Cerritos College
Cerritos College • Norwalk, Calif.

Talon Marks

Cerritos College • Norwalk, Calif.

Talon Marks

Cerritos College • Norwalk, Calif.

Talon Marks

Calendar
TM Digital Newsletter

TM TikTok

Invocation discussion engulfs board meeting

The possibility of having invocation at the start of every Board of Trustees’ meeting was the main talking point during the meeting that took place Wednesday, Sept. 2.

Board president, Carmen Avalos, was absent from the meeting due to illness according to board vice president, Dr. Shin Liu, who was in charge of running the meeting.

The meeting that kicked-off at 6:30 p.m. quickly went over roll call, public comments and other mandatory items usually taken care off before diving into items that need either discussion or action from the board.

College president Dr. Jose Fierro said, “This is the best meeting yet, I’m getting the hang of the meetings, this meeting was faster than usual.”

The discussion item that then arose and received a good amount of attention was item No. 18, invocation at Cerritos College.

The item, put on the agenda by Zurich Lewis, means that wishes of good faith be said before every board of trustees meeting.

Before the board began discussion on the topic, the item was open to comments from the public.

Mario A. Guerra, Downey police chaplain and former Downey mayor, and Steven De Ruse, mayor pro tempore of La Mirada and pastor of First Church of Artesia, both agree with Lewis’ idea.

David Faibish, dean of liberal arts , is against having invocation at the start of board meetings.

Trustee Bob Arthur agreed with Lewis and is okay with the idea of having invocation.

Trustee John Paul Drayer and Fierro want to have sets of legal eyes look at having invocation before meetings to see if no laws are being broken.

Student trustee, Victor Villalobos, asked the board to wait until the Associated Students of Cerritos College Senate gets assembled and collects student opinion on the matter before the board makes an official move on invocation.

Villalobos said, “ASCC Senate could take 15 minutes talking about it [invocation] or an hour.”

As of the meeting last night, there has been no official vote on invocation, but the board want to further discuss it in the next board meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 16.

Story continues below advertisement
About the Contributor
Sebastian Echeverry, Editor in Chief
Hello all, my name is Sebastian Echeverry and I am the Editor-in-Chief for the fall 2015 semester. I have been working for the newspaper for four semesters now and slowly climbed the ranks from staff writer, to assistant sports editor, to sports editor, news/managing editor and finally the big cheese. My interest in journalism began when the twin towers fell on September 11 and the U.S. invaded Iraq. Global news coverage of airstrikes in Baghdad plagued the media and my father who served in the Colombian military would sit with me and explain what was going on to me. I was only eight years old at the time, so putting politics aside, I was only interested in how reporters on the front lines were seeing history unfold in front of them. Since then, I enjoyed reading and writing especially about global news. My first taste of research was for a high school paper about the militias still active in the U.S. I remember sipping some brew outside on the Coffee Bean's patio and being swallowed up by data, and liking it. I Currently have a part time job at Calvin Klein, my favorite sport is soccer and I love, Barcelona, Chelsea and Borussia Dortmund. I also enjoy watching hockey and my favorite team there is the Detroit Red Wings, yeah weird I know. I'm an easy person to approach and talk to and if you have story ideas let's get cracking on them! my email is: [email protected] My Twitter is: C_bass581141 My Instagram is: onlyc_bass5 and for giggles my snapchat is: onlyc_bass5
Leave a Comment
More to Discover

Comments (0)

All Talon Marks Picks TM Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Activate Search
Invocation discussion engulfs board meeting