Deer spotting

.
Sunny the cat got weirded out like she does, and she started staring out the screen door. So I looked out there and spotted some deer. Took this pic of one of 'em.

I heard another one that was closer, but behind some trees. Did you know that deer make horse-like sounds? You know, that sound of blowin' air out their noses or mouths. What's that called? No, not a neigh or whinny. There's no voice to it. It's more like a gum-flapping sound.

Spotted this in the sky above me.


The dang thing looked so far away, like it was in outer space.

Propagating the negative

☞

I ATTENDED the Board Forum at Irvine Valley College today, and it was fun! Really!

Considering that it was announced only two days ago and scheduled for a Friday afternoon, it was remarkably well attended, though not by faculty. A friend said she counted about ten instructors in the room.

I should mention that the board holds these forums infrequently, and, near as I could tell, my colleagues who attended this forum appreciated the opportunity to interact with the trustees.

A PLAQUE FOR WAYNE:

Things got rolling just after 2:00. Trustee Tom Fuentes invoked the Lord, and then we all pledged to the flag. Next came the presentation of a plaque to exiting Director of Facility and Maintenance, Wayne Ward. Board President Dave Lang announced that the board wanted to “recognize all the terrific work” that the Waynster had done over the years.

I scanned the room for wry expressions. People were being mighty good. —They didn’t applaud though.


Chancellor Raghu P. Mathur then explained that the purpose of the forum was to answer questions and whatnot. “Let the Q & A begin,” he said.

There was silence, no Q. Finally, an administrator asked the trustees, “What would you like to see happen at the college?” Don Wagner then explained that he wanted to see everyone working together collegially. With that, he subtly launched the canard that the real problem with this district isn’t a rogue board and its toady, but the district’s fractious and unseemly faculty troublemakers.

OFF-CAMPUS SITES:

Eventually, Fuentes said that he supported Bill Jay’s dream of slathering our pedagogy all over the map via off-campus sites. Then someone got all empirical and asked just how many off-campus sites we now have. Glenn Roquemore or Dave Anderson said something like, “a zillion, more or less.” Well, no, but the number was very high, maybe twenty-seven.

Twenty-seven? We all stared at each other. Suddenly, it seemed like our problem was that we’ve just got way too much hangin’ out there, off-campuswise!

John Williams explained that this is an exciting time, owing to our Basic Aid funding, which allows us to collect huge piles of property tax money to pay for all sorts of wonderful things. True enough. (Trustee Fuentes has recently warned that the Basic Aid gravy train could end, what with the housing market being what it is.)

THE ACCREDITATION QUESTION:

I offered a question. I said that the Accreditation Commission is once again demanding that the board cease micromanaging, and yet, in recent months, one board member (I didn't mention Mr. Wagner's name) has declared that at least some of the Accred’s charges of micromanagement are mistaken. How, I asked, can we emerge from this Accreditation process if trustees take this kind of defiant stance?

Wagner is not alone. Last Spring, Mr. Fuentes openly opined that the problem with the district isn't so much board micromanagement as "macromanagement" by others. He was referring to faculty.

Trustee Fuentes commenced speechifying. Affecting a manner of smiley omniscience, he explained that, sadly, there are “elements” within our district who remain determined to “propogate the negative.” Somehow, he said, all these “employee-management issues” become the focus, and so our accreditation suffers.

Don Wagner—the defiant board member to whom I had alluded—then stated that he “disagreed with the premise” of my question, namely, the premise that our accreditation might get pulled.

No way, said Don.

Bill Jay then argued for the thesis that “some micromanagement” is good. For instance, during a crisis, micromanagement is just the thing.

I got a chance to respond. I noted that the issue isn’t whether there are kinds of micromanagement that are good—that’s a “red herring,” I said. No, the issue concerns the kinds of micromanagement that the board has been accused of engaging in. That's not the "crisis" kind. Are trustees gonna cease that kind or are they gonna dig in their heels and say it isn't micromanagement?

I turned to Mr. Wagner. I explained that the premise of my question was not that our Accreditation is at risk—I know that it isn’t, I said—but that trustee defiance ensures that we will continue with the effort—and embarrassment—of report after report. That's been going on for years now.


Mr. Wagner then stated that, maybe not CHUNK, but some faculty have mongered accreditation fear among innocent students!

