Surprise Outside Choice Named to Head Santa Monica College

To astonished gasps from faculty members and employees, the Santa Monica College Board of Trustees on Friday passed over a popular college administrator and named the Secretary of Education in Massachusetts as the school’s new president.

Piedad F. Robertson, who has had a controversial tenure as Massachusetts’ top educator since 1991, will take over the 22,000-student campus July 1, replacing Richard Moore, who left last year to become head of a community college in Las Vegas.

Although the trustees told a packed auditorium that Robertson was the best choice, her naming to the $115,000-a-year post was not well received. More than half of the 100 people in attendance gasped when Robertson’s name was announced and several people shouted “Oh, no!” and “How could you?”

“I’m going to go home, put a pillow over my head and cry,” said Ruth Logan, chairwoman of the college’s life sciences department after the announcement. “This is going to devastate the campus.”

The Cuban-born Robertson was chosen over the faculty’s favorite for the job, Darroch F. (Rocky) Young, a vice president at Santa Monica College, and a Texas educator.

“I know a lot of people are going to be upset by this,” said Patrick Nichelson, chairman of the college Board of Trustees. “But our thinking was we needed a more global approach to lead the campus in where it’s going. We feel Dr. Robertson is the right choice.”

In an interview from Miami, Robertson said she understood the reaction. “It’s natural,” she said. “I understand that Rocky is an exceptional person. I will call him next week and I hope to establish a good working relationship immediately.”

Faculty members say Robertson’s record is not as convincing as the college trustees would like to believe. Her four years as head of the Massachusetts education system had their stormy moments. In 1992, faculty representatives from several state colleges gave her a vote of “no confidence” because of her handling of budget cuts.

And while president of Bunker Hill Community College in the late 1980s, she was criticized for hiring business associates from her home state of Florida to do consulting work at the Boston school.

Robertson said the “no confidence” vote came a year after she started in a school system that was broke. “The faculty had gone five years without a salary increase,” she said. “There was no money. We had cutbacks of 23%. They had to blame someone.”

In 1993, she directed a successful reform of Massachusetts’ kindergarten through high school public school system and set accountability standards for schools to follow.

Robertson said she wanted to come to Santa Monica College because “it’s a great college with a solid reputation.” She said her first priority will be to heal the rift caused by her appointment.