Pasadena City College (Photo – pasadena.edu).
Before the school closed for the holiday break, the professors and coaches in the department of Kinesiology, Health and Athletics (KHA) presented a vote of no confidence to the PCC Board of Trustees on their dean, Dyan Miller, and called for her ouster; by the time they were to return, on January 9 it was announced that Miller was put on administrative leave.
By Melissa Michelson
“The last 6 years of Dean Miller’s service have been marked by a dereliction of duty in maintaining the quality and standards of the Kinesiology Division,” the resolution reads.
The eight faculty members that spoke during Public Comment referred to her “egregious abuses of power,” causing low morale in the department triggering violations of the Ed Code and PCC’s union contract.
A majority of the full-time tenured instructors in the department signed the vote of no confidence. No untenured faculty or faculty that are re-assigned from teaching to be temporary administrators were asked to sign.
“We.. submit this condemnation of Dean Miller’s leadership, job performance, and judgment and request that the process to select a new Dean of KHA be started immediately.”
Dean Miller did not respond to a request for comment.
At the meeting (Photo – Melissa Michelson)
Process of Administrator Evaluation
The KHA faculty contend that because Dean Miller is no longer evaluated by faculty in her own division, she has been “emboldened her to act with even more disrespect.”
A new Performance Evaluation of Administrators policy (AP7150) was approved by the Board of Trustees in September 2021.
Under the new policy, an administrator is evaluated by other administrators annually. The people an administrator supervises (staff and faculty) give feedback only once every three years… and not anonymously.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, one professor in the division said, “Dean Miller is deaf to our concerns.”
After faculty complained that Dean Miller had not been properly evaluated for several years, her direct supervisor, former Vice President Terry Giugni, conducted an ad hoc staff evaluation of the dean but allowed the dean to choose her own evaluators.
In an email sent three days before the next semester began, Assistant Superintendent Vice President of Instruction Laura Ramirez notified the KHA division that the dean would be “out of the office for the next few weeks.”
[This article has been updated to include more information. Dec. 6, 2023. 9:00 pm]
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