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Another petition pursues removal of community college professor as academic senate president

Fresno City College campus

Credit: Ashleigh Panoo / EdSource

A new petition to remove Fresno City College tenured communication instructor Tom Boroujeni from his role as president of the school’s academic senate is circulating among senate members.

It’s the third petition calling for Boroujeni’s removal as president after an EdSource report revealed in November that he was found to have committed an “act of sexual violence” against a professor and colleague at nearby Fresno State in 2015.

Theater design instructor Christina McCollam-Martinez started the current petition on Feb. 12 and has pushed her colleagues to support Boroujeni’s removal.

“I think they’re hoping it all gets swept under the rug and disappears,” McCollam-Martinez said. “It’s not going to happen.”

The academic senate president works with the college’s administration in setting academic policy and hiring faculty and represents the senate and faculty at college, districtwide and public meetings.

Boroujeni is not able to fulfill the duties of president because he is on administrative leave, McCollam-Martinez said in her petition. State Center Community College District, parent agency to Fresno City College, placed Boroujeni on involuntary administrative leave on Nov. 30, a day after EdSource’s report and in response to professors canceling class.

“As there is no set date for his return, the Academic Senate as a body has been severely handicapped, as has the Academic Senate’s voice,” McCollam-Martinez’s petition reads.

McCollam-Martinez urged her colleagues to sign the petition at a February academic senate meeting; she also reminded them to do so via email twice. She’s even sought signatures by displaying the petition alongside other senate documents at meetings, including Wednesday’s.

“I’m just going to keep at it,” she said, adding that she hopes senators recognize the need for Boroujeni’s removal.

According to the senate bylaws, removing an officer requires a written petition detailing the rationale for removal with at least 25% of the senators signing the petition to trigger a vote. If enough senators sign the petition, 50% must be present and 75% of those present must vote to remove Boroujeni as president. The Fresno City College Academic Senate averages around 70 members.

So far, 12 of the required 17 senators have signed the petition to remove Boroujeni in order to “move forward from these current challenges and continue (the Academic Senate’s) valuable work without further disruption.”

Obtaining signatures proves difficult

Since the senate bylaws address the resignation or removal of an officer, but not what to do when an officer is on leave, a petition is the outlined process to remove Boroujeni as president.

Anthropology professor German Loffler submitted the first petition in December, but during a January meeting, Jackie Williams, the senate’s president-elect and acting president, said Loffler withdrew the petition, a statement she has since corrected. According to Williams, Loffler clarified during another academic senate meeting that his petition was not withdrawn but that he stopped collecting signatures because the senate was able to conduct its business.

McCollam-Martinez technically started the second and third petition.

Williams originally told EdSource that the current petition by McCollam-Martinez was the second; however, Williams clarified Thursday that McCollam-Martinez revised the rationale of her first petition. It would have been more accurate to say that she was the second petition writer, Williams said.

Obtaining signatures has been the greatest challenge.

The second petition by McCollam-Martinez argued that Boroujeni be removed because of the allegations against him as well as his inability to demonstrate professionalism and ethics, among other reasons.

“Everything that’s been happening has been affecting the respectability of the Academic Senate as a whole,” McCollam-Martinez said about the rationale in the second petition.

She learned that many senators didn’t — and wouldn’t — get on board with the language, in part because the sexual misconduct investigation reported by EdSource wasn’t public knowledge.

The Nov. 29 EdSource story included Fresno State’s justification for releasing a redacted copy of the act-of-sexual-violence report under the state’s Public Records Act. The report said, “Given that Mr. Boroujeni remains active in the educational community and is teaching at a local community college, there is strong public interest in knowing that a college instructor has been previously found to have committed an act of sexual violence at another university.”

Still, some faculty remain hesitant to sign, McCollam-Martinez said.

She likened resistance from some faculty members to an ostrich sticking its head in the sand to avoid facing problems or the truth.

“For whatever reason, they don’t want to cause any turmoil, so instead of doing anything, they shove their heads in the sand,” she said.

Another explanation for the lack of support, McCollam-Martinez said, is that some senators may not want to sign the petition if their department faculty do not agree.

Meanwhile, Fresno City investigations continue

Three other women at Fresno City College filed complaints against Boroujeni, who characterized them as allegations of “gender discrimination.” When the community college district put Boroujeni on paid administrative leave following EdSource’s report, the district launched an investigation as well.

The investigations continue, according to district spokesperson Jill Wagner in mid-February. She said she couldn’t discuss the complaints or Boroujeni’s administrative leave because they are personnel matters.

“Investigations take time,” Wagner said. “When they are resolved, we don’t necessarily talk about it because it’s still a human resources matter.”

Boroujeni has taught at City College since 2015, the same year he began his academic career at Fresno State as a graduate student and adjunct instructor. The alleged victim is also a professor and Boroujeni’s colleague at Fresno City College.

Fresno State opened its investigation based on the federal anti-discrimination law known as Title IX, records show. The investigation determined that Boroujeni committed an “act of sexual violence” in 2015. Fresno State made its findings in 2020 when he worked as an instructor at City College and Fresno State.

The State Center Community College District learned of the sexual misconduct investigation when the alleged victim requested a no-contact order against Boroujeni, which was granted in the spring 2022 semester. There was no communication between the schools about the matter until the request for the stay-away order.

The Fresno State case was not taken into account as Boroujeni achieved tenure and became senate president at Fresno City College in 2023, even after the district investigated the request for a stay-away order and found that sexual violence occurred.

Urging her academic senate colleagues at Fresno City College to support Boroujeni’s removal, McCollam-Martinez said her latest petition includes irrefutable facts: Boroujeni cannot fulfill his duties as president because he is on administrative leave.

Even if the 17 signatures are gathered to trigger the vote for Boroujeni’s removal, senators must “stand for something” in order to meet the 75% required vote, she said.

“The problem’s not going to go away,” she said. “The vote is not going to do anything unless they take their head out of the sand and stand for something.”

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09/06/2025
Cal State’s online transfer planner aims to ease burden on community college students

Credit: Delilah Brumer/EdSource

From complex general education requirements to early application deadlines, transferring from community college to California State University, Northridge proved to be a confusing process for Vanessa Rivera. Now, as a graduate intern at the Los Angeles Pierce College transfer center, Rivera works to support other students on their paths to the CSU system.

“I was a lost college student, and I was really intimidated to seek help,” Rivera said. “This led me to a career path in counseling, (for the) ability to benefit lost college students like I once was.”

With hopes of helping ease the transfer process for students like Rivera, the CSU system opened its new online CSU Transfer Planner for all California community college students in January.

“A large gap exists between the number of students who intend to transfer, and those who do,” said April Grommo, assistant vice chancellor of strategic enrollment management at the CSU Chancellor’s Office.

A complicating factor has been the lack of standards between systems. For example, the University of California has not had a systemwide transfer guarantee for community college students, and students considering transferring to Cal State have separate and different requirements for that system.

According to an August 2023 report from the Public Policy Institute of California, only 19% of community college students who intended to transfer did so within four years, and only 10% did so within two years. Grommo said she hopes the new transfer portal will help bridge that gap.

“The CSU Transfer Planner was designed to create a more efficient and accessible pathway for students to transfer to the CSU,” Grommo said.

The planner allows students to map out their coursework and general education requirements, enter test scores, view articulation agreements, explore program offerings and check if their GPA meets the requirements at their target campuses.

