Dissent the Blog

Oops

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Bauer) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:24:00 +0000

Community colleges hit by $149-million shortfall (LA Times)
California community colleges were struggling Tuesday to absorb an unexpected $149-million budget shortfall that will mean more class cuts, layoffs, borrowing and probable elimination of summer programs affecting thousands of students….

Santorum Says Obama Is Waging 'War' on For-Profits (Inside Higher Ed)
Rick Santorum last week told an audience at the Detroit Economic Club that President Obama "had a war on private education" and that his administration has unfairly attacked private-sector, or for-profit colleges, that do most of the worker training for new jobs, according to a transcript published by The Detroit Free Press. The surging Republican presidential candidate promised that his administration would have a different attitude….

Berkeley Accidentally Sells Million-Dollar Sculpture for a Pittance (Chronicle of Higher Education)
How does a university lose an artwork and then accidentally sell it? The astonishing saga is detailed in today’s New York Times....

"Jesus glasses" case: Corbett prevails, period

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Bauer) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 04:08:00 +0000

Supreme Court won't hear appeal of student's anti-Christian lawsuit (OC Reg)
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal Tuesday from a former high school student who sued his history teacher for disparaging Christianity in class in violation of his First Amendment rights.
The high court denied Chad Farnan's written demand for a review of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision last year that exonerated Capistrano Valley High School teacher James Corbett.
"It was not at all surprising that the Supreme Court denied review," said Corbett's attorney, Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of UC Irvine's law school and a constitutional scholar. "The 9th Circuit decision was sound ... and made it clear he could not be held liable."
The Supreme Court's decision not to hear the Mission Viejo case – in legal terms, denial of Farnan's petition for a writ of certiorari – puts a final lid on a legal battle that spanned more than four years and raised fundamental questions about the limits of what a public school teacher can say about religion in the classroom….

IVC: Waking up with a horse head in your classroom

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Bauer) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 02:14:00 +0000

Liz Cipres: her usual level
of competence

Last week, I heard from a colleague here at Irvine Valley College who told the following story: he was teaching, and he was in the middle of a difficult lecture when, all of a sudden, four young men entered his classroom, each of them immediately establishing himself in some part of the room. One of them—the one at the back of the room, I think—wore a mask. It was a horse mask.
Naturally, my instructor friend was taken aback and more than a little annoyed. Clearly peeved, he asked these young men to identify themselves.
In response, they said nothing. Absolutely nothing. They did nothing. At one point, one of them attempted to make a phone call.
Many of us, I’m sure, would find in this circumstance a reason for concern. Alarm even. But the friend, a bold fellow, just got pissed and insisted that the young men leave. Eventually, they did. He escorted them out the door. He tried to pull off the one kid's horse mask. No luck—the kids trotted off.
Wow.

Mute, menacing

Later, it came to light that this “invasion of mute assholes” phenomenon has occurred elsewhere on campus. It is by no means an isolated incident. The phenomenon is, I've been told, the result of an assignment given to students in a Sociology course—something about violating social norms and then seeing what happens.
Usually, a friend tells me, this sort of assignment yields such undramatic adventures as staring at the wall in an elevator or just sitting on the floor. —But not entering classrooms with masks. Horse masks. And then refusing to answer. Refusing to leave. That's menacing.
The instructor friend eventually came into contact with the head Sociology instructor on campus, who wrote him an email. I read it. I don’t know what my friend made of it, but it struck me as condescending. The gist of the email seemed to be, "we can't be blamed if some of our students don't follow our guidelines when completing this assignment." She listed these guidelines. They were clearly of the CYA variety—you know, "don't do it at the college," where, of course, a student's inappropriate behavior might produce ripples that come back to faculty.
Such an email! I'd be pissed anew.
Eventually, the matter came to the attention of Liz Cipres, Dean of Counseling Services, who took on the matter with her usual level of competence. Among other things, she suggested that instructors could lock their classroom doors.
I'm not making this up. That's what she suggested.
Has something like this happened in one of your classes?
What is one to make of these disruptive Mute Asshole phenomena—and the assignments that inspire them? And what is one to make of the Sociology Dept's CYA and hand-washing moves?

* * *

I've decided to be helpful. Based on extensive research, I’ve constructed a handy guide for students who wish to fulfill this assignment. What follows are cool and UNCOOL attempts. Let them be your guide:

FULFILLING THE ASSIGNMENT TO VIOLATE SOCIAL NORMS (BUT NOT AT THE COLLEGE WHERE I COULD GET MY SOCIOLOGY INSTRUCTOR IN TROUBLE):

• Entering Ralphs, then buying your Wheaties in the nude: cool

• Wearing a Scream mask, going to Grandma’s house, ringing the doorbell, and then, when she opens the door, screaming and making threatening gestures: uncool

• A guy (not in Scotland) showing up to church in a cute dress: cool

• A guy showing up to his pro-life, right-wing friend’s birthday party, then gifting said friend with that Beatles album that has the notorious “dead babies” cover: uncool

Etc.

Rick offers some Santorum

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Bauer) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:29:00 +0000

Santorum: Democrats Are 'Anti-Science' (Inside Higher Ed)

Rick Santorum, enjoying a surge in support in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, on Monday said in a speech that he is not "anti-science," but that Democrats are, CBS News reported. Santorum has been criticized by many scientists for, among other things, suggesting that there is not a consensus that global climate change is real and is significant. Speaking in Ohio Monday, he said that the science of global warming is "political science," based on "phony studies." He elaborated: "When it comes to the management of the Earth, they are the anti-science ones. We are the ones who stand for science, and technology, and using the resources we have to be able to make sure that we have a quality of life in this country and [that we] maintain a good and stable environment."

A century-old "History of Orange County": towns called Celery and Delhi and a women's club aiming for "sober, Christian citizenship"

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Bauer) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 04:25:00 +0000

Samuel Armor (1843-1933)

I’ve been reading Civil War vet Samuel Armor’s marvelous History of Orange County, California, first published in 1911 and then revised in 1921. It is available online at the Cornell University Library.
I've provided a few interesting selections—but I’m barely scraping the surface. The book is nearly 1700 pages long!
Remember, all of this was written about a century ago:

CHAPTER XIII: UNINCORPORATED TOWNS

…Capistrano, the "Old Mission Town," is situated near the junction of San Juan Creek and Trabuco Creek…. The first location of the mission was several miles northeast of the present site, and at the foot of the mountain. The former location is still known as La Mission Viejo….
. . .
[The town of] Celery is one of the stations and shipping points on the branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad running from Newport Beach to [the town of] Smeltzer [near Westminster]. [Edinger Ave. was previously called Smeltzer.]

["Smeltzer is situated in the heart of the celery district south of Westminster. The town was named after the late D. E. Smeltzer* of Kansas City, who discovered the adaptability of the peat lands, when drained, to the growth of celery. Smeltzer and Wintersburg, one mile further south, are busy places in the shipping season. These towns are on the Southern Pacific Railway from Newport Beach to Los Alamitos." HOOC, p. 87. Evidently, the celery business in OC peaked in 1911 and thereafter declined.]

Corona del Mar is a small hamlet on the mesa east of the mouth of Newport Bay.
[The town of] Delhi is a community center about two miles south of Santa Ana.

[(1) “I grew up in Orange County, lived in area called 'Delhi' where there was Orange groves and Sugar Beets growing, right outside of El Toro Helicopter Marine Base.” (2) "When I was a kid Delhi was a very unique area of Santa Ana. Barrio? Yes. Other side of the tracks? Yes. Family oriented community? Yes. Genuine folks? Yes. Defacto segregation? It had its own school district, what's that tell you? An ethnic melting pot? It sure was." –Orange County Memories]

El Toro, twelve miles southeast of Santa Ana on the Santa Fe Railway, is the trading point of an extensive grain and grazing district. It is also the nearest railroad point to certain mining camps and bee ranches in the hills on the north and to Laguna Beach and Arch Beach on the south. [El Toro was renamed Lake Forest in 1991. The town had been known as El Toro since the 1880s.]
. . .
Fairview [we've noted this town previously], seven miles southwest of Santa Ana, is located on the northwest part of the broad mesa lying between the ocean and the damp lands southwest of the county seat. A carline was projected in boom days to connect the town with Santa Ana, but there was not sufficient travel to justify its continuance….

