| Taking issue with... |
Contra Costa College can never move ahead if it�s leaders are stuck in the same system of deception it has been in for the last two decades. Where favors are traded back and forth to just get by from one fiscal year to the next. Since CCC as an institution has a perceived bastard-child syndrome where operating outside the law is justified no one but an outsider can ever hope to succeed in changing anything.
| So it is very disturbing when the Contra Costa College newspaper devotes nearly 12 percent of it�s May 5th 1999 issue to singing the praises of the monster created by the Contra Costa Community District bureaucracy, Helen Spencer. The Advocate's lovefest of Spencer in this issue included two front page stories, an editorial and even a cartoon about her. |
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It is however painfully obvious as to the reason why the school newspaper would shamelessly pander to interim prez Spencer. It is the college president that controls the future of the CCC journalism program. The Advocate has a seemingly willing supporter in Spencer. The Advocate has spent more than a year wooing Spencer into their camp. The new president has the power to shut the CCC presses off forever. Something they are fairly confident Spencer won�t do. After all, they have invested a good deal of time in her.
Worried about the future
The journalism program has seen some bleak days including low enrollment, low graduation and low transfer rates among it�s students. Through this, former president Candy Rose heavily supported the program which often teetered on the bleak of oblivion. Rose, always a willing supporter in freedom of speech and especially dedicated to the college press, made sure the program remained untouched when course sections and even entire programs vanished. Rose also saw to it that the program attended costly journalism conventions every year. No one was happier than Rose when the department would bring home prizes and trophies. By the same token, no one on campus was more disheartened--and fearful-- by Rose�s departure then those in the journalism department.
Though in resent semesters the program has seen some improvement winning national contests and bring notoriety to the school it continues to suffer from chronically low enrollment. There is no doubt that with an outsider at the helm, the journalism department would at the very least suffer cutbacks.
I�ll scratch your back if you scratch mine
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In their panic induced effort to garner support for Spencer, the Advocate commits several factual errors. In their front page story the Advocate states that �Spencer lowered the school deficit from $880,000 to 176,000, and drastically reduced spending.� --Not really. Spencer isn�t a financial wizard weaving her magic on the school budget. It was an agreement with the district to lower the debt, plain and simple.
The article also erroneously reports that Spencer was the person in charge of shutting down CCC�s ill-conceived money-pit: Hilltop Center. This was hardly the case. CCC got in a little money trouble at the mall. The district again agreed to bail out the college, on the condition that the Hilltop Center be shut down. --They were forced to do it.
Spencer gets praise for her on the job training as interim president in the Advocate. Some important facts are left out others simply aren�t true. Steve Cohen business, social science and applied technology division Chairman claims Spencer has done a terrific job holding the temp-position because she stayed within the operating budget. She didn�t, she overspent the operating budget by $73,000. And never mind that she over spent the part-time hourly teaching budget by more than a quarter million dollars which was mysteriously overlooked in the story.
Always the bridesmaid never the bride
Helen Spencer is a second-rate administrator that has performed decidedly average in her short stay in CCC�s hot seat. At times Spencer showed insecurity, a memo sent early last year reflected Spencer�s lack of confidence. She tearfully whined to the college community about the lack of support and appreciated she felt from the school.
Call it what you want, just don�t call it journalism.
The Advocate supports her because they think the Journalism program is safe with her in charge and that some outsider might see it as an expensive waste of resources. Because so few students succeed in completing the program the journalism program has always been in jeopardy of loosing it�s funding. Badily reported stories such as this one might lead one to wonder what the Advocate�s agenda truly is and how it affects what goes into print on it�s pages.