What will I do for students?
I am enduring criticism from endorsement groups demanding I state outright what I will do for students.
Know this: A Trustee cannot dictate classes or changes in curriculum. The Trustees only vote on the District budget. Yet there is the power. The budget includes the compensation for the Faculty, the Administrators, and the Staff. Salaries, benefits, retirement, college policies for classes.
The groups demanding promises do not understand that the incumbent Trustees do nothing for students. The Trustees talk. They pass resolutions. Response to the Covid isolation? They closed the colleges. Online learning? Technicians do all that programming. Funding of students? The State of California offers Fee Waivers on classes. The State does not pay for textbooks, housing, food, clothing, transportation -- all the real expenses of education.
I can fund outside tutoring for students and online training for the part-time adjunct faculty. Adjuncts now teach more than 70% of the classes. The department heads assign the most difficult classes to adjuncts. The adjuncts need help. The students need help. Helping the adjuncts and the students, that will accelerate achievement.
What will I do for students? The adjuncts and students will gain 'Learning Anywhere, Anytime.' And I will pay for it with the money now wasted on political vanity.
Those groups did not read of my past work integrating classroom instruction will online text, audio, .pdf, and video. On 11 September, 2001, I converted a classroom course into an online course. I averted the cancelation of the class with online skills. Until the university found another site for the class, the class continued online. This is the concept of "Learning anywhere, anytime."
I did the same at a foreign university. Before classes, I assembled the assignments and materials as .txt and audio on CDs and USBs. After class, I corrected their work online, for discussion in the next class meeting.
Here in Los Angeles, I attended faculty training sessions for online backup. The retired-in-place tenured faculty back-talked the trainer, "We teach in classroom, we don't need this."
I will vote against any faculty compensation that does not require upgrade of skills of faculty. Students need the course materials at all times, everywhere, on desktops, tablets, and cellphones.
I stated that I will fund this. How will I pay for this enhanced technology?
I will exploit the fund-raising list of my opponent. As an incumbent, he exploited the position to gather campaign contributions from contractors, unions, consultants, public relations firms --
Jacobs / oversees all construction on colleges --- $10,000
Cordoba, Inc. / construction ------------------------ $5,000
Pacific Services / internet consulting -------------- $5,000
UA Local #250 / air-conditioning ------------------- $2,500
Operating Engineers --------------------------------- $1,500
CRCD Enterprise / construction --------------------- $1,000
Rodolfo Ruiz / attorney ------------------------------ $1,000
Rick Taylor / consultant ----------------------------- $1,000
Upward Solutions / public relations ---------------- $1,000
These are only the companies and individuals who contributed the most to the political future of the part-time Trustee Buelna.
The list does not include many companies and other individuals who contributed smaller amounts. So far, in total, six months, $33,7000.
And he did receive money from his good friend, Kevin De Leon.
This does not include all the contributions for the past four years.
And the total does not include the money the tenured faculty and the administration will dump on Buelna. One million dollars, as in 2017?
When I served as an adjunct for the LACCD, the four classes in a year required I deal with the hours in the classrooms and many, many hours a week correcting essays online. A full-time demand. No writing of novels, no other work possible. For that, the LACCD paid me $13,000.
Rather than grab money for a future political campaign, the many thousands of dollars will go to adjuncts as tutors for students, other adjuncts, and faculty willing to try new skills.
If I set that example, perhaps I can shame the Faculty into the investment of their millions of dollars in help for the adjuncts and students.
There it is. You have a choice:
Support an incumbent who uses his position to accumulate funding to advance his political career.
Or:
Support me, Robert Payne, and vote for an independent voice not corrupted by the faculty political regime.
I have world experience. I know what confronts students. I will not use the position to get a ticket to Sacramento. I will work only for the students, the innovative faculty, and staff, the District, and the community.