superintendent-President Mark Rocha’s contract through June 30, 2017 this week, granting Rocha the same pay raise of 4.79% over two years recently approved by the Board for all the administrators and classified staff.

“This will insure that we will have [Rocha’s] effective leadership through our reaccreditation effort, the full implementation of our Educational Master Plan and the development of our facilities Centennial Master Plan,” board president John Martin said during the Board’s Oct. 7 meeting.  “The entire Board is grateful to [Rocha] for guiding PCC safely through the state budget crisis and maintaining PCC’s high student success outcomes.”

Student Trustee Simon Fraser abstained from the vote, noting that he hadn’t been involved in closed session discussions about Rocha.

The Faculty Association voiced its displeasure with the Board’s decision to approve a raise for Rocha and not for them. Faculty Association president Roger Marheine said that the FA was “very saddened” that the Board had “turned its back” on the Faculty.

“Obviously the Board has dismissed us and not given a distinguished faculty the respect that they deserve,” Marheine said. “The FA is most concerned that the district has refused to negotiate pay raises for full time and part time faculty across the campus. We are disappointed that the district has chosen not to give us a proposal that would meaningfully improve the lives of faculty on campus.”

The FA did not agree with the elimination of winter intersession, which sparked tension between it and the administration.

However, during Rocha’s time here at PCC, there have also been many bright spots. Last year, Pasadena City College won the State Chancellor’s Award for Student Success for its Pathways Program that has significantly increased student achievement and has grown to over 1,500 students.

This fall, PCC will have offered more class sections to students than any other time in the college’s history, according to Senior Vice President Robert Miller.

“I am very grateful to the Board for its support,” Rocha said. ““We have the best faculty, staff and managers [here at PCC] than anywhere. I am more optimistic and hopeful about PCC’s future than ever.”

Philip McCormick
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14 Replies to “Board of Trustees extends president’s contract”

  1. The real joke is the campus security officers making 120,000. Are you serious? That’s a scam. An admin sergeant and patrol sergeant? And 5 officers? I have never seen them. Always hiding out.

    1. Rocha is worst president in history of PCC.
      Received 3 different overwhelming votes of NO CONFIDENCE.
      PCC in disarray, Voter-approved Prop 30 funds in jeopardy, students leaving in droves, Million dollar Rosemead Campus half-empty, campus calendar fiasco an embarrassment to Staff, Lawsuits, Porn Professor Scandal!
      And yet, he gets 1/4 Million $$

  2. PCC “will have offered more class sections” because PCC admins have decimated class sections, thru killing winter session and fowling up summer. PCC is desperate to regain its numbers, or their Prop 30 money will be lost.

  3. Three years ago, who could have foreseen a mess like this? No self-respecting fortune teller would predict such a screwed-up situation, courtesy of the worst president in PCC history.
    Now the Board rewards his mis-managed reign? Incredible.
    What a fantastic story–its cast of characters is a grotesque Fellini-esque carnival of the paranoid leader, pompous autocrats, oblivious Trustees, naive sycophants. Every week there’s a new folly on this herky-jerky ride down into Lost Accreditation.

    1. Rocha’s salary of $235K is less than one and a half times the salary of some of the highest paid faculty members. He may actually be underpaid. In comparison, Mark Yudof who is stepping down from the chancellorship of UC was making $600K, and will probably be drawing a pension that is equal to Rocha’s salary. The pension plan of PCC’s faculty, CalSTRS, is $166 BILLION in debt. That’s more than the entire Calif. state budget, half of which goes to education. (and the faculty wants a raise and thinks that voters are on their side?)

      https://www.pasadenastarnews.com/2012/02/25/pcc-releases-salary-data-faculty-raked-in-4-million-in-overtime-in-2011/

      1. It’s the pension conspiracy lady again! (Ahem)
        Let’s avert our gaze and smile pleasantly till her bus comes.
        Tea party, indeed…..
        /////
        BTW, Rocha now earns more than the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court,
        More than the Governor of California!
        /////
        PCC’s trustees must be in that very strange place where one pours money into a “lemon” car, rather than junk it. “I’ll pretend there’s no problem, for just a little longer….” The more cash thrown away, the bigger the reluctance to start over.

      2. Bear Stearns/ Lehman Bro:

        See how they try to discredit you, but you are right and many of us see that it’s all about greed for $$$ on the part of PCC “faculty”

      3. Blame $116 Billion on PCC faculty?
        Country-slide is a definite kook!
        The college is not in an upheaval over faculty pay. What has brought the campus to its sorry condition are Rocha’s mismanagement and his repeated violation of shared governance.
        Suggest you read before you comment. Read how he earned his No Confidence votes. Then think. Then comment. (Perhaps a refresher class or two at PCC would help…)

      4. “hilarious,” you do not understand shared governance.

        Shared governance does not mean shared decision making.

        However, PCC faculty are in violation of shared governance as they do not “consult collegially” but instead throw public tantrums that are a total embarrassment to the entire PCC community.

        If you want to talk $$$,

        how about that $4 million money grab by PCC faculty?

        https://www.pasadenastarnews.com/2012/02/25/pcc-releases-salary-data-faculty-raked-in-4-million-in-overtime-in-2011/

      5. When his lone supporter (Hi, Gail) cannot reply to charges that the President’s salary is an inappropriate use of funds, she turns to alleging that the faculty are overpaid, that it’s all a pension plot, etc, etc.!
        Every teacher’s salary has been frozen for 7 years, (and part time teachers just saw their hours cut), while Roacher receives guaranteed automatic pay hikes (sans review!) and even gets a handsome bonus when he quits.

  4. absolutely pathetic. “effective leadership”? what is the criteria for that?! and is HE responsible for student success outcomes now? is teaching and grading and advising now part of his job duties?! Trustee Martin, we haven’t passed accreditation yet!!! Now even the Senate needs to get a mediator to deal with the administration, just like the Union!

    Mr. McCormick: you may want to re-evaluate the ‘many bright spots’. You mention only one- Pathways that serves only one kind of student population. As for offering the most sections, maybe they OFFERED the most – sure. But then they CANCELLED the most due to LOW ENROLLMENT! Enrollment has gone down

    And what about the Project 90 goals? Those targets have magically been lowered to make them more tangible.

    We don’t need to do the math to know this Board SUCKS for giving him another year – again!

    http://www.thefrontpageonline.com/articles1-13543/PCCBoardSaysItDoesNotCareWhatthePublicThinksofRocha

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