Up for Debate: Presidential Forum: It is pointless for students to attend

Illustration+by+Eugene+Chang

Illustration by Eugene Chang

El Camino College has scheduled a search for a new president to replace Tom Fallo and the majority of the student body could care less.

Many students on campus are completely unaware of the presidential search, since many of them may not have been students when Fallo announced his retirement in 2012.

A poll done by journalism students showed that out of 82 EC students interviewed only one knew the president’s name.

The presidential forum is an event taking place Oct. 5-6 and is open to students, faculty, and community members to get an introduction to the top five presidential candidates and question them about their intentions for the school.

In other words, it is an opportunity for the presidential candidates to publicly recite their prepared answers to the many logical questions people may ask during the forum. “What are you going to do to help student’s transfer?”,”How will you help maintain the school’s financial stability?”, “Will you finally get us working WiFi?”

The EC presidential forum is simply just a competition to see who is the best crowd-pleaser and the reward could possibly be well over $100,000 a year in salary.

According to EC’s salary report, Fallo made $239,574 in 2005 and will be making $362,000 annually by the time he officially steps down from his position.

If faced with the possibility of receiving a salary that may or may not closely resemble Fallo’s check stubs from the past 20 years, what answers would you give to the people that may dictate your presidential future?

Ultimately the decision of who will be filling the college’s presidential seat will be up to the members of the board of trustees, who will be doing their own individual interviews with the candidates.

The students and faculty aren’t even in control of who will hold the fate of their educational and financial futures.

Supposedly the board will be taking into consideration the crowd’s perception of the candidates during the forum to help make their decision, but it will all come down to who they find to be the suitable choice.

Many students on campus are completely unaware of the presidential search, since many of them may not have been students when Fallo announced his retirement in 2012.

History shows that student have failed to show any interest in former El Camino College presidents and there is no evidence to show why they should care now.