According to Grommo, the tool is tailored to help students figure out their individual paths so they don’t waste time and money taking unnecessary courses.

“With the CSU Transfer Planner, community college students can directly connect to their future CSU campus of choice early in their educational journey, and ultimately minimize credit-loss and maximize time-to-degree completion,” Grommo said.

As of the end of February — less than three months after the portal launched — more than 9,500 students had created Transfer Planner accounts, according to Grommo.

The planner is a great tool for students but has yet to see widespread use because of how new it is, according to Sunday Salter, the transfer center director at Pierce College and a member of the CSU Transfer Planner implementation committee.

“We want students to have some certainty,” Salter said. “A lot of students feel unsure in the transfer process. Our hope is that this tool will help them feel really confident in what is expected of them.”

Samantha Watanabe, a third-year liberal studies major who recently transferred from Cuesta College to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, said a program like this would have really helped her while she was transferring.

“My last semester, I had to take seven classes just to get into Cal Poly because I wasn’t paying attention and didn’t really know that there were other requirements for Cal Poly. So I think a program like (the transfer planner) would have definitely aided me,” Watanabe said.

Navigating transfer requirements is a difficult task for students across the nation. In Virginia, a new dual-admission program is working to address this problem and might ultimately serve as a model for California’s university systems.

The CSU and UC systems also have recently launched dual-admission programs. First-time freshmen entering a community college can apply for the CSU Transfer Success Pathway program through the transfer portal.

Transfer center counselor Ashley Brackett at Allan Hancock College said she is excited about the planner, noting that it provides a huge opportunity for students.

“I’m stoked that they finally have created something similar to what the UC has already had for a really long time,” Brackett said.

The University of California system has a similar online planner for community college students to track their progress and requirements for admission to a UC.

The UC Transfer Admission Planner is connected to the UC application, allowing students to keep track of their progress and apply for their school of choice all in one place, according to the UC admissions page.

The CSU planner will eventually be connected to the CSU application just like the UC planner is connected to its application, according to Grommo.

As the planner continues to develop, Salter said the Pierce transfer center will host events to introduce it to students who apply for the next CSU admission cycle, which will begin in October.

“I’m really excited that the Cal States have done this,” Salter said. “It centralizes communication between the universities and the students, and I’m looking forward to watching it expand.”

Ashley Bolter is a fourth-year journalism student minoring in French and ethnic studies at Cal Poly. Delilah Brumer is a sophomore at Los Angeles Pierce College majoring in journalism and political science. Both are members of EdSource’s California Student Journalism Corps.

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09/06/2025
Finding community at community college

Los Angeles Pierce College

Credit: Delilah Brumer / EdSource

When I decided to enroll in community college, I saw the experience only as an avenue to attend a local four-year university. Due in part to the stigma surrounding two-year colleges, I went in with the mindset that I would just get through my time there; the possibility of enjoying it seemed unlikely and unimportant.

What I’ve found is completely different from those expectations. As a student at Los Angeles Pierce College, I’ve discovered a supportive network of peers, professors and counselors, as well as an environment of accessibility and excitement for learning.

Having transferred from Northwestern University to Pierce, my views on college have been informed by two very different worlds — a private university known for academic rigor and Division I athletics, and a commuter college defined by a range of student ages, backgrounds and goals. With this perspective, I’ve realized that not only is the community college experience a real college experience, but for some students, it can be better than what they might have at a four-year university.

At Pierce, I feel at home in part because the college actually reflects the demographics and culture of my home city. I feel more welcome and engaged in places that are as economically, racially and ideologically diverse as Los Angeles. My community college isn’t removed from the city around it. Instead, it is intertwined with the experiences and identities that make L.A. unique.

On the academic side of things, community colleges provide the flexibility that is ideal for many students, without sacrificing quality of education. It has been incredibly encouraging to take my more challenging classes not in intimidating lecture halls, but in classrooms of 25 students with professors who are happy to discuss their course materials, research and education journeys.

From writing about the Pierce Brahmas baseball team with my fellow student journalists for the weekly school newspaper to learning about Kepler’s laws in a small, interactive astronomy lab, I’ve developed a community at Pierce, even though I’ve only been here for three months.

As my peers have told me, my experience is not an anomaly.

For Juliette Hagobian, a first-year student at Pierce, community college has offered time to reflect on her career goals and further develop her hobbies. She’s found friends and mentors in the English department and restarted the school’s poetry club.

“The essence of [community college] is that opportunity for us to collaborate and have conversations and understand different perspectives,” Hagobian said. “The most important thing to me, personally, is that sort of connection and finding my people. And I’m finding myself, too.”

Hagobian shared my uneasiness about community college when she first enrolled, coming from an Armenian private high school where going to a community college was seen in a negative light. She said that being here has changed her mind, and that although she’s looking forward to transferring to a four-year university, she’s enjoying the present moment as well.

“In my community, it’s seen as a less-desired option or a last resort,” Hagobian said. “Now that I’m here, I see all kinds of cool opportunities and student drive.”

Another student at Pierce, psychology major Gayane Zazyan, is not only finding opportunities in community college, but paying them forward. As student government president, she works to support other students’ success.

“I think one of the things that made me feel comfortable and got me where I am was that I was open-minded to utilizing [Pierce’s] programs,” Zazyan said. “College isn’t easy and I try to spread the information to my peers as well, because there are so many amazing resources here.”

One of those peers is Zazyan’s mother.

“She started with ESL [English as a second language], just one class at a time,” Zazyan said. “I feel proud of her, and my parents are proud of me that I’ve been able to go this far.”

Zazyan is graduating from Pierce this spring and said she credits community college for putting her on the path she is now on.

Far removed from inaccessible classes and one-size-fits-all learning options, community colleges meet students where they are, serving nearly 2 million in California alone.

“There’s a reason we call them community colleges,” said Susanna Cooper, the executive director of the Wheelhouse Center for Community College Leadership and Research at UC Davis. “They create community and they’re accessible. I think it’s a hallmark of community colleges, all that they do to help their students succeed.”

It’s time we rethink how community college is viewed, both on an academic and social level — no stigma attached.

●●●

Delilah Brumer is a sophomore at Los Angeles Pierce College majoring in journalism and political science and a member of EdSource’s California Student Journalism Corps.

The opinions in this commentary are those of the author. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.

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08/06/2025
Marching band can change your college experience

A part of the Cal Poly Mustang Band trumpet section in San Francisco for the Lunar New Year Parade in 2023.

Credit: Ashley Bolter / EdSource

Two hundred people took a deep breath.

The marching band had just run onto the football field and it was time for us to play. We played the first note and everything seemed to melt away except for that moment. For the next 10 minutes, all I could think about was our performance.

When the game was over — after hours of practice, performing and cheering on our team — we ran onto the field once more and played all our favorite songs to emptying stands. Then we marched out of the stadium with just as much energy as we had coming in.

While game days are exhausting, I wouldn’t want to spend my Saturdays any other way. Joining the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo marching band was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, and it has enhanced my college experience in so many ways.

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Among the most important, it provided a community in which I could fully be myself.

For many, including Lindsay Gonor, a fourth-year liberal studies major and fellow trumpet player at Cal Poly, the community is the best part of being in band.

“I feel like a lot of people stay in band, not because they love marching, but because they love playing their instruments and because they love the people involved. And that’s definitely true for me,” Gonor said.

