VAN NUYS : Valley College Voids No-Confidence Vote

The faculty president at Valley College in Van Nuys issued a letter Thursday rescinding a no-confidence vote taken last month against college President Mary Lee over her decision to reopen the school two days after the Jan. 17 earthquake when other colleges in the area remained closed.

In a letter to the campus, Valley College Academic Senate President Jack Sterk said he was “setting aside” the Feb. 9 vote that he had favored and helped orchestrate. Sterk said the dispute had been rendered moot by last week’s announcement that Lee will assume the presidency of Pierce College in Woodland Hills on April 11.

“Further debate would be unfair and unproductive. The tone of the debate has grown increasingly bitter, hostile and unfortunately personal,” Sterk wrote. “Continuing the debate only threatens to divide the faculty and undermine the support and unity the LAVC faculty should give to its new president,” he added.

Lee has insisted that she acted properly in reopening the campus quickly, saying it was safe at the time and there was no reason to wait. But faculty leaders complained they were not consulted on the decision, some questioned whether the buildings were properly inspected and some just called the timing insensitive.

At an Academic Senate meeting Thursday, Sterk said he still disagrees with Lee over the decision, particularly the lack of consultation with faculty members. But he conceded that there was a question about the standing of the original vote, specifically that there may not have been a quorum of faculty members present, as Lee had maintained.

Sterk said Lee’s critics had been planning at Thursday’s Academic Senate meeting to pursue holding a formal facultywide vote by ballot on the no-confidence motion. But Sterk said the plan was aborted by Lee’s impending transfer, since the faculty could not hold such a vote against Lee once she no longer leads the college.

At a meeting at Pierce College on Thursday, the Los Angeles Community College District’s acting chancellor, Neil Yoneji, told faculty members that Lee’s transfer had nothing to do with the prior no-confidence vote. He said the move was spurred solely by the need to find a replacement for Pierce President Lowell Erickson, who plans to return to teaching.