David Morris, a candidate for the Board of Trustees Area four of Santa Barbara’s open seat, strives to bring a sense of community to City College.
The position was previously held by Anna Everett, and if elected, Morris hopes to bring three key ideas to the board. The first principle he strives for is collegiality throughout the college, Morris believes administration and faculty often don’t agree with one another.
“Having gone to school and taught here, I can say at City College this is not the case,” Morris said. “I want to promote collegiality between faculty, staff, and administration because I believe that will lead to a healthier place to work, and for students to come learn.”
Having both the administration and faculty aligned creates a better environment for everyone. This not only benefits the faculty but also ensures that students are part of a college that genuinely cares for them, Morris explained.
The second principle he hopes to bring is creativity. He acknowledges City College’s financial issues and realizes that a solution needs to be found.
Morris explained how intuitions need to make necessary budget cuts to retain a healthy budget.
“We are currently facing major budget issues, and oftentimes the way to deal with that is we have to make cuts. I don’t think an institution cuts itself into health, so we may need to trim some things,” Morris said.
He also looks to incorporate creative ways to grow City College. Morris understands that issue budgets are not an easy fix and has to bring in different perspectives to move forward out of a slump.
“There’s a lot of different ways of doing that, but I believe that if we’re creative we have a chance to both grow the college in a healthy way and work towards a balanced budget,” Morris said.
Finally, Morris’s last principle he’ll strive to carry out is continuity.
“We have had the misfortune of not being able to keep leadership long-term,” Morris said. “The last three presidents have left for a variety of different circumstances. We need continuity and leadership in both the president and superintendent positions.”
As for Measure P, Morris is in favor. Morris believes that infrastructure improvements at City College are crucial at this time.
“All you have to do is just drive around the pavements over on West campus. And the so-called temporary building that’s been there for several years. I think it’s pretty obvious we need infrastructure work,” Morris said.
Morris believes the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) program is vital on campus.
“The outreach, and variety our programs have are amazing,” Morris said. “We have a major food program as well as programs for people with disabilities. I think it’s important to have these programs as a community college.”
In 2013 City College was awarded the Aspen Institute’s Community College Excellence Award, Morris aims to uphold excellence at the institution he once taught at.
“I think communication is one of the keys to avoiding disappointed expectations and misunderstanding,” Morris said. “But I think we can work on that, and I think we can give people a stronger sense of community for being a community college.”
