Guest Opinion | Kristin Pilon Cuatt: Rudeness, Bullying and Lack of Decorum at PCC Board of Trustees Meetings

The Trustees of Pasadena City College are elected by the citizens of Pasadena. In an unprecedented election last year, three incumbent Trustees were voted out by the citizens. The Faculty had voted “No Confidence” against the President, Erika Endrijonas, for the handling of safety protocols during the Covid epidemic. Trustee Sandra Chen Lau called this a “wake-up call for the college.” There seemed to be a need for some new energy at the college, after Covid, unhappy Faculty and a general decline in the population among college-age individuals hit PCC hard. Enrollments dropped by around one third. After the 2022 elections, it looked like there would be some new ways of “doing business” and that could be a good thing.

So, what happened? How embarrassing for the College—and President Endrijonas, that this new energy has only resulted in infighting between the employees and the Board of Trustees. From the start, requests by the new Board members for transparency in planning and financial matters were met with resistance from the “old guard.” Steve Gibson, a new Trustee, was accused of being racist after he questioned an expense on the agenda last summer, although it was unknown who the vendor was until much later. Trustees have been accused of “dereliction of duty” by Management employees who have virtually no overlap with the Board’s activities. 

Could this be a response to Management employees being denied a COLA raise by this same Board? Could the Management employees be reacting to the Board’s curtailment of the President’s contract? Could the President herself be encouraging this push back against the Board for this same reason? Whatever the cause, it shows a serious lack of respect for the elected Trustees, and it is resulting in infighting and a lack of collegiality on campus. 

The President clearly does not have her priorities in the right place. She needs to take charge and diffuse this situation before it costs the college another ding to their Accreditation. She is the college’s top manager, and she needs to handle her management team and get their concerns resolved. There should not be such a display of antagonism and rudeness at every other Board meeting. Let the Trustees do their job, and focus on building back Pasadena City College’s enrollments and programs. The college employees need to work as a team with the Board put the student’s needs first. 

Kristin Pilon Cuatt is a retired Professor at Pasadena City College and a long-term Pasadena resident