Monday, March 9, 2009

Mathur's friends among us

Gosh, on Saturday, members of the Irvine Valley College community received a curious email from Dean Elizabeth Cipres (Counseling and Library Services). She wrote:
Dear Faculty: I have attached a Lunch and Learn invitation from Argosy University that will be held in our Career & Transfer Center … on Wednesday, March 25, 2009 at 11:30 am to 1:00 pm. Also if you are considering a doctorate program, I have attached the recently updated doctoral matrix for your review.
Liz Cipres
I opened the "matrix" and found what amounted to an advertisement for Doctoral Programs—and maybe for programs at Argosy University in particular. Cipres is among the adjunct faculty of that university (it has a campus here in Orange County), as is Chancellor Raghu Mathur, with whom Dean Cipres seems to enjoy a close association. The matrix says:Would getting a doctorate help boost your career? Are you considering taking “the big step”? Here is a list of some universities that offer doctoral programs that 1) offer courses at night and on weekends and 2) indicate they encourage working community college administrators to apply for admission….

The list is obviously designed to make Argosy look good compared to other universities. My word! At Argosy U, you can get an Ed. D. in Community College Executive Leadership in three years for only $780 per credit hour! Beat that! [UPDATE: a friend insists--and I have no reason to doubt her--that this matrix is not from Argosy, nor is it designed to make Argosy look good. It is a comparison provided by ACCA.] Few colleges, it seems, can beat that. Among the institutions mentioned in the comparison, of course, are various public institutions. They look mighty expensive and demanding in comparison.
But of course they offer real courses. But wait a minute! I think you’d have to say that, with her email, Dean Cipres was promoting Argosy University in particular. I mean, does she put out such emails for other universities? Does she announce (to the entire faculty) or arrange “Lunch and Learn” events for USC or Berkeley or Pepperdine? If so, I sure haven't noticed. And she's an employee of Argosy, right?

I did a brief search, and I encountered an old class schedule for Argosy. There, Cipres is listed as the instructor of one of the courses. I found her syllabus, which stated that “She has been an adjunct professor at Argosy University since July, 2005.” Raghu P. Mathur is also listed as the instructor—for two courses: “Community College Leadership” and “Managing Change 3.” Naturally, I couldn’t help myself. I read the syllabus for one of Mathur’s courses. It listed various “performance objectives,” including
  • Recognize the need for delegating authority and responsibility in accomplishing organizational goals.
  • Recognize the effect of behavior and decisions on people and groups inside and outside of the school organization.
  • Demonstrate public relation skills to manage the image of the school via impressions created by students and staff. (My emphasis. See syllabus.)
Ha!
Well, I may as well go the whole hog. I noticed that Dean Cipres teaches “Organizational Communication Systems…” So I guess she must be pretty good at communication, eh? I looked at the course's syllabus. Here’s one of the assignments she lists there:
Assignment 2: Internet Job Search Visit one of the numerous job-search sites on the Internet if you are interested in higher education I recommend the community college registry at www.cccregistry.org/jobs/index.aspx then select a position description and develop five interview questions for that position.
Hmmm. But here’s my issue. Our board has seen fit to embrace a policy on “electronic communication”—including email. It is Board Policy 4000.2. It says:
It is the policy of this District to restrict access to and use of the electronic/digital information network to students and employees for educational purposes by students and employees and work-related purposes by employees. Use of the District’s electronic/digital information network [including “electronic mail”] for other purposes amounting to more than incidental personal use or for unlawful purposes is not authorized and can constitute grounds for revocation of user privileges, removal of offending material, and potential disciplinary action. [My emphasis.]
Gosh, Raghu's pals sure do get away with stuff, don't they?
IN THE NEWS:Capistrano schools chief: 'Acrimony' unbearable Former Capistrano Unified School District Superintendent A. Woodrow Carter lashes out at Capo trustees. The latter crew was supported by conservative "back to basics" group Education Alliance (with whom some of our trustees are associated). • Capistrano Unified trustees fire superintendent (Tuesday morning) • Publisher to Register employees: let them eat Hawaiian bread Register publisher tells reporters to work much harder for no more money

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Come on, Chunk, she's just encouraging self-improvement for us all. We could all use a little boost in the pay scale. I say we sign up for the free lunch.

