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Monique A. LeBleu/Courier
Juliet (Tahj Mason) and Romeo (Kelvin Morales) share love's first kiss in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet at the Center for the
Arts on Feb. 25.
/
Pg. 8
After 20
John Orona
Managing Editor
Senior Vice President and Assis¬
tant Superintendent for Business
and College Services Dr. Robert
Miller will be leaving PCC for a
position in the Los Angeles Com¬
munity College District (LACCD)
as their Vice Chancellor of Finance
and Resource Development on
March 31.
“I’m confident that I can say
without exaggeration that Dr. Miller
has had a deeper influence on Pasa¬
dena City College than anyone else
across our community,” Superinten¬
dent-President Dr. Rajen Vurdien
wrote in an email to staff.
Miller began his career at PCC as
a student in 1973 where he worked
for two years developing a distance
Miller leaves PCC
ears,
Courtesy of PCC archive
education program while earning his
Associate of Arts in telecommuni¬
cations.
After graduating from PCC, he
went on to teach as an assistant
professor for former PCC president
Armen Sarafian at the University
of La Verne while simultaneously
earning his Bachelor of Business
Administration there.
He returned to PCC in 2005 as
the associate dean for academic sup¬
port and has been with the college
ever since, moving up to various
positions before landing his current
position as senior vice president
and superintendent for business and
college services.
In the spring of 2014, amid the
tumult of former president Mark
Rocha’s retirement, Miller was
named interim superintendent-pres
ident.
“This was the only college I
wanted to be president of because
of my close affinity to this institu¬
tion,” Miller said. “I passed over
many head hunting offers for the
presidency [of other colleges] but
when this [LACCD] opportunity
came along the resource develop¬
ment part in particular, and to be of
service in such a large venue ... I
couldn’t pass it up.”
His reasoning for accepting this
new position was an opportunity to
expand his ability to serve under¬
privileged communities.
“That’s what attracted me to the
LACCD job, was to be able to take
my passion, what I’ve been able to
put into effect here at PCC, and
roll that into a district that has nine
colleges and serves 1 50,000 students
a semester and to take whatever
skill, whatever abilities I have and
invest it in a larger arena and in
many respects an arena that has
greater needs than even what many
students have here at PCC,” Miller
MILLER pg. 3
Council votes to drop Brown Act
Screen grab courtesy of Pasadena City College YouTube Channel
The College Council meets in the Circadian on Nov. 30, 2015.
College
Katja Liebing
Staff Writer
The College Coordinating
Council, a shared gover¬
nance committee represent¬
ed by various constituency
groups college-wide, ap¬
proved a motion to exempt
themselves from the Brown
Act, but open government
advocates question the
legality of the move as the
council is a committee cre¬
ated by a legislative body.
The Board of Trustees
created the College Coordi¬
nating Council in September
1997.
According to the Brown
Act, entities governed by
the act include “commis¬
sions, committees, boards,
or other subsidiary bodies
of a local agency, whether
permanent or temporary,
decision-making or advisory,
created by resolution or
some other formal action of
a legislative body.”
PCC President Rajen
Vurdien asked the commit¬
tee members if they wanted
the council to continue
following the Brown Act,
according to meeting
minutes, and reminded the
council that it is only an
advisory committee that
makes recommendations
to him.
The stated reason for
the decision was that not
following the Brown Act
would enable the council
to be more flexible. It was
mentioned that the same
would apply to the standing
committees and that they
would be able to get a lot
more done by being able to
discuss items that may not
be on the agenda.
“[The College Council]
is an advisory council to
the president. They don’t
make decisions,” Vurdien
said. “So it makes it easier.
It makes the committee
more flexible and more
transparent, because we can
add items to the agenda. It
makes it more nimble and
you can add stuff more
quickly and you don’t have
to wait two weeks for an¬
other meeting.”
After a brief discussion,
a motion to exempt the
BROWN ACT pg. 3
Financial
aid overhaul
underway
Amber Lipsey
Staff Writer
Students have expressed frustra¬
tion about the financial aid filing
and disbursement process ranging
from lengthy wait times to receiving
refunds, inconsistent information
from counselors and not fully un¬
derstanding the process. PCC’s new
financial aid director, Manuel Cerda,
hopes to remedy most, if not all, of
these issues during his tenure.
Eva Williams, a student in her
second semester, still has not
received a refund check from the
fall 2015 semester and has become
frustrated with the process and lack
of information.
“I had to appeal, that was some¬
thing strange for me because I never
understood the process I had to go
through for the appeal, I had to get
so much paperwork because I had
so many units,” she said. “I didn’t
find out I had an issue until coming
and standing in line, I never got any
emails or communication that I had
to appeal.”
As the deadline approaches to
begin the financial aid applications
for the fall 2016 term, students have
a new financial aid director to help
them through the process. As of fall
2015, Manuel Cerda was hired as
the new director of financial aid and
has many plans to streamline the
process for students.
Cerda hopes to address many of
Williams’ issues with big plans and
changes for the financial aid office.
“One point of emphasis is tech¬
nology, understanding technology
FINANCIAL AID pg. 3
Battle over privacy and
encryption between the FBI
and Apple heats up
/
pg. 6
Basketball player from
Taiwan finds his way to PCC
/pg.7
