{"id":73903,"date":"2025-11-29T02:32:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T02:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/73903\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T02:32:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T02:32:10","slug":"madera-community-college-faculty-speaks-out-against-administration-the-rampage-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/73903\/","title":{"rendered":"Madera Community College Faculty Speaks Out Against Administration \u2013 The Rampage Online"},"content":{"rendered":"

The president of the Academic Senate<\/a> at Madera Community College (MCC) is speaking out about a costume mimicking his appearance worn at a private Halloween party attended by college administrators.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Oct. 31, Cory Bukarth, MCC\u2019s director of marketing and communications, dressed up as Academic Senate president and math professor Todd Kandarian. MCC President Angel Reyna was photographed smiling beside Bukarth in the costume.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bukarth\u2019s costume included glasses, a bald cap and stomach padding underneath his shirt. Kandarian was unaware the party was taking place, and after receiving word of Bukarth\u2019s costume, described the incident as \u201cplain and simple bullying.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was bodyshaming. It was horrible behavior condoned by my president,\u201d Kandarian said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to Kandarian, he and Bukarth were not close, and there was no communication that Bukarth was going to the party dressed up as Kandarian.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kandarian said he was an \u201ceasy target\u201d due to his position within the Academic Senate, which issued a vote of no-confidence<\/a> against President Reyna in fall of 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m the guy who speaks up against my president, and so that makes it easy for me to be the butt of the joke,\u201d Kandarian said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a statement, the State Center Community College District (SCCCD) said the incident is under active investigation, and because it involves personnel, the district can\u2019t make further comments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kandarian said President Reyna and other administrators failed to uphold SCCCD Administrative Regulation (AR)-3150<\/a> and instead condoned Bukarth\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a failure to do the most basic job of an administrator, which is to provide a safe environment for faculty, staff and students,\u201d Kandarian said. \u201c[President Reyna] failed at that job. All the administrators in that way failed at that job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alongside President Reyna and Bukarth, Kandarian said there were four other administration members at the party who failed to speak out against the costume.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery one of those administrators who saw him should have stopped him, especially my president, who was standing next to him taking pictures,\u201d Kandarian said. \u201cThat\u2019s not okay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the event, Kandarian said that meetings between himself and President Reyna have been cancelled. He also hasn\u2019t heard word from Bukarth about the incident as of Nov. 26.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Former MCC Academic Senate president and math professor Lynette Cortes Howden supported Kandarian when he called out administration about the Halloween party. Cortes Howden said that the incident is part of a culmination of disagreements between faculty and administration at MCC over the past year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s gone beyond a professional disagreement and a professional discussion to now we\u2019re being personally targeted,\u201d Cortes Howden said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cortes Howden questioned the impact that these actions leave on faculty and staff at MCC.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat kind of message does that send to our campus? Where not only do we see an example of bullying, but it\u2019s bullying that\u2019s accepted by our administration,\u201d Cortes Howden said. \u201cThat does nothing for the way things are right now at Madera.\u201d<\/p>\n

Further Claims<\/p>\n

The Halloween costume was one of a few alleged offenses from MCC administration, according to Cortes Howden. Both Kandarian and Cortes Howden said that former Academic Senate member, Erin Heasley, was denied tenure in the spring of 2025. This decision was made in the months after the fall of 2024 vote of no-confidence<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kandarian and Cortes Howden said that Heasley\u2019s tenure had been approved by a majority vote between three people, but was ultimately rejected after MCC Vice President of Learning and Student Success Marie Harris voted no. This decision was later overturned by the Board of Trustees and Heasley was granted tenure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite being approved, Kandarian and Cortes Howden claimed that President Reyna waited three weeks to give Heasley the news.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to President Reyna, California laws surrounding employee privacy prevent administration from making statements regarding Heasley\u2019s tenure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Participatory Governance Handbook<\/p>\n

