Dissent the Blog: Resolutions & Presentations

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Resolutions & Presentations

by Roy Bauer

This is the first in a series of brief videos of Monday's night's board meeting.

This video presents "resolutions & presentations" regarding Saddleback College's 40th Anniversary. Mostly, it was an opportunity for politicians to get their mugs in front of the public. Still, it was fun. I edited out Mathur and Co. as much as possible. You know how they can stink things up.

At the end, Professor Bob Parsons receives a fine resolution for his 40 years of work at the college.

Click on the button in the middle!

1 comments:

Anonymous said...: Creeps, creating opportunities for themselves. (I don't mean the instructors.); 8:47 AM, September 24, 2008

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Quotations: SOCCCD c. 1998

LIAR LIAR, PANTS ON FIRE: “Your letter inaccurately attributes your actions…as based on my advice. As you very well know, my advice to you was to meet the legal requirement for effective academic senate participation…The Academic Senate Vice President…was a party to our telephone conversation and will confirm that this was my advice to you.” —State Academic Senate President Bill Scroggins, in a letter written 3/3/98, catching Raghu P. Mathur in an attempt to execute his familiar “false paper trail” scam. ~
GOD 'N' GOO: “I have God on my side.” -–Reportedly uttered by IVC President Raghu P Mathur during a meeting with Academic Senate officers. (May 1998) ~ EVERETT BREWERY: “What you do as a good board member is, you keep [talented] people…[Members of the board have instead] appointed and hired people who have had little experience…Put their little names on the refrigerator and don’t vote for these people.” –-Everett Brewer, former VP of Instruction, Saddleback College, and a 25-year district employee (Times, 6/20/98) ~ BREWERY II: “In a very short time, the existing Board of Trustees has nearly destroyed everything we labored so long to create.” –-Everett Brewer (Times, 6/21/98) ~ THE JERRY SPRINGER COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT: “Every time I get up in the morning and see a story about this district in The Orange County Register, it’s like seeing your mother on The Jerry Springer Show.” —Marie Hill, student trustee, speaking during the June 15, 1998, board meeting (OC Weekly, 6/26/98) ~ WHAT STEVE DRAGGED IN: Krugel to Frogue: “Do you trade pictures of little girls with Joe Fields?” Williams: “Sir, I don’t want to hear any more comments about little girls.” —From an exchange among Barry Krugel (of the JDL), trustees, and visitors during the June 15, 1998, board meeting. (Joe Fields, a Frogue supporter who attended the meeting, is a neo-Nazi and, according to Krugel, a convicted “sexual molester.”) (OC Weekly, 6/26/98) ~ WADDYA THINK WE FEEL LIKE? “I feel like I’m in a really bad John Waters movie.” –-Tanning booth enthusiast and conspiracy theorist Michael Collins Piper, at the start of his three minutes at the raucous 6/15/98 board meeting (OC Weekly, 6/26/98) ~ "DICTATORS" SHOULD RESIGN: “I was hired by IVC to start a digital…art program in the fine-arts department last fall…I have seen models of effective shared governance…[The] management style, implemented by the Board of Trustees appeared more like a dictatorship...[I]f the board was truly concerned about the future of the colleges..., they would all resign....” —Peggy Jones (Times, 6/28/98) ~ DON’T REMIND ME: “[Trustee John] Williams’ blatant disrespect of the shared governance process and his fellow trustees is yet another example of his poor leadership. This micromanagement of the chancellor hiring process reminds one of the administrative reorganization and IVC presidential hiring process a year ago, the effects of which continue to haunt this district and our community.” —Trustee Dave Lang in a letter appearing in the Irvine World News, 7/9/98. ~ AN EMBARRASSMENT: “It is an embarrassment that this $72 million district…could attract only nine applicants for the position of chancellor in a nationwide search. The public must pay closer attention to the candidates for election in November to make certain that the public interest and not special interests are represented by the board.” —Retiring board “minority” trustee Joan Hueter, from a statement quoted in the Irvine World News, 7/23/98. ~
THEIR MONKEY BOY: “There’s a lot of on-campus friction. District trustees are morons, the college president is their monkey boy, and the faculty union (which is controlled by Saddleback’s more senior professors) is dirty, vocal IVC teachers say.” —From a “consumer” assessment of IVC, appearing in the OC Weekly, 9/4/98. ~ GUN-LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDORED THING: “Stop living in an ivory castle.” -–Trustee Williams, expressing frustration over Trustee Lang’s expressed doubts about the district’s practice of arming its cops. (During the 9/14/98 board meeting.) ~ A SPIN-CONTROLLER SPINNIN’ OUTA CONTROL: “I was told that there were some things I was not to focus on. From my own research, old files and press clippings I got a picture of an administration that was doing some things that I don’t think I could represent without violating my own ethics…People are walking on eggshells around there. He [Mathur] said he has an open-door policy and that he believes in communication, but I didn’t see it.” —Bevin Zandvliet, who briefly served as Mathur’s spinmeister (OC Register, 9/25/98) ~ PIOUS DECEIVERS: “[#5 in this year's] Slime-ball campaign tactics. In 1996, the despicable trio of Steven Frogue, Dorothy Fortune and John Williams appealed to anti-gay hysteria to win seats on the SOCCCD Board. This time, Wagner and Padberg—who are backed by the same nasty crowd (a faculty association) that funded Frogue, Fortune, and Williams—are trying to capitalize on another hot-button issue. College trustees have zero say in the fight over a proposed airport at El Toro, but the main theme of Wagner and Padberg’s joint, misleading mailer is that they are the only candidates openly fighting the El Toro International Airport.” —From OC Weekly’s election “Hall of Shame.” (Late October, ’98) ~ D’YA THINK THEY’D TAKE SATAN’S MONEY? “The teachers union?