At the time it began, many people speculated that this study was merely a perfunctory one designed to justify a decision that had already been made: namely, that Palomar College needs yet another vice-president, this one to be called Chief Information Officer.

Of course, that is exactly the conclusion that the consulting group reached and displayed prominently on the first page of its report. Any vice-president needs a bailiwick large enough to justify the lofty title, and the consulting group certainly provided one, in the form of an organizational chart that regroups existing services and provides several new ones. The many layers of the new chart do not include even one faculty position, although another new administrative position—a deanship—is conspicuous. The cost to get a new vice-president and support staff up and running at a community college of Palomar’s size is usually estimated at about $250,000; the cost for the new deanship and support staff usually runs to about $200,000. This proposed “reorganization” will probably cost in excess of a half million dollars--just to get started. Those costs and others will, of course, be yearly expenditures, not one-time payouts.

Several unwelcome consequences can follow from the creation of such a new vice-presidency and its attendant bureaucratic labyrinth. Instead of four vice-presidents—already too many—the college would have five. The major effect on the educational program would be that the voice of the Vice-President of Instruction in campus policy making would be further diluted by twenty-five percent. It makes no sense for an educational institution to limit Instruction to one-fifth of the institutional decision-making voice. Classroom activities already receive far less than their share of attention, as a glance at the school’s budget will reveal.

Further, as already indicated, such a fifth vice-presidency comes with a price tag, quite a high one. New staff and their new salaries and the new facilities to house them will take scarce dollars out of the classrooms and add them to what are already heavily bloated administrative expenses. Dollars spent on administrative growth do not trickle down into the classroom; they never have. Instead, classroom dollars are siphoned off, as is very scarce physical space.

Perhaps most disturbing is that creating such a new, expensive administrative construct would give even greater impetus to the “corporatization” of Palomar College, pushing it further into a business model that is inimical to the sound educational model upon which the college’s best traditions have been built for over fifty years.

Finally, very few community colleges (the study cites only twelve) have such a vice-president or its equivalent, and for good reason. Keep an eye on this issue as it develops over the next few months. If the past is a good predictor of the future, the current Board of Governors will approve whatever the college president puts before it—without public discussion.

Nancy Chadwick, Mark Evilsizer, and Rebecca Faubus pledge to deal with this issue openly and publicly; they will not simply rubber stamp an administrative dictum, especially such a high-priced one. Click to view North County Times version of this article

First, the Board has begun holding closed sessions an hour before the regular starting time of 7:00 pm. After an hour behind closed doors, the Board members and Dr. Amador, college president, emerge to approve item after item with absolutely no discussion. These early private meetings--so-called "executive sessions"--create at least the appearance, and some would say the reality, of violating the Brown Act.

Second, the Board has recently put in place several new rules that make it more difficult for the public to participate in the open sessions. Those who wish to address the Board must fill out a card--different colors for different topics--indicating just what issue or question they want to raise. If two or more community members indicate they wish to speak on the same topic, they must choose only one speaker to speak for all of them. Then, all approved speakers, regardless of how many or few there are, must adhere to a strict time limit. Finally, when public turnout exceeds the capacity of the regular meeting room, the Board refuses to move to the college theater, which would easily hold the largest of groups, and instead asks some people from the community to leave the original room under threat of calling the Fire Marshall to remove them.

Nancy Chadwick, Mark Evilsizer, and Rebecca Faubus pledge to bring back the American ideal of free and open meetings to Palomar College Governing Board Meetings; they will welcome and encourage public participation by the community members they represent.

Nancy Chadwick, Mark Evilsizer, and Rebecca Faubus pledge to be more fiscally responsible and to spend money in ways that will improve the academic excellence and integrity of the Palomar community.