In another incident, a Participatory Governance Handbook was worked on by three MCC constituent groups (Academic Senate, Associated Student Government and the California School Employees Association [CSEA]). It was unfinished by the end of the 2025 spring semester.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the summer, [administration] convened a work group to work on this handbook, and when we came back, this document was drastically different from what we had worked on,\u201d Kandarian said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kandarian claimed that President Reyna sent the edited version of the Participatory Governance Handbook to MCC\u2019s College Council agenda for approval without constituent review. This version of the Participatory Governance Handbook added administration as a constituent body and removed the Academic Senate\u2019s written process for electing a department chair, according to Kandarian.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, in a statement President Reyna made to the Rampage, the work done on the Participatory Governance Handbook was made publicly available over the summer, which contained contributions from a workgroup formed between administration and constituent groups. President Reyna claimed employee groups moved the Participatory Governance Handbook forward for approval, not himself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the statement, President Reyna said that other constituent groups have expressed support for the current version of the Participatory Governance Handbook after a workshop for the handbook was held at the August 2025 opening day faculty meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Academic Senate requested to review the updated Participatory Governance Handbook, where it\u2019s currently being edited.<\/p>\n

Online Meetings<\/p>\n

Shortly after the fall semester began, Kandarian said MCC\u2019s Program Review Committee meeting was moved from an online call to in person without a vote of the Academic Senate committee. Kandarian, on behalf of the Academic Senate, called out the change as a violation of the Committee Operating Agreement (COA).<\/p>\n

\"\"An edited version of page 2 of MCC\u2019s Committee Operating Agreement highlights the sentence \u201cAll other practices and rules shall be determined by vote of the Sub-Committee.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are more than a few senators asking, \u2018What\u2019s the point?\u2019 Why waste our time and effort reviewing a COA that will just be ignored or overridden by President Reyna,\u201d Kandarian said in a SCCCD Board of Trustees meeting on Oct. 7.<\/p>\n

In an email exchange with Kandarian, President Reyna said the administration has the right to decide how meetings are held.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"An email from President Reyna in response to Kandarian on the topic of COA from Oct. 10, 2025.<\/p>\n

President Reyna cited MCC\u2019s collective bargaining agreement<\/a>, referencing the statement, \u201cAll faculty, both instructional and noninstructional, are responsible for attending assigned meetings, including all meetings called by administration, on any day and in the modality scheduled.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kandarian pointed out that the collective bargaining agreement statement implies that the administration doesn\u2019t call every meeting, contradictory to President Reyna\u2019s claim.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Academic Senate and faculty rely on policies and regulations to voice their opinions, according to Kandarian.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s literally the only power the faculty members have,\u201d Kandarian said. \u201cOur adherence to those rules is our only power and insisting that those rules are followed.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Reyna\u2019s statement claimed that the faculty request to shift College Hour from in person to hybrid was accommodated. Kandarian said this accommodation was given after a \u201chuge uproar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mediation Attempts<\/p>\n

There have been \u201cmultiple good-faith efforts\u201d to strengthen the trust between the Academic Senate and administration, according to President Reyna. In fall of 2024, President Reyna said there was a mediation attempt including a mediator recommended by the State Center Federation of Teachers, SCCCD\u2019s faculty union, that the Academic Senate declined.\u00a0According to Kandarian, the mediator, Ashlee Hernandez, was chosen by Chancellor Carole Goldsmith, who was revealed to be Goldsmith\u2019s goddaughter<\/a>. Cortes Howden asked Hernandez about her relationship with Goldsmith, where Hernandez stated that she was not related.<\/p>\n

\"\"An email exchange between Lynette Cortes Howden and Ashlee Hernandez. Photo courtesy of Todd Kandarian.<\/p>\n

Kandarian said the Academic Senate denied mediation because terms outlined by the SCFT crossed into working conditions, which is outside of the Academic Senate\u2019s legal control. Both Kandarian and Cortes Howden stated that the Academic Senate didn\u2019t intend to drop mediation entirely.<\/p>\n

President Reyna claimed there were two other attempts at participatory governance that were declined by the Academic Senate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kandarian emphasized that all of these incidents have led to mistrust amongst MCC faculty and administration.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAll we want is the voice that we\u2019re supposed to have,\u201d Kandarian said.<\/p>\n

After the Halloween incident, Kandarian said other faculty have come forward to voice their frustrations with MCC administration\u2019s actions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t feel good to drive up to the place that you work knowing that you could be the subject of a horrible bullying incident like this,\u201d Cortes Howden said. \u201cWe preach to our students that we should have certain values and that we should have a certain decorum and a way of conducting ourselves. I think it sets a horrible example to our students that we don\u2019t live up to it ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The president of the Academic Senate at Madera Community College (MCC) is speaking out about a costume mimicking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-73903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}