Community College District Control

* Re “Trustees Give Chancellor Authority to Hire, Fire,” Nov. 11, and “Part-Timers Teach More at County’s 3 Colleges,” Nov. 27.

I am one of a dwindling number of full-time teachers in the Ventura County Community College District. In the past 15 years, the number of full-time teachers in my department has gone from 10 to five. The department has managed by hiring many part-time teachers, as well as by canceling classes when qualified teachers could not be found.

I am writing to make the citizens of Ventura County aware of the cause-and-effect relationship between the two articles highlighted above. From the day he was hired, Chancellor Philip Westin has always had total power over employment decisions. Asking the Ventura County Community College Board of Trustees for approval has always been a minor formality for him--a rubber stamp, if you will. What the trustees did last month was to simply remove the last vestige of control they had over employment decisions in the district. In reality, they had turned that power over to the chancellor long ago.

Therefore, the chancellor has had the freedom to hire additional administrators and attorneys, secure in the knowledge that the board would approve of them. Under his tenure, the number of administrators has increased by 38%. With all this money going to pay nonfaculty, is it any wonder that there is no money left to hire full-time teachers?

The public must pressure their elected representatives, the trustees, to reassert control over the district and fulfill their fiduciary responsibilities to the taxpayers of Ventura County. Our district should have as its No. 1 priority the welfare of our students. How does hiring more administrators help students? Clearly, Chancellor Westin does not have the students’ best interests at heart. He should be replaced.

JOY KOBAYASHI

Chemistry Professor

Ventura College

Ventura