This community is welcoming and inclusive, bringing people from different backgrounds together. “It’s just a bunch of people with a common interest and like, similar weirdness,” Gonor said.

I love being part of this community and all the fun traditions we have like praising the sun when we stretch, waving to the mountain that appears to have a face that we’ve named “Big Lip Barbara” and singing our fight song super fast when we get dismissed.

Marching band is one of the most diverse groups on campus, at least at Cal Poly, and through this you learn to work as a team with people who are different from you to achieve a common goal. Leadership, accountability, time management, confidence and patience are all skills that members of a marching band gain, which can be applied to their academics and into their careers.

Nicholas Waldron, the associate director of bands at Cal Poly, describes these skills as the “intangibles.”

“What I mean by that is organization skills, communication ability, being able to collaborate, being understanding and empathetic,” Waldron said.

While studies have shown that participating in any extracurricular activity can be beneficial and help a person develop some of these skills, marching band is so uniquely positioned at the junction between a physical activity, a performing art and a social group that members reap all of these benefits.

Beyond the skills people attain and the relationships they build along the way, marching band provides a creative outlet to students that helps them de-stress.

“Not everybody realizes how important it is to have designated [time] not thinking about school,” Gonor said. “One of the most important things in college is to continue to have something that you enjoy doing outside of your major.”

Yuke Billbe, a third-year biomedical engineering major and alto saxophone player at Cal Poly said marching band saved her college experience in this way.

“In my academic career, (there’s) a lot of stuff going on, but I always am able to look forward to (marching band),” she said.

Marching bands also have benefits for the universities.

In his research, Adam Gumble, the director of athletic bands at West Chester University in Pennsylvania, found that marching bands can be powerful recruiting tools for universities.

I know this is true for me. When I was applying to colleges, one of my main requirements was that it had a marching band. Billbe also said she decided to go to Cal Poly after meeting a couple of members of the band.

Even my roommate, who is not in marching band, said seeing the marching band and how much spirit we bring was part of the reason she decided to go to Cal Poly.

Gumble’s research also found that participation in an activity such as marching band increases retention rates and feelings of connection to the institution.

While marching band is a big time commitment, it’s worth the investment.

If I could go back and do it all over again, there’s not a thing I would do differently. Giving up almost every Saturday during the fall for the past seven years has helped shape me into the person I am today, and I wouldn’t trade my time in marching band for the world.

•••

Ashley Bolter is a fourth-year journalism major and French and ethnic studies minor at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and a member of EdSource’s California Student Journalism Corps.

The opinions in this commentary are those of the author. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.

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08/06/2025
Few low-income Californians claiming kids’ free money in college savings accounts
Credit: Ekrulila/Pexels

Despite the fanfare surrounding its launch in August 2022, the California Kids Investment and Development Savings program (CalKIDS), a state initiative to help children from low income families save money for college or a career, has been underutilized as eligible families lack awareness about its existence.

According to a March 6 announcement from CalKIDS, 300,000 students and families — a fraction of the 3.6 million eligible across the state — have accessed the state-funded account.

That translates to about 8.3% of eligible students statewide with similar low percentages locally, which Devon Gray, president of the advocacy organization End Poverty in California (EPIC), said illustrates the gap between a program run by the state and local implementation.

CalKIDS is meant to help families save for college or career training after high school by creating a savings account and depositing between $500 and $1,500 for eligible low-income students in the public school system. The program was created to help students, especially those from underserved communities, gain access to higher education.

Click here to find out if your child is eligible.

While pleased with the state’s investment of nearly $2 billion for the program, Gray said successful implementation of CalKIDS is key.

Though supported by the governor, the program doesn’t have enough staff to consistently spread awareness across the large, diverse state, said Joe DeAnda, communications director with the California State Treasurer’s Office, which oversees the CalKIDS program and its outreach efforts. He cites a lack of resources, also an explanation for school districts that are having trouble informing families about the program.

Consequently, families across the state are confused, uninformed or unaware of CalKIDS and face challenges in even claiming the accounts once aware, EPIC leaders say.

The state’s low percentage of claimed accounts may seem indicative of poor program adoption, DeAnda said, but CalKIDS credits its ongoing outreach and collaboration to raise awareness of the program among schools, community-based organizations and government agencies as the reason for the “major milestone” of hundreds of thousands claiming their accounts so far.

Fresno Unified, one of the state’s largest school districts, hopes to reach a milestone of its own.

The school board voted on March 6 to create a districtwide campaign to raise awareness about the CalKIDS accounts that are available to most of its students — a move that districts statewide can emulate, advocates say.

In Fresno Unified, only 6.64% of eligible students have claimed their accounts — partly because the district has not publicized the program as it can and should, Andy Levine, a member of the district’s board of trustees, said during the board meeting.

Levine proposed a resolution requiring the district to make a systemwide commitment to increase student awareness and access to the accounts.

He cited studies indicating that having as little as $500 in a college savings account makes a student three times more likely to enroll in college and four times more likely to graduate than a student without savings.

“I believe (it) is critically important to our city overall, with tens of millions of dollars collectively waiting for our students to utilize,” Levine told EdSource.

Program gives $500 to eligible low-income students

In this file photo, Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at Ruby Bridges Elementary School in Alameda in March 2021. At the time, Newsom was still proposing the college savings accounts for all low-income students in California.
Credit: Andrew Reed/EdSource

Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2022 invested about $1.9 billion in the accounts; Fresno Unified students are eligible for about $30 million.

According to program details, low-income public school students are awarded $500 in a CalKIDS account if they were in grades 1-12 during the 2021-22 school year, were enrolled in first grade during the 2022-23 school year or will be in first grade in subsequent school years.

An additional $500 is deposited for students identified as foster youth and another $500 for students classified as homeless.

Children born in California after June 2023, regardless of their parents’ income, are granted $100. Those born in the state between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023, were awarded $25 before the seed deposit increased to $100. Parents who link the CalKIDS account to a ScholarShare 529 college savings account are eligible for an additional $50 deposit for their newborns.

The California Department of Education determines eligibility based on students identified as low income under the state’s Local Control Funding Formula, and the California Department of Public Health provides information on newborns.

State outreach does not address all the challenges

During the program’s initial rollout, Newsom described the initiative as California “telling our students that we believe they’re college material.”

“Not only do we believe it,” Newsom said at the time, “we’ll invest in them directly.”

Since then, Newsom and his office have regularly highlighted the program, spokesperson Izzy Gardon said. The governor’s backing garnered a lot of attention for the program in its first year, DeAnda said. Most Fresno County students who have claimed the accounts did so in the first year. Across the 33 school districts in Fresno County, 6,058 students claimed the account in the 2021-22 school year when the program launched; last school year, 404 registered the account, based on state data provided to EPIC.

Millions of dollars have been allocated to ensure families take advantage of the program.

According to the 2022-23 state budget, enacted in June 2022, the state increased its one-time general funding by $5 million for local program outreach and coordination with CalKIDS as well as another $5 million in ongoing funding for financial literacy outreach to educate families about the long-term benefits of a savings account with CalKIDS.

Besides outreach and collaboration with schools and organizations, the multimillion-dollar outreach efforts include marketing the program through partnerships, mailers, webinars, advertisements, social media and outdoor signage. With the state’s budget allocation, the program is also in the process of launching a $7.5 million media campaign to supplement current outreach.