Orange County (Los Alamitos) c. 1920

CHAPTER XIV: ORANGE COUNTY'S SCHOOLS
. . .

CHAPTER XVI: PLEASURE DRIVES AND RESORTS

…Some time during the [eighteen-]seventies Rev. H. H. Messenger, a retired Episcopal clergyman, bought a tract of land on the mesa south of the present location of the town of El Modena [East Orange] and settled a small colony of members of that denomination on it. These people, having no water system provided and being without means with which to develop one, soon starved out and scattered to parts unknown.
A few years later David Hewes came down from San Francisco, bought this land and set to work to improve it. One of the oracles in that vicinity warned him that nothing could be done with such land. Mr. Hewes answered that he could cover the tract with twenty dollar gold pieces, if he wanted to. "You'll have to do so, to make it worth anything," was the retort.
Nevertheless, the Hewes orchards, consisting of about 525 acres, are now worth a million dollars and the Hewes Park is one of the show places of the county….
. . .

About a quarter of a century ago a nine-hole golf course was laid out in the valley southeast of the El Modena grade. Among those interested in the sport, the following names have been recalled: James Irvine, Dr. J. P. Boyd, W. H. Burnham, R. H. Sanborn, James Fullerton and Henri F. Gardner. Golfing parties would be made up in the different communities from time to time as inclination prompted and the cares of business permitted until the inclination was overborne by the cares and the sport languished.
Then in 1910 the club revived and increased its membership to about 100, drawing in such members as F. B. Browning, J. R. Porter, [et al.].
. . .

Orange County Historical Society, Modjeska Canyon, 1921

"Modjeska's Home and Inn" is the business name of the idyllic retreat in the Santiago Canyon which belonged to Madame Modjeska for a number of years and to which she would return for relaxation and rest after finishing a season's engagements on the stage. The place was selected in the early days by J. E. Pleasants, when all the sites were unoccupied. He built a commodious house with wide porches, developed a water system and added such other improvements as would help to make a comfortable and tasteful home for himself and family.

After Madame Modjeska bought the property, we visited the place over thirty years ago [i.e., before 1890] and were shown all about the premises by the housekeeper, in the absence of the owner. The house was elegantly furnished with antique furniture made of mahogany and other rare and costly woods; the floors were covered with rugs of intricate patterns and skins of wild beasts; and every nook and cranny was filled with expensive articles of vertu, curios, ornaments and various kinds of relics. On the walls and easels were paintings of noted actors and actresses, among which were some of Madame Modjeska in different poses in stage attire. About the grounds were some good-sized trees that suggested to the actress the "Forest of Arden," one of the scenes of Shakespeare's play, "As You Like It," as a romantic name for her sylvan retreat. The flowers, shrubbery and decorations were so placed as to add to the artistic effect of the landscape. Now, however, the large tract originally held under one ownership is being rapidly sold off in lots and acreage tracts which, of course, means more homes and more community interests, without impairing or lessening the grandeur of the mountain scenery.
. . .
Besides Modjeska's Home and Inn, there are numerous houses and camping grounds in the different canyons throughout the mountains. Some of the houses are occupied all the time by families that live in the mountains for various reasons, and others are occupied only in vacation or when their owners wish to take an outing. The camping grounds are generally occupied by a few families or congenial friends in vacation time only, like Camptonville in the Santiago Canyon above Orange County Park [i.e., Irvine Park].

CHAPTER XIX: SUNDRY VOLUNTARY ORGANIZATIONS

[No mention of the Klan! On the other hand, there's the WCTU:]
. . .
Orange County W.C.T.U.
By Elizabeth H. Mills

In writing the history of Orange County, all who read its history should know that the organized forces of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union—organized immediately after the organization of the County in 1889—though numerically small, have been a potent factor in the moral, spiritual and political uplift of the county. The education given by this organization has been progressive along all lines that tend to the betterment of the human race. It has spared neither sacrifice nor service to this end, and today not a county in our beloved state can show a better record. Splendid men have stood behind the brave women who have dared to blaze the way through indifference, criticism and intolerance that ever marks the path to victory. These kept the faith and waged the warfare that made it possible for Orange County, with its present eleven Unions and over five hundred members, to be an effective part in placing in our National Constitution the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Amendments. All honor to the W.C.T.U. women, and their helpers, of this County for their part in making the nation's present and future sober, Christian citizenship.

Anaheim 1924

CHAPTER XXIV: A CHAPTER OF TRAGEDIES

[One might note that the 2nd edition of this history was written only one or two years before the KKK** first made a splash in OC. That effort was successfully defeated. Then,

In 1924, the Klan secretly managed to get four of its members elected to the five-member [Anaheim] Board of Trustees. Nine of the ten members of the police force were also Klansmen. The four Klan trustees served for nearly a year, until they were publicly exposed, and voted out in a recall election in which 95% of the population participated. —See Anaheim and also Anaheim police dept. history.]

. . .
A Breach of the Law
By Linn L. Shaw

F. Torres

The only case of mob violence in Santa Ana history….
…William McKelvey, foreman of Madame Modjeska's famous ranch home in Santiago Canyon, was brutally murdered July 31, 1892, by this Mexican [namely, Francisco Torres], who was employed as a laborer under him. Torres fled, was captured at Mesa Grande a couple of weeks after the crime and, brought to this city, where he was held for the murder, without bail, and was confined in the old jail on Sycamore Street, between Second and Third. McKelvey had many friends in this city and the officers, fearing trouble, placed Robert Cogburn on guard at the jail. About one o'clock on the morning of August 20 there was an alarm at the jail door and a muffled demand to open it, which order Mr. Cogburn refused to obey. Immediately the door was battered in with a sledge and about thirty men, armed and masked, filed inside. Upon being refused the keys to the cell they forcibly took them from the guard, secured Torres and departed. Mr. Cogburn attempted to follow them, but, upon being invited to return to the jail at the point of what appeared to him a "horizontal telegraph pole,” returned to his duties without any further desire to associate with his determined and systematic visitors. There was evidently no time wasted with the captive, and he was strung up to the pole, where the body remained as a gruesome surprise to early risers the next morning. An attempt was made to locate the perpetrators of the lynching through the grand jury, but no indictments were issued and the affair was quietly dropped in official circles.
[Torres was hanged at the northeast corner of Fourth and Sycamore streets.]

CHAPTER XXXI: THE BEE INDUSTRY
By J. E. Pleasants

…Samuel Shrewsbury was the first man to bring bees into what is now Orange County. This was in 1869. He first kept them on the Montgomery ranch at Villa Park. In 1871 he moved them into the Santiago Canyon. Beekeeping as an industry has grown gradually until there are now about 10,000 colonies kept in Orange County. There are from 75 to 100 practical beekeepers who make it their chief business. The average yield of honey during a good year is about 200 tons. This year (1920) there will be over 300 tons. The cash income from honey and wax, at the present prices, is something over $100,000 annually.

CHAPTER XXXV: POPULATION AND VALUATIONS

*In Beasts of the field: a narrative history of California farmworkers, 1769-1913, Richard Steven Street describes an episode of anti-Chinese racism in the early 1890s. It started when Smeltzer and a pal tried to grow celery but couldn’t get local hands to do the work in the bogs. Thus Chinese workers were hired. When the celery harvests became lucrative, the non-Chinese workers wanted in, but the company would only hire the Chinese. Thus, local field hands held “indignation” meetings, expressing their intent to “wipe out the almond-eyed Mongols.” One night, they attacked a Chinese camp, setting it alight. After that, the company hired armed guards. See also Immigrant Lives in the OC and Beyond.

