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# SMC president decides to call it quits
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/smc-president-decides-to-call-it-quits/
- Published: 2004-11-18T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T05:35:42.000Z
- Author: John Wood
- Tags: Education, Santa Monica, #archive-import

SMC — After nearly 10 years at the helm, Dr. Piedad F. Robertson will step down as president of Santa Monica College in January to take over a national education think-tank based in Denver, Colo., it was announced Wednesday.

Robertson will start Feb. 1 as president of the E d u c a t i o n Commission of the States, a 38-year-old nonprofit organization that serves as a resource for policy makers. Robertson is leaving behind her $205,000-per-year position at SMC during a time of unprecedented growth, and in the wake of a c o n t r o v e r s y over cut academic programs.

Asked what influence her critics played in her move, Robert-son, 66, said, “On a scale of zero to 10, a 0.5, because I learned a long time ago in any job that you are going to carry out, you keep your eyes on the prize.”

It could take up to a year for college officials to select Robertson’s replacement. She has recommended her assistant, Tom Donner, act as interim president.

Despite being tapped by Gov.

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Secretary of Education Richard Riordan to weigh in on education issues at the state level, Robertson was largely unpopular among her own faculty and campus workers. She received a vote of no confidence from both groups last spring, after Robert-son recommended to a supportive college board that academic programs be cut in order to meet the funding shortfall from Sacramento.

“No regrets,” said Robertson on Wednesday, adding that she respected and understood the criticisms she faced as leader of the 33,000-student campus. “It has to do with the fact that this college went through a very rough financial situation, very rough. When you don’t have money and you cannot compensate people for the work they go through... there’s anger, there’s resentment, there’s accusation — and that’s to be expected.”

Though she plans to set up a second residence near her new office in Denver, Robertson said Santa Monica will still be her home and she will keep the house she shares with her husband Bill, a retired professor who works part-time at

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/111804-01_01-7.jpg)

rendering An artist’s rendering depicts what the new $31 million, 500-seat Madison Project theater might look like upon its completion in 2006\. (Photo: Photo courtesy)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 18, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/111804.pdf?ref=smdp.com)