Richard Sneed dies

c. 1965

At 2:22 this afternoon, we received this email from Jennie McCue at the district:

We are very saddened to share that Dr. Richard J. Sneed, Chancellor of the South Orange County Community College District from 1986 to 1993, passed away at his home on Saturday morning after a long illness.    

     Minimalism, I guess.

     Near as I can tell, Sneed was about 88 years old.
     In July of 1986, Sneed replaced the troublesome (—er, disastrous)  Larry Stevens, who presided over (—er, caused) three and a half years of strife and turmoil at the Saddleback Community College District — thanks, in part, to the usual idiotic double-downing of a clueless board that mucked up the original hire. The Faculty Association had successfully targetted trustees who supported Stevens in the election of '85. The new board pressured Stevens to resign, which he did, January 8, 1986.
     Sneed was widely respected and brought peace and professionalism back to the Chancellor's office. He was, as they say, both a scholar and a gentleman.
     He will be warmly remembered.
     I do believe his full name was Richard Joseph Sneed. I found this reference to his dissertation:

That's Richard Sneed, far right, c. 1988
(IVC President Ron Kong at center.)

Richard J. Sneed “The Kingdom’s Coming: Luke, 17, 20-21” STD dissertation, Catholic University of America, 1962

From Chancellor to Retire From Saddleback, LA Times, August 28, 1993

1989

     …Just this week, Sneed, who retires Monday after a sometimes stormy relationship with his faculty, returned from a conference in Sacramento sponsored by community college students seeking to preserve educational opportunities, lobbied for state money for new buildings at Saddleback and Irvine Valley colleges, and worked on the district's 1994-95 budget.
     What's more, Sneed has presented five notebooks of facts and personal observations to his interim successor, Anna McFarlin, president of Irvine Valley College.
     Although many challenges remain, Sneed said he's optimistic about the future of the district, which he believes will continue to grow and someday include a third campus.
He's also confident that administrators will have the energy and political know-how to unite students and faculty in the name of persuading state legislators about the importance of community college education.
     "They just can't let us down," Sneed said about the legislators in charge of allocating money to community colleges. "There's too much at stake. (Education) is such an important investment."
     After seven years as chancellor of the Saddleback Community College District, Sneed, 64, announced last spring he would retire because it was time for a new generation of leaders.
     "Saddleback is a terrific district," Sneed said. "I've enjoyed being here. Even when the times are tough, the job is exciting."
     In typical fashion, Sneed's retirement plans aren't looking much like retirement at all.
     Between traveling and volunteer work, Sneed said, he'll try his hand at fiction writing. He's also considering work as a consultant and may someday return to the classroom. A former priest, Sneed started his career as a scholar of Near East studies and a student of 11 languages.

c. 1965

   "I've always been sort of overcommitted," he joked.
     In his years as an administrator, which has included posts at Rancho Santiago College and Chapman University, Sneed saw the end of free education for community college students. They now pay $13 per unit, or $50 if they already hold a baccalaureate degree.
     Despite the increasingly difficult financial times for all state community college districts, Sneed is credited for leading the two Saddleback campuses, with a combined student population of about 32,000, through a period of rapid growth.
     In the period since Sneed became chancellor in 1986, officials have hired more than 100 full-time professors and added buildings and facilities worth about $50 million to both campuses.
     During his tenure, Irvine Valley College also received full accreditation and the district entered into a partnership with Cal State Fullerton, opening the CSUF-Mission Viejo campus at Saddleback College.
     In the past two years, however, he found himself in the middle of sometimes hostile contract negotiations with the district faculty association. Last year, the Saddleback College Academic Senate took a vote of "no confidence" in the chancellor, citing inadequate communication….

From Sneed New Chancellor of Saddleback District, LA Times, June 20, 1986

     ...Sneed, of Santa Ana, has been with Rancho Santiago Community College District since 1971 and has been its vice chancellor for academic affairs since 1973. Before coming to Rancho Santiago, Sneed was an administrator at Chapman College in Orange. He was president of St. Gregory's College in Shawnee, Okla., from 1964 to 1969.

     Sneed received his doctorate in 1962 from Catholic University of America....

St. Gregory's College

Lyric

See also

• Joan Heuter, SCCD trustee
• Teddy Lorch: a curious career
• Richard Sneed chosen as Chancellor, June 1986
• Teddi Lorch might accept an apology for sticking her head on a pterodactyl

Higher Ed For-Profits: more worrisome factoids

Government Vastly Undercounts Defaults (Chronicle of Higher Education)

