State Official Asks Compton Board to Resign

Making what he called an effort to win a “stay of execution” for Compton Community College, the state’s top community college official Tuesday urged the troubled institution’s board of trustees to resign, saying it might help persuade accreditors to give the school extra time to fix its problems.

The academic agency that evaluates the state’s two-year colleges announced this week that it planned to revoke Compton’s accreditation at summer’s end, a move that could force the closure of the school, which serves 6,600 students.

State Community Colleges Chancellor Marshall “Mark” Drummond made the appeal to the five-member elected board during an emergency meeting late Tuesday before a worried crowd of students, faculty and community members packed into the college’s student lounge.

The trustees had made no decision late Tuesday about whether to resign, said Cheryl Fong, a spokeswoman for California Community Colleges.

The board members will make their decision “keeping in mind the best interests of the community,” she said. “They’re all thinking about what needs to be done, whether this will involve any personal sacrifice.”

The trustees heard from Drummond and others about possible options a day after an accrediting commission of the Western Assn. of Schools and Colleges decided to strip Compton of its accreditation. The ruling is scheduled to take effect Aug. 19, to allow students to complete summer classes.

Without accreditation, the college cannot receive state funding, the primary source of its operating revenues, and its students would no longer be eligible for federal financial aid.

State and college officials say they are hoping to find ways to appeal the decision and to keep the college operating. Among the options, Drummond said, are contracting with a nearby community college district to hold courses at Compton’s campus, or merging its governing district with another district.

At the same time, the chancellor said, he expects his system’s board of governors and the college to take the first step toward a formal appeal by requesting that the commission review its decision.

“We’re going to have to pretty much go after all these options at once,” Drummond said before Tuesday’s meeting. “We don’t have enough time to wait for one option to succeed or fail. We’re going to have to work on the appeal at the same time we talk to these other districts.”

Tuesday night’s meeting was attended by several hundred people, many offering testimonials about what the college meant to them. Speakers implored the trustees and the state to do whatever they could to keep the campus open.

“The vision that we have all worked so hard for cannot be pulled out from under our feet,” said Pieter Van Niel, a drama professor at Compton for 34 years. “I guarantee that we will win this battle ... whatever needs to be done, including personal sacrifice, will be done.”

This week’s action by the commission came six months after it placed the college on “show cause” status, a probationary footing that requires an institution to demonstrate why it should not have its accreditation revoked. Barbara A. Beno, the commission’s executive director, said the college had not adequately addressed continuing problems.

In previous reports, the commission detailed many of the same issues, including Compton’s fiscal mismanagement, inept administration and inadequate evaluation of its faculty.

Last year, the state chancellor’s office took over the college and placed it under the control of a special trustee. The move, which followed the discovery of a budget shortfall of about $300,000 and the repeated failure of administrators to turn in a required audit, stripped the elected board of power. The board has continued to hold public meetings, although its role is now advisory, and it has continued be a lightning rod for criticism.

Before the meeting, Compton’s faculty senate and an employee federation confirmed a vote of no confidence and called on trustees to resign.

State officials also took steps Tuesday to stabilize the college’s leadership, appointing a representative of Drummond’s office as interim president. Jamillah Moore, the state system’s senior vice chancellor for governmental and external relations, was appointed to replace Rita Cepeda, who is leaving at the end of the month to become president of another community college.