The vote was unanimous by the Board of Trustees for the California School Employees Association, Cerritos College Chapter 161, for the ratification of the CSEA contract, during last Wednesday’s Board of Trustees meeting.

Board member, Cheryl Epple spoke on behalf of the Board to announce that the Board had come to a unanimous decision about the CSEA contract.

After the Board was in closed session for two hours, the Board ratified the tentative contract. The chapter now has an official new contract after having to go through negotiations with the district.

A majority of the negotiations dealt with who would pay for the heath care of the employees of the District.

Tom Chavez, President of the Chapter wanted to thank the President John Grindel and members of the Negotiations Committee and team.

Also at the meeting John Madden, Adviser of the Scholars’ Honors Program (SHP) at Cerritos College, made a presentation to the Board on the work that the SHP is involved with.

He said that 14 students had their research papers printed in the University of California at Irvine literary magazine called Global Visions: Exploring Diverse Perspectives for 2003.

This was a part of the third annual undergraduate research conference for California Community Colleges.

Madden also said that he is looking forward to sending 14 students to this year’s conference on March 6.

“They go knowing that they can hold their own,” Madden said to the Board of Trustees.

He also stressed the importance of the program and how it has helped the students grow.

Madden said that since the transferring to a university has become harder our students to get in, “Now in budget times, they (the students) have to compete more shrewdly, they really have to be at their personal best.”

Chi-Chung Keung, Director of Marketing and Public Relations and Kristen Habbestad, coordinator of Media Relations for the Cerritos College Marketing Campaign, made another presentation to the Board.

Keung presented the community outreach that Cerritos College has started. There is a television and radio spot, web, advertising and direct mail. The main theme through the campaign is “Success with Cerritos.”

The television spots included graduates of Cerritos College and where they are now.

Board member, Bob Arthur shared how excited he was when he heard the first commercial.

The television spot can be seen on cable or at the Norwalk AMC theater and the radio commercial can be heard on talk radio stations.