     The share of borrowers who default on their student loans is bigger than the federal government's short-term data suggest, with thousands more facing damaged credit histories and millions more tax dollars being lost in the long run.
     According to unpublished data obtained by The Chronicle, one in every five government loans that entered repayment in 1995 has gone into default. The default rate is higher for loans made to students from two-year colleges, and higher still, reaching 40 percent, for those who attended for-profit institutions.. . .
     They also show that the government's official "cohort-default rate," which measures the percentage of borrowers who default in the first two years of repayment and is used to penalize colleges with high rates, downplays the long-term cost of defaults, capturing only a sliver of the loans that eventually lapse.
     While the data obtained by The Chronicle are not directly comparable to the two-year rate, which reports defaults by borrowers rather than loans, they reveal that default rates continue to climb years after borrowers have left college, particularly among students who attended two-year and for-profit colleges.
     For loans made to community-college students, the 15-year default rate is 31 percent. David S. Baime, senior vice president for government relations at the American Association of Community Colleges, called that number "shockingly high."
     "It's really just a tragedy given the consequences of student loan default," he said.
     Borrowers who default on their student loans face significant personal and financial burdens. They become ineligible for additional federal aid and may have their wages and tax refunds seized by the government. Their negative credit records make it harder for them to obtain car loans, mortgages, and credit cards, and even apartments or jobs. When they can get loans, they pay higher interest rates.
     But it's the high rates of default at for-profit institutions that are likely to get the most attention from members of Congress, who have recently raised concerns about the cost and quality of for-profit higher education. Fifteen years into repayment, two out of every five loans made to students who attended two-year for-profit colleges are in default.. . .
     "We have a responsibility to ensure that taxpayer dollars are being spent wisely, and that for-profit colleges are serving students, not just shareholders," said Sen. Tom Harkin, chairman of the Senate committee, in his opening remarks. Shown the 15-year default data for for-profits after the hearing, he appeared taken aback. "Whoa," he said.
     While for-profits educate less than 10 percent of students, those colleges' students received close to a quarter of Pell Grant and federal-student-loan dollars in 2008, according to the College Board. And they accounted for 44 percent of defaults among borrowers who entered repayment in 2007, according to the Institute for College Access and Success, a nonprofit organization that advocates making higher education more affordable. When the government can't collect on those loans, taxpayers pick up the tab.. . .
     …Gail O. Mellow, president of LaGuardia Community College, of the City University of New York, said comparing community colleges with their for-profit counterparts ignores the fact that far fewer community-college students borrow. So while the percentages of defaults may be similar, the number of defaulted loans of former community-college students is smaller.
     Only 10 percent of community-college students took out federal Stafford loans—the most common type of federal education loan—in the 2007-8 academic year, and most borrowed less than $10,000, according to the College Board. At for-profit colleges, 88 percent of students took out Stafford loans, and nearly 20 percent of associate-degree recipients graduated with more than $30,000 in debt. Those borrowing rates reflect the higher cost of attending a for-profit college. In the 2009-10 academic year, the average for-profit institution charged $14,174 in tuition and fees, according to the College Board, and the average community college only $2,544.. . .
     By any measure, for-profit colleges account for a disproportionate share of student-loan defaults. Two years into repayment, 11.9 percent of borrowers who attended for-profit colleges have defaulted on their federal loans, compared with 6.2 percent of those who attended public colleges and 4.1 percent who attended private colleges, according to provisional data that the Education Department released in February. Three years out, for-profit colleges' default rate has nearly doubled, to 21.2 percent of borrowers, and the gap between the sectors has widened….

96 Tears in the Closet

Here’s a tiny SOCCCD “Land o’ Neanderthals” tale:

A few months ago, I caught wind of some kind of 21st Century “Legion of Decency” investigation, requested by a trustee, concerning films (or a film) produced by Saddleback College’s Communication Arts program, which (I have since learned) prides itself on its “hands on” instruction. I waited for something to materialize, but nothing ever seemed to pop up. Dang!

Well, one thing happened, I guess. Several months ago, Trustee Nancy Padberg requested a report on Saddleback’s communication arts/film program. She didn’t explain what she was looking for, as I recall.

Well, I just looked, and the report was in fact provided at the Nov. 17 board meeting. It was listed on the agenda as item 7.1. I checked the super-agenda (a fat pdf file available online) and I went to the page for 7.1. Here’s what I found:

Gosh, no wonder nothing popped up. What kind of “openness” is that? Have you ever tried to get passed the sentries to room 334? They shoulda just put this report inside a black box inside another black box inside a bucket of ATEP ground water!

So I asked around, and somebody told me that the Communication Arts program (or a student in the program) produced some sort of film about a lesbian who had “come out.” The film had received an award at a film festival somewhere.

I did some looking, and I came across a 26-minute (10 minute?) documentary called “88 Years in the Closet,” evidently made by Saddleback College student Peter Shafron. Back in ’07 or ’08, it was submitted to numerous film festivals and was accepted as an entry in many of them, including the International Film Festival on Aging in San Francisco, Toronto’s Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, and the Big Bear International Film Festival, where it won an award.

Here’s the trailer:

Since then (I gather), Shafron and Jane Lehmann-Shafron co-founded a “boutique documentary” business. (See Your Story Here video biographies.) Jane, too, has taken courses (in voice acting, she says) at Saddleback College.

Evidently, the Shafrons’ company has produced other documentaries, including one concerning a Jewish woman in Nazi Germany:

According to the blurb at YouTube, the film concerns Inge Papich:

Inge Papich just wanted to fit in. Growing up in Berlin in the 1930s, she learned the Hitler salute, sang the Nationalist songs and dreamed of joining the Hitler youth. The only problem was, Inge was a Mischling – a kind of Jewish half breed under the Nuremberg Race Laws.

Is it possible that this little documentary about an 88-year-old woman on a freakin' cruise caused the fuss about Saddleback's Communication Arts program? Gosh, I don't see how.

Well, the November board meeting was several weeks ago. As near as I can tell, there’ve been no further developments.

These documentaries do seem interesting, though, don’t they?

What does it all mean?

