Broadcasted meetings, weekly office hours, and stronger involvement with the college community are just three goals the new Board of Trustees members have set for themselves for their first one hundred days of office, which start noon Friday.

But as of The Channels’ press deadline, Superintendent-President Andreaa Serban’s office didn’t have a date and time for a swearing in ceremony.

“We’re waiting until the election is certified,” said Sara Fargo, an administrative assistant to Serban, referring to the official end to ballot counting recognized by the state.

Because all four challengers won, any time they convene as a group for any board-related business, it will be considered a quorum, and the public will need to be notified beforehand.

Despite not knowing the details of when they will be sworn in, new trustees Marsha Croninger, Dr. Peter Haslund, Lisa Macker, and Marty Blum all said that they are ready to start.

In fact, Macker has already begun some preliminary work. She has a meeting scheduled today with Serban and Vice President of Business Services Joe Sullivan to discuss the college budget. Specifically, she wants to review the last two years.

“Some figures increased at the same time they cut others,” she said.

Macker wants to find out if those cuts have anything to do with student performance, and as she put it, “why students aren’t moving through as quickly as they possibly could” by getting classes many of them need to transfer.

She also wants to be “congenial and optimistic” with the three remaining trustees, Joan Livingston, Morris Jurkowitz, and Luis Villegas.

“I want to get past all the hype and the sound bites and work together.”

Haslund echoed her concerns about adversity. He said not overcoming adversity or lingering resentments would “ultimately hurt the college, and that is not why we ran.”

“We’ve had a traumatic political experience,” he said.

“But,” he added, “the world of politics can be destructive of that trust. We need to find a way to come together as a board.

“No one of us can do it alone. We all have to work together.”

All three said they want to see that same good faith extended to the schools’ administration, faculty and student body, both credit and non-credit.

Croninger emphasized the college’s relations with the greater Santa Barbara community.

“Keep that link—that important link—between the college and the community and reinforce it,” she said. “That link has been damaged and we need to repair that.”

Blum mentioned during a phone call from the East Coast over the holiday weekend that arrangements with the library have already been made to host office hours for the trustees.

Blum said anyone from the college or the community will be able to meet with whichever trustee is scheduled that given Friday morning.

“One of the things I want to start working on is getting the meetings televised on local cable,” Blum said.

CRONINGER’S COMEBACK

Two weeks ago on campus, about a hundred supporters honored Dr. Joe Dobbs and Sally Green, two of the incumbent trustees who lost re-election Nov. 2.

One of the speakers to wish them farewell was Desmond O’Neill, a fellow incumbent who ran with them.

Based on election night results, he was the only one of those four to be re-elected by his constituents.

But O’Neill appeared tentative, pointing out that as of that day, there were votes still needing to be counted. He acknowledged that his victory in Area 3 was less than certain.

“So, really I’m only here provisionally,” O’Neill said.

Then came news last Tuesday from the Santa Barbara County Election Office.

The last of 30,000 provisional ballots had been counted. And although results for two of the three area races remained the same, those for Area 3 hadn’t.

The final tally had Marsha Croninger at 22.01 percent, O’Neill at 21.88 percent.

Croninger and O’Neill had flipped positions, and in the end, Croninger won the second of the area’s two seats by 138 votes.

“I was somewhat surprised yesterday,” Croninger said in a phone interview last Wednesday about getting the news from fellow winner Haslund.

Croninger said that on Nov. 2, she had “taken the view that there are three new trustees and I was going to continue my involvement with the college from the community.”

But now, she joins Blum, Haslund, and Macker as they prepare to pick up where the parting incumbents leave off.

“I’m grateful to the voters…and all my supporters,” she said, adding that it was “quite an exercise in democracy. Clearly, every vote counts.”

The Channels managed to reach O’Neill, but wasn’t able to find out how he felt about his own farewell.

“My comment is no comment. No comment. Period.”