Report Says Orange Coast College’s Wounds Healing

Two years after a review team cited “turmoil and distrust” among the faculty and administration at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, a follow-up team has found “a remarkable change” for the better.

The latest accrediting team, moreover, strongly praised Orange Coast College, which, with 25,500 students, is the largest community college in California.

Both the 1985 and 1987 reports were made for the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, affiliated with the Western Assn. of Schools and Colleges.

The team’s 1985 report had criticized Orange Coast for “political decision making” stemming from an administrative shake-up. Orange Coast and two sister community colleges in the Coast Community College District, Golden West in Huntington Beach and Coastline in Fountain Valley, had major personnel shifts after a new majority was elected to the Board of Trustees of Coast Community College District.

That election came after the previous board had tried to lay off 100 teachers in a budget-cutting move. The teachers’ union, outraged at the layoff, started a political campaign that resulted in the voters electing new trustees.

But subsequent administrative hirings and firings made by the new trustees led to an “administration with no confidence in the faculty and faculty with no confidence in the administration,” according to the 1985 report.

‘Turmoil and Distrust’

The report told Orange Coast College administrators: “You’ve been in a state of turmoil and distrust in which political decision-making--who’s got the votes--has superseded most orderly information-based procedures you once must have had in place. Some of you may find the manipulations and power struggles too exciting to give up.”

Shortly after that report, the trustees appointed Donald Bronsard as new president of Orange Coast College. The new report highly praised Bronsard and credited his administration with much of Orange Coast College’s progress in the past two years.

“There has been a remarkable change in the level of trust and confidence between and among the college constituencies,” the latest report said. “Dr. Bronsard has achieved much in a relatively short span of time.”

It also praised district Chancellor David Brownell for Orange Coast’s financial stability, despite state budget cuts that have caused all community colleges severe problems in recent years.

“The chancellor has achieved something of a miracle, considering the condition of the finances of the district during the past few years,” the report said.

The only sour note in the 1987 report concerned KOCE, the controversial educational TV station operated by college district. Orange Coast faculty have for years urged various boards of trustees to get rid of the station, saying its $1-million-per-year cost to the district is an unnecessary expense.

The latest accrediting report said that “there is little doubt that the majority of the faculty favor divestment” of KOCE.