Leslie's 2024 campaign Message

For the past 8 years, it has been my privilege to serve students, taxpayers and the community at large as a trustee of the Yosemite Community College District.

My roots at MJC and in our community run deep.

And it’s because of my history with – and love and respect for – MJC that I decided to run for the Board of Trustees after MJC made national headlines in 2013 for stifling free speech and blocking a student from handing out U.S. Constitutions on Constitution Day.

I ran to “Make Free Speech Free Again,” and won with more than 80% of the vote.

Equipped with that mandate, I worked with colleagues on the board to improve district transparency, end efforts to stifle and control speech, and fight a tendency to apply bureaucracy-friendly filters to the information shared with board members and the public.

Today, thanks to these efforts, we on the board have made a range of improvements at the district, including:

• Putting students first by ensuring high-quality standards in academics and technical training, with distinguished programs in areas such as Performing Arts, Welding, Respiratory Therapy and Agricultural Sciences.
• Prioritizing freedom on a range of fronts. Examples include: approving a landmark Due Process Policy to ensure equal treatment on campus; adopting Strategic Priorities that support students’ individual needs; and revising the board's Resolution on Racism to help soothe instead of divide against a backdrop of national discord. During the pandemic, we declined to mandate Covid-19 vaccines and boosters, instead allowing students and staff to choose for themselves.
• Bringing people together, rather than emphasizing factions. Getting a good education is a nonpartisan issue, despite widely varying opinions on policy and ideology, and colleges should encourage a diversity of perspectives to facilitate innovation, mutual understanding and cooperative problem-solving
• Protecting taxpayers by reining in expensive administrator buy-outs, slashing bloated golden parachutes, standardizing management contracts and performance evaluations, and ensuring increased accountability district-wide.

If re-elected, I’ll work diligently to cement these and other hard-won achievements, prioritizing academics & job skills, fiscal stability, and championing free speech and civil discourse. I want our district to avoid partisan politicking and live up to its promise of welcoming all and serving all, meeting the needs of our students as unique individuals and doing everything we can to help them achieve their academic and career goals.

I would be deeply grateful for your vote!

~Leslie Beggs