SEE ALSO:

• Fame follows an O.C. senior who came out of the closet (OC Reg, 3/14/08)
• Film about 88-year-old lesbian honored (OC Reg, 9/15/08)
• 96 Tears (Pumpkin Times, 1966)

"Polyurinated" —January, a year ago

     Regular readers of DtB might be wondering why we’ve posted so little in recent days. Well, the main reason is that I’ve got a bad cold. With luck, in the morning, I’ll be well enough to go to our new chancellor’s “opening session.”
     Maybe not. I still feel like crap.
     I was hoping to write a piece reviewing the events of the past year, as reported by DtB, but I’m not up for that. So I settled for a brief piece about what was going on a year ago (i.e., the month of January 2010).

POWERFUL RIGHT-WING HOMOPHOBES:

Typical Mathurian "keynote speaker": PRI's Lance Izumi

     A year ago, Raghu Mathur was still Chancellor, and the Spring “opening session” featured a presentation about our economic future by one of Mathur’s Republican cronies, Chris Harrington, a VP at Toshiba America Info Systems. That went pretty well. But it irked me that, over the years, so many of these events featured noted Republicans and “business leaders” with close ties to the GOP. At least Harrington wasn’t pushing a right-wing agenda, as was Pacific Research Institute’s Lance Izumi, a foe of public education. [Correction: as an officer of PRI, Izumi undoubtedly is a foe of public education, though he wasn't attacking public education during his visit.]
     Remember those crazy Ugandan politicians who pursued a bill that would permit the execution of “homosexuals”? We wrote about all of that a year ago. Turns out they were brought to their level of focus and enthusiasm re the “homosexual” menace by a series of wacky Americans evengelical Christians, including one Scott Lively, a self-described expert on “curing” homosexuality.
     That name rang a bell, and so I did a little research. Sure enough, Lively is among the religious nuts who’ve been pushing the “homosexual Armageddon” notion. He’s part of a crowd that includes David Llewellyn, who has long been up to his eyeballs in evangelical homophobia.
     Llewellyn, of course, is one of the chief attorneys defending the district (against a crew of “heathens,” to use Nancy Padberg’s term) in the ongoing Westphal v. Wagner “prayer” case.
     Tom Fuentes’ pal Howard Ahmanson, Jr. has been a big contributor to some of Llewellyn’s anti-gay and evangelical efforts. Not long ago, the Ahmansons gave a big chunk of change to Rick Warren (of OC’s own Saddleback Church). Warren is among the evangelicals who has visited Uganda in recent years, giving some Ugandan lawmakers peculiar notions about homosexuality (which Warren has compared to pedophelia).

Saddleback Church's Rick Warren

OUR RIGHT-WING LUNATIC TRADITION:

     A year ago, I did a little looking into the namesake of Saddleback’s strangely fortress-like Utt Library: Congressman James B. Utt. According to an old LA Times article,

James B. Utt … helped Orange County gain a national reputation as a hotbed of archconservatism…. "Utt the Nut," his enemies called him. He was elected to Congress in 1952 and handily won reelection until his death in 1970. Each year Utt introduced a bill to eliminate the federal income tax. He also tried to pass a constitutional amendment which would recognize Jesus Christ as America's authority figure. He opposed all civil rights legislation, but gained national fame, however, when he argued that rock 'n roll was a communist plot.

JOHN WILLIAMS AND LUNCH MEAT:

     We’ve long tried to get Jennifer Muir of the OC Register to take a look at trustee John Williams’ longstanding practice of spending tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars on trips to Orlando and the like. She finally came through with an article.
     She also dug up a curious factoid: “the district has spent $12,184 for catering during the board meetings over the past two and a half years.”

THE PURITAN COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT (more homophobia):

     An item on the January agenda for the SOCCCD meeting of the board included a recommendation that our colleges’ TV channels only broadcast programming—including student film and TV shows—with a PG rating. Evidently, the request had something to do with an earlier incident: trustee Nancy Padberg had noticed a broadcast of an award-winning student documentary about an older woman “coming out” and going on a cruise (“88 Years in the Closet”).
     Evidently, Saddleback College’s Channel 39 has broadcast programming within the less restrictive PG-13 standard, which the student documentary passed. It would not pass the PG standard.
     Naturally, the usual suspects in the affected programs came to the January board meeting to plead their case to leave the broadcast standard where it was—a change would mean that many student projects could not be broadcast. Further, Saddleback’s faculty senate leader, Bob Cosgrove, warned that this sort of censorship/micromanagement might have serious accreditation consequences.
     Nevertheless, the recommendation was pursued. In the end, officials for the relevant programs agreed to voluntarily limit broadcasts now to programming satisfying the PG standard.
     I tried to get readership riled about this, but—nothin’ doin. When the accreds finally arrived, I mentioned this event as an instance of board micromanagement. But I doubt that they heard me.

DID HE RESIGN? OR WAS HE FIRED?

     From the board room on January 25, I reported that “Mathur was out." I quoted the reading of board actions in closed session:

“In the closed session, the board approved an agreement with Dr. Mathur persuant to which Dr. Mathur’s service as the district chancellor shall end on June 30th, 2010, and provides for his retirement from the district effective June 30, 2011.”

