Saving Pacific Oaks
Board of prestigious Pasadena college bucks the school’s president in an effort to find alternatives to closure
By Marc B. Haefele 01/22/2009
The board of directors of Pacific Oaks College, which was considering closing the 63-year-old Pasadena institution, has apparently bucked the will of its president in taking two major steps to save the school during a marathon meeting last Thursday.
College President Carolyn Denham told the Pasadena Star-News after the meeting, where administrators presented charts showing the college moving toward insolvency, that “The board did not vote on anything, no decision was reached and they decided to continue the discussion.”
Denham, head of the college for the past 10 years, did not respond to two requests for comment from the Pasadena Weekly. Two years ago, Denham shook the Pacific Oaks community by stating the college might close down.
But sources at the meeting — closed to the media, like most Pacific Oaks meetings — said a majority of the board members rejected a proposal to shut down the college and supported two positive steps toward saving it.
The first “initiative” would be an in-depth examination of the school’s finances by a committee of board and faculty members. Many in the Pacific Oaks community — including faculty, alumni and students — have strongly questioned the declining financial picture drawn by Denham and her administration. They also accuse the administration of not fully disclosing college finances.
These concerns were strongly seconded in a Dec. 1 report by the regional accrediting agency, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. In a long and scathing letter to Denham, WASC complained of an administrative atmosphere of “distrust and missing information” and “a general disarray of systems, data, planning, and communications.” The letter even accused Denham of supplying faulty data to WASC.
WASC said it would yank the college’s accreditation early next year if it doesn’t shape up by then, an action that would make it impossible for students to get tuition assistance.
The second “initiative” proposed at the Thursday meeting was for another joint committee to seek an “affiliation ... or even a merger” of Pacific Oaks with a larger college or university, said the sources, who added that the administration opposed both proposals. The board meets again Feb 2.
“This is hopeful,” said Betty Jones, a veteran Pacific Oaks faculty member. “We are in great need of hope.”
Pacific Oaks is one of the nation’s leading providers of preschool education training, often to Head Start teachers eager to upgrade their education. It’s the largest institution of its kind in the state, in 2007 granting 60 percent of all the early education master’s degrees awarded in California.
Jones said that it would be a terrible irony if the college were to close just as President Barack Obama introduces his “Zero to Five” preschool education program and proposes to quadruple all Head Start funding and create new Teacher Service Scholarships that will cover four years of undergraduate or two years of graduate teacher education — exactly what Pacific Oaks offers.
Two years ago, Pacific Oaks had 1,200 students. Now it has fewer than 1,000. In early 2007, when the school appeared to be thriving, Denham closed enrollments in the school’s off-campus programs. These so-called “cohorts” consisted of nine teaching groups containing 150 students in areas extending from San Diego to Chico. They were, Denham’s critics say, an important revenue source for the college. Denham said the closures were needed to “stabilize” the school. Denham then neglected to create a college “capital campaign” fundraising arm. She also failed to replace student recruitment personnel.
Denham’s critics say her 2007 closing threat, which she later said she regretted, cost the college many potential students. She also forced out the provost and the student affairs head and took both these positions herself before filling them with outsiders.
Denham’s most severe critics suggest that her policies may be intended to close the college. Pacific Oaks consists of the college, which focuses on awarding bachelor’s and master’s degrees in preschool education and counseling, primarily of the underprivileged, and an idyllic preschool on a 1.5-acre campus near the Arroyo Seco.
This 200-pupil school, with its 15 percent admissions rate, “is harder to get into than Harvard,” Denham says; it serves primarily the toddlers of the elite. Preschool parents now dominate the Pacific Oaks board.
Although the Pacific Oaks administration neither confirms nor denies it, persons present at a closed staff meeting held over two years ago say it was then disclosed that the main buildings on the preschool campus needed millions of dollars worth of repairs. These critics maintain that closing the college would allow Pacific Oaks to shift funds to renovate the Arroyo campus, or to shift the preschoolers to the college’s Craftsman-classic main campus near the Gamble House.
There is widespread agreement among many in the Pacific Oaks community that, if the college survives, it’s time to end the relationship with the preschool, which was founded in 1945 by seven local Quaker families in order to “build a more peaceful world, [which] all begins with children.”
Corinne McGuigan, the former provost who left under pressure from Denham, said that the growing gulf between the two institutions could be at the core of current troubles. “The direction of the preschool now contrasts with the college. This could be a factor in [the attempt] to close the college.”
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Comments
Congratulations to Marc Haefele for his excellent article about the state of affairs at Pacific Oaks College. I loved your headline, and applaud the Board of Trustees for giving a grande old dame a fighting chance, and giving faculty and alumnae/i and friends of Pacific Oaks a bit more time to gather the information they've been denied and strategize as to next steps to save our beloved school. We believe it is not only possible, but also essential.
I, too, am a Pacific Oaks College alumna and proudly so, and have pledged to contribute towards a scholarship program to enable disadvantaged students to gain the valuable education I had.
The research and writing of faculty and alumnae like Betty Jones, Louise Derman-Sparks, Renatta Cooper, Margie Carter & Deb Curtis, are what drew me and many other students to Pacific Oaks. Their thinking and writing is what led me to join their innovative and highly regarded distance program so that I could attain my Masters of Human Development, graduating in 2006.
I teach Childhood Studies at a community college in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, where my students study the work of the aforementioned faculty, so believe me - the important work of Pacific Oaks faculty and alumnae goes far beyond Pasadena, and far beyond California. When I took my Masters courses I connected with people from all over the United States, as well as from Canada, Spain, and Thailand.