Frankly, none of my students ever expresses that fear, although, occasionally, some reveal, with bemusement, that they are aware of the controversy over our accreditation, etc.

All you boots on the ground: do any of you encounter students who worry about our accreditaiton? If so, let us know! Speak up!

I explained to Mr. Wagner that he might feel comfortable with our endless Accreditation gauntlet, but he’s not among those who have to produce the lengthy Accreditation Reports. “We” do that, I said, referring to the college.

CONSPIRACY THEORY:

Right about then, Mr. Fuentes, with manifest incredulousness, declared, “Well, we all know where [the Accreds] get their information!”

He was expressing a worldview, which he has articulated more than once in the last year, according to which faculty control the accreditation process. In his mind, it's a rigged system.

“Oh, you mean your conspiracy theory!” I said. “Tell us about that! How does that work?"

Excitement filled the air!

Near as I could tell, several of the trustees—certainly Fuentes, Wagner, and Lang—gave each other a bemused and languorous “ha ha, we know about the Accreditation scheme, don’t we boys?” look.

But they weren’t going to take my bait. Nope. They clammed up.

My God. Some of these people live on freakin' Fantasy Island.

Eventually, Nancy Padberg spoke. She said: “micromanagement is a good thing, really, because it means you’re involved.” I studied Dave Lang’s face. He didn't grimace much, really.

John Williams then explained that it is a natural tendency of elected trustees, city council members, and the like, “to want to get involved in things.” He didn’t think the micromanagement that goes on in our district was as bad as it has been portrayed as being.

(Har har har. He then told of how, years ago, a few trustees, administrators, and faculty leaders would meet out on a boat in Dana Point Harbor to work out the contract and such. They'd shake hands and that was that. —Ah, the good old days!)

A classified employee who works with students reported that she doesn't hear them expressing fears of accreditation loss. She expressed the concern that our “distance ed” offerings do not include enough “foundational” courses to keep students at our college.


REASSIGNED TIME:

THEN, a long-time member of the School of Humanities and Languages—one with a stellar reputation as a teacher—spoke. She explained that, over the years, her relationship with her students has “eroded” in some ways, for she has less and less time to spend with them. She cited some of the non-instructional tasks that seem to have piled up over the last few years: program review, curriculum updates, SLOs, and, now, pressure to pursue distance ed.

That led to a point about reassigned time: i.e., course work from which an instructor is “released” so that he or she can devote time and energy to some non-instructional activity—e.g., chairing a department or a committee. Reassigned time is utterly routine in academia, but not in the SOCCCD.

A "ban" on reassigned time was among the innovations of the bad old "Board Majority"/Union Old Guard Axis that emerged in 1996, thanks to the union's homophobic fliers. Naturally, the ban didn't apply to union officers.

Since then, the absurdity of the ban has produced more exceptions, but reassigned time is kept by Mathur and the Board to an unworkably low level. It's yet another source of low morale.

As things stand, said the instructor, academic chairs (among others doing substantial extra-instructional work) get no reassigned time. Instead, they must teach a full load of classes and then take on chair duties on top of that. As compensation, they receive a stipend.

“I don’t need more money,” she said. “I need time.”

We all laughed at that one. No, we need more money too. But the point was that one can’t teach a full load and then do all of this other work. (Well, maybe some can; but many can’t.) Given the ban on reassigned time, increasingly, the very best faculty will simply refuse to do these jobs. She, for one, would never accept the job of chairing her department.

Mr. Wagner seemed frustrated. He argued that giving the excellent instructor reassigned time removes her from the classroom, so what about that?

“Our adjuncts are excellent,” responded the instructor. Another instructor—one from the School of Fine Arts—chimed in to make the same point: if she were given reassignment for a course, the adjunct who would replace her would be excellent.

Reassigned time doesn’t deprive students of good teachers, Don.

Marcia Milchiker suggested that the best way to increase the availability of reassigned time is through contract negotiations. (Hear that, Faculty Association?)

Then JOHN WILLIAMS weighed in. Trustees shouldn’t be involved in this matter, he said. We’ve got these CEOs who can get together and make the appropriate decisions about reassigned time, said John. This is “not a trustee issue."

That sounded awfully good. What’s gotten into the fellow?

CLUELESS?

I don’t recall what went on immediately after that—I stopped taking notes—but people started squirming like they do, cuz it was nearing 3:00 p.m.