     It was pretty obvious that Mathur had been forced out. He no longer had four trustee votes, especially after some fresh infamy (occurring some time earlier) at the expense of Don Wagner.
     But the district sold this thing as a decision by Mathur to retire—to spend more time with his family, etc.
     Naturally, I ignored that blather, and it was pretty clear that journalists, too, knew what was really going on. But the official word was that Mathur had decided to resign.
     Eventually, the always-stupid John Williams inadvertently spilled the beans. For a Register article, he was quoted as saying: “…You work for an elected board and you need a majority of those board members to vote to keep you. In this case, the majority of the board felt they wanted to have a change, so they voted to.”
     Gosh thanks John. You’re an idiot.
     I reported the fact that the district paid ethically-challenged GOP lawyer Phil Greer $25,000 to help Mathur to negotiate his exit. (He got a pretty sweet deal.)
     That’s pretty amazing, if you ask me. But few were amazed. Greer is also John Williams’ lawyer. He was Chriss Street’s lawyer. He's a typical friend o' Fuentes: corrupt, unethical, slimy. Don't it all make you proud?

WILL THE FIX BE IN?

     We ended the month of January with a post that asked: Will the fix be in—again? We were referring, of course, to the search for Mathur’s replacement. Eventually, Don offered strong assurances that the process would be clean. (In the end, despite a huge expense [a professional search firm was hired] and the efforts of a blue-ribbon committee, the board rejected all candidates and instead reached back for Gary Poertner, a safe [and probably excellent] choice.)
     Also at the end of January, I skimmed the cream from a New York Times piece about funny malapropisms and such. The examples mentioned were pretty damned funny. So here it is again:

SEVERAL LARGE BOWELS OF PASTA
     Yesterday, the NYT’s “Schott’s Vocab” zeroed in on malapropisms. Having been raised in an immigrant family, I own a brain that is hard-wired with dozens of malapropistic configuroons. I think I even got some of ‘em through the umbiblical “chord,” though, really, that’s a mute point at this stench in time.
     First, the malapropism upon which much of my parents’ fame rests:

“He died because of a blood cloth.”

     Sometimes, I will look right at them and say, “There is no such thing as a ‘blood cloth.’ You mean a ‘blood clot.’”
     Always, they look right back at me with immediate and utter incredulity.
     Here are some examples offered by Schott’s readers:

HE'S VERY EGOTESTICLE

• Someone I know is a genius at this. She spoke of a woman who had her hair up in a buffoon; saw my new shoes and said, "My, aren't you the fashion plague"; and recently spoke of a man who is very egotesticle.

• my favorite poem is "allergy in a church graveyard".

• My aunt always said, "I can't have anymore children because I've had my utopian tubes tied.”

• My father, noting the first hint of fall in the air, sighed and said: "Soon it will be time to fart stars in the fireplace.” [This seems to be something of a Spoonerism.]

• A busy woman: "Sometimes I get so stressed out I have to go to my room and decompose for an hour."

YOU DRIVE MY NUTS!

• A co-worker's little son announced that "you drive my nuts!" My daughter once wrote that our cat Butter Boy jumped on Frenzy when she was "least expectant." My grandfather deliberately invented examples like astosbestos for asbestos and nutneg for nutmeg. Another relative admired the singing of Ethel Murmur and the talents of Shirley Dimple. This becomes a way of life. It's dangerous to be exposed to it when young! [God, this sounds like my upbringing. Pretty whackitudinal!]

• i cannot decide which music i like better, R&B or flip flop

• "lead us snots into temptation...."

• My grandmother was famous for her malaprops; when asked if she would like to take a flight in her friend's new airplane, she gasped "Absolutely not, I like it right here on Terra Cotta";

• At a restaurant: Clams on the half shelf and a cup of chino.

• ". . . government takeover and mandation of healthcare . . ." --Sarah Palin

• Here are selected favorites from my wife:
1. This is the tip of the ice cube.
2. Security in schools has been tighter since 7-11.
3. The right foot doesn't know what the left foot is doing.
4. The swine flu has reached the pandemonium stage.

LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TURTLE

• At work, our team had been working on a project that had been progressing at snail’s pace with no end remotely in sight. One day, we had a breakthrough, and one of my colleagues excitedly announced at our weekly meeting, “There’s light at the end of the turtle.”

• Our church secretary always refers to the annual report to the denomination as the Sadistical Report.

• A friend with a medical condition consulted a doctor at "Cedars Cyanide"

• "I am impressed by the enormity of the universe."

• I've been tracking these at work:
Someone who is frustrated: "I've been pulling my head out over this one!"
Working through a problem: "I'm just talking out loud here."
Suggesting something: "I don't mean to speak out of tongue, but..."
Rehashing: "I feel like I'm beating this with a dead horse."
Feeling a little disoriented: "At this point, we're running by the fly of our pants."
Is in a bad mood: "He's got a craw up his butt."

• "This is a bare-bones specification, let's flush out the details later".

• After a staff party at which pasta was served, we were reminded that several large bowels of pasta were left over in the refrigerator. None of us went near the fridge as a result.

HAD HIS KITCHEN FLOOR POLYURINATED

• A few years back my father, who is now nearing one hundred, proudly announced that he had recently had his kitchen floor polyurinated.

• The late Bruce King, governor of New Mexico for many years, was famous for having said of a legislative proposal that it would "open a whole box of Pandoras."

• One of my son's college roommates, an ROTC cadet, dropped out of the program just as the Iraq war was starting. "This is not a good time," he opined, "to be thinking about joining the Army corpse."

• "Be sure and put some of those neutrons on it." –While ordering a salad.

COULDA KNOCKED ME OVER WITH A FENDER

• "You could have knocked me over with a fender."

