A defiant Don Wagner

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ON THE AGENDA of Monday’s meeting of the SOCCCD Board of Trustees was a discussion of the “Outcome of [the] November 2006 Accreditation Progress Visits.”

Well, the outcome was that, owing largely to failings of the board and the chancellor, the colleges are yet again required to report, this time in October, efforts to address the same nasty old problems: the atmosphere of hostility and despair, trustee micromanagement, etc.

Good grief. This “micromanagement” complaint goes back ten years! C’mon!

In the case of Saddleback College, submission of their October report will be followed by yet another Accred team visit. Ouch.

At Monday’s board meeting, Chancellor Raghu Mathur stated the obvious: that the board and governance groups should get together on this. He recommended some “workshops.”

In truth, much, though not all, of what the Accreds require of us can be accomplished only by the Chancellor and the trustees. Especially the trustees. (They can start by firing Raghu’s ass.)

On Monday, TRUSTEE DON WAGNER dispensed much peevitude about this. For instance, he explained that, when the board met with the two Accrediting teams back in December (see "Boards are supposed to be nonpartisan," he said), trustees were told that the teams’ conversations with other governance groups (e.g., the Academic Senates) were off the record. This, fumed Wagner, is “selective secrecy.” It “undermines the process” and invites “abuse,” such as “score settling.”

He wasn’t finished. He next addressed what he termed “erroneous charges” contained in the Accreditation reports:

First, infamously, back in January of 2006, the board acted to refuse the colleges’ memberships in the American Library Association. Virtually all colleges are members of the ALA. Our non-membership is a great embarrassment. (See "Liberal Busybodies".)


Wagner led the charge on that action, explaining that the ALA are a bunch of “liberal busybodies.” The Accred teams cited the ALA action as an instance of board micromanagement. At Monday's meeting, Wagner called the charge “absurd.” The Accreds fail to understand the role of elected trustees, he said.

Second, the Accreds tagged the board—again, Wagner was the key player here—for the public manner in which it dressed down a certain dean during the October 2006 board meeting. (See Blow by blow.) At Monday's meeting, Wagner retorted that the Accred teams ignored the context of his action.

Further, he accused the Accreds of inconsistency. On the one hand, said Wagner, the teams object to this “public” action. On the other hand, they complain when the board does things “behind the scenes.” These positions, he said, simply can’t be reconciled.

Wagner acknowledged that the Accred teams have a right to their perspectives, but that’s all they offer: “perspectives.”

He closed by asserting, defiantly, that he will continue to raise the sorts of issues that he has raised when they deserve to be raised.

Wendy G, IVC Academic Senate President, interjected that, in fact, the senate’s remarks to the IVC Accred team occurred in a public meeting. Hence, what the senate had to say was said openly, publicly.

Responded Wagner: “They [the team] wouldn’t share it, but OK.”

SO HERE'S THE THING. Our colleges need to be accredited by the ACCJC. The ACCJC has informed us, repeatedly, what we must do to be in compliance with the accrediting standards. Among the things we must do are things that only the trustees can do, such as ceasing micromanagement.

And who decides what counts as micromanaging? Why, that would be the ACCJC.

Not Don Wagner. ❦

Listen to Don Wagner's January 2006 remarks about "liberal busybodies":

(about 4 minutes)

And for MORE laughs, go to Rachmaninov had big hands!