Pasadena City College, consistently rated as one of the Nation’s 10 Best Colleges by the Aspen Institute, is at a critical and pivotal junction heading into the June 7th election. This election will determine or undermine whether PCC retains its ranking as the #1 Community College in California.
With critical issues such as recovering from COVID-19, getting students back into the classrooms, keeping up high performance expectations and breaking ground to expand one of the largest community colleges in the country to an even higher level, now is NOT the time to reinvent the wheel solely for personal gain or for a trustee members opportunity of a future higher political office.
Steady proven leadership guided PCC through the worst pandemic of our lifetime and this steady proven leadership has a very transparent plan and vision throughout the community to assure positive growth moving forward.
The most important part of this vision is to assure every student that they are the most important part of the institution. The voters can also reassure the students of PCC that in this election one renegade trustee member will not put them second to anyone or any entity. As a former restaurateur I know firsthand why new restaurants do soft openings for family and friends. They are not ready for prime time and they are not experienced enough to serve their future customers at the level of expectation.
That is the situation that voters are presented with in this election. I’ve learned from 40 years in the restaurant business that the most important aspect of running a successful operation is consistency, communication and dedication to the basic fundamentals of the job at hand. These basic fundamentals were put to the test during COVID-19.
People stayed in their homes and many worked from home. Restaurants, theatres and retail stores suffered unimaginable losses. Enrollment dropped at every school in America. Though classes were offered on Zoom not every student took that option. When California and LA County lifted the pandemic restrictions on our schools six of the seven PCC trustees put students first and voted to put them back into the classroom. The state said it was safe and the students wanted to get back into school. Berlinda Brown, Linda Wah and Dr. Anthony Fellow put their students first.
PCC’s student results are among the best in the state and the nation. Recently PCC ranked:
1st in California and 5th in the nation in minority students earning an AA/AS degree.
1st in California and the United States in the number of associate degrees awarded to Asian American students.
1st in California in the number of associate degrees awarded to Latinx students.
These outstanding results didn’t happen because the PCC trustees performed badly. Linda Wah won a statewide award for her dedication to uplift women students. Berlinda Brown pushed and collaborated with Pasadena City Councilman Tyron Hampton and John Muir Principal Dr. Lawton Gray to successfully establish a PCC Northwest campus at John Muir High School for the Northwest Pasadena community. Berlinda Brown’s campaign promise to the community has become a wonderful reality.
I have personally known Berlinda Brown for almost 20 years. She is the epitome of the true American success story. An immigrant from Costa Rica, Berlinda first studied English attending night classes at PCC. Berlinda went on to work as a healthcare professional for the USC Medical Center before retiring to enter public service. The Berlinda Brown that I know and respect is a tireless worker for the underserved and for the students at PCC. She has twice led the Board of Trustees as their President and has served on many neighborhood, school, county and state leadership boards.
Linda Wah has a passion and dedication for students and education that is an inspiration to everyone who meets her. Linda has always put students first and has been incredibly instrumental in increasing college access to every student interested in going to PCC. Linda Wah is so highly regarded by her peers across California that she has been voted to serve as the President of the California Community College Trustees Board of Directors and in 2021, Linda was elected to the Association of Community College Trustees Board of Directors, serving trustees across the United States.
My good friend, Dr. Anthony Fellow is one of the most accomplished people, let alone college trustees, that I have ever met. Tony is finishing his 28th year as a professor and administrator at CSUF, where he established the Florence Summer Media Institute, which is now the university’s largest summer study abroad program. He teaches courses in media history, media law and politics. Tony also founded the Summer International Media Workshops in Florence, Italy and directs the departments graduate program with the University of Hong Kong. He has written three books and has received his M.A and Ph.D degrees from USC’s Annenberg School of Communication. Vice Mayor of El Monte, City Council…I could go on and on.
These three Board of Trustees have worked tirelessly with Dr. Erika Endrijonas, the President of Pasadena City College, and their fellow trustees, Tammy Silver, Jim Osterling, John Martin to reopen PCC back to its expected excellence after the pandemic and to reassure the students that they are the priority moving forward. It takes a team effort to achieve the highest results and I can’t think of a better team captain to lead this team forward than Dr. Erika Endrijonas. Faux leaders hide behind outside special interest groups. Real leaders make the tough decisions, the right decisions and don’t worry about the myopic naysayers. Leadership is defined not by what you say you will do but rather by what you have done. This is the right team at the right time to lead Pasadena City College forward for decades to come for our city, our kids and our grandkids.
My restaurant in Pasadena was like a barbershop in the community. People would hang out, talk, gossip, ask opinions and some would even order food. Some of my former patrons and friends have asked me recently who I am supporting, voting for and why in the June 7th election.
I urge every one of my tens of 1000’s of former customers and ongoing friends throughout Pasadena, Arcadia, Altadena, San Marino and South Pasadena to exercise their right to vote and re-elect to the PCC Board of Trustees:
- Berlinda Brown Area 3
- Linda Wah Area 5
- Dr. Anthony Fellow Area 7
Robin Salzer
Pasadena City College Student
40 year Pasadena Resident
Former City Commissioner
Founder-Pasadena Hot Meals Program
Retired Owner of Robin’s Wood Fire BBQ
Realtor-Dilbeck Estates
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2 thoughts on “Guest Opinion | Robin Salzer: Re-elect Berlinda Brown, Linda Wah and Dr. Anthony Fellow to the PCC Board of Trustees”
I’ve taught at PCC for 25 years. The College’s enrollment is worse now than I’ve ever seen it, especially for in-person instruction. I’ve heard no plan for fixing this crisis, and the current administrators were unprepared for it. All this developed and happened under these trustees and this president. They’ve been busy creating new vice president positions and laying off faculty while the campus has become a ghost town. Walk around the campus on a weekday and see for yourself. Or just drive through the parking structures and notice that (even with entire levels closed for covid testing) the once notoriously crowded lots are now always mostly empty.
The PCC Board of Trustees was meeting safe online in January and February while forcing faculty and students into harms way of COVID19, without any explanation why they had to go back to the classroom when they’ve been educating on Zoom just fine. They wanted to wait 2 weeks until Omicron peak passed, but no. The students dropped from classes because they didn’t want to compromise their families at home. Is THAT student success??? There was NO one checking testing status before students got into classrooms or buildings. What’s the point of mandating testing then? It was a complete reckless shitshow for anyone who was *actually* there and invovled,