**(1) Announcing the 'Which OC Pioneers Were KKK Members?' Series! (2) Alexander P. Nelson Was the Klanbuster (Gustavo Arellano, OC Weekly)

Red’s reading right rite

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Bauer) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 02:03:00 +0000

Red Emma’a (aka Andrew Tonkovich’s) latest:

Hey, Kids, Three Fun Books on Conservatives! (Navel Gazing)

Excerpt:

...In a section called "Tea Party Business Elites and the Manipulation of the Masses," DiMaggio helpfully reviews the sordid CV of one typical Galtesque con artist, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, a key Tea Party leader, and founder of Freedom Works. Armey simultaneously created himself a terrific new job as anti-big guv organizer (with a big salary) while moonlight[ing], incredibly, as lobbyist for TARP bailout dough. Corporate welfare, okay. Social welfare, not so much. Best of all is profiting personally, as bait-and-switch poster boy Ralph Reed of the Christian Coalition, who organized churchy anti-gambling tent meetings while hustling with Jack Abramoff for Indian casinos. None of this matters to Righties, who can always feel resentment at somebody, good Indians or bad Indians, in their march backwards.

One unnamed Saddleback College "athletic dept. employee" disciplined re Lapes scandal

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Bauer) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 00:13:00 +0000

You’ll recall the athletics “kickback scheme” scandal that cropped up eight months ago in OC. It’s been hard to get much information about any findings of wrongdoing in this case, but here’s the latest (from yesterday’s OC Reg):

At least 1 coach disciplined in spending accounts scheme

At least four athletic coaches from two Orange County school districts have been disciplined or are awaiting possible discipline in a sweeping investigation into the personal spending accounts of public employees who did business with a now-defunct Laguna Hills sports equipment company.
An athletic employee at Mission Viejo's Saddleback College is confirmed to have been disciplined for improperly doing business with Lapes Athletic Team Sales, while three other coaches – all of them current and former head football coaches in the Capistrano Unified School District – remain on paid leave from their teaching and coaching duties.
. . .
The South Orange County Community College District said in a statement that it has disciplined an "athletic department employee" at Saddleback College who did not follow "proper purchasing procedures" in doing business with Lapes.
"Though it was determined that the employee did not receive any personal gain, he is going through disciplinary action for his failure to follow purchasing procedures and policies," district spokeswoman Tere Fluegeman said in an email.
Fluegeman said two Saddleback College employees were investigated – a coach and the employee who was disciplined. No wrongdoing was found on the part of the coach, she added. The district said it could not release their names or the written findings of the investigation, citing the confidentiality of personnel matters….

Background:

• Coach kickback scheme touches Saddleback College? (May 2011)
• More Slush (May 2011)
• The “slush fund” story lives (June 2011)
• Things are heating up (July 2011)

“Employees were not even allowed to speak to each other”

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Bauer) — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 18:21:00 +0000

One of Fuentes' boys

“The acting Public Administrator brought in to run [John Williams’] office in his place, Lucille Lyon, said in a recent court declaration that she is turning around ‘what was essentially a hostile work environment.’ Under Williams, she wrote, employees were not even allowed to speak to each other.”

'Detectives' for the dead: They solve mysteries left behind (OC Reg, 2/13/12)

IVC's student Dissenters: Where are they now?

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Bauer) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 20:24:00 +0000

Delilah at center; Deb at right; circa 1998

PAST IS PRESENT. Things got pretty crazy at Irvine Valley College and the SOCCCD in the late nineties, what with Brown Act lawsuits, accreditation spankage, State Chancellor’s Office fiscal warnings, Holocaust-denying trustees, and numerous 1st Amendment battles.

Delilah and friend

STUDENTS. Some student leaders really stand out in my memory of that era, including Deb Burbridge and Delilah Snell, who organized student protests against the Mathur regime (see photo above) and, as a consequence of Mathur and the Board’s crushing authoritarian response, signed on to 1st Amendment lawsuits guided by the redoubtable Carol Sobel and Wendy Gabriella.
I'm here to tell you that these former students have gone on to big—or, at any rate, good—things. Wonderful things.
These days, Deb is a full-timer at Long Beach City College, a Professor of Life Science. By all accounts, she’s a blazing success. I've heard about her prowess in the classroom for years.
And Delilah? Well, you can see her visage in yesterday’s OC Register:

Protesting harsh consequences to
speech enabling instructor, late 1999

Road Less Traveled moves to downtown Santa Ana

For years now, Delilah has been a ubiquitous local leader of—well, I’m not sure I grasp the category. But her name comes up a lot with regard to all things green and sustainable. She’s into cooking and organics and DIY and crafts. (Recently, my sister has developed an enthusiasm for home-made, green household products, and she has managed to fall into Delilah's orbit. Seems like everybody does eventually!)
And that, I suppose, is what her store Road Less Traveled is all about. It's moved to a bigger and better location; hence, the news story. Check it out (and see pic below).
DISSENTERS. One of the best accounts of Deb and Delilah’s early “dissentular” efforts appeared in The Nation—in an article co-written by yet another standout among IVC students of that era, the stunningly energetic Sanaz Mozafarian:

Sanaz off Broadway (2004)

Last year students, local residents and members of the Jewish and gay communities joined the faculty and staff efforts to challenge the board. In a rare show of Orange County activism, students Delilah Snell and Diep Burbridge gathered nearly 100 of their colleagues for a series of campus demonstrations, the first in the college’s near-twenty-year history. They denounced the hiring of [Raghu] Mathur, demanded the recall of [trustee Steve] Frogue and called attention to the possible loss of the college’s accreditation. The rallies attracted major media coverage. In response, the board, Mathur and their cronies claimed the students were “misled” by a handful of “disgruntled employees” and “leftist” faculty. Even freedom of speech took a nosedive. Snell and Burbridge were initially told to give twenty-four-hour notice before each demonstration and to submit to college officials for review everything they would be passing out. After meetings with the president in which they were accused of “misleading” others and hostile encounters with board supporters, the students were at first permitted one hour a week to hold their demonstrations. Soon it was reduced to thirty minutes.

Sanaz in a film (2005)

Now the students, represented by the ACLU, are suing Mathur and the board for violating their First Amendment rights. According to the lawsuit, filed this past summer, the demonstrations were relocated from the center of campus to an isolated area where students were told to keep their noise level down. When the limits were questioned, students were told it was not in the “best interest of the college” to hold a longer protest in a more visible part of campus, given the “political climate.”
The board’s actions are astonishing, but what is even more astonishing is that at a small commuter college, in a largely Republican district where most people never learn the names of public officials, these students cared enough to challenge injustice and are fighting to secure future students’ rights. So much for apathy. (THE NATION, 10/5/98 “What do students want?”)

Sanaz c. 2000

Dafna Kory

It appears that, after the above article was published, Sanaz continued her journalistic career for a while (she seems to have interned for The Nation and the Village Voice and worked for the Independent Media Center) and then, I think, she briefly went into acting. (Not sure it's the same SM, but it sure looks like her. Same name, same face.)
Don't know what she’s up to these days, but she seems capable of anything. (Possibly, she's gone into finance or investments.)
We do get some terrific students here at Irvine Valley College.

P.S.: DAFNA KORY. I just heard from Rebel Girl. She reminded me of a few other “dissentular” students from the late 90s/early 2000s, including Dafna Kory, who, I’m told, has hit the big time in the world of DIY jams (the kind you put on toast). She’s also an impressive independent filmmaker. Read about her jamology here: Jam Maker Dafna Kory Turns Hobby Into Thriving Business (Civil Eats)

D. Kenneth Brown

KEN BROWN. Mid-to-late-80s IVC student Ken Brown eventually got his MA (at Claremont) and PhD (at UCI) and taught philosophy for us by about 2000, and he did a great job. At a meeting of the School of Humanities and Languages, however, knowing the risk and with nothing to gain, he dared to openly object to one of the absurd and unprofessional actions taken by of our then-Dean. As a consequence, said dean ceased giving Ken teaching assignments. (I was plenty steamed at the time.) In my book, that makes Ken an honorary "Dissenter."

