Students Disillusioned About Problems at College District : Education: Some worry that their futures will be hurt by administration shake-ups and embezzlement allegations.

Sighing, Ventura College student Erik Anderson stuffed Leatherette diploma jackets with congratulatory letters from the college president and talked about “cleaning up” the Ventura County Community College District.

A round of arrests, firings and resignations amid allegations of improper bookkeeping and embezzlement by administrators have caused students to lose faith in the district, Anderson said Tuesday.

“It winds up affecting us,” said Anderson, a first-year engineering student. “A lot of students don’t feel they can rely on the faculty. . . . A lack of restraint is affecting their futures, and a lot of them are angered by it.”

Business student John Scherling, 30, of Ventura, agreed.

“The impression I have about the governance of the district is it’s the joke of the state--that’s what a lot of the faculty have told me,” said Scherling, who served on the search committee to replace retiring district Chancellor Barbara Derryberry. “We have to get someone in here and straighten all this stuff out and get the district back on its feet.”

Anderson and Scherling were among several students from Ventura, Moorpark and Oxnard colleges who said Tuesday that district administrators should be replaced with people who are more responsible.

Among the problems administrators are facing:

* The continuing embezzlement trial of former district Trustee James T. (Tom) Ely and his wife, Ingrid, accused of padding their expense accounts with thousands of dollars involving personal trips and purchases.

* The pending resignation of district Vice Chancellor Tom Kimberling, accused of faulty supervision of district funds that led the Internal Revenue Service to levy $65,000 in penalties and interest against the district. Kimberling also was sentenced to 60 days in jail after he pleaded guilty to beating his wife.

* The trustees’ move May 21 to fire Moorpark College President Stanley L. Bowers and reprimand Vice President Lawrence Lloyd for allegedly sidestepping pension and union regulations by paying two employees with money funneled through the Moorpark College Foundation.

* The recent announcements by Derryberry, Ventura College President Robert W. Long and 17 other district employees who want to retire early to take advantage of an incentive program of a type commonly called “the golden handshake.”

It sets a bad example for two major administrators to retire at such a turbulent time for the district, said Lea Shadburn, 33, a photography student at Ventura College.

As for the allegations of mismanagement and embezzlement, “I think it’s appalling,” Shadburn said. “I think again and again you have to reevaluate the system.”

But although some students called for a housecleaning of the administration, many said they were too busy studying for final exams to take notice of the district’s problems.

“I’m buried in my books. I haven’t read a newspaper in the last week,” said Ventura College microbiology student Barbara Gregg, 40, as she studied color photographs of amputated toes. “But from what I’m hearing, I’m disappointed in the chain of command.”

Several Moorpark College students said they believe that district trustees made Bowers the scapegoat for their own wrongdoing.

“What he did wasn’t grounds to have him removed . . . but he’s becoming some sort of fall guy,” said Jeff Tucker, 19, of Camarillo, a sophomore political science student and a member of the Moorpark College Student Body Assn.

“The policies they’re saying were broken had never been enforced,” said Glen Becerra, 24, of Simi Valley, a sophomore history student at Moorpark College. “Now they’re saying, ‘We have to enforce them, or heads are gonna roll.’ ”

“By going after Bowers, they’re taking the focus away from themselves and putting it back down on the campus,” said Becerra, who is statewide president of the California Student Assn. of Community Colleges. “I’d like to see their books. I think an audit should be done on the trustees.”

“I think he was too good an administrator to lose,” said Jerri Hartley, 45, of Thousand Oaks, as she waited for a freshly fired clay pot to cool and take on a special finish inside a can filled with newspapers.

“I don’t know why suddenly all of this stuff has been hitting Moorpark College,” Hartley said as wisps of smoke rose from the can. “It’s really a well-run college. I think it’s a shame.”

But fellow potter Chris Turk disagreed.

“If he’s doing stuff against district policy, he should be reprimanded like everybody else,” said Turk, 22, of Simi Valley. “Whoever’s in charge needs to take a long look at the policies and who’s taking care of the money for the school. They might need to bring in a whole new administration. . . . I feel they’re using us and our money for things that aren’t correct.”

“I think (Bowers) should hang, that’s what I think,” said Mitchell Holmes, 20, an Australian student who has been living in Camarillo and studying psychology at Moorpark College for 1 1/2 years. “They need to get an administrator in here that’s willing to work with the faculty and students. The thing about Stan Bowers is you didn’t know who he was on campus” until news accounts of criticism against him were published, Holmes said.

And some worried that the scandals would hurt the image of the three community colleges.

“It’s hard for the students to have any kind of respect when our leaders . . . can get themselves in that kind of situation,” said Toni Charbonneau, 47, a Ventura College photography student. “How can you have any values?”

“People that have never been to the college will have a worse impression,” said Hortencia Hernandez, 37, an Oxnard College accounting student. “We have very good teachers in this college. . . . But people will probably think that everybody’s involved.”