I took a snap of the Irvine Ranch Water District pumping facility across the street from IVC. It's where the IRWD is trying to deal with the military-caused volatile organic compound contamination in the groundwater maybe 1000 feet beneath the campus. I believe that, these days, IRWD is trying to push the plume of toxicity eastward, away from the aquifer that supplies, or that will supply, drinking water.
Eventually, the site will house a purification plant. They've been pretty busy over there lately, so maybe it's already there. (See The Irvine "Desalter" Project)
Did you read Saturday's OC Register article about PCB-laden fish found in OC water bodies? Not good. It's amazing what we put up with. Or what we try not to know.
I tell my students, "There's groundwater beneath us, you know. It's contaminated with toxic chemicals. They're trying to clean it up. It'll take decades."
Students stare. Their faces say: "No, that can't be true. We've never heard that. That's false.
Why do you hate America?"
At about 11:00, someone told me that there was some hubbub in the parking lot out toward the bookstore. Someone said they heard an ambulance. Something serious was happening.
I stayed put. I had lots to do. Stuff happens. Staring at it won't help.
Earlier, a friend insisted that, on my way to my 12:30 class, I stop by her classroom in A300 to take pictures of the trash that seems to persist there. On the way to the room, I noticed more hubbub over in the parking lot. I didn't ask anyone what it was about. Someone was hurt, I guessed. The usual suspects were out there. They seemed to have things well in hand. I saw a cop tramping through a planter. I saw yellow tape.
Sure enough, the friend's room was pretty messy. I took these snaps.
I told the friend that the room looked pretty bad, but I'd seen worse. At IVC, there's nothing special about trash on the floor, spilling from baskets. The floor is scuffed. Dust collects. Grime forms. Instructors and deans complain. Nothing happens. Or things happen only when they complain.
Ten years ago, the campus was clean. Things worked.
Then, thanks to corrupt unionists and trustees, Mathur became President. Everything got F-ed up. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. One hand washes the other. Disloyalty will not be tolerated. I'm not going anywhere. Hey, now I'm the Chancellor!
I headed to my classroom, in A400, and, when I entered it, I realized that, trash-wise, it was worse than my friend's. I walked around the room, inspecting the elements of trashulosity.
I guess you get used to it. I said that. Students stared at me.
After class, I headed over to A100 for a meeting, but I realized that it wouldn't start for another ten minutes. So I asked Ms. C about the hubbub. She said that a student was found dead in his car. She didn't seem to know any details. "Maybe an overdose," she said.
After a moment, I said, "That's sad." Silence.
The meeting was odd. We were organizing a holiday party. At one point, I opined that a certain activity that had been planned was, well, undignified. Some regarded me with incomprehension. "Explain that."
I went back to my office.
Eventually, we received an email from IVC President Glenn Roquemore. It explained that a student was found dead in his car, by his father, at about 11:00 a.m. The father had tried unsuccessfully to reach his son by phone. So he came to campus, looking for him.
"There is no evidence of violence or foul play," wrote Glenn. The kid was 21.
A friend dropped by. "This is a bad semester," she said.
At about 5:00, I hooked up with Rebel Girl, and we headed to the parking lot, headed home. Someone told us that we oughta check out B101, if we want to see trash. We dropped by there, and we peered inside. It looked trashy, but not very.
Out at the parking lot, we walked the walk of people who had had a long and strange day.
Someone accosted us. We turned around.
"Thanks, you guys," she said, from a distance.
We spun around.
(See also
● Huntington Beach toxic dump fiasco in this morning's OC Reg
● Are College Students Techno-Idiots? in Inside Higher Ed.)
23 comments:
Don't you wonder if that father tried to call the college and ask someone to go to his son's classroom. No one is in charge anywhere, not just stupid IVC. People have to pack their own crisis kit, go looking for their own dead son. The strangeness and alienation is chilling.
The only way the classrooms are going to get clean is, if the cleaning crew is put back on graveyard?
CHUNK, all the complaints about the dirty classrooms should be directed via e-mail towards GLENN, you know what happens when they get sent to WAYNE, nothing, nada, not a thing. GLENN is living in ALICE and wonderland?