Pourya Khademi

A few years later, Ken landed a plum job at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. I couldn't be prouder. (See him lecture: Virtual Persons. I've posted the video below.)
POURYA KHADEMI. Yet another student Dissenter is the estimable Pourya Khademi, a wonderful professional musician, among other things. (I believe that he graduated from Cal in 2010.) Pourya played an important role in the successful SOCCCD 1st Amendment lawsuits of the early 2000s. Check out his wonderful playing in the video below.

Jason Davis

JASON DAVIS. I'm not sure that recent IVC student Jason Davis is a "Dissenter," but he certainly provided this blog with lots of great pics and info over the years (including a flow of stuff from his two years at UCI). And he's definitely got a dissentular personality--or worse! He's working on a collection of writings (from his blogs) about his Iraq experiences. In the meantime, he's got a real job working for Automative.com both as a writer and photographer. I have high hopes for the scarily multi-talented Jason.
There are others, for sure, but I'll tell you about 'em some other day.

Diep (Deb) Burbridge in bio mode

Delilah Snell

• Students Defy Protest Policy (LA Times, 1999)
• Students sue community college district for putting restrictions on campus speech (SPLC, 2000)
• Suit Aims at Rights of Speech (LA Times, 2002)
• District Is Muzzling Free Speech, Judge Rules (LA Times, 2002)
• McNair Scholars Program Will Showcase Student
Research Projects at Summer Symposium (PolyCentric, 2002)
• Meet & Eat: Delilah Snell, Certified Master Food Preserver in Southern California (Serious Eats)
• Delilah Snell Is a Patchwork Kind of Gal (OC Weekly)
• Project Small (Blog)
• The Imperialists (Sanaz Mozafarian, The Village Voice, 2000)
• What do students want? (Sanaz Mozafarian, et al., The Nation, 1998)
• Sanaz Mozafarian in New York on 9-11 (DtB, 2006)

Pourya Khademi

D. Kenneth Brown

Delilah's The Road Less Traveled

Today's Senate meeting: a "civil" discussion

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Bauer) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 03:40:00 +0000

Sunny Girl

I’m too bushed to write a lengthy account of today’s senate meeting. Maybe tomorrow. For now, I’ll provide a brief and partial account.
When we got to “my” agenda item (for it was thus described on the agenda), IVC Academic Senate President Lisa Davis Allen provided some background: that this civility thing started with a request from Chancellor Poertner, etc. Her comments were helpful.
Then it was up to me to “present” my view. I reminded everyone that VPI Craig Justice had sent out the civility report exactly two weeks ago—with a brief introduction in which he stated that the document was for our “review.”
I went straight to the offending sentence of the “Statement on Civility” that was included in the report—the business about how supervisors should be on the lookout for employee incivility and include such observations in personnel evaluations.

Sunny Girl

I briefly described my own experiences with abuse of district policies, namely, the use of the district’s anti-discrimination policy to attempt to shut down Dissent back in 1998. Back then, I was called in to meet with the Chancellor, who looked right in my eyes and said that my use of “Mr. Goo” to refer to Raghu Mathur in Dissent was discriminatory. “How so? ‘Mr Goo’ is merely an allusion to Mr. Magoo,” I protested.
But no! The Chancellor looked at me and said: “'Mr. Goo' is plainly an allusion to the term ‘gook.’”
I kid you not.
(Back to today's meeting:) I next suggested that, in my view, there likely are instances of bullying at IVC and that they should surely be addressed, though I could not see how a civility code would be helpful in that regard. In the meantime, I said, a policy that permitted disciplining of those deemed “uncivil” opens the door to abuse, to silencing dissent.
After my "presentation," many senators (et al.) spoke, some noting the odd circumstance that union representatives were not invited to the December “workshop” upon which the report was supposedly based. Others emphasized the danger in allowing supervisors to wield so undefined a notion as "incivility."
Dan R suggested that the approach to IVC's problems represented by the report was unwise.
Eventually, Lewis Long, the faculty union president, assured all present that there was no way that the union would allow citings of “incivility” to become part of the personnel evaluation process. He also questioned the college's focus on "incivility," suggesting that we should be developing a statement/policy re free speech.
It turns out that the participants in December’s “workshop” were rather surprised to see the aforementioned objectionable elements of the report. They (at least three workshop participants were in the room) seemed to say that Mr. Spevak, the hired gun who wrote the report, included elements that were not part of the discussions back in December.
Jeff, echoing Lewis, seemed inclined essentially to leave the report (or at least it's problematic attachments 3 and 4) behind and to pursue a statement or policy that promoted safe and free speech rather than one that punished "incivility."
At one point, even VPI Craig Justice stated that the “discipline” business in the report just didn’t belong there.
Meanwhile, LDA insisted that, had I not asked to make the report an agenda item, the senate cabinet would have done so on their own.
Well, that's reassuring.

TigerAnn

I briefly noted that the information vacuum that attended the release of this report for two weeks led to some discord and confusion that could and should have been avoided.
Craig asserted, plausibly, that the report was supposed to inspire "dialogue," and it had surely done that. At any rate, we all agreed, I believe, that the dialogue that occurred at today's meeting was good.
It turned out to be a good day.
Well, there’s more, but I’ve gotta book.

The scourge of "reassigned time" was a union Old Guard preoccupation back in the day, as was homosexuality

As I recall, somebody had made Rich's life miserable on this day. Probably the Chancellor.
I seem to remember that Andreea kept saying "moose and squirrel" to cheer him up. Didn't work.

OCC's Hearlson back in the news

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Bauer) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 08:18:00 +0000

Michelle Woo of Navel Gazing reports that, according to at least one student, right-wing Orange Coast College Poli Sci Professor Ken Hearlson is spouting off indecorously in class:

Student Claims OCC Professor Ken Hearlson Wrote "Gays are Racist" on White Board During Class

…[18-year-old Ali] Azarifar claims that political science professor Ken Hearlson made several anti-gay remarks in his U.S. government lecture on Feb. 7, the day of the [Prop 8] court ruling. Some of the alleged comments include:

"Being gay is a sin."
"No one voted no on Prop 8 because gays are racist."
"Soon, all of the U.S. will be illegal for the gay community to marry."
"Gays don't go to black churches because they are racist."
. . .
In 1998, a student said that [Hearlson] told his class that if a homosexual ever taught his child sex education, he'd "string him up by the toes and shoot him in the face with a .357 Magnum." In 2001, a week after the Sept. 11 attacks, Hearlson was accused of calling Muslim students "Nazis," "terrorists," and "murderers." (An investigative report said that most of the allegations were "unsubstantiated.") And in 2003, the tenured professor harangued college protestors at a peace rally.
. . .
A gay rights supporter made this flier in hope of bringing attention to Hearlson. [Azarifar’s boyfriend, Nolan] Robert, who is active in the gay community, aims to start a larger movement.

The IVC civility initiative: "Roy Bauer will present his concerns" (What? They're not faculty concerns!?)

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Bauer) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 02:18:00 +0000

Will the IVC Academic Senate defend the policing of "civility"?

5th in a series

Two weeks ago, an IVC administrator distributed a report that (it said) was based on the results of a December workshop. That workshop—an all-day affair at the IRWD “Duck Club”—was part of a larger effort instigated by Chancellor Poertner, who had asked the college to address some accreditation concerns.
The latter request led to formation of something called the “IVC Working Group on Civility,” which first met in October.
In November, a Sacramento consulting firm was hired; they provided a “facilitator” named Spevak. (He was the author of the report.)
Spevak, the Working Group, and two guests (including to UCI Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky) gathered for the “workshop” in mid-December (some members of the “group” did not participate in the workshop). They were tasked with brainstorming about episodes of “incivility” on campus and what could be done about them.

Will Hays

As we’ve explained previously, one element of the report was a draft of a “civility statement” that included the following paragraph:

When encountering incivility, members of the IVC community are encouraged to confront it respectfully but directly and to intervene appropriately in situations where others are inflicted with uncivil behavior. Supervisors should call attention to uncivil behaviors of persons they supervise, and when necessary, note such behaviors within with [sic] the processes of evaluation or progressive discipline.