Informing newborn parents looks slightly different

The mailers are one-time notification letters to inform students about the CalKIDS account and how to access it, according to the state treasurer’s office. Between November 2022 and June 2023, the program sent letters to over 3.3 million students. In January, the program sent notification letters for nearly 270,000 first graders who became eligible after last school year.

Every month, the program sends notification letters to newborn parents. Nearly 4% of more than 536,000 newborns eligible for CalKIDS had claimed the accounts, as of Dec. 31, according to CalKIDS data. As of March 1, the program had sent more than 634,000 letters to newborn parents since the program began, according to the treasurer’s office.

In addition to the mailers, the program has sent emails to over 316,000 parents to notify them of their newborn’s CalKIDS account. The California Department of Public Health, which provides information on newborns, sends the program email addresses of parents who provide the contact information during the birth registration process.

CalKIDS does not have access to student or parent email addresses from the education department.

Gray, the president of EPIC, said many in low income communities ignore the mailers because they don’t trust the communication or question its credibility, even if it has an official letterhead.

Advocates told EdSource that the success of other state outreach, such as webinars, depends on families being aware, and awareness — or a lack, thereof — is the No. 1 challenge related to CalKIDS account access. Other issues include the state’s large population as well as the workload of state officials who are tasked with promoting and offering various programs, not just CalKIDS.

DeAnda said it’s challenging for the small CalKIDS team, a group of about four people, to reach millions of families spread across the different rural and urban communities in California.

And even though CalKIDS has asked districts to promote the program as well, especially for students who will soon graduate, some districts also struggle with having enough resources to do their own outreach beyond what the state has done, Gray said.  The program, according to the state treasurer’s office, offers an online toolkit for schools and districts to download and use fliers or posters, content for emails or social media and videos for CalKIDS outreach.

If families are not exposed to or participating in state or local outreach, they won’t know or learn about the program.

According to Gray, during EPIC’s listening tours across the state, he often asked families and community leaders about CalKIDS.

“And, usually, it’s blank stares,” he said.

Widespread confusion

In places such as San Francisco and Oakland, there is confusion about CalKIDS because the communities have local college savings account programs of their own.

Of over 33,000 eligible students in San Francisco County, just over 1,600 students, or 5%, have claimed the CalKIDS accounts. In Alameda County, where Oakland is located, more than 100,000 students are eligible, but just over 8,000, or 8%, have claimed their accounts.

Even when families are aware, claiming the account has proven difficult, said Jasmine Dellafosse, the director of organizing and community engagement with EPIC.

The seed deposits into the savings accounts are automatic, but families must claim the accounts by registering online — a step that less than 4,200 eligible Fresno Unified students had taken as of last school year.

To check student eligibility and register the account, families must enter students’ Statewide Student Identifier (SSID), a 10-digit number that appears on student transcripts, the CalKIDS website said.

Dellafosse said many Fresno Unified families don’t know where to find the ID numbers, and there’s often no straightforward answer on how to obtain them. The CalKIDS website instructs families to contact their child’s school or school district if they’re unsure of how to locate the number.

Board member Elizabeth Jonasson Rosas, at the March 6 board meeting, noted the difficulty she had in finding the SSID number for her child. She contacted the CalKIDS program, which referred her to the state mailer she said she never received.

For a board member who works in the district and has access to resources to struggle to identify the number, Dellafosse said, shows the barrier families have and will experience.

“We’re not just seeing that happening in Fresno,” she said, “we’re seeing that happening everywhere.”

With the school board’s resolution, Rosas said the district has an opportunity to help its families participate in the program and a chance to work with the state to make the process easier.

Fresno Unified leads state in effort to raise awareness

More than 60,000 of the district’s 70,000 plus students could qualify for $500, while more than 1,000 students experiencing homelessness or living in foster care qualify for up to $1,000 more, according to the board resolution proposed by Levine.
Going Deeper

EPIC leaders want other districts to make systemwide commitments for increased awareness of and access to the CalKIDS accounts.

“We can’t just stop at Fresno,” Dellafosse said.

As California is a large, diverse state, the outreach strategies that work in one region may not work in another. Still, advocates say there are ways to address the barriers impacting CalKIDS account access, such as:

Providing CalKIDS welcome kits with the SSID numbers.

Rewriting informational materials to a third-grade reading level so more families understand the content.

Having local leaders educate families.

Advocating for multilingual outreach at the state level.

And bolstering communication between districts and the state.
“You have to know the money is waiting for you,” he said.

According to the resolution, which includes the goal of increasing student account access from less than 7% to at least 25%, there is a “clear need for intentional district outreach, education and support.”

By June, Fresno Unified will create a CalKIDS engagement plan to outline strategies for account registration and data collection for all eligible students and set goals to ensure graduating students use their funds for post-secondary plans.

Levine said that the district’s plan can be a model for how school districts across the state can engage and educate families about the CalKIDS program.

Based on the resolution, the district’s commitment to making families aware of the program can increase access to funding, improve students’ chances of attending and graduating from college, and improve current statistics showing that less than 25% of Fresno County residents over 25 have a bachelor’s degree.

“As someone who comes from a very disadvantaged family, I know the difference that some dollars in a savings account can really make,” board member Veva Islas said.

“No matter what the amount is, as long as there is some thought about sending children to college and some planning, (there) seems to (be) a very high correlation with that being the end result.”
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07/06/2025
FAFSA delays make it difficult for students to finalize college decisions

A student heads toward the Student Services building at Los Angeles Pierce College

Credit: Delilah Brumer/EdSource

Waiting for college financial aid offers has been worrying for Kamila Juarez, a high school senior at Grace Davis High School in Modesto. The prolonged timeline of this process, caused by a delayed release of this year’s Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, has added to the uncertainty.

“It’s kind of stressful, just because I know that when I do know how much I get, it’s going to be pretty fast,” Juarez said. “So knowing that I have all this waiting time, I can’t really do much about it besides apply for scholarships and wait to hear back from those scholarships. It’s pretty suspenseful.”

The U.S. Department of Education launched a renewed version of FAFSA on Dec. 31, 2023 — three months later than the usual release each Oct. 1 — because the new form was not ready to be rolled out on time. The new FAFSA was said to be simpler and more efficient for families to complete, with the intention of providing more students with aid due to a new formula.

With FAFSA’s availability issues, about 5.7 million students have successfully completed the application, compared to the average of 17 million applicants at this point in previous years. The compressed time schedule strained families applying for financial aid.

The Education Department’s deadline for getting student financial aid data to colleges and universities was last week, so schools are only now receiving that information. And on Friday, complications piled up, as the Education Department announced that a miscalculation in “the formula of the FAFSA resulted in incorrect financial need information for several hundred thousand students being sent to colleges and universities.”

The delays led all nine UC campuses to push back their Intent to Register deadline to May 15, while all 23 CSU campuses to no earlier than May 15. Despite the 15-day commitment deadline extension, some students said they are facing difficulties in making a decision without knowing their financial aid package for the 2024-25 academic year.

On Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill extending the state’s financial aid deadline to give students more time to apply for state aid programs.

Juarez said she has received scholarships from Sonoma State University and California State University, Monterey Bay but is waiting until she knows what financial aid she’ll get from every school before making her decision.

“My biggest (factor), I would say, is financial aid, as well as location,” Juarez said.

Juarez said she hopes to be able to go to either Cal Poly San Luis Obispo or UCLA and major in city planning or geography and environmental science.

