Well, we're rapidly approaching the BOARD's December organizational meeting, when the trustees elect their officers.
Who will be elected board president? That's an important question. The president is powerful, in part owing to his influence on the agenda.
If memory serves, each board member--except Bill Jay and Tom Fuentes--has served as president. I have no idea if either man is interested in the job.
But if Fuentes wants it, it is difficult to see how he could fail to get it. He has more seniority than Jay, and it is doubtful that even relatively enlightened trustees would maneuver to block his ascension.
A Fuentes board presidency could be a big problem. Fuentes, you'll recall, is the fellow who once asserted, on TV, that faculty have a 36-hour work week and that, on average, they make $100K per year. (TV interview.) Clearly, he views the CTA (of which our own Faculty Association is a chapter) as the Great Satan of California politics and of everything that is right and good. (See Fuentes World.)
Plus he's flat evil. He's the kind of guy who'll give you the stink eye--or, worse, the stink smile. He'll have one of his pals take and monitor one of your classes. He'll leave burning sacks of sh*t on your doorstep and place guards on all your polls.
He'll even call you a "whore." (See Kill it & grill it.)
Plus he's got lots of connections with Howard Ahmanson and the folks who seek to give us "intelligent design" in the classroom and worse--Christian Reconstruction. ("My goal is the total integration of biblical law into our lives," said Howie. See Ahmanson.)
And remember how and why he targeted the "study abroad" program in Santander, Spain! (Some suspected that that was payback for CH's public criticisms of the F-man.)
So hang on to your hats. If Tom wants it, he's got it.