• "We cannot let terrorists and rogue nations hold this country hostile or hold our allies hostile." –George W. Bush

• Explaining lethal injection: "First, they give 'em a needle to seduce 'em; then they give the legal injection"

• Friend referring to his relationship with his wife, "...like two ships that go bump in the night."

• "Those kids were able to Flea-Bargain their way to a lesser punishment."

P.S.: My ex and I, having had more than our share of exposure to my nutty family, have always enjoyed, and have been inspired by, endless malapropoidal Bauerific incorrectitude. To this day, when I speak with her, she'll note the "flaw in the ointment" or how the night is as "dark as a bat."

And then we'll just laugh like hell.

Crony Boy to terrorize Nepotism Boy; Puritan Gal nixes PG-13 kids; Brown Boy spills beans; Spanky GOPs on the meeting

THE OL' NEPOTISM GAMBIT. I forgot to mention that, at Monday’s board meeting, trustee Tom Fuentes requested a report on “nepotism” in the district. It’s been a few years, he said, since the last report, so it’s time for another one.

A cynical person (it is impossible not to be cynical upon observing Mr. Fuentes for any period) might guess that something else explains the timing of this request. There are two opposing factions in the district (well, these are the two that I know about, and they're pretty obvious): Fuentes/Mathur, et al. v. Wagner/Roquemore/Gabriella, et al. Anyone who watched last month’s board meeting knows that the tension between these factions has, in the last two months, reached its apogee. On that night, Mr. Wagner, the board president, engineered (well, he presided over) a stunning power shift. After it was complete, he remained President of the board; Padberg was vice president, and Milchiker was Clerk. Lang, Williams, and Fuentes were eating Wagner's dust.

Fuentes was furious. Later in the meeting, he flashed some anger, leaving a thick layer of sulphur on the walls.

Glenn Roquemore is Wagner’s boy. And Glenn wants to be the next Chancellor. That’s pretty obvious. Wagner will have to work to get his ducks in a row if he wants to land Glenn's butt in Mathur’s $1100 Buttmaster® chair.

If he wants that. Dunno. Just guessing.

Of course, a decent board would push forward with a Chancellor search that is open, honest, fair, and cautious. With Mathur’s exit, a manifestly honest search for an excellent chancellor would symbolize a sea change, the beginning of a new era for the district and its colleges. The board would look wise and good.

Do you suppose the trustees understand this? Do YOU understand this?

(Sometimes I feel like I'm wasting my time on this blog. Yeah.)

Well, it’s hard to deny that any report on nepotism is going to make Glenn look bad. Glenn's wife is a member of the faculty who doesn't mind throwing her weight around here and there. And so Tom asked for a report. It’s like losing a baseball game and then pouring sugar in the opponents’ gas tanks. It doesn’t do any good. It’s just a mean and ugly thing to do.

Even if the team does deserve that nasty sucrose STP treatment.

PURITAN BROADCASTING COMPANY. I’ve been thinking about the fate of agenda item 6.1—at Monday night’s board meeting. The Chancellor recommended that (1) our two colleges’ TV stations broadcast only programs that satisfy the highly-restrictive PG standard (Saddleback’s Channel 39 has traditionally broadcast programs, including student projects, that satisfy the less-restrictive PG-13 standard). (2) He also recommended a review of membership of the Film Program Advisory Committee for the purpose of broadening representation.

Recommendation 2 wasn’t controversial. Recommendation 1 was. Trustees Lang, Milchiker and Williams opposed it. Nancy Padberg, who initiated a late-‘09 investigation of the Communications program owing to a documentary it broadcast called “88 Years in the Closet,” and Wagner supported it. Fuentes seemed to support it as well.

Jay expressed no view. But he usually votes with Milchiker.

Lang (and others, e.g., Saddleback Academic Senate Prez Bob Cosgrove) warned ominously of accreditation consequences, should item 6.1 pass. And so Padberg suggested “tabling” recommendation 1. Recommendation 2 passed, but the discussion ended with an understanding that Communications would self-impose the PG standard. Padberg made clear that she’d keep an eye on Channel 39 and its programming.

So, though the contentious part of 6.1 was tabled, essentially, Padberg got what she wanted. Lang suggested that the PG change smacked of “censorship,” and I’d have to agree.

As near as I can tell, the status quo is that Saddleback College’s Channel 39 and Irvine Valley College’s Channel 33 must now restrict broadcasts to PG productions. If they don’t there will be hell to pay. Fierce Padbergian hell. No one wants that.

This, I think, is very bad. According to some of the speakers on Monday night, the new broadcast restriction will diminish Saddleback’s celebrated program. Unfortunately, no one really elaborated on that point. I do wish they had.

I have suggested to IVC’s Academic Senate Cabinet that they consider agendizing discussion of the situation. (For all I know, Saddleback College's Academic Senate is already all over this. On Monday night, Bob certainly was.) We’ll see what happens.

REPUBLICANS BEFORE TRUSTEES. On Monday night, Board President Don Wagner mentioned two recent deaths. One was the passing of a local Republican—the husband of an OC fair board member—who died in December. Ron Young.

Perhaps I am mistaken, but Young seemed to have no connection to the district. He seemed to be, well, a Republican. And Wagner is a Republican. So there you go.

As you know, former trustee Joan Hueter—whom Wagner replaced in 1998—died last week. She is remembered by all as an unfailingly decent person. (See recent video.)

Near the start of Monday’s meeting, Don declared that it would be adjourned "in honor of" both Young and Hueter. (See video.)

Young might have been a great guy. But that dedication doesn’t make any sense to me.