Finean Hunter-Kenney, a senior from Lowell High School in San Francisco, said the FAFSA delays have also heavily impacted his decision in committing to college.

“I can’t make any decision on where to go to college without all the financial info,” he said. “Right now I’m in the process of committing to Chapman University to play baseball, but I can’t make that decision final until I see how much FAFSA will pay for, because the tuition is really expensive.”

Hunter-Kenney said he feels pressure to say “yes,” because the deadline is May 1, but he can’t accept the offer until FAFSA releases financial aid information. For him, there is “definitely a limit” when it comes to the cost of tuition, and while aid is not “make or break,” it will still affect his college decision.

“I am pretty stressed about where to go,” Hunter-Kenney said. “The financial aspect is stressful as well, because without all the information, I don’t know how much in loans I’m going to have to take out, and that’s something I want to know before I decide to go anywhere.”

For Isabella Gentile, a communication studies major at Pasadena City College, financial aid was one of the main reasons she decided to focus her transfer applications on in-state public universities and avoid the financial uncertainty that can come with private or out-of-state schools.

“I know I would receive more money from (my) grant if I attended a UC school versus if I attended a private school, which impacted my decision to not apply to somewhere like USC,” Gentile said.

However, Gentile also said that the transfer and financial aid process has been “good and easy” overall, because she was able to submit everything she needed to.

Other students filling out this year’s FAFSA have faced technical difficulties, according to Laura Burtness, a college and career adviser at Hillsdale High School in San Mateo. Some of these issues are related to her students’ citizenship status.

“There is difficulty for mixed residency families, or families where not all claim U.S. citizenship,” Burtness said. Error messages and application rejections have been common when parents don’t have social security numbers — classified as “eligible non-citizens” for FAFSA purposes. Families calling the help line have reportedly been met with recordings of outdated information or advice to try to fill out the form again later.

The Education Department announced in late February that students who have at least one parent without a social security number would be able to successfully submit FAFSA forms in the first half of March.

Burtness mentioned the urgency and concern she’s had for the students she has worked with all year.

“I think this is going to be a big deal because we’re running out of time. Hillsdale’s graduation is on May 30, and we’re doing anything we can to help,” she said.

Los Angeles Pierce College political science major Eric Guerrero faced the more common technical difficulties; he said he spent weeks troubleshooting his FAFSA form before he was able to submit it in late January.

Guerrero plans to transfer to a four-year university this fall and has his sights set on UCLA. He said the challenges he faced with FAFSA have made his transfer process harder.

“Every time I tried it, it was crashing or it wouldn’t load,” Guerrero said. “It was so hectic. Trying to get it done was horrible, and I was really nervous. Eventually, one random night at like 2 in the morning, it finally went through.”

Ashley Bolter is a fourth-year journalism student minoring in French and ethnic studies at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. Delilah Brumer is a sophomore at Los Angeles Pierce College majoring in journalism and political science. Kelcie Lee is a first-year student at UC Berkeley majoring in history and sociology. Abbie Phillips is a third-year journalism student minoring in Spanish at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. All are members of EdSource’s California Student Journalism Corps.

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06/06/2025
California’s College Corps has great promise despite growing pains

Gov. Gavin Newsom joins Chief Service Officer Josh Fryday and higher education leaders at a College Corps swearing-in celebration.

Credit: Office of the Governor

In 2022, the state launched the #CaliforniansForAll College Corps program. Spread across 45 campuses throughout the state, the program is designed to help college students pay for their schooling in exchange for performing community service: It offers $10,000 for 450 hours of service, paid through 10 monthly installments of $700 and an additional $3,000 for completing the program.

This new program is well-intentioned, but there is room for improvement.

I joined College Corps during its inauguration, under the regional chapter — Sacramento Valley College Corps, formed by California State University, Sacramento; UC Davis; Sacramento City College and Woodland Community College. After completing the application to be a fellow beginning in the summer, I was paired with a host site almost immediately. My placement was with First Star Sacramento State Academy, a college-preparation program aimed at helping high school students within the foster care system graduate and go to college. This help was provided through the tutoring and resources offered by youth mentors, which was my position at First Star.

Prior to my admission into College Corps, I was already an employee of First Star; the director of the program worked with College Corps to ensure I got placed there. But I took on a new role: College Corps fellow.

This meant I was no longer a student assistant working only 10 hours a week. Now I was expected to work almost double that as a fellow, and my responsibilities grew.

My experience with First Star as a youth mentor was wonderful. I already knew the program and the students in it. I had an established relationship with the supervisor, program coordinator and director. It was working under College Corps where challenges arose.

After completing one year with College Corps at First Star, I re-enrolled in the program as part of its second cohort. My new host site was Girl Scouts Heart of Central California. Since it was located only seven minutes from my campus, I thought this was going to be a great match.

Unfortunately, the job required going from city to city, and I do not own a car, so I had to withdraw from the program only one month in. In addition, my supervisor expected us fellows to complete some of our hours in the Modesto office, nearly a 1.5-hour commute. (I learned that right after I left, the remaining fellows were given rental cars to complete their hours.)

Another problem was that many Girl Scout events took place in the evening, since they were after-school activities for the girls. As a full-time student taking mostly evening classes, I struggled to fulfill my hours as the opportunities to do so were either far away, or at a time I was in class, or both.

Since I was part of the very first cohort of the College Corps, it is understandable that my experience was not entirely smooth.

For starters, there seemed to be a disconnect with College Corps and the external host sites. Fellows at some placements struggled to complete the required hours because host sites simply didn’t have enough service opportunities. This was a real problem because failure to complete the required hours put College Corps fellows at risk of losing the $3,000 education award promised to them upon completion.

Another challenge was the payment method. We were paid via a prepaid debit card that was quite cumbersome to use. I also had problems receiving my $3,000 education award.

Thankfully, College Corps ditched the prepaid cards in the second year and now pays fellows via simple checks, although direct deposit is still not available for the second cohort.

Yesenia Toribio, a Sacramento State student and former College Corps fellow, acknowledged the positives of the program. “I felt very supported by my supervisor at my host site and the staff in charge of leading the cohort for College Corps at Sacramento State. Everyone was so patient and understanding, it made me feel like I was a part of something bigger.

“I truly believe the downsides were because we were the first cohort and they were still trying to figure out the program,” Toribio said.

However, she added, “It was difficult trying to manage completing 450 hours of community service while being a full-time student and working part time.”

But, despite the growing pains, I can still see the promise and potential of the College Corps. Being part of it provided us with many benefits — not just monetary. The program allowed fellows to get involved with different events such as feeding the homeless, runs, river cleanups and more. The program also allowed fellows to make connections, and I still consider the fellow youth mentors at First Star as my close friends.

●●●

Aya Mikbel is a fourth-year student studying political science and journalism at California State University, Sacramento and a member of EdSource’s California Student Journalism Corps.

The opinions in this commentary are those of the author. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.

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03/06/2025
Community college faculty should all be allowed to work full time
Students at Fresno City College

Credit: Ashleigh Panoo/EdSource

When most people think of part-time employment in the public sector, they assume that it (1) could be a steppingstone to a full-time job; (2) pays less than full-time, chiefly because it involves fewer hours of work; (3) is voluntary, and (4) is primarily meant to supplement a family’s income.

When it comes to California’s 36,000 part-time community college professors, the facts defy all four assumptions.

