Senate fails to oust former president

ARYANNA DUNN Reporter

The question of what should happen after an Academic Senate president’s term ends was debated extensively during the senate’s meeting on Monday, Nov. 23.

Currently, past presidents may remain as officers of the senate executive committee and maintain voting privileges in senate matters.

Robert Martinez, professor of Mathematics and co-chair of the Student Success Committee, supports the current system and brought the topic forward for discussion.

“The past President served forever and then there was a proposal by the Senate Executive Committee just to have it be one year serving as a transition,” Martinez said.

“The new leadership could make mistakes. The past President is there to share historical perspective, and have an active role in the committee. They should be allowed to volunteer and vote after one year.”

Distance Education Coordinator Wendy Bass agreed that past presidents should be allowed to remain on the Executive Committee but said they should not have votes.

“It’s best if past Presidents join as non-voting members,” Bass said. “However they could be a support for the committee, and a helpful resource to go to. It would be good to have them.”

Lyn Clark, chair of the Computer Applications and Office Technologies Department, said it is inappropriate to revoke membership and voting privileges from former presidents.

“Assuming we are all professionals, we can’t just remove someone from the committee,” Clark said. “Just because they lost the election or are no longer in that position doesn’t mean they can’t volunteer for the committee, and should have just as much say.”

At the end of the debate on the matter, the majority of the faculty voted to allow former presidents to retain voting rights.

Lombrano has stated that Awad has been put on the ASO meeting agenda but is unsure whether it will happen during the next meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 1.

“The goal is to a have a localized meeting ground for and some funding to help cater effectively and efficiently to the LGBTQ community,” said Awad. “What we have now is not efficient.”

11/19—Traffic Incident

At 8 p.m., a security officer confiscated a staff gate card from a student who was misusing it at the Parking Lot 1 gate arm.

It is unknown how the student obtained the pass, which is meant only for Pierce college staff.

News briefs

A disturbance was reported at the bookstore at about 2 p.m. and was described as a dispute between a faculty member and a student over a test.

Natural gas odor reported at Pierce, LAFD gives all-clear

The Los Angeles Fire Department was called to investigate a strong gas odor at Pierce College Monday night. The odor was reported at about 9 p.m., and according to Deputy Al Guerrero of the Pierce College Sheriff’s Department it was noticeable across campus.

The LAFD arrived and verified the smell posed no danger to anyone on campus.

Brian Humphrey of the LAFD’s public information office said “sophisticated sensors” were used by responders and found the levels of gas in the air to be insignificant. Humphrey said the source of the odor is unknown but that the Southern California Gas Company was performing maintenance in Woodland Hills.

“There were a handful of odor investigation calls in the greater Woodland Hills area,” Humphrey said. “But none of our sensors indicated any accumulation of gas.”

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