According to the faculty senate election results, Dennis Falcon will become the president of the faculty senate at Cerritos College next semester, and Ralph Casas will be the vice president.

As of now, there were no nominations for the position of secretary, which will be open until they find someone to fill that position.

For starters, Falcon will serve another term as the leader of the faculty senate after winning by unanimous consent.

Falcon, who was the incumbent and will still be the vice president of the Faculty Senate said, “It’s been an honor to sit in this position and have the opportunity to work with more faculty than I worked with before.”

“I learned to appreciate how important (the) Faculty Senate is,” the vice president of the faculty senate said, “we have a powerful influence on what Cerritos College does as a district for our students.”

Falcon was the first person of color to be the Faculty Senate president and he will continue breaking barriers for faculty.

President Falcon is a veteran of the United States Army, was the first in his family to receive a college education and was the first Chicano person to earn a master’s degree in public administration from his University.

Vice President Casas was also the only candidate and won by a majority. There was a majority since there was one vote of no and one vote of abstention.

Casas said, he was surprised to be nominated and elected this time and he’s happy to be reelected to work with senate president Dennis Falcon for another two years.

“Senate is the best place to be in to interact with actively involved faculty who are invested in making Cerritos College a better place for students,” said the Faculty Senate vice president.

This will be Casas’ fourth term as vice president of the Faculty Senate. The first two terms were from 2002 to 2006 and the third term began in 2020.

In his previous terms, he has been on the Curriculum Committee, worked on the Student Equity and is involved in discussions to create courses that meet that fulfill CSU Ethnic Studies requirements.

Casas has also attended the State Senate Plenary sessions, been a part of the California Community College Chancellors System Advisory Committee on Curriculum and the State Academic Senate Diversity Action Committee.

In Casas’ free time, he works with Norwalk High School as one of the track and field girls’ distance team.

John Macias first nominated Ralph Casas following Anthony Gonzalez to be the second person to nominate Casas.

Lisa Boutin-Vitela stepped down as the secretary of the faculty senate because she will be going on sabbatical leave.

“It’s been a real pleasure … and I enjoyed getting to know everyone,” Boutin-Vitela said, “I will also enjoy taking a sabbatical leave (laugh), to recover.”