Unlike workers in other professions, part-time college instructors, regardless of length of service and/or quality of performance, will not be promoted to full-time unless they are lucky enough to secure an increasingly scarce full-time position teaching on the tenure track. Part-time instructors, many who work for decades off the tenure track, have been called “apprentices to nowhere.”

Over the last five decades, colleges have gravitated toward part-time instructors for the flexibility of their semester-length agreements with no obligation to rehire, and their lower expense. For example, while all full-time instructors receive state-paid health insurance, only about 10% (3,742) of the state’s part-timers do.

Part-time instructor salaries are not pro-rated based on a typical full-time salary; instead, they are a separate scale which amounts to about 50-60% of the full-time instructor rate. To be clear, this doesn’t mean they receive 50-60% of the income of a full-time instructor: California law caps part-time faculty workload at no more than 67% of full-time. This workload cap, when combined with the discounted rate of pay, means that the average California part-time instructor teaching at 60% of full-time receives about $20,000 while the average annual income for full-time instructors is in excess of $100,000 a year.

Surveys conducted by the American Federation of Teachers in 2020 and 2022 found that roughly 25% of part-time community college faculty nationwide were below the federal poverty line.

With no natural transition from part-time to full-time, this two-tier workplace takes on features of a caste system, especially as both full-time and part-time instructors satisfy the same credential requirements, award grades and credits that have the same value, and have the same tuition charged for their courses.

While California college instructors are represented by faculty unions (primarily the California Federation of Teachers or the California Teachers Association), the priority of those unions would seem to be tenured faculty, as evidenced by the differences in the collectively bargained working conditions.

In the case of workload, for example, while part-time instructors are barred from teaching full-time, full-time instructors may elect to teach overtime, often called course overloads, for additional income. Full-time instructors displace part-time jobs whenever they do. In fact, full-timers generally get to choose their courses, including overloads, before part-timers are assigned courses.

A bill being considered at present in the California Legislature is Assembly Bill 2277. It would raise the current part-time workload restriction from 67% to 85% of full time, which, in theory, could enable some part-timers to teach more classes and earn more income. But if passed, AB 2277 would hardly solve the problem for part-time instructors.

To make a more meaningful improvement, AB 2277 could be amended in two ways, neither of which make an impact on the state budget:
- Remove the artificial workload cap outright, thereby enabling part-time instructors the opportunity to work up to 100% of full time when work is available.
- Impose a ban on full-time tenure-track instructors from teaching overtime (overloads).
One possible source of opposition to these changes could be California’s faculty unions, which are dominated by full-timers. While supportive of earlier attempts at raising the cap to 85% (e.g., AB 897 in 2020, AB 375 in 2021, and AB 1856 in 2022) — neither union has shown a willingness to support elimination of the cap outright or curbing full-time overloads.

In 2008, AB 591 adjusted the cap from 60% to the current 67%, but the first iteration of that bill proposed outright elimination of the cap (as does our suggested amendment), which was opposed by the CFT (see the April 16, 2007 legislative digest and commentary assembled in a California Part-Time Faculty Association (CPFA) report).

Another source of opposition could be those full-time instructors accustomed to teaching overtime/overloads; they could oppose losing that option, which underscores the conflict of interest in a two-tier workplace when more for one tier means less for the other.

Gov. Gavin Newsom acknowledged that California “community colleges could not operate without part-time faculty” who “do not receive the same salary or benefits as their full-time colleagues” in his Oct. 8, 2021 veto of AB 375 based on budgetary concerns — the fear that the state’s 36,000 part-time instructors would suddenly qualify for health care. (That fear has since been addressed by a 400% increase in the state’s contribution to the Part-time Faculty Health Insurance Program from an annual $490,000 to $200 million.) In the meantime, part-time faculty continue to be barred from working full time.

Faculty unions and lawmakers should take a step toward abolishing California’s faculty involuntary part-time work restriction by allowing them to work full time and protecting their jobs. An amended version of AB 2277 is a no-cost way of doing so.

•••

Alexis Moore taught visual art at colleges and universities for over three decades and served on the executive board of the Pasadena City College Faculty Association of the California Community College Independents (CCCI).

Jack Longmate has long served on the Steering Committee of the Washington Part-Time Faculty Association and taught for over 28 years at Olympic College in Bremerton, Washington, where his ending annual salary was about $20,000 for teaching at 55% of an annual full-time teaching load.

The opinions in this commentary are those of the authors. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.
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02/06/2025
As protests surge across college campuses, student journalists report from the front lines

Hundreds of UCLA students protest in support of Palestinians on May 2, 2024.

Credit: Christine Kao

A critical presence persists across the dozens of university campuses nationwide where students have organized demonstrations in support of Palestinians: student journalists reporting for their school newspapers, at times providing round-the-clock coverage and, increasingly, doing so under threats of arrest and violence.

“They recognize that the eyes of the world are on college campuses and they can be a lens through which people can see what’s happening,” said Christina Bellantoni, director of the Annenberg Media Center at USC.

Student journalists are central to the reporting of historic national protests calling for universities to divest from companies with military ties to Israel and for a ceasefire in Gaza.

“We have a job to do as student journalists. I like to say we’re not student journalists, we’re journalists,” said Matthew Royer, national editor and higher education editor at the Daily Bruin, UCLA’s student newspaper.

At some schools that have shut down access to nonstudents, like USC, a private institution, student journalists are the only regular source of news on campus grounds. And at schools where journalists from outside news organizations are present, like UCLA, student journalists have remained top producers of the most accurate, up-to-date information.

A post by Matthew Royer from The Daily Bruin at UCLA.

The Daily Bruin had such high readership this week that its site was down for several hours Wednesday, requiring the newsroom to extend the site’s bandwidth.

Amid their reporting, some have also become part of the story.

This week at UCLA, a group of four student reporters were verbally harassed, beaten, kicked and pepper-sprayed by a group of pro-Israel counterprotesters who that night had attacked the on-campus encampment for hours.

A police officer grabs a protester by the back of their jacket to stop him from moving toward the encampment on May 2, 2024.
Credit: Brandon Morquecho / Daily Bruin Photo Editor

At least one of the reporters, Catherine Hamilton, went to the hospital with injuries after the violent assault.

“Truly, there’s not much time for us to recover. As the new day starts, we have to be prepared for anything to happen,” Hamilton said in an interview with CNN. She returned to her reporting post shortly after being released from the hospital.

Royer confirmed that UCLA had promised journalists a safe room that night, but “the doors were locked, and they weren’t given access by the hired UCLA security.”

UCLA has not responded to a request for comment.

In a statement Thursday, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said the violence on campus “has fractured our sense of togetherness and frayed our bonds of trust, and will surely leave a scar on the campus.”

His statement made no reference to the assault on journalists.

“I think it’s our jobs to continue to do what we can in the safest manner possible,” said Royer, who said counterprotesters have yanked his press badge, blasted megaphones near his ears, and blocked his camera over multiple days while reporting.

Student journalists nationwide have also been threatened with arrest by police arriving on campus to clear student encampments.

“We train these students to put safety first,” said Bellantoni. “What I cannot guarantee is that they won’t be arrested in this. If they are arrested, I can guarantee you those charges will not stand and we will make sure that we fight that because journalists have a right to be there and a right to witness it.”