Let’s call the notion that “supervisors” should note “uncivil behaviors” and include them in the “process of evaluation or progressive discipline”—the “Disciplining Incivility” notion, or DI.
The report also included a “draft” of “possible elements within an … Action Plan on Civility and Mutual Respect….” That draft presented a list that included the following:

Send recommendations related to civility and mutual respect to the District for its related new or revised policies and procedures.

Let’s call the action of sending “civility and mutual respect” recommendations to the District for the sake of “revised policies and procedures” the “prospective incivility policy” action, or PIP.
At this point, I wish to draw attention to some facts:

Given that IVC’s “civility initiative” seemed to be, among other things, an effort to produce or clarify a basis for employee (including faculty) discipline in response to perceived “incivility,” one would have thought that the unions would have been included in the “Working Group,” or at least in the group that met for the workshop in December. But, in fact, they were not invited.
Evidently, it did not occur to those who participated in the December workshop to demand or ask that the unions be involved, if not immediately then in future. (I say “evidently” because I have heard nothing from any leadership, including faculty leadership—two academic senate officers attended the workshop—about this oversight.)
Board Policies have been wielded against vocal critics of college and district officials (et al.) previously. In 1998, I was called into the Chancellor’s office and told that a letter would be placed in my personnel file. It stated that, in my newsletters (Dissent and The ‘Vine), I had violated the district’s “workplace violence” and anti-discrimination policies. (I protested, but to no avail.) I was ordered to cease violating those policies in my writings. I took the matter to federal court and prevailed. Judge Manella described the district's actions as “Orwellian.” Judge Feess, who took over the case, stated that the district was stretching policies (one of which he declared unconstitutional in itself) simply in order to silence a “vigorous critic.” He said that my writings were plainly protected by the 1st Amendment. The letter was removed from my file. (See “Make things nicer!” and Roy Bauer’s 1st Amendment Battles or "One Gadfly, One Gadfly Swatter")
The civility report was initially distributed in a fashion that made it easy for faculty (and perhaps others) to overlook. I cleaned up the messy emailed copy and made the entire report available as a DtB post. I distributed the url to all members of my School. Among them is Lewis Long, the President of the Faculty Association (faculty union).
Upon reading the report, Lewis immediately wrote IVC administration, objecting to their failure to include union representatives in the Working Group (he called it a “serious omission”) and strongly objecting to the above-mentioned Disciplining Incivility (DI) notion among other elements contained in the “civility statement” of the report. (Lewis also noted the inclusion of reference to “training the recidivists” in the report.)
I am told that Lewis has now been made a “co-facilitator” of the Working Group.

Not long ago, the IVC Senate supported free speech and
successfully fought administrative & district overreach
—even in court! A golden era of senate leadership

Last Thursday, I emailed the President of the IVC Academic Senate, Lisa Davis Allen (a workshop participant), asking if it would not be wise to agendize the inclusion of DI in the civility statement of the report:

I'm assuming that you are as appalled as I am by that paragraph and especially its direction that supervisors note "uncivil behaviors" "within the process of evaluation or progressive discipline." Might we therefore add an agenda item about this?

In the five days since I sent that email, I have not heard back from her. But, today, I did receive the agenda for Thursday’s meeting of (the Rep Council of the) Academic Senate. Item 14 is the following:

Statement on Civility and Mutual Respect
H&L Senator Roy Bauer will present his concerns on the Statement of Civility and Mutual Concern [sic].

My concerns?
I’m not sure what to make of this. Am I to assume that my “concerns” are not shared by LDA or the senate cabinet? Dunno.
I’ve apprised Lewis and the members of my School of these developments.
And now I've apprised you, dear reader.

For previous posts in this series, see top of left sidebar.

What does academe think of speech/civility codes? The AAUP’s statement

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Bauer) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 02:03:00 +0000

On Freedom of Expression and Campus Speech Codes

The statement that follows was approved by the Association’s Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure in June 1992 and adopted by the Association’s Council in November 1994.

[Excerpts:]

…On a campus that is free and open, no idea can be banned or forbidden. No viewpoint or message may be deemed so hateful or disturbing that it may not be expressed.

…[R]ules that ban or punish speech based upon its content cannot be justified. An institution of higher learning fails to fulfill its mission if it asserts the power to proscribe ideas—and racial or ethnic slurs, sexist epithets, or homophobic insults almost always express ideas, however repugnant. Indeed, by proscribing any ideas, a university sets an example that profoundly disserves its academic mission.

...But freedom of expression requires toleration of “ideas we hate,” as Justice Holmes put it. The underlying principle does not change because the demand is to silence a hateful speaker, or because it comes from within the academy. Free speech is not simply an aspect of the educational enterprise to be weighed against other desirable ends. It is the very precondition of the academic enterprise itself. [END]

2003: VPI White forbade instructors'
discussing the Iraq War in the classroom.
(Some had been criticizing the invasion,
upsetting some students.) The matter
faded without resolution.
Ask Glenn about it!

Of course, at IVC, as far as I know, nobody is being accused of racist or "hate" speech.
Bullying seems to occur on our campus. I've made inquiries, and the most persistent claims of bullying seem to center largely on some, um, administrators.
I'm certain that there are some in our benighted corner of the world who view me (or even my journalistic partner Rebel Girl) as a bully. After all these years of writing about the district and the colleges, I know this: some people at this college are remarkably thin-skinned. Criticize them to any extent, and they go apeshit.
I recall a colleague who responded to my gentle jibes (really) about xx xxx xxxxxxxxxxxx xx xxxxxx with colossal shriekage and accusations that I was endangering the existence of her program. (—It was something about how a certain trustee might find out that the xxxx of xxxx have some decidedly unconservative ideas! Ridiculous.) I reminded her that we worked at a college—that, in such a place, there can and should be disagreement and debate and dialogue.
And, yes, there should even be criticism. Imagine!
That seemed to go nowhere with her. My mild and playful remarks about xxxx were, to her, an assault completely incompatible with civility and, I suppose, civilization. (She's a Republican from xxxxx. Maybe they don't have free speech there. Could be.)
Over the years, I have occasionally reminded readers that WE INVITE SUBMISSIONS FROM PERSONS WITH OPPOSING VIEWS. We always have done so. We do so now. We've often declared that we seek correction of errors—that we welcome a chance to set the record straight, if we have been in error. We've consistently bent over backwards in this regard. We really try to be fair and honest and to encourage debate (though not with loutish 13-year-olds).
It is often said, and we at DtB certainly agree, that the best response to speech one hates is "more speech."

Years ago, a certain IVC administrator took this painting down because, he said,
its presence exposed the college to sexual harassment complaints/suits

Don at work

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Bauer) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 07:02:00 +0000

Bill puts $100,000 cap on future state and local pensions (SacBee)

Assemblyman Donald Wagner has introduced a bill that would cap state and local pensions.
The Irvine Republican's measure, AB 1633, would cap pensions for workers who don't participate in Social Security at $100,000 per year. Workers who do participate in the federal program couldn't receive more than $80,000 per year from a state or local pension….

O.C. lawmaker wants to cap pensions at $100K (OC Reg)

“Monstrosity”

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Bauer) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 02:23:00 +0000

MATHUR AS PARIAH. Seems like everyone but me attended Thursday’s memorial ceremony for Richard McCullough at Saddleback College’s McKinney Theater. Friends, including Saddlebackians, are telling me that the event, which was well attended, was all that it could be, marred only briefly by a couple of bigwigs who insisted on speaking, despite not being on the program (there was an opportunity for “others” to speak, a category apparently not good enough for said bigwigs).
I’m told that, to everyone’s surprise, former Chancellor Raghu P. Mathur (who ousted McCullough as SC Prez) attended the ceremony, although I’ve been assured that, if you look up the word “pariah” in one of those illustrated dictionaries, you’ll see a picture of Raghu sitting alone in the otherwise packed McKinney auditorium.
To everyone’s relief, the fellow did not speak.

"...low-level entertainers...."

