It was dark. I looked out my window and saw clouds, and the moon, very bright. Got my camera and took a few. I almost never drink anymore, but I had a Becks, looking at this marvelous sky, waiting for my camera to say, "click."
I used to say that I remembered my childhood as a kind of dark age, with gray skies and dreary, stone walls, but now I'm not so sure.
I recall laying on the floor, on my back, with the crummy speakers of the crummy stereo on each ear, listening to Nights in White Satin, and swooning.
"How can a thing be so good? What can this feeling mean?"
The largest scientific study of the effects of prayer showed that it could, in fact, be harmful
…We now have all the evidence we need to show that prayer is not effective, and even that telling someone you are going to pray for them can be harmful. ¶ I say this on the basis of the largest and best controlled study of the effects of prayer. In the Harvard prayer experiment, 1802 cardiac bypass patients were divided into three groups. Two were told that they might be prayed for; half were and half weren't. The third group were told they would be prayed for and they were. The first two groups recovered equally well, but the group that knew they were being prayed for actually did worse. Perhaps their hopes were falsely raised, or perhaps they were upset to know that someone was praying for them. We don't know, but we can safely conclude that knowing you are being prayed for is not helpful….
California Attorney General Jerry Brown has come out strongly in defense of a new law targeted in federal court by meat-industry groups. ¶ AB 2098, which took effect Jan. 1, makes it a crime to allow meat from livestock too weak or ill to stand to enter the food chain. ¶ The law also requires so-called downer cows to be humanely euthanized….
Dewey Martin, the drummer for Buffalo Springfield, the short-lived but influential 1960s California rock band that spawned the careers of Neil Young and Stephen Stills, was found dead on Feb. 1 in his apartment in Van Nuys, Calif. He was 68. ¶ … The cause has not been determined, the newspaper said; … he had had health problems in recent years….
This afternoon: first a hailstorm, then a rainbow.
As most of you already know, Irvine Valley College at long last received that fax of the Accrediting Commission’s “action letter.” The letter explains that the commission has renewed IVC’s accreditation—with no strings attached.
To see the brief letter, go to letter (a small pdf file).
Saddleback College, too, received similarly good news. Their Action Letter (pdf file) explains that the “Commission took action to accept [Saddleback’s Progress] report.”
The action in Saddleback’s case, however, is slightly less clean:
The Commission noted that in its response to Recommendation 3, Saddleback College stated it had "set the goal of August 22, 2008 to have a [single] SLO {Student Learning Outcome} and method of assessment documented for every active course." Since the Commission requires full compliance with all SLO-related standards by 2012, Saddleback College must accelerate its development of multiple SLOs in all courses if it expects to comply with the Commission requirement.
At 3:00 p.m. this afternoon, members of the Irvine Valley College community gathered in the Administration Building to mark the occasion with some thank-yous, punch and donuts.
It was plain to see that some of our administrators were very relieved indeed.
4:45:
Naturally, Chancellor Mathur has spammed the world with one of his typically self-serving congratulatory emails. As per usual, he kisses trustee ass whilst patting himself firmly on the back:
I would particularly like to thank Board President Don Wagner who served on the IVC Accreditation Committee and Immediate Past President of the Board Dave Lang who served on the Saddleback College Accreditation Committee for their solid leadership and time commitment in shepherding the best interests of the students, the Colleges and the District. This was indeed a collaborative process where many of us, including me, who read and reread the reports repeatedly and provided our input. [My emphasis.]
The two colleges of our district—Saddleback College and Irvine Valley College—have been dinged repeatedly by the Accreds (the ACCJC), mostly owing to the misadventures and misconduct of our benighted and demagogic board of trustees and their toady, the ruthless and incompetent Chancellor Raghu P. Mathur, G.O.P., Ed.D.
So when the feds got on the accreds’ case for issuing repeated warnings to colleges instead of meting out “consequences” (as they say, staunchly), the pressure was on Babs Beno, the clueless ACCJC Prez, and her crew to start meaning business—or else.
Yeah, but the problem is that Babs and her crew are way south of sharp or competent, and so they’ve been layin’ questionable requirements on colleges that many districts can’t even afford to satisfy (expensive researchers must be hired, etc.). Plus, if you’re really gonna mean business with these sometimes-daffy requirements, you’ve gotta pull the ticket on a shitload of colleges, and that just won’t do, now will it?
Anyway, our two institutions gave it the old college try, and, in the end, they did a pretty good and sincere job (belatedly, in the case of sleepy Saddleback College) trying to satisfy the Accreds and their concerns: trustee micromanagement, the plague of despair, inexplicably vast holes dug into the ground, etc. Reports were written and sent north, and we waited.
The commissioners, Babs Beno presiding, finally met in January and deliberated (whatever that means—maybe they spun a big wheel). They made their decisions. The “action letters” (i.e., the letters explaining the commission's actions per college) were supposed to be mailed on the 31st of January, but, as it happens, the 31st fell on a Saturday. In the past, in such situations, upon request, the ACCJC would go ahead and fax the damn thing on Friday (a day early) so that institutions wouldn’t have to wait until Monday to discover their horrifying fate.
So, naturally, our college requested the fax, and, last Friday, the college waited for said fax. But no fax materialized, which led to the Big Nervous Phone Call. The (unofficial) word was that the Accreds then declared (on the phone) that the Action Letter would be put in the mail that morning (gosh thanks), but the college would have to wait until Monday for the fax. Sheesh!
