When the Western Association of Colleges and Schools' Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges yanked Compton Community College's accreditation last summer, the Compton College Federation of Employees/AFT kicked into high gear. Already it had called on the state to help the union shake up a negligent board of trustees. When the commission withheld accreditation, the union rallied faculty, staff, students and community members to form the Committee to Save Compton College.

This fall, members were working to elect a new board member in November, beginning a process of renewal among trustees sullied by corruption, negligence and mismanagement. Faculty walked the streets with billboards and fliers to support their candidate. They are also organizing a recall of two board members whom they hope to oust in an election next June. They have sent letters to the commission protesting the movement to close down Compton, and they stood behind the administration’s appeal, now under consideration. They have even attended student-organized rap rallies to assure the community that Compton is still viable and its accreditation intact through this appeals process.

The college has been a lifeline for a low-income community that depends upon Compton as a route away from poverty through education. "We’ve done everything that we can," says Rodney Murray, CCFE president. "We want to make certain that this school, like the phoenix, will rise up better than before."

Irrefutable evidence that Compton was due for a change came in October when former trustee Ignacio Pena pled guilty to diverting more than $1 million in public funds to his own accounts. Pena faces four years in prison plus $1.12 million in restitution for creating false college courses and siphoning money.

With such shenanigans in the past, Murray is “guardedly optimistic” about a re-accreditation, hoping for probationary or show-cause status for Compton. Meanwhile, the school has a new state-appointed trustee, a new interim president and a union determined to see it through. "These people need to have Compton Community College," says Murray. "It’s the institution that helps them transcend." [Virginia Myers Kelly]

October 28, 2005