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# SMC board fills crucial seat for future of school
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/smc-board-fills-crucial-seat-for-future-of-school/
- Published: 2003-11-05T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T03:09:49.000Z
- Author: John Wood
- Tags: Education, Montana, #archive-import

*New member believes cuts aren’t the answer*

Appointed to the Santa Monica College board of trustees Monday night, local accountant Graham Pope has vowed to fight for the good of the broader community.

Pope joins the board during one of the worst budget crisis SMC has experienced —classes are down by 26 percent, five programs have been eliminated and hundreds of jobs have been lost since February.

“To me, the community college system is absolutely crucial to providing quality education for our diverse population,” said Pope, 58, who lives with his wife north of Montana Avenue. “And one of my concerns is the issue of access and affordability. When you have decreases in the number of classes, cuts in programs and decreases in the enrollment, all of those things pose a problem... I don’t think we can cut our way to prosperity.”

Pope won four of six votes at a special meeting of the board to replace former trustee Patrick Nichelson until his term expires in November of 2004, when the next general election will be held. A total of five candidates were asked a series of questions by the board before members cast their votes and Pope was sworn in.

The board of trustees meets monthly and is responsible for guiding the future of SMC, which is considered one of the best junior colleges in the state with more than 25,000 students and a budget that exceeds $200 million. As a trustee, Pope will receive $400 a month and full benefits for health, dental and vision.

He also will be closely watched by faculty, students and staff who have criticized the $10 million in cuts approved by the board this year.

About 80 people attended Monday’s meeting, a third of them donning the bright yellow T-shirts synonymous with a campaign led by a group of students, faculty and staff called “86 the Trustees — Put the Community Back in our College.” The committee, which didn’t endorse Pope because he declined to meet with its members, hopes to persuade the board to reinstate the classes, jobs and programs cut earlier this year.

Student committee member Angelica Garcia, a sophomore, said more than 300 students walked out of classes Monday to protest the cuts and another 100 gathered before the trustees’ meeting. Shortly before the meeting began, small clusters of ralliers were bundled up in the cold early evening, carrying signs and waving banners outside of the SMC business building, as a group of police officers watched.

Committee members said that although the budget scenario looked grim earlier this year, the final adopted budget will actually bring $1.6 million more to the college than last year. They accused SMC administrators of exaggerating the budget’s impact.

“We didn’t suffer a cut,” said Richard Tahvildaran, a committee member and SMC professor of political science.

But Tom Donner, SMC’s executive vice president, said the committee hasn’t read the numbers correctly.

> “I think in all of the dialogue sometimes people forget why we’re there. And it’s really to ensure that students get the best possible education.” — — NANCY GREENSTEIN SMC board of trustees

3CA,“They’re not taking into consideration what the increased expenses in the budget are, nor are they taking into consideration that we don’t qualify for many of the new revenues in the state budget,” he said, pointing to expenses like raises for faculty members and the increasing cost of providing retirement benefits to workers, which combined total more than $2 million.

“I could go on pointing out different pieces of the budget on the expense side that they are basically not taking into consideration,” Donner said. “And on the income side, they’re putting in figures that we don’t qualify for.”

While campus groups and administrators continue to read the budget differently, Pope said he is looking forward to getting his hands dirty as the newest trustee.

“We have to have a level of civility and collegiality by all constituencies of the college,” he said. “To me that’s vital if we’re going to work in a very cooperative way with all the stresses of the budget.

4F7,“I know the board of trustees is working hard on these problems and have had to make difficult decisions over the past year,” Pope added. “We now have to move forward and, irrespective of our differences, find ways to allow an expansion of the college and allow an increasing number of students an opportunity to get low-cost, quality education.”

It’s an attitude that may stead well for Pope as he deals with a fractious campus frustrated over the cuts made this year. Lantz Simpson, president of the faculty association, a teacher union, and member of “86 the Trustees,” said he looks forward to working with Pope and is encouraged that the new trustee hopes to grow out of the crisis.

Kelly Hayes-Raitt, spokeswoman for the campaign, said the group will begin meeting with local businesses and community groups in an effort to send a clear message that the cut programs must be restored.

The “86 the Trustees” committee endorsed all four other candidates for the job, including former Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District member Pam Brady, retired LA Superior Court Judge David Finkel and attorneys Rob Rader and William Winslow. Though Pope received four votes, two votes went to Finkel and one advisory vote from student trustee Melvon George went to Brady.

“It was not a political campaign,” he said, adding that also an issue was that he had just returned from a business trip and wasn’t given adequate notice of the interview. “Nobody was running for office.”

A certified public accountant by trade, Pope’s affiliation with the college goes back almost a decade. He is immediate past president and a board member of the SMC Foundation, a private fundraising organization, and chair of SMC’s Citizens Bond Oversight Committee, which oversees the Measure U money, a bond approved by Santa Monica-Malibu voters in 2002.

Pope will resign from those organizations effective immediately, said Bruce Smith, spokesman for SMC.

Pope also has served on the SMMUSD Budget Advisory Committee and is a member of the Rotary Club. He is past president and a current board member of the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce, and a former board member of the Santa Monica Visitors and Convention Bureau.

Trustee Nancy Greenstein, who in the past has earned praise for voting not to cut the academic programs, said she is looking forward to having Pope on the board. She said she is committed to preserving SMC’s academics and hopes he is too.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 5, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/110503.pdf?ref=smdp.com)