WILLIAMS: BEAN SPILLAGE. As you know, John Williams is not the brightest bulb on the tree. Leave it to John to foul up “the spin” that the district is trying to put on Mathur’s terminatitude.

In his silly email, Mathur explained the situation: he had spoken with his family and they all decided that he should move on to further “professional challenges.” That is, he resigned. Voluntarily.

Wagner denied that Mathur was fired. (See.)
But in Tuesday's Register article, Brown Boy states: “…You work for an elected board and you need a majority of those board members to vote to keep you. In this case, the majority of the board felt they wanted to have a change, so they voted to.”

You mean the board voted Mathur gone? But then what's all this stuff about voluntary resignation?

(At his day job, Williams processes unclaimed corpses and their money.)

Did you notice? Evidently, Mathur lost retreat rights too!

They really want him gone.

From The conservative board majority

The Ray Bradbury event at Irvine Valley College

Some could barely contain their excitement, knowing that they would soon be talking to the author of Fahrenheit 451, Martian Chronicles, and so much more.

"Jesus Christ!" So said the beloved writer each time he got excited tonight. (I do believe he even said "goddamit" once.)

He told stories about famous directors (Federico Fellini, John Huston), writers (Aldous Huxley, Christopher Isherwood), special effects guys (Ray Harryhausen), and I don't know who all.

He told of going to Ireland with John Huston to write a screenplay of Moby-Dick. "I am Herman Melville," he told the director toward the end of the project.

Bradbury, who is 88 years old, spoke of love. He is, he told us, "the world's greatest lover." His loves—books, libraries, movies, people, etc.—have always yielded something beyond themselves, he insists.

"Do what you love and love what you do," he announced.

Annie tells me she was mightily inspired by the fellow.

"Yeah? What are you inspired to do?"

People stood in long lines to get their picture taken with Mr. Bradbury. He's a generous guy.

Annie took this pic of the outside of the Performing Arts Center.

Here's Wendy with her daughter and the latter's boyfriend. I hadn't seen Gabby for years. She's a Bradbury fan, it seems.

So, too, are Julie and Keith, who were lookin' mighty happy. And why not?

Annie managed to take this picture of herself. The earrings are "from the 40s," she told me.

Well, it was a big success. A good time was had by all, I think. (Not that I had much to do with it.)

Video of Monday's board meeting

1. A brief announcement about recent losses (Joan Hueter)

2. 1:50 Marcia reads out board actions in closed session (Mathur is canned)

3. Students, et al., come to defend Saddleback College's Communications/Film program and Channel 39's practice of broadcasting student projects à la PG-13. Nancy wants PG.

4. 7:20 Trustee Lang sees censorship. Nancy is miffed.

5. I oughta get flex credit.

I'm told that this whole sorry chapter started when Nancy encountered a documentary, produced through SC Communications, entitled, "88 Years in the Closet." You know: lesbians. (Good God!) See the trailer below:

THE “HOWARD HILTON”

From Dissent 65, September 30, 2001

[Raghu Mathur has a remarkable record as an employer and promoter of very special administrators. Rodney Poindexter is a real standout in this regard (see ARCHIVES: “Mathur vs. Women”, 9/05). Another is Howard Gensler, who was appointed interim or temporary dean some years ago, but Raghu liked him, so he was eventually named permanent dean (of PE/Fine Arts/Humanities!). But, not long after some negative press concerning a project of his and Raghu's that is commonly referred to as the "Howard Hilton," the fellow left that position in a cloud of dense smoke and quizzical expressions.

Ultimately, Howard popped up again as a full-time Econ instructor at Saddleback College, sans the usual search and hire process. He is now fully tenured.

The following piece from a September 2001 Dissent tells some of the Gensler story at IVC. Please note that, at one point, Rod Poindexter was chosen by ASIVC as "administrator of the year." (The ASIVC president at the time was a noted Mathurian.)

We figured we would complete the picture by offering Howard the same title.]

DISSENT’S “ADMINISTRATOR OF THE YEAR,” HOWARD GENSLER

Howard Gensler, Dissent’s “Administrator of the Year,” first entered our lives in 1989, when he was hired as an adjunct. Now, he’s a Dean at IVC, and he’s made quite a splash!

Dean Gensler’s background is fascinating. In the late 70s, he received five Bachelor’s degrees, and soon thereafter, at UCB, he received a law degree. By 1983, he was teaching tax and law at Northrop University, where he assisted Dean Carl Sederholm.

In 1984, he succeeded Sederholm, becoming Dean of Northrop’s School of Law (see Times, 1/26/85). As such, Howard was the Chief Academic Officer of the Graduate Tax Program.

As if that weren’t enough, he then published an epic poem, The Avenger of Blood. [Note: you’ve really got to get a copy of this book. It is quite special.]

Northrop University:

Northrop U sure is an interesting place. Founded in 1942 by the well-known aeronautics firm as a school for airplane mechanics, Northrop later expanded into “computer science, business and law studies” (L.A. Times). In August of 1979, it became the site of the Institute for Historical Review’s first international Holocaust “revisionist” conference.