IVC DOES TED. Denizens of IVC just received an email from IVC President Glenn Roquemore announcing that,

On Wednesday, February 29 from 8:00 a.m. to 6:45 p.m., IVC will host
TEDxIVC Live
The Live Simulcast event will be held in the IVC Performing Arts Center.

Um, what on Earth does all this mean?
Well, according to Wikipedia, TED, which stands for “Technology, Entertainment, and Design,”

is a … set of conferences ... formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading".
TED was founded in 1984 as a one-off event and the conference was held annually from 1990 in Monterey, California. TED's early emphasis was largely technology and design.... The events are now held in Long Beach and Palm Springs in the U.S. and in Europe and Asia, offering live streaming of the talks. They address an increasingly wide range of topics within the research and practice of science and culture. The speakers are given a maximum of 18 minutes to present their ideas in the most innovative and engaging ways they can. Past presenters include Bill Clinton, Jane Goodall, Malcolm Gladwell, Al Gore, Gordon Brown, Richard Dawkins, Bill Gates, educator Salman Khan, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and many Nobel Prize winners….
. . .
Since June 2006, the talks have been offered for free viewing online…. As of November 2011, over 1,050 talks are available free online….
TED grants licenses to third parties to hold free TEDx events in cities around the world.
. . .
According to TED these franchised events were "created in the spirit of TED's mission, "ideas worth spreading." The program is designed to give communities, organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level...TEDx events are fully planned and coordinated independently, on a community-by-community basis."

Glenn

I’ve been only vaguely aware of these TED conferences. I’ve seen some of these 18-minute wonders, and some of ‘em strike me as pretty dang flaky. They remind me of some of the crap we used to get jazzed about back in my college days. –You know, Bucky Fuller, thinking away hunger, that sort of thing.
Naturally, TED has been criticized. Again, according to Wikipedia,

[influential Lebanese American academic and essayist] Nassim Taleb criticized TED for intellectual dishonesty and lack of substance in the latest edition of The Black Swan (2010). He calls TED a “monstrosity that turns scientists and thinkers into low-level entertainers, like circus performers.”

I don’t wanna be a stick-in-the-mud, but I’m guessing Taleb is onto something.
But that doesn't mean that this TEDx event won't be fun.
Well, here’s what’s on tap, TEDwise, in a couple of weeks:

If you've got nothing better to do, you might research these speakers and identify those that are leftists. Then read the Lefty list at the next board meeting, being sure to highlight their leftular accomplishments.

Then watch Glenn.

What fun.

Roquemorean tales, part 2: "principles schminciples"

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Bauer) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 06:56:00 +0000

From early 2008. Pressure group manages to force Rocky and His Friends
to take down all those flags in the Student Services Center.

Glenn Roquemore

"Irvine Valley College has removed the Vietnamese flag from an atrium display of flags from all over the world, in response to threats by Vietnamese immigrants in the area to hold a protest of what they view as an inappropriate honor for the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, The Orange County Register reported. A spokeswoman said that the college was trying to be 'considerate.'"

—Inside Higher Ed, Feb. 27, 2008

Corvino on Tuesday

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Bauer) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 05:35:00 +0000

*At Saddleback College
February 14th, 12:00 p.m., McKinney Theater
Dr. John Corvino - The Gay Moralist

John Corvino holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Texas at Austin and is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. He is the editor of Same Sex: Debating the Ethics, Science and Culture of Homosexuality and the author of numerous articles and opinion pieces, which have appeared in regional and national print media, at the online Independent Gay Forum (www.indegayforum.org), and in dozens of journals and anthologies. Currently he is working on a book, Debating Same-Sex Marriage (with Maggie Gallagher) for Oxford University Press, as well as another book for OUP (yet to be titled) presenting a moral defense of homosexuality.

*From Social {Live} Events

At IVC:

EVENT: Feb 16: Jazz Ensemble Together w/ Guest High School
TIME: 8pm
DATES: 2/16/2012
DEPT: Music
DETAILS: GENERAL: $8.00 STUDENT/SENIOR/MILITARY: $5.00 YOUTH: $2.00
LOCATION: IVC PAC Main Stage

Sunday Morning Coming Down

noreply@blogger.com (Rebel Girl) — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 14:32:00 +0000

Over a at the OC Weekly online, Red Emma reviews Hector Tobar's The Barbarian Nurseries.

excerpt:

"Too many questions," says Araceli Ramirez, the protagonist of Hector Tobar's new killer novel The Barbarian Nurseries to her two young wards as the Mexican housekeeper from the South County McMansion (in what seems a lot like Ladera Ranch) and the boys arrive at the downtown rail yard loop where Amtrak passes warehouses, the Los Angeles River and Metropolitan Jail on its slow approach to Union Station. Brandon and Kennan Torres-Thompson, presumed kidnap victims, are on the adventure of a lifetime, assuming your life has been short, privileged and dominated by video games and fantasy-adventure series, here something called, perfectly, The Saga of the Fire-Swallowers, which sounds a lot like the various series the Bibliofella's young reader son consumes like popcorn.

Araceli has been employed by a wealthy family residing fifty miles south, on idyllic and hyperbolically-christened Paseo Linda Bonita in Laguna Rancho Estates (see what I mean?). She's been transformed, first from a complex, creative person with a rich past, a family, talent and artistic ambitions, into one of those one-dimensional shadow beings called domestic help. Then, with the two rich white boys in tow, she suddenly becomes a suspect perp in an Amber Alert drama with accompanying nativist-racist politics, an opportunistic prosecutor, the totally predictable (and not disappointing) media spectacle and the genuine if startlingly sweet curiosity of two children. Raised in the picture-perfect confines of the gated, gardened, upscale life, they ask her about the concrete river, homeless people, the whole concept of the city, as if their little big brains, so familiar with the virtual and the fantastical worlds, lack a place to put it all.

To read the rest, click here.

Memorial ceremony for Richard McCullough

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Bauer) — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 01:59:00 +0000

Friends, family remember former Saddleback College president (OC Reg)

Splashed across a screen above the stage at Saddleback College's McKinney Theatre were 20-foot-tall images of Richard McCullough, professor, former college president, father and friend. McCullough, who spent more than half his life at the college, died Jan. 31 at age 70 from colon cancer.
Gary Poertner, Chancellor of the South Orange County Community College District, eulogizes former Saddleback College president Richard McCullough at a memorial ceremony in the college's theater Thursday. McCullough, a beloved professor at the college since 1971, died last week following a battle with colon cancer.
. . .
Nearly 300 people packed the theater's seats Thursday as a four-piece band performed Glenn Miller tunes, McCullough's favorites. Behind that big smile, people said, was the mind of a first-class scientist and educator, and behind those twinkling eyes was a practical joker.
. . .
Carol Hilton, the college's director of fiscal services, described McCullough's wicked – but wonderful – sense of humor, recalling the time he said he could tell her how to beat a lie-detector test.
"And I thought, 'Wow, I really want to know this,'" said Hilton. "And then I caught myself and thought, 'Why do I need to know this?' And secondly, 'The college president teaching the fiscal director how to pass a lie detector test?'
"But that was Rich, so full of life, so light-hearted, incredibly intelligent, extremely modest and very down to earth. He didn't like a fuss, He took everything in stride with a big smile."
McCullough, who had a bachelor's degree in biological sciences, a master's in cellular biology and a PhD in psychophysiology, led the effort to build a solar observatory at the campus and designed the college's electron microscopy lab.
It was the Saddleback College Veterans Memorial, however, that was mentioned most at Thursday's ceremony. McCullough, a veteran, was the force behind the memorial and its oven-fired red-clay walls, silhouettes of soldiers, and bubbling waterfalls – a campus centerpiece.
. . .
The memorial was dedicated in April 2010. In a ceremony Saturday, it will receive the George Washington Honor Medal Award from the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge, founded in 1949 by president Dwight D. Eisenhower. The memorial, according to the foundation, exemplifies its ideal of promoting understanding and appreciation of the country’s heritage and freedoms.
"He agreed with me that it should be an active memorial; it should be something that people use during time rather than something that they walk by and forget about," White said. "And so, you know, I think as that water goes through that memorial, I'll be thinking of him, every time."

