EASTSIDE : Selection of ELAC President Criticized

The Community College District board of trustees voted unanimously to install Ernest H. Moreno as president of East Los Angeles College, but outside the boardroom his support isn’t so solid.

When the new school year starts in autumn, he will probably face the challenge of bringing together a school divided during the presidential selection process.

Since December, when the trustees began designing a presidential selection committee, a contingent of about 20 students, faculty and community leaders regularly visited board meetings to voice their dissatisfaction with Moreno’s performance as interim president this year. Instead, they asked for consideration of Spanish-speaking Latino candidates with Ph.Ds.

As the committee interviewed and voted on candidates, not all its members were satisfied with the process that led to Moreno’s June 28 victory. Two of the three student representatives said the 20-person selection committee was stacked with Moreno’s supporters from the beginning--college employees who worked directly with Moreno during the previous year and a half while he served as interim president.

“I’m opposed to his appointment because that committee was rigged,� said former student body President Gerardo Pinedo.

Pinedo’s claim is nonsense, said fellow committee member Loch Grant, an anthropology professor who represented faculty for the American Federation of Teachers.

“It wasn’t a setup at all,� he said. “We came in with the attitude that we wanted to find the best president for this campus.�

Grant has worked at the college since 1958, and he says he has never seen a more fair and open selection process. Nor has he seen a more committed president than Moreno.

But Pinedo and former student body Vice President Marcela Arias said that Moreno often placed student interests second during the past year and frequently denied their proposals. In one instance, Moreno opposed a popular student plan to bring in an outside food vendor because the cafeteria--which was losing money--could only stay open until 1:30 p.m. from Monday through Thursday.

“He’ll tend to side with the unions before he’ll side with students,� Pinedo said.

Pinedo has it all wrong, Moreno said.

“I put students first,� Moreno said. “Decisions that are rendered sometimes have to be rendered because the law and labor contracts require those decisions.�

Moreno is a veteran manager with 12 years experience as the board of trustees’ chief negotiator in labor disagreements. He says he is proud that under his leadership as interim college president, student enrollment increased by about 10% to more than 15,000, making it the largest college among the nine in the district.

“There’s an expertise to doing the job of president,� said Moreno.

The coalition of students and community leaders disappointed by Moreno’s victory, which includes Monterey Park Mayor Rita Valenzuela, say they would have preferred a president with a greater understanding of the students’ concerns in a school that is 73% Latino.

“We wanted somebody who had the sensitivity,� said Sarah Flores, assistant chief deputy to Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who served together with Valenzuela on the president’s community advisory council. Flores and others criticized the selection process, saying that the committee passed over strong candidates with doctoral degrees who were Spanish-speaking Latinos; Moreno is half Latino and cannot communicate in that language fluently.

Several Moreno supporters said they thought it was in poor taste to judge Moreno on the basis of his ethnic background. Roberto Zuniga, a member of the Chicano Faculty Assn., said he thought Spanish skills a relatively unimportant criterion.

An inaugural ceremony for Moreno is planned for early November.