So the college Big Kids put out an email to everybody that explained that
The College has been informed by the Accreditation Commission that the hard copy of the Accreditation Action Letter … was placed in the mail earlier today, January 30, 2009. The College has requested to be placed on the ACCJC fax list and was informed that the Action Letter will be faxed on Monday…. As soon as the fax is received, the Irvine Valley College community will be informed immediately ….
No biggy. So we’ll wait.
So Monday came around and, again, no fax. Dang! The Senate Prez, clearly peeved, put out an email early Monday afternoon explaining that
The College was supposed to receive the ACCJC Action Letter …, today, February 2, 2009 via facsimile. However, we were informed [today], that the fax from the ACCJC would be delayed until February 3. 2009.
What?! I’m startin’ to get steamed!We're gettin' the run-around!
Hours later, the Big Kids (aka Prez Roquemore and crew) sent out a more official email, which said that
The College has now been informed by the Accreditation Commission that the hard copy of the Accreditation Action Letter … was NOT placed in the mail last Friday, January 30, 2009, after all. The ACCJC now tells us that the faxes will be sent Tuesday, February 3rd. [Emphasis in the original. Note the tone of peevitude.]
Is the ACCJC a crew of clowns? Rat bastard? Maroons?! Well, that's what everybody was saying.
The letter continued:
As soon as the fax is received, President Roquemore will inform the Irvine Valley College community …. If the fax has not been received by noon tomorrow, we will try to provide hourly updates until the fax does arrive.
Hourly freakin’ updates?! Such displays of anxiousness are seriously uncool, dude. Well, whatever.
So, naturally, this morning (Tuesday), the Big Kids waited by the fax machine, but no fax materialized. So they gnashed their teeth and then sent out another email:
The college has not received a fax from the Commission this morning. As soon as the fax is received, President Roquemore will inform the Irvine Valley College community about the outcome. If the fax does not arrive by 1 p.m., President Roquemore will call the Commission and ask for an explanation.
Our next update will be at 5 p.m. today unless the letter is received earlier. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Smart move. That hourly update thing was way desperate.
Ah, but that wasn’t the end of it. Just after 1:00 p.m., we got another email from Glenn and crew. It was understated:
President Roquemore called the Commission’s office and was informed that the letters will be mailed today and the fax would be sent tomorrow, Wednesday, February 4th. [My emphasis.]
At this point, only a total dope would expect the ACCJC to come through tomorrow. As far as I'm concerned, Babs and her crew have declared war. We need to send Raghu up there immediately to leave a burning sack o’ sh*t on Babs Beno’s doorstep!
April, 2006: Babs Beno visits the SOCCCD (she appears at 6:27)
A perfect illustration of Babs Beno's abject twitulosity. On this night, for no apparent reason, she spoke positively about the two colleges' efforts responding the ACCJC's concerns, despite the manifest recalcitrance of some trustees, who openly rejected the Accreds' worries about trustee micromanagement. "What does this mean?" we asked. "What the hell is going on?" Later, we got dinged pretty badly by the ACCJC, which required yet another progress report.
I’ve got to say, the local college newspapers are a mixed bag. Many are shitty, some are good.
I’d put OCC’s Coast Report in the shitty category. Typical story: “Poinsettias a Plenty.” I just checked, and, under “news,” they’ve got two-month-old stories about budget cuts vehicle break-ins.
And get this: they have no coverage at all of the recent and mysterious removal of their chancellor!
Golden West College’s Western Sun is beyond ridiculous. Evidently, their last issue came out in May.
Fullerton College’s The Hornet has two stories from the end of January about student government and a recent basketball game against Saddleback College. OK, it looks pretty decent.
Cypress College's Cypress Chronicle seems to cover news of interest to its students. It loses points, however, for including a freakin’ Horoscope column.
CSUF’s Daily Titan looks pretty lively these days. Its latest editorial: “Phelps smokes weed. So what?”
Probably, the best of the bunch is UCI’s New University, which generally includes stories of interest even to outsiders.
For instance, yesterday, it published a piece by our own Red Emma: Employee Free Choice Act: Yes We Can. When you read it, you’ll know why we call 'im "Red."
In this company, Saddleback College’s Lariat looks pretty good, although I do wish the paper showed more interest in the politics of the board & chancellor. Juicy story after juicy story goes unreported: trustee Williams’ $500-a-nite lodging bills, an illiterate and ruthless chancellor creates a "plague of despair," recalcitrant Neanderthal trustees bring the colleges to the brink, Chancellor digs inexplicable mega-hole!
But Lariat reporters do get around a bit. Check out the article on last week’s “Ray Bradbury” event: Sci-Fi master Ray Bradbury brings star power to IVC. (In some sense, the Lariat is for both Saddleback College and IVC.)
Recently, a Lariat “editorial” offered ten survival tips for new students: Editorial: Top-10 list for students. I thought it was excellent. So I wrote a comment, which they published, adding an 11th tip:
An excellent list, I'm sure. But aren't Letterman lists supposed to be funny? OK, too much to ask. But you left out an obvious tip: if, as a "consumer" of SOCCCD instruction, you aren't completely satisfied with the product, be sure to head on up to the 3rd floor of the HS building and insist on seeing Chancellor Raghu P. Mathur, a fellow who insists that he does all for "the students." I bet he'll even fix your tickets, so dedicated is he.
No word yet on whether our Rajah is inundated with student requests for an audience.