On the occasion of McCullough's retirement, 2008
(Skip to 01:46. Rich's lovely speech is at 03:00.)

1/9/08: They look pretty uncomfortable. I don't think Rich held Mathur in
high esteem. Nope. 5/24/04: McCullough speaks briefly at about 05:00.

Jokes for English Majors

noreply@blogger.com (Rebel Girl) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:18:00 +0000

*
via McSweeney's....

Dueling TJs?

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Bauer) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:31:00 +0000

Young TJ

A few weeks ago, we reported that ailing SOCCCD trustee Tom Fuentes managed, despite his condition, to swear in his son TJ as an alternate member of the Orange County Republican Central Committee.
Near as I can figure, TJ is about 26 years old. Pretty young for politics, I’d say.
But now we’re hearing that Tom is grooming that very kid to take over his seat on the SOCCCD Board of Trustees!
Evidently, some people (with the initials BH) take this story seriously. I don’t. It’s one thing to have a kid on the OC GOP Central Committee. It’s quite another to put ‘em on a freakin’ college board that spends half a billion dollars of taxpayer money every year! I don’t buy it.
According to this story, TJ would make his way on the board either through appointment or election.
If this yarn comes to fruition, we'll have dueling TJs on the board.

Just TJ

While we’re on the subject of board elections, four board seats are up for election in November: Bill Jay, Frank Meldau, David Lang, and Tom Fuentes. Jay’s been sick a lot lately: missed several meetings. But he’s back, I guess, though he doesn’t say much. He always looks to me like he needs to go home to get some sleep.
Don’t know about Lang. Why one Earth would he want to remain on the board?
Meldau has grown comfortable on the board, I think. I suspect (and hope) he’ll run.

Old TJ

Saddleback College Poli Sci instructor Derek Reeve is in the news again, though only barely (New housing agency's chairman vows to end it):

In the first meeting of the newly created San Juan Capistrano Housing Authority, City Councilman Derek Reeve was selected chairman and immediately said he will make it a goal to dissolve it.
. . .
"If you can live with the rich irony that I hope one day to dissolve the agency, if you're OK with that, I'd be happy to do it," Reeve said before the four other council members, who also serve as Housing Authority commissioners, confirmed his chairmanship.

Non-TJ

Guess so. He didn't mention whether, as chairman, he'll plagiarize or ridicule Muslims.

Former trustee and current Assemblyman Don Wagner is always in the news about something, even if it’s just the opening of a new drugstore in Tustin.
A few days ago, a woman named Elizabeth Emken joined the crew of obscure Republicans who hope to challenge Dianne Feinstein in November, and she snagged Wagner's endorsement. (See.)

Higher Ed news

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Bauer) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:23:00 +0000

Utah Lawmaker’s Bid to Limit Tenure is Defeated (Chronicle of Higher Education)

… The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Christopher Herrod, a Republican, argued that tenure stifled competition and was unnecessary, because only 42 percent of Utah professors have it….

With long-term consequences, community college students struggle to pass college-level math courses (EdSource)

Large numbers of community college students are struggling to pass the college-level math classes they need to complete a degree or transfer to a four-year institution, with long-term implications for their futures.
. . .
According to an EdSource analysis, in the fall of 2010, 45 percent of students taking college-level math courses at California’s 112 community colleges received a failing grade below a “C” or dropped the class before the end of term.

Plans to slash and boost college aid (educatedguess)

Gov. Jerry Brown and Assembly Speaker John Perez are heading in opposite directions on college financial aid. Brown proposes to pare back eligibility or amounts of aid for 72,000 of 244,000 low- or modest-income families receiving Cal Grants. Perez on Wednesday proposed a massive scholarship program for nearly 200,000 University of California and California State University students in the solid and upper ranks of the middle class. But then, Perez is counting on an extra $1 billion by eliminating a corporate tax break that Republican legislators say they won’t abide….

Born in the USSR (Inside Higher Ed)

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992 meant the end of the Cold War, the dismantling of Lenin statues, and the near-disappearance of the schlocky Soviet stereotype in a certain kind of Hollywood movie. It also resulted in a migration of Soviet scholars, which greatly affected the field of mathematics in the United States, according to two professors who have co-authored a paper called “The Collapse of the Soviet Union and the Productivity of American Mathematicians” to be published in a forthcoming issue of the Quarterly Journal of Economics….

'We're Losing Our Minds' (Inside Higher Ed)

…With most critics of higher education focused on rising prices or on whether American colleges and universities are producing enough degree and certificate holders with sufficient skills to keep the U.S. economy vibrant and competitive – the latter known in shorthand as the "completion agenda" – a few analysts are homing in on the quality and rigor of what students are learning (or not) en route to those credentials.
Last year's Academically Adrift set the tone, providing data suggesting that many colleges are imposing relatively minimal academic demands on their students and that, perhaps as a result, many students do not appear to gain in some measures of cognitive abilities as they move through college….

The DtB occasional "districtular" quiz!

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Bauer) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 03:22:00 +0000

Test your knowledge of the district and its colleges!

IVC Prez Glenn R

1. Recently, the Saddleback College Academic Senate urged the board to agendize

A. dissolution of the district as a cost saving measure
B. naming a building or facility after the late Richard McCullough
C. establishment of a pumpkin patch and communal garden
D. renaming the “James B. Utt Memorial Library”

2. Of the 20 people who participated in IVC’s “civility” workshop in December, how many were faculty?

A. 1
B. 4
C. 8
D. 20

3. Which SOCCCD trustee (who was paid anyway) has attended only 1 board meeting in the last 10 months?

A. Bill Jay
B. Marcia Milchiker
C. Tom Fuentes
D. Frank Meldau
E. Student trustee Jordan Larson

FA Prez Lewis Long

4. IVC administration hired a Sacramento consulting firm to assist the “civility” workgroup. The firm was

A. Ivory Tower International
B. College Brain Trust
C. Academics ‘R’ Us
D. Acme Consulting

5. The college chose which venue for the workshop?

A. The Duck Club
B. The Buffalo Club
C. The Cosmetic Laser Center of Irvine
D. The Institute for Historical Review Center

6. At the last meeting of the SOCCCD BOT, Chancellor Poertner resolved tensions between the colleges—regarding ownership of ATEP—in a manner reminiscent of the biblical

A. Onan
B. King David
C. King Solomon
D. Beelzebub

Former trustee John Williams

7. Which of the following notorious OC Republican office holders did NOT have an association with the SOCCCD or its colleges?

A. Mike Carona
B. Chriss Street
C. John Williams
D. John Schmitz*
E. James B. Utt

8. Faculty Association President Lewis Long recently wrote IVC administrators about their plans to pursue district policies that would allow

A. discipline of employees, including faculty, with regard to “uncivil behaviors”
B. discipline of employees, including faculty, with regard to “negative publications”
C. managers and deans to discipline employees for “unhinged speculation and irresponsible gossip”
D. termination of employees who fail to attend Commencement

9. Recently, the ACCJC informed Irvine Valley College that its accreditation is re-affirmed. However, the college must

A. promise not to pursue legal action (against WASC/ACCJC) for the next 6 years
B. submit a follow-up report in October
C. submit another complete self-study in 2014
D. rename its new BSTIC building “Miscellaneous”

James B. Utt

10. Recently, DtB tagged the SOCCCD for inappropriately

A. flying the Confederate Flag during MLK Day
B. referring to its colleges’ status as “fully accredited”
C. instituting “opening prayer” during monthly “docket” meetings
D. pursuing a plan involving partnerships entailing the construction of a Hilton Hotel at Saddleback College

ANSWERS:

1. Recently, the Saddleback College Academic Senate urged the board to agendize

D. renaming the “James B. Utt Memorial Library”

2. Of the 20 people who participated in IVC’s “civility” workshop in December, how many were faculty?

B. 4

3. Which SOCCCD trustee (who was paid anyway) has attended only 1 board meeting in the last 10 months?

C. Tom Fuentes

4. IVC administration hired a Sacramento consulting firm to assist the “civility” workgroup. The firm is

B. College Brain Trust

5. The college chose which venue for the workshop?

A. The Duck Club [of the IRWD]

6. At the last meeting of the SOCCCD BOT, Chancellor Poertner resolved tensions between the colleges—regarding ownership of ATEP—in a manner reminiscent of the biblical

C. King Solomon [Yeah, he split the baby in two.]

7. Which of the following notorious OC Republican office holders did NOT have an association with the SOCCCD or its colleges?