In 1986, Northrop began a master’s program in international business and taxation. Alas, the program ran into difficulty. According to the Times (9/12/89),

Northrop University…should lose its accreditation because of ethical violations in recruiting foreign students, awarding credits and bookkeeping practices involving millions of dollars, the agency that monitors California colleges announced Monday…The rare action by the Western Assn. of Schools and Colleges stems from complaints about Northrop’s master’s of science program in international business and taxation, which enrolls many students from Asia. But the problems have “substantially affected the infrastructure of the university in nearly every aspect,” according to a WASC official…The agency recently voted to strip the school of its accreditation beginning in November…According to [the WASC official], Northrop operated part of the master’s in international business program in Taiwan without WASC approval. An investigation also showed “substantial irregularities” in how the school admitted foreign students, processed immigration documents, graded student performances and awarded credits, he said…[He] also said millions of dollars in tuition are unaccounted for or improperly accounted for. “We are entirely unsure of the magnitude,” he said…

Soon, Northrop’s long time president, B.J. Shell, unexpectedly retired; he was replaced by John Beljan, who was “given authority to take any measures necessary to guide the institution out of its financial troubles” (Times).

Northrop appealed WASC’s adverse Accreditation decision; still, the school has dwindled, and it is now the tiny Northrop Rice Aviation Institute of Technology.

Howard’s “extraordinarily unusual” legal victory:

Howard left Northrop U in 1987, whereupon he worked for the IRS, but only briefly. In 1988, Howard ran for a seat on the Costa Mesa City Council, though he was later forced to withdraw from the race, owing, evidently, to his failure to register to vote (see OC Register, 10/6/88).

Starting in 1988, Howard practiced law. In 1990, he represented a UCI math professor who accused the university of “punishing him for failing to publish enough scholarly articles” (see OC Register, 4/20/90). Not long after, he represented another UCI math instructor, Paul McGill, who sued because he had been denied tenure. Eventually, McGill prevailed. According to the Times (7/23/93), a judge “ordered UC Irvine to rehire” McGill. Said Howard, “This is an extraordinarily unusual and unique situation…The university is given remarkable latitude in terms of giving tenure; it’s a really hard area to win.”

Howard’s Cato years:

Howard, always the busy bee, received his doctorate in Economics in 1993. Then, according to the Laser Beam, during the mid-90s, Howard “taught for three years at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology,” where he was a lecturer in Accounting.

During this period, Howard published at least 2 articles for the Cato Institute, a conservative/libertarian think tank that opposes government regulation and welfare. In one article entitled “The Effect of Race and Sex on Welfare Benefits” (Vol. 15 No. 2-3), Howard argued:

At the national level…disparities exist in the allocation of welfare. Black single female-headed households received $756 more welfare per year than similarly situated non-black families…At the state level for single female-headed households, 15 states gave blacks an average of $1,569 more welfare per year…The analysis…indicates that fundamental problems of equity in either access or assessment persist in the income maintenance system….

Gee willikers! In another Cato article, entitled “The Effect of Welfare on High School Graduation” (Vol. 16, no. 2), Howard offered a fascinating study of welfare mothers:

The hypothesis that higher welfare levels adversely impact high school graduation rates is confirmed with a high degree of statistical precision…Increases in the welfare system do not promote accumulation of human capital…[T]he basic negative relationship between welfare and education must be understood before effective public policies concerning welfare, education, and poverty can be formulated.

Meanwhile, Howard found time to edit a book entitled The American Welfare System, which remains in print.

Another deanship for Howard:

In 1999, Howard became the interim dean of Humanities and Languages, replacing Richard Prystowsky, who had resigned after brief service. (Prystowsky had succeeded Dan Rivas, who also resigned after brief service. [As I recall, Dan resigned in part because then-President Mathur was instructing him to include negative remarks in the evaluations of those faculty who had been critical of him and the board—remarks that Dan regarded as unwarranted and unjustified.]

In 2000, owing to President Mathur’s staunch support, Howard was appointed permanent Dean of Humanities and Library Services (and, later, of Fine Arts). The details of the appointment evidently raised concerns about “process”:

Three administrative appointments were approved in closed session on Monday…Howard Gensler was appointed dean of humanities and library services at Irvine Valley…[The other appointees] were appointed with unanimous votes, but Gensler was appointed on a split vote of 4-3, with trustees Lang, Marcia Milchiker and Don Wagner dissenting…“I personally haven’t heard anything negative about the guy himself, but there were questions raised about process that I didn’t get fully answered,” said Wagner. (Irvine World News, 6/22/00)

Process problems notwithstanding, then-president Mathur exclaimed that Howard was his “first choice.”

Howard and Raghu’s “top secret plan”:

About a year ago, faculty began hearing about a massive project that would provide facilities for Fine Arts (and fish). The word was that Howard was developing the project with the blessing and encouragement of his mentor, president (now chancellor) Mathur.

Howard eventually provided Chancellor Mathur with a “report” concerning the project on May 23, 2002. According to my sources, then, in early June, Howard and Raghu met with three Board Majoritarians, including Wagner, to discuss the project. (Ask Dot.)

That’s about when the L.A. Times caught wind of it. On June 15, the Times reported

Irvine Valley College officials are quietly trying to find investors for a private hotel, entertainment and office complex on campus that could cost as much as $800 million, officials confirmed this week…As described in recent meetings among campus officials, the project would include a hotel, a multistory parking structure, two 2,000-seat theaters, office buildings, a sound stage and a lake, replacing orange groves and an athletic field at the southern end of campus…The scope of the privately funded, for-profit project—whose cost estimates nearly double Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles—is believed to be unprecedented, not only for a community college, but for any public university in the state…The cost would be enough to build two community colleges, said Kirsten McIntyre, spokeswoman for the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, which was unaware of the proposal…The project is a long way from reality and would have to be approved by trustees for the South Orange County Community College District, which includes Irvine Valley and Saddleback colleges. [My emphases.]

