One year ago the Tower published my opinion: “For the second time in three years the Peralta Colleges Foundation (PCF) fall fund-raising dinner has been canceled. Together with the spring golf tournament, these annual events raise scholarship money for Peralta students… The current co-Presidents’ actions have damaged the Peralta Colleges Foundation’s reputation and ability to support Peralta students. I think the PCF Board of Directors should vote to remove them.”
The Peralta Colleges Foundation’s Board of Directors have not changed their leadership and, despite receiving most of their funding and support from the Peralta Community College District (PCCD) Chancellor, operate without any oversight by the PCCD Board of Trustees. 
Recently the PCF’s new Executive Director eliminated the Executive Administrator position without warning on a Friday afternoon. The PCF’s Executive Administrator was responsible for all student scholarships and faculty grants. Jessica Keahey was told the decision to eliminate her position had nothing to do with her performance, it was not the new Executive Director’s decision, and to leave immediately without finishing her work. 
Keahey was the only Foundation employee that knows the campus scholarship coordinators and the procedures and the software to process students’ scholarship applications. 
Among her many duties, she traveled to all four campuses to give application workshops for students. Because of her skills and outreach, applications have continued to increase from a few dozen to over one thousand. Now all scholarship awards will be delayed until someone organizes the volunteer readers’ committees, distributes the essays and collates the results. 
This year, the major fundraisers for the Foundation were hastily scheduled by an interim Director, poorly promoted due to limited time, and had lower turnouts than previous years. 
The result is less money for scholarships to Peralta students and grants to Peralta faculty.
Few of the Peralta Colleges Foundation’s Directors attend the PCF fundraisers or interact with its staff. I doubt they understand how their leadership’s decisions negatively impact students’ success in all four Peralta Community Colleges.
Contact Co-Presidents Karen Friedman and Gary Foss at ktfriedman(at)gmail.com and gcfoss37(at)gmail.com, respectively, and contact new Executive Director Kevin Kosik at kkosik(at)peralta.com.

Mark Corbett Wilson is a former member of the Peralta Student Council.