July 18, 2007
Rebel Girl
XXXXXX
Silverado Canyon, CA 92676
Dear Rebel Girl,
Congratulations on your 15 years of service for the students of the South Orange County Community College District! In recognition of your continuous dedication and contribution to the District, you will be awarded a service pin as a symbol of appreciation.
You are cordially invited to formally receive your service pin, along with other deserving Irvine Valley College and Saddleback College faculty, on Tuesday August 14, 2007, at 8:45 am during the Chancellor's Opening Session in the McKinney Theatre at Saddleback College. This will be preceded by a continental breakfast which will be served at 8:00 a.m. in the McKinney Theatre patio.
Please R.S.V.P. by 4:00 p.m. on August 9, 2007 to XXXX in District Human Resources via email at XXXX or by phone at XXXXX. We look forward to recognizing your years of service in the District.
Sincerely,
Raghu P. Mathur, Ed.D.
Chancellor
REBEL GIRL is sorry to say that she missed the big event which would have featured her unlikely "pinning" by the Chancellor, the same person who, as college president, once delayed signing her evaluation for three months while demanding proof that he had ever commended her for anything - he had! During those three months, her then-dean tried to find something, anything to condemn her for (Messy desk? Surly attitude? Improper use of paper clips?) – he didn't, though he did suggest that she should remove certain images and texts from her office door – she did not. It's worth remembering that this same dean delayed signing her maternity leave papers until she presented proof of pregnancy via a doctor's note (Rebel Girl was 41 years old and seven months pregnant at the time). Ahhh, those were the days. She remembers phoning the doctor over at UCI and trying to explain that one.
The pin arrived in yesterday's mail. The stone is sapphire, designating 15 years of service.
For the record, 5 years gets you an amethyst, 10 a ruby, 20 an emerald and 25 a diamond.
A few years back the same dean (after his hasty "retreat to the classroom") received just such a pin designating so many years of service – an event that was noticed by many since his "years" of service seem to have been desperately cobbled together by someone who couldn't count.
32 comments:
Who else got pinned?
Welcome back.
Nice pin!
When OUR IVC Theatre opens will they have the Chancellor's opening session up here?
It's not a theatre; it's a performing arts center.
A DOCTOR'S NOTE?!? Good lord. Once again we have proof of some pretty wacky notions of what counts as evidence on the part of the SOCCCD's notables. I mean, I suspect that you were, um, *bulging* a little at seven months! How droll, and maddening, life in your district can be. I'm glad you're back there, in spite of it all, Rebel Girl
Is that REALLY a sapphire?
Howard Gensler was that dean. The worst dean in the history of deanery.
Isn't it sort of wasteful and politically incorrect to use all of those gemstones?
Theatre or theater? Which is it?
Only if you think like a leftist enviro-nazi, cero.
Don't get your knickers in a twist, 6:37 and 8:14. Most "sapphires" sold in this country are actually other, less precious stones that have been chemically- and heat-treated.
8:14 - As for suffixing everything you don't like with the word "Nazi," try prefixing it with the word "authoritarian" instead. It gives you the desired meaning without making you seem like a trip-wire yutz. Viz., "authoritarian feminist," "authoritarian environmentalist," amd so forth.
Theatre if it is a hall.
Theater if it is a movie theater.
It's a CENTER - a Performing Arts Center - just like the Worship Center down the street.
Hey Liz, how is Owen doing?
Who else got pinned? I dunno, may be Liz.
IVC PAC = IVC Performing Arts Center
What do you get after 25 years?
Rebel Girl's story reminds me that when I was in college during the height of the Vietnam war, one of my friends, Melvin, an actual dwarf, not even four feet tall while standing on his tiptoes, presented himself to his draft board as a kind of gentle hint that maybe he was unfit for military service.
"You'll need a letter from your doctor for your official file," the good bureaucrats there told him.
"A letter from my doctor?" Melvin asked. "A LETTER? I mean just put your OWN letter in my official file. You're the draft board! Who's not gonna believe you? Or better yet, take a Polaroid picture of me standing next to one of you. Put THAT in my official file. Besides, what should this letter say? 'Melvin is very short and always will be. Signed, Dr. Jones'? Why do you need all that when you can just look at me?"
Rules are rules, of course, so Melvin got a letter from his doctor, and, in due course, his IV-F deferment.
By the way, your service pins, whether they're cheap sapphires or not, are a gift of public funds which makes them illegal.
--100 miles down the road
"Gift of public funds?" That was in the e-mail from Saddleback's President McCullough to their academic senate officers this summer: that they had to submit activity logs so he could show (who?) that their stipends (which were subsequently hacked to bits anyway) were not a "gift of public funds."
Do I have to give my pin back?
I have two of them so far.
Glad you and your marvelous, droll sense of humor are with us again. Don't worry--they'll spend more money sending you your "gift of public funds" that you weren't able to pick it up. Check with Howard--he may have his "diamond" pin by now.
"By the way, your service pins, whether they're cheap sapphires or not, are a gift of public funds which makes them illegal."
BS! Check the law again. Now we know why you're 100 miles down the road.
So I get to keep my pins after all?
Anonymous 9:30:
OK, sure. I will check again. But what are you so hostile about? Starting another year got youy down?
--100 miles down the road
8:14, you are a jerk, but then I suppose that is why you must post anonymously.
OT, sort of, but related to the child: Rebel Girl, check out the video in this post of mine:
http://profacero.wordpress.com/2007/08/20/file-gumbo/
and show it to the kid, the accordion player here is blond and four, with a huge outdoor festival audience. He'll like it, I think.
You're a jerk off, zero.
ooh, love that male discourse. makes me swoon....
Liz? How is Owen?
A hearty congrats to you.
Idoubt that anyone's going to read this, but I googled "California + gift of public funds." Here's what I found out:
The language governing this issue is found in Article XVI, section 6 of the State Constitution, not the ed code.
It prohibits spending public money on "any thing"--which would probably include service pins.
Courts have ruled subsequently that a "direct and substantial purpose [must be] served by the expenditure, and private individuals are benefited only as an incident to the promotion of the public purpose."
I'm no lawyer, but because it doesn't seem likely that someone would quit his job because he didn't receive a 10-or 15-year pin and because it doesn't seem likely that someone would refuse to retire without getting a 30-year service pin, there doesn't appear to be any "direct and substantial public purpose" that is served by these awards.
So, anonymous 9:30, it looks like you're the one who's full of BS.
--100 miles down the road
I read your comment, 100 miles. If memory serves, the silly practice of handing out these pins began with the chancellor who served prior to Raghu.
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