Closing Pacific Oaks College would be a crime, given the renewed sense of hope that is permeating the United States in general and the early childhood community in particular with your election of President Obama. You made reference to it in your article above, Mr Haefele - Why would we be closing Pacific Oaks College now, with Mr. Obama's pledge of increased funding for early childhood programs and scholarships for teacher education?
My education at Pacific Oaks has widened and deepened my understanding that we are all interconnected, and that we must speak up when we see injustice and bullying behaviour. Ms. Denham has been that schoolyard bully long enough. We've been speaking up and she doesn't like it, so she shut people out.
Pacific Oaks' motto is: "Value the Child, Change the World". I'd like to offer a variation on that theme that seems apt here: "Value Students, Alumnae/i & Faculty, Change the President, and Save Pacific Oaks College"
Earnestly,
Hope Moffatt, MA in Human Development, 2006
Childhood Studies Instructor,
Keyano College,
Fort McMurray, AB, Canada
If any members of the Board of Pacific Oaks College are reading this, please know that I'm addressing it directly to you:
Before you decide to close such a stellar institution, please keep two things in mind.
First of all, P.O. is not just "another small college." When it comes to Early Childhood issues, there are two colleges in this country that are at the very top: Bank Street in NY, and Pacific Oaks. If you decide to pull the plug, you will be doing damage that will be more far reaching and pervasive than you can imagine.
Second, as a student at PO, I have attended a few community meetings of late, and am aware that the faculty has demanded an outside audit, based on the fact that the WASC report stated that, under the current leadership, PO HAS UTTERLY FAILED TO KEEP ADEQUATE FINANCIAL RECORDS. This leads me to make two obvious points. (1) How on earth can you consider closing the college because of financial woes when, according to WASC, you don't really know what the accurate numbers are? (2) If you decide to close it without agreeing to an audit, you will likely see headlines that state:
BOARD CLOSES PACIFIC OAKS COLLEGE.
REFUSES OUTSIDE AUDIT.
Please think again. The WASC report was clear: it unambiguously stated that new leadership is needed. Everyone seems to understand that . . . except the Board. Please don't let the President pull the whole ship down with her.
-A Concerned PO Master's Student
If the Board Wants to Save Pacific Oaks, Carolyn Denham Must Go
From her recent comments in the press, it appears that Carolyn Denham, President of Pacific Oaks College, is using smoke and mirrors - - and the recent economic downturn - - to cover up her pattern of incompetent leadership over years. Some familiar with the college’s financials insist that the $12 million deficit Denham projects is greatly exaggerated and merely an excuse to close the college she could never truly lead. More importantly, Denham refuses to connect the dots between Pacifc Oaks’ current low enrollment and her own decisions and actions. Carolyn Denham began closing the successful academic centers throughout the state which she herself had just months earlier touted as “the fastest growing part of the college”.
Carolyn Denham burned a lot of bridges during her 10-year tenure. She systematically silenced faculty, her touchstones to the mission of the college. She refused to offer more than lip-service to students who are the best recruiters for the college. Faced then with a resulting loss of enrollment, Denham recently asked these same students to help her enroll the college. There is only one problem. This will only happen if President Denham steps down. And she has refused to do so. The Board of Trustees has a fiduciary responsibility to the college that must exceed loyalty to this failed president. Remove Carolyn Denham. This is the first action the board must take if they are willing to save Pacific Oaks College.
I am completing my M.A. degree in Human Development this spring at Pacific Oaks. Many of the 30 professional educators at the large NAEYC-accredited center in Silicon Valley where I work aspire to do the same. It will stand as an appalling tribute to both ignorance and arrogance if these voting decision-makers allow this revered institution to fail on their watch.
Dear Mr. Haefele,
As an alumni of Pacific Oaks College, I was thrilled to read your article in which Ms. Denhem is FINALLY being put to task. In recent weeks I have been upset by all the rumors about this wonderful college possibly closing its doors. I graduated in 2005 in the Masters program at P.O. I am now a licensed Marriage Family Therapist in Pasadena and so proud of the education I received by most of the faculty at this college. While I was attending as a student I was very active and outspoken when I found it necessary. I was often appalled how the Masters program was the "step-child" to President Denham. The only time I saw her was at my graduation when she enjoyed the photo op with the students. It would be a huge loss to have Pacific Oaks College close its doors. Students from Pacific Oaks have been providing excellent health services to many people in the community, especially the underprivlaged due to the education and "hands on" experience one obtains at Pacific Oaks College. When I interned at Verdugo Mental Health, my Supervisor voiced how often Pacific Oaks interns stand out from other colleges and universities because of their clinical hands on knowledge in working with people as oppose to only book academia.
There have been several professors at P.O. that have worked relentlessly to make P.O. a place to be proud, along with how much these students give back to our diverse society. These teachers and students are passionate in the mission statement of P.O. in which we are here to be socially aware and better the world. Ms. Denham has no clue, beyond her "elite" world. It was a shame to see Corrinne McGuigan, the former Provost leave because she was aware of the faculty and students needs and she was always willing to listen. We were finally having a voice until she was pressured to leave. I really do not want to get involved in the "politics" of what is happening but I could not stay silent about this matter.
I know many alumni, including myself, that would actively work hard to keep our Alma Mater open. It truly would be a loss to many people in agencies, schools, hospitals that benefit from our training.
Sincerely,
Joanne Diaz Koegl, LMFT
Pacific Oaks College 2005