After getting elected to the Peralta Board Nicky was able immediately to help stop the sitting board members from making a sweetheart deal to transfer control of public lands at Laney College to developers. Then, as part of a reform effort on the board, he helped hire an inspector general to create more transparency and accountability in our spending, planning, contracting, etc.

They also initiated a long-overdue process of long-term educational and facilities planning which has led to the drafting of the first educational and strategic master planning in the District in many years.

Through this reform effort, Nicky helped hire three new college presidents, including the first Asian American president in Laney College history. Lastly, this reform effort dramatically increased outreach and enrollment while also pushing for student success and equity planning.

When Nicky was first elected, morale in the District was at a real low point. The District was on accreditation warning status from its accrediting agency and the Board was not trusted at all to look out for the best interests of students or faculty and staff.

Now, not only has Peralta gotten off of accreditation warning status, we have been able to give significant salary increases to employees and, for the first time ever, with his initiative Peralta was able to provide long term employment security to part-time faculty members, many of whom had been in the District for decades with no rights or promises of being re-employed semester to semester.

Nicky also helped stop the district from using long-term "temporary" employees with no health care or retirement benefits. Nicky has also been one of the most vocal advocates of part-time and classified employee equity rights.

As a Peralta Board member Nicky has been chiefly responsible for writing and passing one of the state's most progressive and bold environmental sustainability policies: Peralta Board Policy 2.40 on Environmental Sustainability.

It's not all just talk. On the ground, Peralta is implementing major changes in the District's energy use, solid waste disposal, recycling and diversion, and water conservation. Peralta is also vigorously pursuing green collar jobs training programs and other cross-discipline greening of all of its curriculum.

With Nicky’s leadership, Peralta has developed student green clubs on its campuses, hired student organizers/interns, hosted film festivals with the Sierra Club, done environmental justice and anti-poverty forums, and held 2 sustainability conferences. Peralta also opened a brand-new Berkeley City College campus. Nicky’s advocacy led to a LEED-Silver environmentally sustainable rating for the building, the first in the City of Berkeley.

In May, 2008, the board adopted a signature program Nicky developed with Trustee Abel Guillen and student Trustees Reginald James and Marlene Hurd, to provide a universal AC Transit bus pass program for Peralta’s full-time students. This pass will provide over 8000 students with affordable transportation and an alternative to private automobile transit.

In addition, the sustainability policy Nicky ushered in is leading to major energy conservation and investment plans that will save the District millions of dollars while dramatically reducing Peralta’s carbon footprint . These are all policy initiatives for which Nicky took the principal leadership.

Nicky pushed for the establishment of an on-line system that automatically invites Peralta students who register for classes simultaneously to register to vote. Through this process, Peralta has registered over 23,000 voters in the last three years! Nicky also advocated for the implementation of service learning and civic engagement programs throughout the district.

This led to this area of academic and vocational training being adopted as one of Peralta’s “program of distinction” emphases in the Peralta strategic master planning document. This means that the District will put more resources into developing projects that place more students into the community where they will not only provide thousands of hours of community development work, but they will gain practical skills in civic and community engagement.

Nicky has been a fierce advocate for community colleges. As a life-long community college instructor, he has devoted decades in the service of community college students. Much of this work has been the day-in and day-out intensive focus on concrete student success and the mentoring of up-and-coming student leaders.

The February 2008 Community College Ballot Initiative (Proposition 92) called for a much more intensive effort. Nicky was excited to use this opportunity to generate support for and understanding of the community college mission. First, he was active in helping to qualify the initiative for the ballot, organizing students and others to gather over 1000 signatures. Then, almost single-handedly, he secured the endorsement for Prop 92 from EVERY single elected official in the City of Berkeley, from Democratic Clubs, other East Bay elected officials, and many community leaders and private individuals.

Nicky wrote and published 2 separate op eds in the San Jose Mercury News and the Berkeley Daily Planet. (Click here for the Merc op ed.) (Click here for the Daily Planet op ed.)

Coordinating with the Peralta Federation of Teachers and the California Federation of Teachers, Nicky then organized and mobilized dozens of student volunteers to carry out voter education. On election day, he brought over 30 students from his own classes and contacts to walk precincts and do election day voter mobilization.

Unfortunately, in the end, we lost our battle to pass Proposition 92. But, we did much to advance the public’s understanding of the critical role community colleges play in creating a just and more democratic society.

Onward!

Nicky derived his real foundation and approach to politics from his friend and mentor, the late Senator Paul Wellstone. Paul was not only Nicky’s undergraduate college advisor in the 1970s, but also a life-long friend and advisor until his death in 2002. Nicky had served as a Congressional fellow in Paul’s office the year before his death.

After the Senator’s death six years ago, Nicky made the decision to run for local public office to see what effect he could have in doing two things: first, bringing greater rationality, effectiveness and common sense to public education policy, especially in what was then a very broken Peralta Community College District; and second, using the visibility and tools of public office to help organize citizens to be more involved in activism and public life.

Obviously, Nicky won his race and was elected to the Peralta Community College Board of Trustees. He is now the Board Vice President and expects to be elected Board President next year. In addition he serves as chair of the Peralta Board's Facilities and Land Use Committee and also serve as a member of the Board Student Services Committee and Policy Review Committee.

Though he had long been active in "issue politics," his new focus as a Peralta Trustee moved him deeply into electoral activism in the East Bay. Five years ago he joined the leadership of the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club here in the East Bay and helped build it into a significant force for grassroots electoral organizing.

He is also active on the board of the Asian Pacific American Democratic Caucus of Alameda County, and again, has worked hard to make it a growing and significant organization for progressive electoral engagement. And, he has been active in each election cycle, raising money for staff for grassroots organizing, organizing precincts and carrying out voter registration, education and mobilization.

As a trustee and as a member of the progressive East Bay community Nicky tries to use his visibility and access to build a broader movement for social justice. For example, in the last several years he has organized or participated in scores of organizing and educational events and conferences, (especially in the areas of community college leadership, environmental sustainability, civil rights, Asian Pacific American Affairs, anti-poverty organizing and civic engagement).