D. John Schmitz [Schmitz taught at Santa Ana College]

8. Faculty Association President Lewis Long recently wrote IVC administrators about their plans to pursue district policies that would allow

A. discipline of employees, including faculty, with regard to “uncivil behaviors”

9. Recently, the ACCJC informed Irvine Valley College that its accreditation is re-affirmed. However, the college must

B. submit a follow-up report in October

10. Recently, DtB tagged the SOCCCD for inappropriately

B. referring to its colleges’ status as “fully accredited” [The district has corrected the error]

*One reader is pretty sure that Schmitz taught for Saddleback about 40 years ago. D'oh.

The next debt bomb?

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Bauer) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:53:00 +0000

Bankruptcy Lawyers Warn of Student-Loan 'Debt Bomb' as Client Caseloads Rise (Chronicle of Higher Education)

More struggling borrowers are seeking relief from their student loans, according to a survey by the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys.
In the survey of 860 bankruptcy lawyers, four out of five respondents reported a "significant" or "somewhat significant" increase in potential clients with student-loan debt; nearly two out of five said they had seen their potential student-loan-client caseloads jump by 25 to 50 percent in the past three or four years, and about a quarter had seen caseloads jump by more than 50 percent.
Most of those borrowers won't have their student-loan debt forgiven. Under federal law, it is almost impossible to discharge student loans through bankruptcy.
The president of the association, William E. Brewer, Jr., said the results of the survey suggest that student loans "could very well be the next debt bomb for the U.S. economy."

Hilarious

The Big (Faculty) Sleep; downtown corruption club; a letter to the Opacity Twins

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Bauer) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 05:59:00 +0000

“The girl gave him a look which ought to have
stuck at least four inches out of his back.”

It’s been quite a day.

PROP 8 STILL UNPROPPED. It was a huge day for advocates—including, of course, DtB—of gay and lesbian rights. As the Times explained, “A federal appeals court panel … threw out a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage passed in 2008, upholding a lower court’s ruling that the ban, known as Proposition 8, violated the constitutional rights of gay men and lesbians in California.”
I look forward to watching this story unfold. I have high hopes.

A (TEMPORARY) VICTORY FOR THE MACHINE. It was known that the appellate panel would release its decision today. And so it was no accident that, also today, we learned of John Williams’ agreement to retire from the Public Administrator’s office as per his original agreement in March. Whatever else might be said about Williams’ and the County’s “settlement,” it ensures that the public will never see Special Counsel Michael Colantuono’s “highly critical” report of Williams’ performance.
Many of us believe that the Supes fear releasing the report because it reveals, well, too much about how things work in the County.
You know. After a dozen years of Fuentes, you know. Unless you’re brain dead.
Could be. Hello?
So I’d have to say that Johnny’s Big Bye-Bye counts as a defeat for the Good Guys, a victory (but a close call) for the Bad Guys.
Meanwhile, Williams will get $25,000 to help the County make the painful transition to competence. No doubt, one of these days, Johnny will show up again at the district to receive some resolution or award. I'd like to staple it on his forehead.

MASSIVE FACULTY BALL-DROPPAGE. At this point, some of the dust is settling after the curious appearance last week of the draft report of the “Civility” workgroup. (It appears that administration does conceive the report that way, whatever members of the workgroup might think.)
In the last two days, several people have suggested to me that faculty members on the workgroup really dropped the ball on this one. Why did no one insist on Faculty Association (union) representation? Why have we not heard from these faculty in the four or five days since the appearance of this report—a report that pretends to speak for the group and that includes obnoxious elements of an Orwellian nature?
I still can’t figure out why a guy like Erwin Chemerinsky didn’t stand up in the middle of this Duck Workshop and squawk, “What the fuck do you people think you’re doing?!”

FACULTY: ADRIFT, ASLEEP, APATHETIC. IVC faculty are, I think, enduring a shameful period—after years of focus and attainment, owing, to a great extent, to fine leadership and the usual fortuities and alignments of stars.
It is plain that the faculty’s present leader, Texas charmer and Academic Senate President Lisa Davis Allen, has long been angling for an administrative position (Dean of Fine Arts, no doubt).
(Obviously, I do not object to such ambitions per se. I do, however, object to conflicts of interest.)
Almost from her first day at the college, she has made no secret of her ambition to become an administrator.
It seems to me that her behavior as Senate President suggests allegiance, not to faculty, but to administration. She needs to please them, and so she does.
Consider: faculty have expressed consistent strong skepticism about the college’s absurd Early College Program. LDA has at best tolerated the Senate’s efforts to push back to the modest degree that it has. When administration’s notion of IVC ownership of ATEP ran into rough weather (i.e., Hurricane Burnett), LDA was there to steady the ship for Rocky and His Friends.
Last week, years of work to reform and improve the deliberations and values of the Commencement Speaker Committee were, well, simply tossed away—with the blessing of our Senate President, who somehow placed herself there. (Is there a committee that she isn’t on?)
—“Good grief! Only one female commencement speaker in the last twenty years!?”
So what, says the leader of faculty.
“No intellectuals or artists sent forward? Back to businessmen, fish taco entrepreneurs, and exercise gurus!?”
Well, as far as LDA is concerned, that’s well and good.
(Where are faculty? Are they even awake?)
Near as I can tell, LDA did all that she could to be a team player for administration in its efforts to deal with the Accred’s warnings and recommendations. But, in truth, there really are serious problems at this college—low morale, poor communication, lack of transparency, bullying managers and administrators, incompetent leadership, etc. But LDA—and faculty at large—have done virtually nothing to deal with these very real problems.
No doubt our Accreditation efforts secured a favorable accreditation outcome. That’s important. I get it.
But what about those very real problems that remain? (Let's face it: the accreditation process is one thing; actually recognizing and solving our problems is quite another.)
Don’t count on the Academic Senate even to recognize them. Reminds me of the time one of the Byrds was interviewed and, when asked about all the changes since the 60s, he said, "We're all Republicans now." May as well shoot ourselves in the head.

Major Kong, aka Slim Pickins

IT’S THE FACULTY, STUPID. I don’t mean to lay all this on LDA. She is what she is, and she’s pretty open about her values and intentions (a think she had a close personal relationship with Slim Pickins). Faculty have allowed her to go in the directions she has gone. They could have resisted her, slowed her, diverted her a bit, but no. (And, yes, I attempted to be Obstacle Man, but, it seems, to no avail.)
Consider the benighted “CAFÉ” idea. Why, exactly, did we do this?
Did you know that there is a sign on the door of the CAFÉ that says that no students are allowed? Yep.
Remember the CAFÉ’s first (and, as it turns out, false) opening in August? The flier that announced and advertised the event made clear that only “full-timers” were welcome. Nobody seemed particularly bothered by that. How come?
It’s no secret that classified, or a healthy proportion of that crew, do not require much coaxing to perceive elitism and high-handedness in faculty plans and projects. By late summer, a perfect storm of negative perception prevailed. And then….
Sorry to be so negative.
Some very good things have come about in the last two years. The various speakers’ series sponsored by the Senate have been great. Other things, too.
Here’s a big positive. When union Prez Lewis Long learned of the draft report re “Civility” yesterday (I had sent it to him; it had originally been promulgated in a fashion that seemed designed to achieve oblivion), he saw the problems immediately. He wasted no time firing off a letter to the Opacity Twins. No fucking way, said Lewis.
Boom. Just like that.
And I have every hope that he’ll prevail, too.