Resolution and Scholarship Honoring Leon Baradat
As you’ve all heard by now, MiraCosta mourns the loss of Professor Emeritus Leon Baradat. We’d like to personally thank Jonathan Cole and the other faculty volunteers who worked to organize his memorial on September 10. We would also like to extend public thanks to Academic Senate President Susan Herrmann for creating a joint AS-FA resolution honoring Leon. We could not have imagined a formal resolution written with such beauty, and for those reasons we would like to share the resolution with you (see below). As well, both the FA and the AS agreed to contribute $2,000 each to help establish an endowed scholarship in Leon’s name.
A Resolution in Memory and Appreciation of Leon P. Baradat
We, the faculty of MiraCosta College, wish to express our gratitude and respect for our distinguished colleague and friend, Leon P. Baradat.
Whereas, Leon was a faculty member in political science at MiraCosta, beginning in 1970 and retiring in 2003, and continued to teach in the summers thereafter.
Whereas, Leon was a superlative teacher who engaged his students fully, challenged them imaginatively, and inspired them heartily to value and exercise their role in civic life.
Whereas, Leon enriched the educations of many thousands more students through his authorship of textbooks on political ideologies, American democracy, and the Soviet Union.
Whereas, Leon worked tirelessly in the founding of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges, served as its president, and established for future generations the primacy of faculty in academic and professional matters.
Whereas, Leon was a formative member and president of the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges, advocating for faculty in the state capitol, and encouraging others to do the same.
Whereas, Leon supported the practice of peer evaluation, upholding the highest standards in education and governance by serving as a member of visiting accreditation teams.
Whereas, Leon devoted his energies to governance at MiraCosta just as fully as he did to the statewide efforts, serving in numerous capacities, including one term as Academic Senate President in 1996-97.
Whereas, Leon, even in retirement, came to the aid of the college with his leadership and acumen when its ideals and history of collegial life came under threat.
Whereas, Leon believed wholeheartedly in collegial governance and in the practice of collegiality, both large scale and small.
Whereas, Leon moved among all levels within the college as a respected peer.
Whereas, Leon was a delightful friend and colleague, quick with his distinctive laugh, ready to plan and carry out an elaborate joke, yet in the next moment, serious and wise in his counsel.
Whereas, we at MiraCosta, as well as all administrators, faculty, staff, and students in California Community Colleges, are beneficiaries of Leon’s vision, intelligence, and dedication.
Whereas, in the life of a college, rarely do lions of Leon’s stature pass our way.
Therefore let it be known that the faculty of MiraCosta College, both those who worked with Leon and those who have come after, appreciate deeply his work with us and on our behalf.
And be it further resolved, that we pledge as a faculty, present and future, to honor the life and career of Leon P. Baradat by practicing wholeheartedly his legacy of collegiality and professionalism.
To learn more about Leon's life, you can read the article, "Remembering Leon Baradat."