I managed to get the last question. I referred to Mr. Fuentes’ earlier remark about “negativity.” I explained that I know the people who write the Accreditation reports. They are, I said, some of the best, the most conscientious, the hardest-working and honest people in the district.

“How do you think they feel,” I asked, “when trustees embrace the incompetent notion that the Accreditation process is rigged or dishonest?”

“It amazes me that you can be that clueless.”

Upon declaring that my question was actually a statement, Mr. Lang simply concluded the meeting. And that was about it.

Have a great weekend. —CW

Cumpleaños de César Chávez en Irvine Valley College (Rebel Girl)

●

Thursday, IVC's MEChA celebrated Cesar Chavez's birthday in style, transforming the sun-drenched area outside the Student Services into a canopied ofrenda to the labor leader's memory.












Historical notes: In 1988, Rebel Girl and Red Emma hung out with Cesar Chavez, members of the Western Shoshone nation and hundred of other activists in the desert north of Las Vegas, home to the Nevada Nuclear Test Site.

Those were the days.

Around the same time, Reb, then a noted vegetarian chef, was chosen to cook a meal for Cesar during his visit to the People's Republic of Santa Monica; she chose a Mediterranean theme: tabouli, hummus, tszatiki, marinated beans and olives, fresh tomatoes, bread. She was so nervous that she bought bottled water in which to cook the beans and bulgur. She is still proud that he ate everything, including the garnish.

Then, in 1993, along with thousands of others, they followed his wooden casket through the dusty streets of Delano.


Si se puede!

Rebel Girl's Poetry Corner: Of Ice Cream and Emperors

~
IT'S AFTER 8:30 on Thursday March 29th so Rebel Girl knows now that she lost the contest to predict just when Attorney General Alberto Gonzales would resign. She's been bragging for days that the confluence of her 46th birthday and his scandal would create the ideal circumstances and thus her victory -- so she predicted that Gonzales would either tender his resignation or be fired this morning.

The prize was a year of ice cream (Ben and Jerry's, natch) and Reb has spent what little spare time she has had musing whether or not the amount of ice cream is determined by the winner's own ability to consume or some standard formula, no doubt resulting in less ice cream consumption. She speculated on storage problems and choice dilemmas (Peanut Butter Cup? Chunky Monkey? Karamel Sutra? Dublin Mudslide?) Also: would she be restricted to a certain number of flavors?

Alas.

Alberto remains and Rebel Girl can buy her own birthday ice cream today.

His reluctance to resign does gives Rebel Girl time to develop her own line of Alberto Gonzales products – more on those later but suffice to say one item is the car odorizer that can hang jauntily from a rear view mirror, looking at a distance like the Virgin of Guadalupe. A close inspection reveals it is Alberto with George W. cast as that little angel propping him up.

In honor of the ice cream and emperors, the irresistible Wallace Stevens who I often read but decline to teach:

The Emperor of Ice-Cream

Call the roller of big cigars,
The muscular one, and bid him whip
In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.
Let the wenches dawdle in such dress
As they are used to wear, and let the boys
Bring flowers in last month's newspapers.
Let be be finale of seem.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.