According to the Times, some college employees had doubts about the project: “they don’t understand how the two-year college benefits from such a deal. ‘It would be a commercial enterprise that would not be a benefit to our students,’ said Jan Wyma, Irvine Valley’s choral director.”

The Times reported that Dean Gensler was the man behind the plan and that Mathur was aware of it. Glenn Roquemore, president of IVC, however, said that he hadn’t yet received a proposal.

The scope of the Gensler/Mathur venture was truly stunning:

The proposal has changed over the months, but the basic plan calls for construction on 25 to 35 acres…Several sources said Gensler was pitching the deal to investors as a 99-year lease, and that it would include a Hilton or Hyatt hotel with conference center facilities, restaurants, a four- or five-story parking structure, an office building of several stories, the theaters, an art museum, an observatory and a building with sound stages for TV and film…Also contemplated are a movie complex and soccer stadium.

Massive unbeknownstitude:

City officials were miffed about all of this secret planning. The Times quoted an Irvine official who said: “Any construction not associated with the college’s educational mission must be approved by Irvine.” Nevertheless, “she had not heard of the proposal.”

Three days later, the Register weighed in with a story that presented Howard’s project—now described as involving a paltry $463 million—in a less sympathetic light:

Board members interviewed said they were surprised at the planning that has gone into Gensler’s vision and that they should have been informed about it earlier…“Apparently this was really being pursued by just a few people unbeknownst to other members of the board,” said trustee Dave Lang…One instructor described the project as “absurd” in that it “flies in the face of the college’s long-term planning.”

During the Board Meeting of June 24th, trustees decided to pull the plug on the whole business:

Irvine Valley College trustees got their first official look Monday night at a controversial proposal to develop a $463 million entertainment complex on campus–and decided they wanted no part of it… “The feeling was that the proposal that came to us did not sufficiently meet the needs of the college and the students,” said board president Don Wagner, who said trustees first learned of the project in the press…“It came to us as a take-it-or-leave-it proposal, and we are going to leave it.”…. (OC Register, June 25, 2002; my emphasis)

On the 25th, the Times quoted Dorothy “Dot” Fortune, who carped that the Gensler/Mathur project would give “away half the land at IVC.”

Howard, however, defended his project; it would, he said, make IVC “one of the most important cultural centers in Southern California.”

Nonagenarian takes plan elsewhere:

The Times eventually reported the proposed project’s builder:

The complex was to be built by the Newport Financial Group of Newport Beach. One company figure is Charles Ross, 91, of Laguna Woods, who proposed a similar project at UC Riverside, without success, Fortune said…Ross said Monday he would not discuss the plan, but that if the district turned it down, he would take it elsewhere.

In an article for the Irvine World News on the 27th, Wagner is again reported as saying that “trustees first learned of the project after the top secret plan was leaked to the press.” Well, no, according to my sources, he and two other Board Majoritarians heard about the “top secret plan” two weeks before the Times report. C’mon Don!

Some newspaper articles claimed that, on campus, the project was called “the Howard Hilton.” In truth, it had been dubbed “Howie World” by the Chevy Chase fans who have always dominated IVC.

“One has to wonder…”

On the 30th, Times editorial writers offered a harshly critical perspective on “the Howard Hilton”:

Irvine Valley College’s mission statement…[says that the] college exists to provide quality education for students…The document doesn’t say anything about leasing a huge chunk of the campus to a private developer for a $500 million entertainment and office complex…That’s why people were caught off-guard earlier this month when word surfaced that an IVC dean had been meeting with a developer who wanted to build a massive, for-profit venture. The trustees of the SOCCCD are to be commended for putting the educational purpose of the district first by rejecting the plan last week before it could gather more momentum…The proposal was out of sync with the city of Irvine’s general plan and existing zoning. The city envisioned the orange groves…as one day hosting recreational facilities and college-related construction—not hotels, parking garages and a Hollywood production lot. City officials hadn’t had a chance to review the proposal, and from what it suggested, many of the plan’s elements also clashed with zoning in the area…The proposal also was at odds with IVC’s own planning process. Community colleges are required to create a master plan that describe how they intend to grow. There’s nothing in IVC’s long-range planning that was even remotely close to the proposal that was submitted to the board by Howard Gensler…College deans have a lot of clout, but one has to wonder how this kind of major campus land-use negotiation got to the stage it did. It probably should have been handled in the first place at a higher level of administration….

Hey, yeah! Then, on July 9, IVC issued an odd little press release. It announced plans to construct a modest “Performing Arts Building”:

Irvine Valley College submitted plans to the state…for the construction of a 400-seat Performing Arts Building… The…Building has been long in development as part of Irvine Valley’s Educational and Facilities Master Plan to unify campus services and to meet a growing demand by students and the community. The Educational and Facilities Master Plan and, in particular, the Performing Arts Building, is wholly separate from a recent $450 million proposal made by Irvine Valley Humanities Dean, Howard Gensler, who worked with a private investor to develop a possible alternative campus building project…

We at Dissent feel just awful about the unceremonious kiboshery of the “Howard Hilton.” I, for one, was really lookin’ forward to floatin’ around on that lake.

Well, at least we can name Howard our “Administrator of the Year”!

Congratulations Howard!