Dot's anti-Dissent: “It’s insulting. It’s banal”

Purported author/editor
of anti-Dissent newsletters

12/16/1999 LA TIMES

Newsletters lampoon college faculty, officials

They satirize relations between professors and community college district.

By RENEE MOILANEN

   MISSION VIEJO—Two mysterious newsletters with “insulting” references to certain faculty leaders appeared in Saddleback College staff mailboxes in the last few weeks, an apparent response to satirical newsletters [Dissent and 'Vine] published by an Irvine Valley College professor…Both newsletters were anonymous…[Saddleback Academic Senate President Anne] Cox said she received the first newsletter a few weeks ago. s she said, adding that it characterizes exactly the problems between the district and college faculties.

   “Ugly, vicious personal attacks flourish and are encouraged by the leadership in the district,” she said….

   [Bob] Cosgrove, a self-described “outspoken critic” of the board, called the newsletters “juvenile.”

   “They’re unsigned, which tells the people are gutless,” he said.

   Chancellor Cedric Sampson said he’d seen only one of the newsletters.

   “There are points and counterpoints to faculty opinion. I don’t think that’s unusual,” he said.

Dissent 39
December 13, 1999

Saddleback’s Nameless Newsletter

by Chunk Wheeler [Roy Bauer]

     The Dissent/’Vine has evidently inspired one or two anonymous “response” publications, which have appeared of late in some faculty mailboxes. The first of these nameless documents surfaced, mostly at Saddleback College, around the time of the last Accrediting team visit. Here are some “highlights” from that initial publication:

•    Saddleback College Academic senate president Anne Cox is described as “the queen of 80’s hair.” Evidently referring to physical attractiveness, the Nameless Newsletter (NN) opines, apparently without irony, that Cox is “no competition for the President of the Board.” The latter —viz., Dorothy Fortune—is described as “a snappy dresser [who] looks great on TV.”
•    Inexplicably, IVC Anthropology instructor Wendy Phillips, who has twice defeated the district in court, is referred to as a “slut.” The “State Supreme Court [?],” insists the NN, “said” that one may publish such remarks with impunity.
•   The Dissent’s own “Rebel Girl,” referred to as “Rebel Post Menopausal Girl,” is described as having “bad hair.” How odd. In fact, Rebel Girl is decidedly Pre-Menopausal, although I’m no expert. She certainly doesn’t have bad hair. Who does NN think Rebel Girl is?
•   One well-known critic of the Board Majority and the union Old Guard is named and then described as “shaped like a pear.” Inexplicably, his wife is advised to get him some “Viagra.”
•   Classified employee Linda Davies is called a “buttinsky,” having been identified as the “actual compiler” of the Dissent/’Vine. Odd. Linda has never had anything whatsoever to do with the Dissent/’Vine.
•   Roy Bauer, says the NN, “has gone flaccid and neglects his personal appearance.” Again, this is quite odd. Since June, Bauer has lost over 35 pounds.
•   In a section entitled “Most Recent Books They’ve Read,” Anne Cox is said to have just read the book “A Bitch Like Me.”

            —Well, if you like all this talk about sluts and bitches and post-menopausal bad-haired buttinskies, Saddleback’s Nameless Newsletter is the publication for you.

            About a week ago, another unnamed and anonymous publication appeared, again mostly in Saddleback College mailboxes. Its format and crudity suggest that it was published by the same anonymous scribblers who gave us Nameless Newsletter, Volume 1.

Volume 2 comprises a single article—a fantasy “narrated,” from the year 2020, by one “Rip Van Soc.” The piece seeks to ridicule the usual suspects—Bauer, Phillips, Cox, Cosgrove, et alia. In general, we at the Dissent/’Vine are disposed to encourage and applaud competition. Unfortunately, like its predecessor, NN Volume 2 is burdened, not only by very bad writing, but also by confusion and error and a reliance on ad hominems.

The “Rip Van Soc” piece ends with these nifty lines: “I had a rewarding career from which I had retired sometime early in the 21st century, and retired into a state of physical land [sic] emotional comfort. Sometimes we just need to be reminded how good we have it.” --I’m guessing that Dot Fortune is our mystery writer. What’s your guess?