…The California Teachers Association is overwhelmingly liberal. I would seriously doubt they would support a conservative Republican like me. I was generally pleased to get the support…but I think it’s strange that it’s the union.” —Don Wagner, remarking on the support he received from the Faculty Association. In the end, Wagner and Padberg owed their victories to the Association, which spent tens of thousands on their behalf, despite howls of protest from the rank and file. (OC Register, 10/31/98) ~ SHARED WHAT? ...Accreditation teams wrapping up three-day visits to Saddleback and Irvine Valley colleges on Oct. 29 were reportedly “stunned” by the deep divisions they found between employees and elected officials and warned that the disharmony was eroding service to students. Irvine Valley College, where students organized weekly protests since president Raghu Mathur’s 1997 appointment, received the harshest criticism, with the team finding that the district-board-directed obliteration of “shared governance”—in which faculty, staff and community members help administrators and the board shape district policy—was a major cause for concern. Saddleback got off easier, but its accreditation team expressed fear that academic programs and student services could suffer unless people just got along. The teams’ not-so-subtle message to the board: stabilize a district that lost administrators like Burt Reynolds shed hair, and keep your collective nose out of the colleges’ day-to-day operations. If the colleges want to continue receiving federal aid and having their credits transfer to universities, they must be reaccredited in January 1999. —From the OC Weekly, 1/1/99 ~ THOSE NASTY LITTLE FINGERS, EVEN BACK THEN: “When you point your finger at someone, three fingers point right back.” —Raghu P. Mathur, offering his favorite cliche, at the board meeting, 11/16/98. ~ YOU’RE PUSHIN’ TOO HARD: “I think what I’m seeing here is a consistent pattern that we are going to push this as far as we can,” said Seymour. “And the only thing that seems to work is for the courts to take action.” —Judge Tully H. Seymour, discussing the 2nd Brown Act lawsuit in court, quoted in the OC Register, 11/21/98. ~ DEFENDING THE “UNABAUER”: “He’s been writing it for 18 months and only now they’re reprimanding him. I’ve been reading it for six or seven months and it’s always been that way. For me, it was really informative, because I couldn’t go to all the board meetings and I relied on “The Dissent” for what was going on. I find his sense of humor satirical...If anyone knows Roy he’s the most soft-spoken and non-violent person you can imagine.” —Debbie Burbridge, former IVC student (Irvine World News, 1/7/99) ~ GRACIOUS, GREAT, & GOIN’ NOWHERE: “I’m not going anywhere.” —Raghu Mathur, in his “President’s Welcome Address,” January 6, 1999. Raghu also compared himself with Abraham Lincoln. There are, he said, “three qualities of greatness”: being focused on self-mastery, fixity of purpose, and malice toward none. These, he said, are “my goals.” ~ PERSISTENT AND DEFIANT MISCONDUCT: A judge has ordered the South Orange County Community College District to tape-record its closed-door meetings for two years because of its “persistent and defiant misconduct” in violating state open-meeting laws. Orange County Superior Court Judge Tully H. Seymour also referred the case to the District Attorney’s Office for possible criminal prosecution, court records show. A prior finding of Brown Act violations against the district in 1997 also will be forwarded…”The (district) board engaged in a continuing course of conduct that appears to the court to reflect a total disregard for the requirements of the open-meeting law,” Seymour ruled. Terry Franke, director of the California First Amendment Coalition, said Seymour’s order might set a precedent. “This is extraordinary,” said Franke, who helped write the Brown Act. “This would be the first effective order for taping, and I have absolutely never heard of a judge in a civil (Brown Act) matter taking the initiative to alert the DA’s office.” —From the OC Register, 1/21/99 ~ ET TU, RAGHU? Having tried to work with Raghu for 10 years, first as his dean then as a fellow faculty member, I think his ethics are on a par with Brutus. His word is as good as the now infamous statement “I’ve never had sexual relations with that woman…” —Gary Resnick, retired IVC instructor, in an email sent to faculty in February, 1999. ~ A PRELIMINARY BUTT-KICKING: “Orwellian.” —U.S. District Judge Nora M. Manella’s characterization of the Chancellor’s order that Roy Bauer seek counseling, owing to the newsletters he edited. March 15, 1999. ~ [In Johnson,] the court held that an employer “does not have a legitimate interest in covering up mismanagement or corruption and cannot justify retaliation against whistleblowers as a legitimate means of avoiding the disruption that necessarily accompanies such exposure….A review of the record…suggests that the disharmony at IVC is ongoing and is not solely the product of [Roy B's] “disruptive” speech…Plaintiff’s speech did not create the “disharmony” on the IVC campus, and silencing him will not eliminate it….Defendant…alleges that “faculty and other employees are reticent to discourse with [Plaintiff] or speak out at meetings for fear of reprisals, threats or even bodily harm from Plaintiff.”