Take from the dresser of deal,
Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheet
On which she embroidered fantails once
And spread it so as to cover her face.
If her horny feet protrude, they come
To show how cold she is, and dumb.
Let the lamp affix its beam.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.

~~~~~~~~~~

Indeed!

From Inside Higher Ed

☞
March 28: Inexorable March to a Part-Time Faculty

New data from the U.S. Education Department confirm what faculty leaders increasingly bemoan: The full-time, tenure-track faculty member is becoming an endangered species in American higher education.

A new report from the National Center for Education Statistics shows that of the 1,314,506 faculty members at colleges that award federal financial aid in fall 2005, 624,753, or 47.5 percent, were in part-time positions. That represents an increase in number and proportion from 2003, the last full survey of institutions, when 543,137 of the 1,173,556 professors (or 46.3 percent) at degree-granting institutions were part timers….

March 29: Portrait of the Occupational Student:

…A report issued Wednesday by the U.S. Education Department attempts to provide more information about the subset of college students — one that is more diverse and disadvantaged than students on average — that is seeking occupational training.

… The group was predominantly female (57 percent), and had higher rates of underrepresented minority groups than other sectors do: 16 of the students are black and 9 percent are Hispanic. The average age of these students when they started their programs was 24.

…Generally, students seeking certificates or associate degrees are less likely than are those seeking a four-year degree to complete their programs — whether the credential they are seeking is vocational or academic. And the new study offers additional confirmation.

…The top reasons cited by those who left their programs were: job or financial demands, family demands and moving to another city or state. In some cases, people citing these reasons did not abandon their quest for a credential but enrolled in less demanding programs.

March 29: Ohio U revokes degree:

Ohio University announced Wednesday that it has revoked the master’s degree of a former student in mechanical engineering, having concluded that the student’s thesis contained plagiarism. The action is the first degree revocation coming out of an investigation into numerous theses, which was prompted by another former student’s charges of widespread plagiarism in the department.

March 28: Distance ed not so distant:

In theory, distance education is supposed to open up an era when all students have a range of options not limited by geography. But a new report from Eduventures finds that most distance students enroll at distance programs run by institutions in their own geographic regions, and that more than a third of these students take online courses offered by an institution within a 50-mile radius.

We haven't got a prayer

☞

1. NO RESPONSE. Not long ago, the district's two faculty senates, with the endorsement of student groups, passed a resolution advocating the abandonment of the trustees' practice of offering prayers at the beginning of meetings and other public functions. Two faculty raised the issue again at Monday's board meeting, suggesting that the board's cooperation in this regard would be a symbolic act of "good faith" as the district and the faculty enter into a new round of contract negotiations.

Perhaps fittingly, the meeting had begun with Trustee Thomas Fuentes performing a solemn invocation that was liberally sprinkled with elements specific to a narrow spectrum of religious traditions. ("Oh mighy God," "bless us," "to this we say and to this we pray," "Amen," etc.) The faculty groups have highlighted the circumstance that many residents of South Orange County are of traditions outside that spectrum. And, of course, a significant number of residents are atheists or agnostics.

Monday night, none of the trustees offered any response to the faculty request.


2. YOU CAN KISS MY A** GOODBYE. In her recent "March board meeting highlights," Tracy Daly reported that, at Monday's meeting, Chancellor Mathur "introduced the new ATEP Dean of Instruction and Student Services, Dr. Cathleen Peterson. She is currently a Dean at Rio Hondo College and will begin at ATEP on April 9."

As a member of the search committee, I can report that this outcome is welcome.

Earlier today, as I was preparing a brief blurb about Peterson for the members of my school, I Googled her name. I didn't come up with much. As I perused the Rio Hondo site, however, I ran across an oddly familiar face: the face of a Rio Hondo Community College District trustee named Gary Mendez. The name, too, rang a bell. So I quickly searched through Dissent's archives.


Bingo! I came up with a post from last September entitled "You will kiss my fucking ass," said the college trustee.

As I understand it, Dr. Peterson arrived at Rio Hondo only after the events here described, and so she had nothing whatsoever to do with them. But the following story might explain why she wanted the hell out of that place. (Mendez is still on the board.)

For those of you who missed it, here is an abridged version of my September post. I'm sure it will have particular resonance for our own John "Orlando" Williams:

OK, we think we have shitty trustees. Well, in some cases, we do, but the following story makes me feel a little better about our clueless trusticular crew.

Think Whittier. Nixon. Pat. Love. Reconquista.

Whittier is home to Rio Hondo Community College and the RHCC District (RHCCD), which is governed by a five-member board, including one Gary Mendez, who has served on the board since 1999.

He's got chutzpah.

The President/Superintendent of Rio Hondo Community College/RHCCD is Rose Marie Joyce.

She’s got spunk.

Evidently, back in June, some district personnel, including Mr. Mendez, then board president, were preparing to secure hotel rooms for a conference in Hawaii. On the 21st, Mr. Mendez showed up at the district, insisting that, for his Hawaii trip, he be provided with a hotel room with an ocean view.

Well, the fellow met with resistance, first from staff, and then from President Joyce. That’s when Mendez evidently started acting like an asshole from hell.

The result: at the subsequent July 19 RHCCD board meeting, the trustees passed a resolution censuring Mendez and stripping him of the board presidency.

The resolution says it all. It's really quite funny. (See Board Minutes. This is a smallish pdf file.)

Let it entertain you:

…WHEREAS:

1. On … Wednesday, June 21, 2006, … staff informed Dr. Joyce that Trustee Mendez wanted a room with an ocean view for the upcoming SCUP conference in Hawaii. Staff informed Trustee Mendez that they would need to check on this with Dr. Joyce. Trustee Mendez challenged the staff member, asking why she had to check with Dr. Joyce.…The staff member advised Trustee Mendez that it was District practice to get Dr. Joyce’s approval before incurring charges on the District’s credit card.

2. It is the regular practice of this District to pay the regular/single room conference rate for hotel rooms when Board members or staff attend conferences on behalf of the District. It is not the practice of this District to pay extra for ocean views or other hotel room upgrades for Board members attending conferences when regular rooms are available.


3. On June 21, 2006, Trustee Mendez attempted to direct a staff member of this District to book an ocean-view hotel room … at an extra cost to the District of $120 per night.

4. On [that day], Dr. Joyce advised Trustee Mendez that the District’s practice is to pay the regular/single room conference rate and that the District could arrange for an ocean view room if Trustee Mendez paid the extra cost. Dr. Joyce further offered to arrange for the room that Trustee Mendez had requested if he confirmed that his request was based on a medical reason.

5. [I]n response to Dr. Joyce’s explanation and offer to assist with hotel booking, Trustee Mendez referred to Dr. Joyce as “bitch,” while walking away from her. Trustee Mendez then said, “You are fucking going down,” and threatened to accuse Dr. Joyce of interfering with the Board’s evaluation of Dr. Joyce. When Dr. Joyce responded to Trustee Mendez that she was confident that she had not interfered in the process and that the truth would come out[,] Trustee Mendez then stated to Dr. Joyce, “You will kiss my fucking ass.”

WHEREAS, the conduct of Trustee Mendez is contrary to [the district’s code of ethics]…

WHEREAS, federal and state law and Board Policy … prohibit sexual harassment and other forms of discrimination in employment based on sex; and
…..
WHEREAS, it is the legal duty and the policy of this Board to take reasonable measures to prevent and deter sexual harassment in employment and other forms of unlawful discrimination in employment, and to remedy conduct that may contribute to a hostile working environment….
…..
WHEREAS, the conduct of Trustee Mendez has caused this Board to lose confidence in Trustee Mendez’s ability to fulfill the … duties of the Board President...
…..


NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED AS FOLLOWS:

1. The Board…has determined that censure of Trustee Mendez and removal of Trustee Mendez from the position of Board President are necessary and appropriate.

2. Trustee Mendez is hereby CENSURED for his conduct as described in this Resolution. Such CENSURE proclaims to the public that this Board disapproves of and will not tolerate conduct on the part of its members such as that described in this Resolution.

3. The Board hereby rescinds its action electing Trustee Mendez as President, and Trustee Mendez is hereby REMOVED as President of this Board of Trustees…. [END OF RESOLUTION]

The vote:

Trustee Couso-Vasquez – Abstain.
Trustee Mendez – Abstain.
Trustee Acosta-Salazar – Yes.
Trustee Martinez – Yes.
Trustee Quintero- Yes.
Student Trustee Quintero – Abstain.

--OK, so Mr. Wagner can get mighty sniffy. And Mr. Fuentes practices Satanism at least with his face. And John says incredibly stupid things. And our Raghu's still got that $1,000 chair.

But at least these guys wouldn't make like Mendez.

Would they?

IVC in weird yet fine weather

•

Tonight's board meeting: "setting the record straight"

☞

TONIGHT'S MEETING of the South Orange County Community College District board of trustees was short and largely uneventful. Well, Trustee Don Wagner said something interesting, I guess.

