Candidates picked after ‘round robin’ of questioning
By BENNETT TOMLINSON Special to the Daily Press
SMC — A group formed specifically to alter politics at Santa Monica College has announced it will endorse two candidates they feel will be catalysts for change.
The joint committee known as Santa Monica’s Education Team was formed earlier this year to prop up candidates for the upcoming November election on both the local school district and the SMC level. Committee members announced on Thursday that they will endorse Doug Willis and Susan Aminoff to serve on the SMC Board of Trustees. There are three open seats on the board. Current board member Margaret Quinones is expected to run for re-election.
Aminoff, a 21-year resident of Santa Monica, is a professor of sociology at Los Angeles Pierce College and appointed chairperson of the Joint Labor-Management Benefits Committee whose model she hopes to take with her to the board. This is her first political venture.
Willis, who is on the Santa Monica Rent Control board, has been an accountant at UCLA for 27 years. He is active in local politics.
It’s the first time that endorsements have been made by the SMC Faculty Association and the Santa Monica Malibu Classroom Teachers Association, which are the unions that comprise the team.
The candidates endorsed were selected from a group of qualified applicants derived from questionnaires distributed in May, then subjected to a “round-robin” of targeted questioning, which determined the committee’s final decision.
“It’s vital to have a strong elected board supporting students from kindergarten through high school,” said Lantz Simpson, a professor of English at SMC and president of the SMC Faculty Association. “And we’re pleased that our community’s teachers understand our need for a board of trustees at the college that is responsive to students and faculty.”
It is paramount in the minds of the team to elect “pro-academic, pro-student, pro-teacher members” who are concerned about specific programs at SMC that provide equal educational opportunity.
Individuals were chosen to respond to the fall-out of several events at SMC this past year, specifically what union officials call the unnecessary elimination of eight programs — fire technology, emergency management, administration of justice, architecture, auto body and auto tech, geographic info services, tourism and hospitality and recreation — which has disproportionately affected the student community, particularly Hispanic males, union officials said.
The removal of the automotive program has been frustrating to most given its role in supplying Santa Monica businesses with employees and recent students with jobs, union officials said.
Willis and Aminoff were endorsed because they showed a strong interest in restoring those programs, team members said.
Although the election is five months away, committee members felt it’s important to deliberate their joint endorsements now and allow themselves enough time to choose appropriate candidates since many school officials will be unavailable during summer vacation.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 4, 2004. Read the original PDF.