10/10 2:00 p.m. Alameda College

sworn in in June, 2017

January, announced petition for ballot for election; began process of collecting signatures. “very brief campaign period” then election period. When people went to vote, they didn’t have to prove that they were a current student. “People only had to show a student ID or a state ID to show that they were themselves. But that name was not verified as to whether or not they were a current student that was eligible to vote. So these were the underlying problems that I planned to address, but I know from past experience that I needed this position in order to address them.

“My experience of running is an example of everything that’s wrong. When I went to that mandatory meeting,…. I said you’re advertising the campaign period as half as long as the election period… no campaign events…. Nobody knows what they’re supposed to vote on. So what if you give them four weeks to vote? You only give them 2 weeks to find out what they’re voting for.

Q: How respond? Can you just general categorize it?

A: So, the one word would be dismissive. I know from my experience, that I’m often seen as divisive and negative, but from my pov I don’t see anything that’s negative about telling the truth and holding people accountable.

This has been an ongoing, like four years of fighting for free and clear elections. The first year I ran, I had to get the League of Women Voters. they came and they said ‘yeah, this is a sham election. We’re going to come and shut down these Laney elections. But we’ll give our rubber stamp approval to these elections…. so then there was a special election the following fall… then the same problem’s happened, no campaigning, no advertising…. the chancellor’s been aware of these problems for years. No campaigning. No advertising. We have the same policies with so many holes in it, and yet the bd. of trustees, when I was protesting this election, the student election, they were content to say this is not our job. This is what we’re going to do.

And yet, at the same time, what else are you going to do other than holding the administration accountable? Student representation is not optional; it’s a standard for accreditation. There are four requirements for accreditation, and this is one of them.

Q: To the gnl. public, the elections to the bd of trustees, this not the main election that catches their attention…. but start to see importance with A’s stadium. Makes you wonder what has been going on in background?

A: I don’t know what I don’t know….

Q: About campaign finance disclosure forms.

…..

Q: about A;s stadium. “Could you just give us your view of the proposal?”

A: There have been no proposals to me as a student trustee…. That’s the thing, I don’t know much of anything because I tend to work in official channels so officially nothing has happened concerning Peralta, other than that letter that was given to the chancellor and published at the last board of trustees’ meeting, which had a cover letter attached to it saying that the A’s siting Peralta as the preferred site which said that that letter was given to them at 6:30 p.m. We didn’t get it till 8 o’clock. So there are members of the public who were aware of this thing that board members were not aware of.

Q. What are your view of the chancellor entering into negotiations?

A. It’s premature in the sense that it’s not the chancellor’s position…. The students have a right to participate in the decision making process… That’s why we have ten plus one because all of these decisions that affect students — the students have a right to participate in the decision making process…. So what I’m saying is that you cannot leave the students out of the decision making process, legally, morally, … It’s unclear to me why the district has not organized a district wide survey of the students, some informational sessions…. Different organizing events — a lot of them come at the last minute, different organizing announcements… I’d love to do a survey of just the e mails that are blasted out — how many of them are for that same day? or the next day? How much notice do students get for important things? I mean, very little notice…. (they say) this is the feedback we get, but really it’s disingenuous.

Q: Your view of concept of stadium from Laney

A: Not even that it’s across the street. It’s that they — an entertainment industry — want to usurp public land and educational resources. That on the face of it, it’s not only absurd…

Q: Some of us are concerned that Laney might not survive that.

A: The only A’s I want to see anywhere near Peralta are the ones that accumulate and add up to a 4.0 gpa. that’s the only A I want to see at Peralta.

Q: Background of Fisher — real estate developer, gentrifier, ally of DeVos. Is that a matter of concern?

A: Of course. The don’t even have to hold such a high status. Just the concept of a private enterprise coming to usurp the public trust is ridiculous. I mean for anyone to propose that there’s some benefit in the cost-benefit analysis — I would have to tell them that they’re either incompetent or corrupt. You’re either trying to convince me of a lie or you’re a fool yourself. We see examples across the country of communities being destroyed, for what? I mean, for the private sports entertainment. I mean, we need a better future that doesn’t rely on sports entertainment. We need a more sustainable future. We need better jobs. If you as leaders, whoever you may be, these big owners of companies and whatnot, if you cannot imagine something better, then we can. It is possible. And I know that I’m personally going to settle for anything less.

We need to come together to build that vision. No-one is going to live it out on their own…. In some ways I’m disappointed. In some ways I’m disappointed that we’re talking about the dysfunction at Peralta… being in classrooms where we don’t have enough desks for students, or being in classrooms where there isn’t enough funding for a model in a drawing class…. there are so many doors that haven’t been fixed in years and we’re not talking about that, we’re talking about the A’s…. I’ve heard a lot of talk about the solution that the A’s can bring — money for this or that. And our problem at Peralta isn’t a lack of money, it’s the lack of will to do the right thing. It’s the lack of will to be honest and transparent. So that’s what I’m excited about because there is so much energy and attention being paid to Peralta right now, there’s so much opportunity to use the stage to point out those other problems that we have. So that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to talk about student elections. I’m going to talk about accreditation.”