Candidate for
Member of the Board of Trustees; Los Angeles Community College District; Office 5

Within the chambers of the existing Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees, I have seen how board members have lost touch with our campuses. In reality, board members really do not understand the intellectual or academic problems at the colleges, and seem to have very little knowledge of theory to improve conditions. Our colleges are creating a new generation of non-communicators who will later end up in society; breaking every rule opposed to good human communication. In other words, students are not being socialized into society via traditions. And therefore education needs to be guided to increase the understanding of dialogue and advanced discussion so that students may develop socially, culturally, and intellectually. Personally, from my observations, the present board of trustees has not shown a strong conviction to stop the high number of college drop-outs. When elected, the task of motivating student to stay in school will be a priority. The present board does not understand that there are many jobs available for people who have vocational training. For example, there is a need for nurses and nurses training. Vocational classes that have been removed need to be replaced. More recently, the governor plans to increase tuition from $11 dollars a unit to $24 dollars a unit, and the board is silent on this matter? The students and the communities main concern is to have a representative who is sensitive to their needs. From the bottom of my heart, I regret that I did not win this election yet may I thank all of the seventy-thousand people who voted for me. I ran for the L.A. College Board because I saw too many injustices. For example, there were administrators, some Department Chairs, and some teachers who were absolutely cruel and mean with me and who refused to allow me to teach full-time. It is a fact that you cannot win an election when you have big money people who buy elections just to oppose you and to maintain their elite. Some just want to be in office for the wrong reasons. Another problem which resulted in my defeat was a low voter-turn-out. Too many people have lost fate in Democracy when they continue to realize that candidates with the most money usually become the winners. Nonetheless, in the future, I will likely run again since this race was so successful with 40% of the vote on my side. In a quote from Theodore Roosevelt, he said, "It is not the Critic who counts, not the one who points out how the strong man stumbled or how the doer of deeds might have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred with sweat and dust and blood: so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know neither victory nor defeat".