Dr. Piedad Robertson one of 65 named to transition team
The president of Santa Monica College announced Monday she will join the transition team for Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger to advise him on education issues.
Dr. Piedad Robertson said she is honored to accept the position and is committed to preserving California’s community colleges.
“I am going to be pushing for bringing the state back into a balanced budget, and being able to provide education the opportunities that it deserves and needs,” said Robertson, who is one of 65 transition advisors. “And to provide our students the services and opportunities they deserve and need.”
SMC and the state’s other community colleges were dealt devastating budget blows this year by Gov. Gray Davis’ efforts to close California’s $38 billion deficit. As a result, community colleges have been forced to cut back on faculty, staff, classes and programs.
Robertson, 65, said she has a lot of ideas but declined to discuss them in detail until after the first meeting of the transition team, which is scheduled for Wednesday in Los Angeles. She said she doesn’t know how often or for how long the group will meet.
5BC,“Everything is up in the air,” said Robertson, who was contacted by Schwarzenegger’s staff immediately after the election. “I imagine that it’s going to be a pretty heavy duty meeting-time because it’s such a short period of time and there has to be a budget ready for January, and the transition will take place in November.”
Asked what she will earn for her service on the transition team, Robertson, who took over at SMC in 1995, said, “A nice ‘Thanks.’ You don’t do these things for money.”
The group of 65 transition committee members, which includes former Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon Jr., former Democratic Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg, Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Carly Fiorina, and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, will advise Schwarzenegger on a range of policy decisions.
“In my campaign, I said that I would reach across the political aisle and bring the best and brightest people together to help us solve the problems facing California,” Schwarzenegger said in a prepared statement issued to the media. “The transition committee is a distinguished group of men and women who share my commitment to restoring California to greatness.”
Schwarzenegger studied part-time at SMC from the spring of 1971 through the fall of 1974. Though he was on a strict diet of academics and steered clear of physical fitness courses, Schwarzenegger transferred to another college in Wisconsin before ever earning SMC’s Associate of Arts degree.
After fleeing her native Cuba in 1960, Robertson earned B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Miami, and was awarded an Ed.D. from Florida Atlantic University. Before coming to SMC, Robertson served four years as Massachusetts Secretary of Education, a post she was appointed to by Gov. William F. Weld.
Robertson serves on the Gates Millennium Scholars Program Advisory Council, which oversees the $1 billion scholarship endowment created in 1999 by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, as well as many local, state and national organizations, including the American Council on Education, the major coordinating body for all the nation’s higher education institutions.
“I’ve worked on statewide issues both in Florida and in Massachusetts, and I’ve been involved with more than community college issues here — I’ve been involved in all kinds of education issues,” Robertson said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 14, 2003. Read the original PDF.