I think Wayne is blowing smoke up Glenn's "you know what"
Tell us more about the undignified activity. A wet t shirt contest, for wxample?
I.V.C. WAS VOTED NUMBER 1 IN THE WORLD-THE FILTIEST COLLEGE IN THE WORLD?
anonymous 9:49 is that why Glenn hired Wayne, because Wayne came from fantasyland lol
I tell my students, "There's groundwater beneath us, you know. It's contaminated with toxic chemicals. They're trying to clean it up. It'll take decades."
Students stare. Their faces say: "No, that can't be true. We've never heard that. That's false.
Why do you hate America?"
This is the kind of conversation I find particularly depressing.
But anyway, this entry is particularly classic ... "This is a bad semester" and "Long, strange day" ... I am selfishly glad, however, to find that my campus is not the only surrealistic one.
Here's something to cheer you up:
a graduate student in our program had to be told that after a period, you put a space.
Chunk,
Should we feel just a little bit less safe that young people die in our parking lots without being observed? My sorrow extends to his family--but why wasn't he found sooner? Might any of us be similarly ignored by our campus "security"? First Bush's policies unnerve us, and now our own campus' response. Or lack of response. This IS a strange time!
it has nothing to do with shift assignment, ginga. the only way you will see clean is to outsource your custodial functions. union mediocrity cares little about clean.
you are indeed clueless 2:07
classrooms are dirty because
leadership SUCKS! F&M now has a director & supervisor. What do they do all day? All these workers lost pride in their work. Why? Leadership is a joke. Change that and problem solved!
The problem with the class rooms being dirty is that Wayne doesnt know what works during the day. He continues to move his day custodians around. First he has them work in crews and the custodians get e-mails saying good job, then he breaks them up and haves them work by them selves. When Robert and Ruben worked in the A-Quad as a team in the day time along with the team at night the area was looking good during the day. I seen Robert and Ruben cleaning windows around the buildings and detailing the bathrooms but when Wayne decided that Ruben's morale went down and he was easily influenced he then had plans to seperate them two. Wayne has switched the day crew around more than five times. Their is a saying ( why fix it if it aint broke)Its Waynes pride and retaliation that has created a mess at IVC. Wayne is occupying most of his time retaliating on the custodians and trying to seperate them instead of letting them work together and getting the job done.
5:28 we all know thats you WAYNE, why don't you say these is me WAYNE, and try to sound more intellegent, next time
do what i do. kiss his ass and he treats you nice.
If the instructors and students would take a little more pride in there campus, this place wouldn't be such a mess. The students are the ones making the mess. If the instructors would not allow food and drinks in the classrooms, there wouldn't be a mess.
Well the children are pigs, so thats why we are here to clean up after them, it would be nice if we had management that trusted his employees to do their job, micromanage us to death by a control freak, what a shame that the campus is now a pit, thanks to WW.
Well how do you expect the safety guy to pay attention to what is going on or should I say doing his job since he is on his cell phone 8 hours a day running his side business.
Hope nothing really bad happens on this campus and we need real police.
Bigger trashcans in the classroom, maybe? I can pick some up at Home Depot on the way in...shall I save my receipts?
stop flapping your lips and just do your job, 8:23. just do your friggin job!
I know the custodians work hard. If management would let the workers do there job, IVC would be alot cleaner. The custodians haul away approximately 6 or 7 trash containers full each day. They also do set ups for events, clean bathrooms, vacuum, dust, sweep floors, and several other tasks. There should be at least 18 custodians but there is only 12.If the food and drinks were kept outside the classrooms, the classrooms would stay alot cleaner.
One still wonders about the tragedy in the parking lot on Tuesday morning.
Because no cause of death has been announced yet, speculation runs rampant in and out of the classroom.
Did you know that the car was still there on Wednesday morning, parked there, uncovered for all to see?
What people really want to know is how long that poor boy sat there, waiting for his father to find him, the windows of his car rolled down on a rainy morning.
ask the board: where were the night patrols of the parking lot? the morning shift?
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