A man wearing a jacket that reads “Anti Genocide Social Club” records a livestream of a line of CHP officers between Royce Hall and Haines Hall on May 2, 2024.
Credit: Brandon Morquecho / Daily Bruin Photo Editor

Protests in support of Palestine are nothing new on UC Berkeley’s campus, according to Aarya Mukherjee, 19, who has covered campus activism and the encampment as a student life reporter for months at The Daily Californian.

But when he heard Daily Bruin reporters were assaulted, he said he “felt for them.”

“Last night, there was a very good chance of a raid. … So we were kind of preparing for the same thing to happen to us,” Mukherjee said, noting that the campus has been generally peaceful with little hostility toward the press. “It’s honestly scary, but … we accept that risk. We just hope it doesn’t happen.”

Given UC Berkeley’s history of protest and constant stream of student activism, managing editor Matt Brown said Daily Cal reporters are uniquely prepared to cover events that may turn violent. For years, guidelines on staying safe have been passed down through the organization’s editors.

“Everybody’s always in pairs. Everybody’s always taking shifts. Everybody’s always communicating. Nobody goes out there without a press pass,” Brown said.

Free Palestine encampment at UC Berkeley on April 29, 2024.
Credit: Kelcie Lee / EdSource

The Daily Cal published an editorial late Wednesday that expressed solidarity with reporters at The Daily Bruin. It also condemned UCLA for failing to protect campus journalists.

“Everybody was on board; and within about an hour, we had a draft,” Brown said.

“We condemn the attackers and any attempt to stifle student coverage,” the editorial read. “It is the community’s duty to safeguard the students who are putting themselves in harm’s way to keep them informed.”

Many have also collaborated across campuses, a sign of their understanding that they hold a powerful position. The Daily Trojan, the Daily Bruin, the Emory Wheel, The Daily Californian, Washington Square News (NYU), the Berkeley Beacon (Emerson College) and the Daily Texan (UT Austin) joined forces to produce a compilation of photos of protests at their respective campuses.

‘That’s our Achilles’ heel’

Mercy Sosa, 22, received a tip that protests were starting at Sacramento State University on Monday at 6 a.m.

As editor-in-chief of The State Hornet, she got to work. By 6:30 a.m., she was on the scene — and continued to report on developments at the encampment for the next two days despite upcoming final exams.

“The amount of walking I did, the amount of not sleeping that I did — it’s exhausting,” Sosa said. “But I felt like it was my duty to be there and to make sure that students knew what was going on. And this isn’t just a Sac State story: This is a national story. … I couldn’t just turn a blind eye.”

The campus announced the encampment could remain intact until May 8. Unlike at other campuses, student reporters at Sacramento State haven’t faced aggression from campus or other stakeholders. The environment, Sosa said, has been mostly peaceful, with some counterprotesters and few police.

It’s similar at Sonoma State University, where Ally Valiente’s team at the Sonoma State Star are covering their growing student encampment.

But the current calm hasn’t made it easier for them to stomach the violence that played out at UCLA.

Daily Bruin homepage on May, 1, 2024.

Daily Bruin homepage on May, 2, 2024.

“It sort of makes me scared this could actually happen to any campus,” said Valiente, news editor.

Being a member of student media, where reporters and protesters can interact student-to-student, has played a key role in developing trust with sources, who are sometimes classmates, according to Chris Woodard, a managing editor at The State Hornet.

It’s a unique level of access that Brad Butterfield leaned into while reporting for Cal Poly Humboldt’s The Lumberjack, along with his knowledge of campus grounds.

Not all reporters covering Humboldt’s protests understood “how complex our campus is,” he said, which impacted police when it came to “gaining control.”

They also often work alongside journalists from other publications, who at times forget they are students.

Woodard recalled being in line for an interview by the encampment alongside a half dozen reporters from other publications.

“I kind of went up to all the other publications like ‘Hey guys, if you can please do me a favor and let me do the next interview? I have to go to class,’” Woodard said.

“I could tell this by the reaction of all the other professional journalists they’re like, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s a thing for you.’”

They let him go ahead — and he made it to class 20 minutes late.

Mukherjee and his Daily Cal colleagues are taking shifts to cover the protests and encampment, sometimes reporting in the field for 24 hours straight in the days leading up to final exams.

He said a relentless news cycle has made it harder to focus on school and that it is sometimes hard to separate life as a student from life as a reporter.

“Students should obviously be studying, hitting the books,” Mukherjee said. “Because of the constant news, we feel as though … we have a responsibility to report that, kind of, almost supersedes our due diligence as students.”

Others, like The Lumberjack’s Butterfield, did not attend class once protests began.

“Because I am a journalism major, I think that’s important to note: I don’t feel like I’m missing out too much on what’s happening in my classes because I’m out in the field doing what I’m going to school to learn how to do,” said Butterfield, 26. “When there’s a massive and important story on our campus to cover, at least my professors have been pretty lenient in understanding that that does take its priority in a lot of ways — and I’ll catch up on my work at some point in the next week or two.”

With local newsrooms growing sparse, Sosa said student press has become increasingly important in filling that void of local coverage for both the campus and larger community.

But in communities like Humboldt, student coverage is sometimes nonexistent over the summer.

“I think that’s our Achilles’ heel, when the semester ends a lot of folks kind of go their own separate ways, especially here in Humboldt County ’cause there’s so little jobs,” said Butterfield.

Woodard also said that “it’s hard to bear that pressure” for being at the forefront of national reporting as a student.

“You’ve become the No. 1 news source for the biggest story in the country. But at the same time, we have finals next week,” said Woodard, 30. “It’s like, which one do I take more pride in?”

A few days ago, he said he sat on the floor of his apartment and cried.

The toll, he said, can be especially difficult on editors — who are not only going to school and contributing to coverage, but also managing teams of their peers and classmates, often in their late teens or early 20s.

“Being an editor of student media and being an editor in real media are two very, very different things,” Woodard said. “For all the student editors out there that are dealing with this: I hope everyone just gives them a hug.”

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31/05/2025
Amid division, attempt to remove Fresno City College academic senate president fails

Tenured communication instructor Tom Boroujeni, who is on involuntary administrative leave, spoke at the May 8, 2024, Fresno City College Academic Senate meeting, in which the senate voted on removing him as president.

Lasherica Thornton/ EdSource

This story has been updated with the exact number of yes, no and abstention votes counted. The membership secretary for the academic senate provided the numbers to EdSource Thursday evening. A statement about the votes has also been clarified.

The Fresno City College Academic Senate on Wednesday failed to take action on tenured communication instructor Tom Boroujeni, who has been on involuntary administrative leave since Nov. 30 but has refused to step down as president.

During the final meeting of the semester, not enough members of the senate voted to remove Boroujeni as president, and not enough voted to table the removal until next semester in August. Many senators abstained from the votes. Even though more instructors voted to remove him as president than to table the matter, without a majority, the academic senate will end the semester and likely start a new school year under the leadership of the president-elect and acting president, Jackie Williams.

It leaves the academic senate in limbo, said theater design instructor Christina McCollam-Martinez, who had filed two petitions to remove Boroujeni as president.

“We can’t move forward; we’re stuck,” McCollam-Martinez said during the meeting. “When you don’t get to choose anymore, you get stuck; you don’t have an option.”

Members of the senate were divided over whether a removal impacts due process, speaks to one’s belief about the allegations, puts the senate back on track or sends a message about faculty rights — a contention made by Boroujeni.

