Meet the candidates: College of the Desert Board of Trustees

In less than 3 weeks, voters will decide who they want to represent them on College of the Desert’s Board of Trustees, as two seats are up for election.

District 1

• Ruben Perez (Incumbent)
• Larissa Chavez Chaidez

District 4

• Aurora Wilson (Incumbent)
• Joel Kinnamon

College of the Desert Board Chair Ruben Perez is running for another four-year term to represent trustee district area 1, after he was first elected in 2018. He's facing a challenge from former College of the Desert student trustee and current CSUSB student Larissa Chavez Chaidez.

Aurora Wilson has been serving the community since 2013 and is seeking another four-year term as trustee representing district area 4. She's facing a challenge from retired College of the Desert President Dr. Joel Kinnamon.

News Channel 3 sat down with all four candidates and discussed key issues in each race, along with each candidates' qualifications.

Why do you think you'd be a better fit on the Board of Trustees?

Kinnamon: "I've got the experience over 30 years in community colleges, I've worked with different boards. I'm the chairman of the board for California and a nation's college. And I worked at COD for almost a decade and turned it into the fastest growing colleges in the state of California. And it was also receiving national and state recognition. When I left. When I came in, it was a little bit different. We were $8 million deficit. And we had a lot of bad headlines on my arrival, and we were able to work through that. And when I left, we had approximately a $30 million reserve that we left. So I understand community colleges, enrollment management, and board roles, been a chair of a lot of accreditation teams... And so I understand what the role of each trustee is and the body."

Wilson: "I have served the community since 2013, when I was appointed by the trustees that were in the seats at the time. I have since been reelected by the people twice. And having been through a tremendous health pandemic, where the trustees worked together with the college community to keep our community college going -- I believe its important to keep the incumbents who helped transition the college through that terrible time to now bring the college out and into a new dawn for the Coachella Valley as well as for College of the Desert."

On the future of a proposed Palm Springs campus:

Kinnamon: "Back in 2007, it was decided both campuses were going to be, and that's in this document here. And then it was affirmed in 2008. And then ultimately, the board unanimously approved a contract constructible was being constructed in Palm Springs. So it surprised everybody that April, one month after my retirement that they started looking at doing different things. And it startled both Cathedral City and Palm Springs, because since 2007, there had been this plan for there to be three primary campuses. And this was the third one and all of a sudden shifted without any public input. So I would say that it's time to turn a few pages back, we need to look at why it was changed because nobody seems to know. And then we need to first thing I would do is probably bring in a forensics audit auditor to help us look at that. Look at the decision decision making around that."

Wilson: "In 2016, the Board of Trustees did take action to approve a phase 1 for the Palm Springs campus. It's on record, we approved it. But it is nothing like what we were shown a year ago with a hotel and bungalows. That is not what was approved and it is on record, you can go and look up the minutes, it shows what it looks like...the structure, what is going to be there. We had targeted culinary, and hospitality programs as well as digital media programs, but there was nothing about any kind of hotel, any kind of bungalows. That was never approved by the board."

Why do you think you'd be a better fit on the Board of Trustees?

Perez: "I'm running for reelection because I want to keep building on the momentum and progress we've been able to have over the past year or so. Four years ago I was asked to run by the community in order to improve the presence and relationship that College of the Desert has had in the eastern Coachella Valley and I'm very proud to say that we've made great strides over the last year. We have implemented transfer courses and academic services in downtown Coachella at the library, we have reopened the campus off of Ave. 62 in Thermal that was closed by the previous administration prior to Covid, we're currently in the process of doubling our Indio campus and constructing our child development center, and we have stared a partnership with Coachella Valley Unified School District to bring about a dual enrollment program."

Chavez Chaidez: "I feel like I'm more qualified. I am the only candidate that attended College of the Desert full time. I graduated from College of the Desert over a year ago. While I was at College of the Desert I had the opportunity to serve as a student trustee, so I have some experience with the Board agendas, but I also had the opportunity to connect with a lot of students. Besides being student trustee I also had the opportunity to be part of the Associated Students of College of the Desert. I was Vice President, so I had the opportunity to connect with a lot of students throughout California and a lot of them were first generation College students like myself. We know the struggle of going to College of the Desert, and I feel like the Board...that's what it needs. To start focusing back on whats best for students."

Are there other goals that you'd like to accomplish if you are reelected?

Perez: "Yeah, there's plenty of them. I want to increase our enrollment, because just like every other college university and K-12 educational institution throughout the country is dealing with enrollment decline. I also want to increase our graduation and transfer rates. I'm very proud of the fact that since my four years since I've been on the board, we have increased our transfer and graduation rates to record levels every year. But we want to keep building on that progress. I also want to see out the expansion of the Indio campus and the construction of the Roadrunner motors project. Along with the building of the Palm Springs west valley campus in a way that's fiscally responsible and feasible for the college. The last thing that we want is to be financially upside down five years from now. We want to be able to be able to afford all of our build up. Another thing that I want to accomplish... We need to connect to sewer infrastructure at our eastern valley campus. Unfortunately, it is on a septic tank system. But I've already had preliminary conversations with Director Castro Estrada to try to figure out solutions to get that to get that going."

Why do you think you're more qualified than your opponent?

Chavez Chaidez: "As a College of the Desert alumni, I know the benefits of having an education and the great impact that College of the Desert could have on my future and also for many generations to come."

Your challenger has said that under current leadership, enrollment has declined. Do you have a response to that?

Perez: "Enrollment decline is something is a phenomenon that's being experienced throughout the entire country at every level of education via K through 12... community college or even the university. I saw a few months ago that even UCR is dealing with enrollment decline. So we're not unique in that sense. So I think she's comparing us to other fast growing colleges. And I that's commendable. I understand that. However, each college, each situation is unique. And we're not so far off from other from other other community colleges, throughout the state of California and throughout the country, as it relates to enrollment decline in the eastern Coachella Valley. Yeah, that's an issue that I ran on. And I and I'm very proud of the fact that I that I did run on that issue. When I first got onto the board, it was a steep learning curve. And then after that, we got hit with the pandemic. And really, it's been over the last couple of years or so where I feel like I've been able to pick up the momentum that is that I wanted to run with from the beginning. So we are working. I know that. I understand that there's plenty more work to be done, but we're doing it and I have the relationships and the experience in order to do that."

What area would you push for change in if you're elected to the Board of Trustees?

Chavez Chaidez: "College of the Desert was a home to me and since I graduated to now I've been able to see the difference. I've been to campus and its sad that not a lot of students are there like they used to be when I was at College of the Desert. I also had the opportunity to meet and interact with a lot of people in the community of Mecca/Thermal... a lot of people in Coachella and I think one thing that the College of the Desert Board of Trustees needs to focus on is providing more classes for the students. My opponent ran four years ago and he was pretty upset at the fact that there were only 14 classes being offered in Mecca/Thermal, but now that he's on the Board there's only two classes being offered in the Mecca/Thermal campus. Yes the Mecca/Thermal campus was closed, but all of the campuses were closed, not just Mecca. They were closed due to Covid."

Watch News Channel 3 tonight at 5:00 p.m. for a closer look at the race for COD Board of Trustees Area 4, and then again at 6:00 p.m. for a closer look at the race for COD Board of Trustees Area 1.