Trustee Fuentes prayed to the Lord; Craig Grossman got a nice resolution; the Irvine Valley College Foundation presented a slick commercial that urged audience members to become “Performing Arts Patrons”; Tracy Daly showed us the new district website; three or four faculty spoke about approved curricula and the upcoming contract negotiations; others carped about the board’s prayers; Fuentes fretted about potential drops in home prices and the corresponding threat to our Basic Aid gravy train; the new ATEP dean was approved; etc.


A big chunk of time was devoted to a presentation about DISTANCE EDUCATION, especially the online variety. Vice Chancellor Andreea Serban plus June Millovich and Bob Urell handled that. They did a good job, and the board seemed to think that this whole DE thing is just swell.

Turns out most of our growth in recent years has been from DE, not from traditional “brick and mortar” instruction, which is slowly eroding. Not that there’s anything wrong with the old brick and mortar. And it isn’t gonna disappear neither, cuz distance ed isn’t for everybody, or so everybody kept saying. It was a night of truisms and reassuring slogans.


Students are “partners,” said June. “Frankly, we do this better” than other districts, said Bob. We're “growink," said Andreea. She threw in a couple of "downloadinks," too. Then she said that she was gonna adopt the moniker "Natasha." She's funny, boy.

Fuentes seemed to want to make some kinda trouble about the caps for online courses, but it turns out that, in our district, the caps are the same no matter whether a course is the “traditional” kind or the online kind, though some districts lower the cap for online courses, what with the intensive interaction that’s involved. (The union really oughta get on that. Or so opined Ken W during the break.)

Fuentes asked a clueless question about how off-campus sites—High Schools and the like—figure into all this. Everybody looked confused. Bob U finally said something like, “well, internet courses are done over the internet.”

Bill Jay figured it was his cue to yammer about off-campus sites again, so he did that, though not unpleasantly.

Williams took the opportunity to pat himself and his colleagues on the back about the big "COPS" expenditure of ten years ago, which paid for fancy fiber optics and other digital whizbangery. That COPS debt will be paid off in a year, he declared.


“Motivation is the key,” said everybody re what kind of student can handle online instruction. “Yeah, but that’s true for traditional face-to-face instruction, too,” said someone. "Yeah," said everybody. People were pretty goddam agreeable, although Nancy did roll her eyes a few times, especially at Tom and John.

Mathur talked about students learning in pajamas; Cosgrove announced that we do DE “deeper and wider”; Padberg reminded us that phone ed is distance ed, too; Raghu said that this online thing is goin’ “big and wide"—plus he wrote his dissertation about it; I kept staring at the monitor, what with its bright lights and perty colors.

Padberg worried about the high cost of the Performing Arts Center at IVC. Nobody seemed to want to join her. She did a lot of solitary carping tonight.

She fretted, too, about apparent “nepotism” among classified mother-daughter team organizers, whatever they are. People started yawning.


The board discussed the upcoming special meeting (April 23, 3-5 p.m.) re the ACCREDITATION midterm reports (due in October). Let’s trot out those 94 goofy ideas that we scraped up last Spring, said Raghu. “Yeah,” said Bill Jay. “What for?” said Don Wagner.

That’s when Wagner said the only interesting thing that was said all night. He said he “remains unconvinced” that debating those daffy old ideas from a year ago will help. Then he said that the meeting would be a good opportunity to “set the record straight,” since the Accreds’ reports “contain some errors.” He was talking about how they said that he, the Don, had engaged in micromanagement most foul.

Yeah, the Accreds will just love hearing about how we all got together to discuss how they gave Don a D when he shoulda got a C+. Absolutely.

IVC Senate Prez Wendy G responded to Lang’s suggestion that he should facilitate the April meeting. Hey, said Wendy, during Chancellor’s Cabinet, we discussed the possibility of getting a celebrated person from outside to facilitate. Whatever happened to that?

Well, Lang just shot that down fast. He wasn’t “inclined” to do that, he said. Then he announced that the discussion was over. Raghu said nothing.


Wendy looked like she’d just been hit by a truck.

Padberg fussed again about Williams’ habit of going to Florida for conventions, when he could just as well stay here in the Golden State, wasting taxpayer money closer to home, but that went nowhere. Bob Cosgrove had his hand up for a long time, and Williams even tried to get Lang to notice that, but it was a no go.

And, “boom,” just like that, the meeting was over pretty much on time.

Yup, that Lang. Reminds me of what they used to say about Mussolini: "he's a fascist asshole for sure, but at least the trains run on time." —Somethin' like that.

"Intelligent Design" at SMU

-
IN THIS MORNING'S Inside Higher Ed we learn that