Anonymous said...

I must admit I thought the same thing whan I saw the email - it seems like poor form to use the college like this, specially since she sent it to people over which she has power as a dean. There's something wrong there.

Anonymous said...

Yours is not the only college being slowly taken over by For Profit College and University zombies who then hire their own "grad" students...Imagine the conflict of interest when their "students" in one setting are the employees they supervise in another!

There's a game plan here to protect their incompetance. And for the most part, it works. For them.

The Chronicle had a article on this phenonmenon awhile back.

Anonymous said...

I'm sure Liz would never do anything wrong.

Anonymous said...

At 780 bucks a credit.. hmmm
COLLUMN FIVE HERE I COME~!!!!!
heheheeee

Anonymous said...

I abhor these places like Argosy - they are just this close to diploma mills - you give them money and they make it easy for you to get the "degree" - their curriculum is a joke, they mandate course work then let you opt out and no one complains because their incompetent self-congratulatory teachers are getting paid and you, the student are getting a degree - so it all works out.

Anonymous said...

That's just WRONG - using her position at IVC to promote a private for-profit institution which also employs her. The marginality of such a place makes it worse.

Anonymous said...

Don't forget that Chief of Police Owen Kreza was one of Mathur's protected people, too. They fired him for who-knows-what. But his reputation as a creep was well established around campus years before.

And remember Wayne Ward? Another Mathur favorite. An incompetent boob, and everyone knew it. But Mathur protected him.

And then there's Rodney Poindexter. Mathur arranged for him to get "administrator of the year" from his trained monkey ASIVC president (who is now a leader in the "Young Republicans"). They fired him, too. Mathur pulled out all the stops to hire him (despite his manifest unsavoriness) and then to protect him. They had to escort that nut off campus too, in the end.

On and on it goes. And this board seems to think that Mathur is just great.

Anonymous said...

Aren't there some rules about what you can use college email for?

Anonymous said...

Didn't Dale Carranza get his "extra" degree from Argosy?

Anonymous said...

Any idea how many people Raghu and Liz have recruited into Argosy over the years almost promising them promotions once they "graduate"?

Anonymous said...

It's good that you wrote about this because so many people just deleted her email without looking at it. Now maybe more people will go.

I hear they are going to have sandwiches from Subway - tuna or turkey, take your pick.

Anonymous said...

Don't you know there's one set of rules for them and another for the rest of us?

Anonymous said...

The problem here is not that Cipres arranges or allows these special sessions and distributes these materials but that she singles out one institution--and it is her employer. Mathur does exactly the same thing.

Anonymous said...

I detect a whiff of corruption in the air.

Anonymous said...

This all sounds illegal.

Anonymous said...

It's nice that Raghu and Liz both can do so well at their day jobs that they can teach at the graduate level part-time and prosper - 'cause you KNOW how demanding teaching is!

Man, can get some of what they got?

Anonymous said...

Cipres' syllabus "assignment" reads like so many of her emails - completely lacking punctuation at all.

Anonymous said...

How bizarre to have an illiterate dean!

The conflict of interest should'a been a no-brainer; but then, it seems that when it comes to Ethics, IVC administrators "have no brain a-tall!"

Anonymous said...

"but then, it seems that when it comes to Ethics, IVC administrators "have no brain a-tall!"
Why? Do faculty have more ethics? HA!!!

Anonymous said...

Well, name some faculty who have such blatant conflict of interest problems, Sparky.

Anonymous said...

Roy, you mean ACCCA, not ACCA.

Roy Bauer said...

Joannah: always glad to welcome a new reader. So welcome!

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...