“I’m not doing that (stepping down) because I’m an advocate for faculty,” Boroujeni told his colleagues during the meeting, at which he had permission to speak, not as a member of the academic senate but as a member of the public. He did not speak as a community member, though, but twice during discussions by the senators.

Boroujeni was put on leave following a Nov. 29 EdSource report that revealed that a Fresno State investigation determined that Boroujeni committed an “act of sexual violence” against a professor and colleague who also works at Fresno City College. Some professors canceled classes. Boroujeni denied that any sexual violence took place. He also claimed that the Fresno City College suspension stemmed from disagreements with State Center Community College District over academic policies.

With a recent change in Fresno City College senate bylaws, the executive board recommended the removal of Boroujeni because his administrative-leave status caused Williams to become acting president with no one serving as president-elect, a key post on the executive board.

”Voting to remove the current president is not about whether they did or did not do what they are on leave for,” said Alana Jeydel, a history and political science professor. “It’s simply about the fact that our senate can’t go for a semester or possibly longer with someone who hasn’t been here. … We need the person who’s been here for the past semester to keep working for us.”

No longer “silent” about what to do when an officer is on leave, the bylaws now state that a leave of absence can trigger a process to fill the vacancy. The bylaws of many academic senates across the state reportedly have language requiring a senator to relinquish the seat for any leave.

A removal would have made Williams president starting next semester and led to elections for a president-elect.

Though no decision was made about Boroujeni’s role as president, the failed attempt to remove him is indicative of the division at the college. Eleven senators at the meeting abstained from the removal vote.

Waiting on outcome of investigation?

When the community college district put Boroujeni on paid leave in late November, the district also launched an investigation.

Boroujeni told his colleagues that his administrative leave, which district and college administration hasn’t publicly disclosed details about, is not related to the Fresno State case but to three Fresno City College complaints filed months ahead of the district’s decision to place him on leave, following EdSource’s report on the Fresno State sexual violence investigation and subsequent decision by his colleagues to cancel classes.

Boroujeni said that the investigation was set to end this week but was extended until May 31. He has characterized the complaints as allegations of “gender discrimination.”

“The road map that you need is: Wait for the investigation to end,” Boroujeni told his colleagues before their vote. “If there is anything in the investigation, use that to remove me because that will give you the ammunition so you can preserve the power of the academic senate.”

Because the college has not yet concluded the investigation, some instructors said they preferred to wait on the outcome before voting on the removal. Nikki Visveshwara and Eileen Gonzalez, professors in the nursing department, said Boroujeni has the right to due process.

“I think we should’ve waited to find out what the judgment from the district was … so that we have full information when we’re making the vote,” said Michael Takeda, past academic senate president and member of the executive board, who did not support the recommendation for Boroujeni’s removal.

Expecting a judgment or specific details to be publicized or shared by the district may not be realistic. Over the last six months, district spokesperson Jill Wagner has not disclosed details of the investigation, stating that it is a personnel matter.

Even when it is resolved, “we don’t necessarily talk about it because it’s still a human resources matter,” Wagner told EdSource in mid-February. Wagner did not immediately respond to requests for additional information or comment on Wednesday. But, when the investigation concludes, the findings will be subject to California’s Public Records Act which requires the release of personnel investigations when allegations are confirmed.

“Unacceptable to have this cloud hanging over us”

Boroujeni has taught at Fresno City College since 2015, the same year he began his academic career at Fresno State while still a graduate student. The victim of the alleged sexual misconduct is also a professor and Boroujeni’s colleague at the community college. The State Center Community College District, parent agency to Fresno City College, learned of the sexual misconduct investigation when the alleged victim requested a no-contact order, which was granted in the spring semester of 2022.

Fresno State opened the investigation in 2020 based on the federal anti-discrimination law known as Title IX, records show. The investigation determined that Boroujeni committed sexual violence in 2015. At the time of the incident, Boroujeni was a part-time instructor at Fresno City College while finishing a master’s degree at Fresno State, records show.

Boroujeni was never disciplined in the sexual violence matter because he was a graduate student when the alleged violence occurred. Boroujeni resigned from Fresno State in 2022 after officials said the act-of-sexual-violence report would be placed in his personnel file.

Despite Boroujeni’s assertions linking the senate’s proposed action to the investigation, most of the professors who spoke in favor of the removal said their position had nothing to do with the allegations but the senate’s ability to perform its duties.

Business instructor Robert Schmalle, who didn’t take a position on the allegations against Boroujeni, reminded his colleagues that the academic senate is a political body making political decisions.

Both he and anthropology professor German Loffler said keeping Boroujeni as president reflects poorly on the college and senate.

“It’s just simply unacceptable to have this cloud hanging over us,” Schmalle said.

And a removal is not about the administrative leave, Jeydel, the political science professor, reiterated.

“It’s simply to replace somebody who is on leave — for whatever reason it is,” she said. “I don’t see the vote as about passing judgment on what one person has or has not done.”

The academic senate president works with the college’s administration in setting academic policy and represents the senate and faculty at college, districtwide and public meetings.

Amended bylaws have been months in the making

With an April 24 change in bylaws, Wednesday’s meeting was the first time that the senate has been able to vote on action to handle Boroujeni’s inability to fulfill the duties of president during his leave.

The academic senate amended its bylaws last month, but the process has been months in the making, dating back to before Boroujeni was placed on leave.

But Boroujeni accused the academic senate of changing the bylaws due to his leave.

The bylaws, according to Williams, were addressed the entire semester with proposed changes being brought to the senate for feedback.

“It was not precipitated or initiated in response to President Boroujeni being placed on administrative leave,” she said. “There was already the plan for revise.”

She told EdSource in January that as the senate went line by line through the bylaws, members learned that the bylaws were silent on what to do when officers are on leave.

Language on quorum, absenteeism, proxy attendance, officers and officer responsibilities were tweaked alongside the addition of: “In special circumstances, e.g., the removal/resignation of multiple officers, or leaves of absences of an officer, the Executive Board shall determine the process for filling the vacancies.”

Before the bylaws were amended, the only way to remove Boroujeni was through a petition with at least 25% of senators signing to initiate a vote, during which 50% must be present, and 75% must vote for removal. The revision changed the voting requirement to two-thirds, or 66%.

Since December, there have been three petitions calling for Boroujeni’s removal as president.

Under the added process in the bylaws, removing Boroujeni, who is on leave, required a majority vote of members present. Of the 62 members present, 29 voted to remove him and 15 voted to table the removal. Thirty-two votes would have constituted the majority.

Boroujeni: Stepping down hurts faculty

Before McCollam-Martinez, the theater design instructor, started the second and third petitions to remove Boroujeni as president, she sought clarity from a past president of the academic senate for California Community Colleges about how most colleges handle a leave of absence.

She learned that most presidents step down because of the mere fact that he or she cannot fulfill the duties of the role.

“Normally, that’s what would happen,” she said.

Boroujeni said during the meeting that stepping down would have been the “easy thing” to do.

“Let me explain to you why I haven’t stepped down. Stepping down would send a very specific message to the administration — that you can put the president on leave and that the president will step down,” he said.

He spoke not once as a community member as he had permission to but twice during the senators’ discussions, which further fractured the already splintered community college community, said a college employee who attended the meeting but asked for anonymity.

The community college district counsel and Fresno City College president confirmed to EdSource that Boroujeni requested permission to speak as a community member, not as a senator.

“It reflects his character of manipulation and bullying,” the college employee said.

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30/05/2025