UKEN REPORT 3/6 – BEHIND-THE-SCENES OF COD CAMPUS DERAILMENTUKEN REPORT

The College of the Desert Board of Trustees voted to move forward with amended plans for the Palm Springs campus. The catch: the plans approved don’t entirely exist. Approved plans will ultimately be a blend of incomplete designs drawn prior to 2021 with new additions that need to be made. Plans from 2021 are about…

The tide is now shifting since the last couple of years that Superintendent/President, Dr. Martha Garcia took her position. Her lack of transparency and attempt to pause the Palm Springs Campus and Cathedral City Roadrunners program created an uproar in the community, along with a lawsuit filed against COD last September from the City of…

City of Indio and College of the Desert officials gathered Monday morning to break ground on the community college’s Indio campus expansion, a 67,000-square-foot building with classrooms, a café, offices, science labs and a student services center. The long-planned campus expansion on Oasis Street downtown will double the size of the Indio campus built in 2014. Flyers distributed at the event said…

PALM DESERT — The question for some College of the Desert leaders isn’t so much what did they know and when did they know it, but better, what did some know and why did they not disclose it? In less than two months, questions have shaken the offices of President Martha Garcia, Trustee Rubén AríAztlán Pérez,…

Former Palm Springs Mayor Ron Oden is the newest member of the College of the Desert Board of Trustees. Oden was sworn in after he was unanimously appointed by the board Friday, 4-0, to become the Area 3 representative for Palm Springs and a sliver of Cathedral City. It was a rare and important moment…