A Little Optimism, Please

Mission and Pierce colleges have both made strides this past year in putting controversies behind them and repairing rifts with their surrounding communities. Backed by a majority of recently elected members on the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees and a new district chancellor, the two colleges so far support the claim that this is not the same old community college district--the one that is usually accompanied by the words “troubled” or “beleaguered.”

At Mission College, district officials last week named four finalists for the presidency and invited each to hold public forums on campus this week.

Such an open and inclusive process goes a long way toward healing the divisions caused by the board’s rejection last year of three candidates recommended by a campus and community search committee.

Choosing the best person to lead Mission College will still be up to the trustees. But opening the process gives the community and the candidates a chance to assess the challenges--and promise--ahead.

The key word here is “ahead.” Everyone involved needs to look forward, not rehash last year’s failed search.

The same goes for Pierce College’s effort to develop a master plan.

When Pierce President Rocky Young took office last year, he walked into a battle over what to do with the campus’ 240-acre farm. Pierce’s neighbors treasured the land as open space and as a last vestige of the San Fernando Valley’s agricultural past, but dwindling enrollment in the college’s agricultural program had prompted the previous president to propose putting in a golf course there.

Young scrapped the golf course and started from scratch on a master plan not just for the farm but for the entire campus.

He welcomed the public late last month to an introductory forum on the plan. By June, the team of outside consultants brought in for the study will present three distinct alternatives for how best to use the farm. The college will again hold public hearings. Young hopes to make a formal proposal to the district board by October, in time to benefit should a bond measure tentatively planned for the November ballot pass.

“The hardest part is convincing people that I don’t have a secret plan, that I am open to all alternatives,” says Young of the planning process at Pierce. “Because of the history, it’s hard to overcome people’s skepticism.”

Skepticism has its place. But a new board, a new chancellor and new presidents deserve a chance to show what they can do. For now, moving ahead, not arguing over past mistakes, is one of the challenges facing both the colleges and the community.