The Academic Senate of PCC represents the faculty of the Pasadena Area Community College District. Its primary function is to make recommendations with respect to academic and professional matters.
The approved resolution “is intended to bring attention to and public accountability for the pattern of failed leadership at PCC during the global coronavirus pandemic.”
The resolution specifically cites Dr. Erika Endrijonas’ requirement — “and, by extension, the Board of Trustees” — that teachers return to in-campus teaching on January 24, “during the worst surge of the ongoing health crisis, and ignoring the distinct danger the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 posed to Faculty, Students, and Staff.”
At the time, the PCC Faculty Association wanted to delay the return delayed until February, but Dr. Endrijonas said the timing of the return was non-negotiable. Endrijonas’s requirement that the campus be re-opened and in-person classes restart led to weeks of turmoil on the campus which included teacher demonstrations, talk of a strike, and teacher absenteeism.
“Many faculty and students at Pasadena City College are very upset at being forced to return to in-person classes earlier than other local colleges and while Omicron was still surging,” wrote faculty member Shannon Maraghy. “We are a college that talks a lot about equity, but a one-size-fits-all policy of forcing people to return to campus is ableist and far from inclusive. For students/faculty who are immunocompromised or have vulnerable family members, coming to campus is literally a matter of life and death.”
In early February the PCC Faculty Association announced an agreement had been reached “on several key points” and that faculty members who teach face-to-face were expected to return to campus to teach their regular schedule beginning February 7.
Monday’s no confidence resolution approved by the PCC Academic Senate said the Senate “has no confidence in the judgment of Superintendent-President Erika Endrijonas and the ability of Dr. Endrijonas to maintain a healthy shared governance system, implement major changes responsibly, behave in a fashion which adheres to the highest ethical standards, follow the data-driven public health policies in a way that ensures the highest safety standards and appropriate consideration of the health of and potential hardships and trauma experienced by Faculty, Students, and Staff of PCC, provide effective leadership to the campus community, and/or communicate accurately to the Board of Trustees the recommendations of the Academic Senate and the input of the campus community.”
Dr. Endrijonas issued a statement Monday evening following the vote.
“While I disagree with the outcome of this vote,” Endrijonas wrote, “I absolutely support the Senate’s role in representing the views of its members in the life of the college. This is shared governance in action, which in my view is one of the most important principles guiding California’s community colleges.”
Get our daily Pasadena newspaper in your email box. Free.
Get all the latest Pasadena news, more than 10 fresh stories daily, 7 days a week at 7 a.m.
4 thoughts on “PCC Academic Senate Passes Vote of No Confidence in Superintendent/President Endrijonas”
Jan/Feb of 2022 reopening? That is in dispute?? Meanwhile thousands of PUSD students have been happily back in class with no catastrophic outcomes. Sounds like PCC teachers cannot comprehend basic math.
I am sick and tired of these lazy teachers pushing this narrative. There are almost no PCC students who don’t want to go back. The professors are selfish and entitled, and seem to forget that K-12 has been back for nearly a year now. PCC is the only community college in the state that still requires masks both OUTSIDE and in person. PCC is also hemorrhaging tax dollars on the stupid weekly COVID test requirement. Both need to go if they want enrollment to return to pre COVID levels.
The Academic Senate is run by a bunch of fear mongering pansies who have no business being in leadership positions. COVID is here to stay, and they need to start treating it as such.
I don’t know where these two other comments are coming from but I welcome this vote of no confidence put forth by the Academic Senate, the Superintendent/President was completely out line in her God awful handling of the return to in person learning. The fall semester model of students who needed to be in campus should have been kept as opposed to tossing everyone together all at once.
I have no clue what this “Anonymous PCC student” is talking about, as far as I have seen and among the students I have interacted with the overwhelming majority of students prefer the current online model for certain classes that don’t require face to face meetings. Those that wanted to return were a minority, aside from those few students, the only others pushing for a return in person were the useless student elects and the horrible administration department of the college.