Read West Valley's thank you letter to DRA

At this afternoon's hearing of the West Valley Academic Senate, the Senate voted that the Court Reporting program should be continued, with qualifications to be determined at a later meeting. Today's hearing was a shorter follow-up session to last week's hearing, with less time allowed for both sides to make some final arguments and then more public comment to be given, followed by questions asked by the Senate members of faculty and administration.

Today's meeting was in a smaller room at the college, but once again a very large crowd of reporters, students, teachers and other interested members of the community attended and filled the room to STANDING ROOM ONLY. Also, once again all the public comment given was in support of the program, and many moving and persuasive experiences were related by CSRs, captioners, CART providers and students.

Clearly the Senate members were impressed, even amazed at the outpouring of the support shown for the court reporting program, and they recognized how valuable and necessary the training program was to the community at large. Even the administration's speaker, who had originally recommended the abandonment of the program and made the presentation in favor of that position, today said that had he been aware of the value that the program had to the community, he probably would not have made the recommendation to close the program.

The discussion by the Senate members included suggestions for improvement of the marketing of the program to the public, perhaps a rebranding of the program to focus on captioning and related employment opportunities that the program can offer to its students. Eventually a motion was made and seconded that the program be continued but that certain milestones be established for the program to achieve within some set time frame. When the vote was taken, all but one Senator voted in favor of this approach, and so the program was saved.

MANY THANKS TO THOSE OF YOU WHO ATTENDED THE HEARINGS AND/OR WROTE LETTERS OF SUPPORT. BY PRESENTING A UNITED FRONT, THE DEPOSITION REPORTERS ASSOCIATION WAS INSTRUMENTAL IN HELPING TO SAVE WEST VALLEY'S COURT REPORTING PROGRAM! CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL INVOLVED!