Despite her announcing her resignation for June 2015, a petition has appeared that is trying to force Cerritos College President Linda Lacy to resign early.
According to an article by Hews Media Group – Community Newspaper, two online petitions have appeared demanding President Lacy’s resignation. President Lacy has avoided addressing her critics but responded to claims made in the petition through an e-mail sent to employees of the college.
“I try not to respond to unidentified, anonymous sources, negative sources or those types of comments, but you know, I think it had finally risen to the level of concern,” she said.
She said that she was made aware of the petitions but has not seen them. Talon Marks was unable to find the petitions online, as well.
The article by HMG-CN said that the petition said that Lacy had made questionable decisions as president. One of the criticisms against her has been the hiring of Miya Walker, who is in charge of public relations for Cerritos College. Walker was hired after the college’s former public relations specialist Mark Wallace retired two years ago.
HMG-CN stated that the college hired Walker and “went on a campaign to discredit and stop advertising dollars to HMG-CN, going so far as to say the sole purpose of hiring her as the Public Affairs Director for the college was to ‘take on and discredit’ HMG-CN.” Walker said that the idea that the college would try to hire her to go after one newspaper is not true.
“I just think the notion of the position, which was a vacant position, was what the college of this size definitely needed … I don’t believe that it would be financially responsible for the college to have someone to deal with one aspect of the college; the college wouldn’t do that,” she said.
Lacy supports Walker and the work she’s done for the college since she was hired.
“She was hired to fill a vacant position and she serves a vital role in this college and she’s the public relations, community relations person. It was a vacant position and she’s doing a fabulous job.”
The author of the HMG-CN article is unknown at this time and the school is not planning on taking any action.
“I don’t really give these allegations much thought,” Walker said. “The college has bigger concerns that need to be focused on, so the allegations of one news organization isn’t something we should be completely focused on.
“We have lots of work to be done to improve student success and to make sure our campus is running smoothly.”
President Lacy has said that she appreciates the support she has received from members of the school.
On Tuesday, the Faculty Senate passed a resolution of support for Dr. Lacy.
In the resolution, the senate listed the accomplishments of Dr. Lacy, such as improving “morale and communication over previous presidents by initiating public forums” and maintaining “a budget surplus during the fiscal crisis without full-time employee layoffs or furloughs.”
The resolution stated that the senate “supports the continued employment of Dr. Lacy until the effective date of resignation, June 30, 2015.”
Lacy said, “There’s been overwhelming support from the community in response; obviously you don’t like to see (these) type of things when you’re in this position. But, I’ve been very pleased in the support for me since that came out.”
