COUNSELOR QUITS, CITING TREATMENT OF MINORITIES : SIERRA NOTES DIFFERENCES WITH COC.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

A veteran counselor at College of the Canyons, the only tenured Latino faculty member on campus, resigned from his post this week, in part, he said, in frustration over the treatment of minority students.

Benjamin Sierra, 55, submitted a letter of resignation Monday. At their 5 p.m. budget study session today, the Santa Clarita Community College District board of trustees will authorize the search for his replacement, according to a college board memo.

``It's a position that's important to the college, and we don't want it to be empty for a long time,'' said COC spokeswoman Sue Bozman.

Sierra, who began at COC in October 1988, worked in the Extended Opportunity Program and Services, a state-funded program to serve educationally disadvantaged and low-income students.

In his resignation letter, Sierra said he had forwarded some concerns to the chancellor of the California community college system.

``There seems (to be) an obvious antipathy to issues regarding the treatment of minority students, their recruitment to the college, and their participation as EOPS peer advisors,'' Sierra wrote.

Sierra was unhappy about an Aug. 22 directive from his boss Glenn Hisayasu, dean of student services, that he relocate his office from the EOPS unit to the campus counseling office in another building.

``It is obvious that my efforts to serve and support the academic goals of under-represented and disadvantaged students is not consistent with the goals of this dean of students,'' Sierra's letter continued.

Hisayasu said that Sierra was neither asked to quit nor forced out of his job.

The dean, who has been at COC for four years, said his background attests to his dedication to the EOPS program. For 11 years, Hisayasu said, he worked as an EOPS counselor and director for the Los Angeles Community College District, with stints at Valley College and Los Angeles City College.

``It's a program that's near and dear to my heart,'' Hisayasu said. ``It's a program that I have a great deal of respect for and loyalty to.''

Minorities account for a sizable portion of the student body at COC, where overall enrollment in the new fall semester is 6,255, said college registrar Dottie Duncan.

In the most recent statistics available, there were 1,115 Latino students, 309 Asians, 174 African-Americans, 169 Filipinos, 77 American Indians and 20 Pacific Islanders registered during the spring 1996 semester, compared to 4,077 white students and 280 students in other racial or ethnic groups, Duncan said.

The breakdown was similar in the fall 1995 semester: 1,132 Latinos, 260 Asians, 157 Filipinos, 153 African-Americans, 105 Middle Easterners, 62 American Indians and 27 Pacific Islanders. Duncan said there were 4,171 white students and 67 of other racial and ethnic groups.

Meanwhile, Sierra copes with unemployment seven years shy of Social Security retirement benefits.

Back in June, Sierra was outspoken about the treatment of an 18-year-old Mexican-born woman trying to enroll at COC. The recent high school graduate, a legal U.S. resident, complained that the admissions director had made disparaging comments questioning her legal status, and Sierra came to her defense with the administrator.