…This court finds this argument unpersuasive….Plaintiff has been highly critical of the SOCCCD and IVC administrators, but as the Supreme Court noted in Waters…, “[g]overnment employees are often in the best position to know what ails the agencies for which they work; public debate may gain much from their informal opinions.” This court finds defendant has no legitimate interest in silencing plaintiff’s speech….. For the reasons set forth above, plaintiff’s motion for preliminary injunction is granted. The court finds the six [DISSENT] statements/illustrations at issue in this case constitute protected speech and enjoins defendant from enforcing section 4000.3 and section 4000.5 on the basis of plaintiff’s past speech or any similarly protected future speech. The court also enjoins defendant from ordering plaintiff to undergo psychological counseling of any sort…It is so ordered. —US District Judge Nora M. Manella’s opinion, issued March 19, 1999 ~ CONCILIATORY REMARK: “You can take all of Raghu Mathur’s critics and stand them up end to end and they wouldn’t see his belt buckle.” —Steven Frogue, quoted in the Irvine World News. Frogue was discussing and promoting his upcoming “Reconciliation and Concord” breakfast. Not one instructor showed, excepting Ray “Whitewash Willy” Chandos, Old Guard union crony. (Note to short people: you oughta be pissed off.) ~ SOCCCD: POSTER CHILD FOR A MOVEMENT: Locally elected community college boards would be eliminated and replaced with appointed advisory boards with limited powers under a new proposal released today by the California Citizens Commission on Higher Education….Too often, the commission argues, college boards micromanage their campuses, undermining trained administrators and creating disharmony. Commissioners cite the three years of turmoil at South Orange County Community College District as an example of what could go wrong with locally elected trustees…. —From the OC Register, 4/6/99 (front page) ~ HYPOCRITE PAR EXCELLENCE: According to district officials, some faculty members taught a full load of classes while chairing a department, and earning over $100,000 a year. “In 60 percent of the cases, they had reassigned time and then were teaching classes as overload,” said Irvine Valley President Raghu Mathur. —From an article in the Irvine World News, 5/27/99, in which IVC’s “school chair” model, abolished during the reorganization, is criticized. Ironically, the “abuses” here described by “district officials” describe only Raghu P. Mathur, who, owing to massive amounts of overload and reassigned time, made over $120,00 a year before becoming president. (He was a school chair.) ~ MORE BUTT-KICKAGE: The South Orange County Community College District must pay $98,000 in attorney fees for a faculty member who successfully sued the district’s board for violating California open-meeting laws, according to a Superior Court judge’s order released Thursday. Roy Bauer prevailed in a lawsuit accusing the board of failing to lawfully notify the public about a series of important decisions it made in private. Those decisions involved a reorganization of the two colleges’ administrations, which removed professors from some key decision-making posts, and the appointment of Irvine Valley College President Raghu Mathur. A judge found that the board had a persistent pattern of violating open-meeting laws, and ordered trustees to tape-record all closed-door meetings. This is Bauer’s second Brown Act lawsuit victory…. —From the OC Register, June 18, 1999 ~ PAINFUL CLUTTERECTOMY: On a campus already strained by deep tensions, professors at Irvine Valley College are in an uproar over a new policy that they say threatens the time-honored practice of decorating office doors and windows with the cartoons, clippings and fliers that reflect their humor and passions. Faculty representatives are threatening legal action over a memo teachers received last week telling them to remove any posters or signs they have displayed on their office windows or external doors. The college president, Raghu P. Mathur, says he is seeking only to protect the school from unsightly clutter. But professors allege the policy is a ploy to stifle their ongoing criticism of the school’s leadership….Signs on professors’ doors and windows range from cartoons, newspaper clippings and announcements about grades and scholarships to sharp blows at Mathur. In one window, which faces the campus and can be seen from a distance, large signs proclaim “Mathur Must Go” and “Raghu Must Resign”….According to the Irvine Valley College memo, professors have until Sunday to remove their displays or the college will remove them…. —LA Times, 8/2/99. A truncated version of the story appeared in the LA version of the Times four days later. An OCN report on this issue began airing 8/2/99. A follow-up aired a few days later.

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Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Resolutions & Presentations

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Quotations: SOCCCD c. 1998