The departments of anthropology, biology and geology have asked Southern Methodist University to block the Christian Legal Society from holding a conference to promote “intelligent design” as a legitimate scientific theory, The Dallas Morning News reported. The departments say that the event is designed to give a false impression that these views actually have significant academic support. SMU officials aren’t blocking the event, but have stated that allowing it to take place does not signal endorsement.

This will remind long-time denizens of the South Orange County Community College District of trustee Steven Frogue’s plan to hold a seminar on the Warren Commission back in 1997. The fellow had invited four “experts”—conspiracy theorists, some of whom were connected to Liberty Lobby, the country’s chief anti-Semitic organization. Frogue himself had weathered controversy regarding whether he routinely denied the Holocaust while teaching his High School history classes (at Foothill High).

Despite warnings regarding the nature of the speakers from a local ADL official, the board approved the seminar, unleashing a wave of controversy across the country (and even internationally). In response, he pulled the plug on it.

Also in this morning’s Inside Higher Ed: Fooling the College Board:

To demonstrate flaws of SAT writing test, MIT professor coached student on how to get a good score on a lousy essay — and pulled it off.

What in HELL is going on at that South Orange County Community College District? —A pictorial introduction, Part 1: Republicans

☞
EVER WONDER just what in hell is going on down in south Orange County? I provide the following pictorial introduction to the SOCCCD—for your Sunday reading pleasure!













OK, this last guy isn't a Republican, but, a few years ago, he started supporting some doozies. See, his program had no students, and so he cozied up to Mathur and the corrupt union Old Guard (no longer in power). Mathur has protected him all these years.

Potatoes that glow in the dark

☞
● THE "O.C.": F*CKED UP FROM DAY ONE. Anyone who’s interested in local history knows the name Jim Sleeper. Sleeper has been Orange County’s unofficial “official historian” since the 50s. I’ve run into him once or twice, and he’s a nice guy.

On Thursday, the OC Reg did a little story on the 79-year-old Sleepster: O.C. historian receives lifetime achievement award. In an interview, Sleeper is asked whether there’s anything that people don’t know about the county:

It didn't take its name from oranges, that's for sure, because there wasn't a producing orange tree at the time the name was acquired. The name "Orange County" was kind of a hand-me-down chosen for the specific purposes of tourism and because it has a Mediterranean flavor….”

Tourism? Mediterranean flavor? Sheesh, OC has been f*cked up by the Money Men from nearly the beginning, I guess. Well, at least we did actually have oranges for a while. I remember ‘em. They’re round and they smell good. I recommend them highly.


● GOOD VIBRATIONS. Many denizens of Irvine Valley College are familiar with Jeffrey Road, and, in particular, with the railroad crossing between IVC and the 5. It’s kinda charming having to stop there for the train once in a while.

Well, according to the Irvine World News, owing to complaints about noisy train horns, the city will be routing Jeffrey under the tracks: Jeffrey under the tracks:

Residents in the Meadows Mobile Home Park on Jeffrey Road … have repeatedly asked the city to explain what is being done to quiet the horns of passing trains…The city is working to lower Jeffrey Road below the train tracks … $24 million in state funding has come through for the project…Seven contractors submitted bids for the project and SEMA Construction Inc. was the apparent low bidder with a bid of $27,564,698.


…[C]onstruction is expected to begin in June. The project is scheduled to be completed in December 2009…To minimize potential delays for motorists during construction, a lighted, four-lane detour road will be placed along Jeffrey Road throughout the construction phase…The project includes lowering Jeffrey Road under the railroad tracks, building a bicycle and pedestrian bridge adjacent to the new railroad bridge, widening Jeffrey Road to six lanes (three in each direction) and landscaping the median islands on Jeffrey between Irvine Center Drive and Walnut Avenue.

Sounds great, I guess, but I will miss the funky old railroad track and the retro feel of waiting for a train to go by. Plus, this kind of renovation is yet another typically Irvinean blinder to the reality that most folks don’t drive Mercedes and Lexuses. That’s kinda creepy, if you ask me.

There’s one peculiarity to this story. It ends with: “During construction, the tracks will be moved even closer to the mobile homes. The city will adjust any mobile homes that shift because of vibrations from passing trains.”

OK, so, thanks to 24 million state dollars, these mobile home people will gain horn-elimination at the price of vibrations strong enough to move their trailers.

Something ain’t right.


● GLOWING POTATOES. Yesterday, in my morning “Intro to Philosophy” course, a student assured me that genetic modification of foods is a genuine threat, that, in fact, the nefarious GM people have developed a potato that glows in the dark.

I expressed polite skepticism. Still, I urged the young man to bring the potato to class.

I’ll let you know what he comes up with.

(I’m rootin’ for the kid and his special spud.)