Sen. Schiff apologizes for town hall’s snub of SLO students — and says he’ll be back | Opinion
One thing was missing from Sen. Adam Schiff’s otherwise highly successful town hall meeting at a community college in San Luis Obispo.
There were almost no young people there.
The April 22 event at Cuesta College — the senator’s first town hall since being sworn in — was by invitation only.
Cuesta officials had been advised not to advertise the event; Schiff’s staff said they would handle the promotions. But as it turned out, few if any invitations went out to students.
Lucia Landeros, Cuesta’s student body president, learned of the event at the last minute and was one of the few young people in a sea of baby boomers.
After the town hall, she politely approached the senator and his staff to ask why students had not been notified.
Schiff didn’t offer an explanation at the time, but according to Landeros, “He looked very concerned. He was nodding.”
A couple of days later, one of Schiff’s staffers phoned and asked if she was available to speak with the senator.
“I said, ‘Yes, of course .... I would love to talk to him.’”
They spoke for about five minutes. Schiff apologized, explaining that it wasn’t his intention to leave students off the guest list. He also said he would love to come back to Cuesta, Landeros said, if the students would have him.
Landeros was impressed.
“I guess in this political climate, you’re not used to hearing people own up to their mistakes,” she said. “But he apologized, and that was very noble of him.”
Student concerns range from DEI to STEM education
Landeros, 21, is laid-back and personable, but definitely no pushover, and she’s passionate about issues that concern students.
“We’ve really got to stick together for the problems that are to come, with the potential closure of the Department of Education, budget cuts coming up from the top, attacks on DEI, on our undocumented students, on our international students,” she said in an interview.
A STEM student double-majoring in engineering and geography, Landeros also is a strong advocate for math and science education. She testified before the state Assembly Higher Education Oversight Committee in February about the need to continue to offer entry-level math classes for STEM students who may not be ready to jump straight into calculus.
“My big thing is, you know, just solving problems,” she said.
Only one thing to fear
Landeros has one more year left at Cuesta. While she will no longer serve as student body president, she will be legislative affairs director for Central California’s Region 6, representing several community colleges at state and national levels.
She’s generous about sharing credit for her achievements — a long list that includes participation in scientific research projects on energy, plus various awards and speaking engagements. She’s drawn inspiration from several “amazing” professors (too many to name); her siblings, Clara, a political economics major at Yale, and Pablo, who is about to graduate from SLO High; and her parents, Monica Garcia and Martin Landeros, who are both teachers.
They taught her a famous quote from FDR that’s served her well: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
And then there’s the Girl Scouts.
“I did Girl Scouts since I was in first grade. So that really instilled in me a sense of like, ‘Oh, I can change the world and it is my responsibility to, you know, help solve problems.’”
Which explains why she wasn’t about to let the town hall matter slide; she had every intention of trying to bring Sen. Schiff and his staff back to town.
“I did have that goal of really just bringing them back so students could, you know, meet with him,” she said.
“So that’s what I did — I just gave them a little piece of paper with my information on it. I didn’t realize they would reach out. It was just, you know, a long shot. But no, they reached out to me. And I was ... I was honestly surprised.”
Schiff also called Cuesta College President Jill Stearns and told her he would like to return.
“I appreciate Senator Schiff’s stated intent to return for an event for the campus community,” she said in an email to the Cuestonian, the college newspaper.
“No dates have been discussed, but if it is a timeline similar to the town hall, there will be very short notice of the event. When the campus visit is scheduled, Cuesta College will communicate with students and employees via our regular channels of email and the website.”
