DURING A BREAK this morning, I ran up to the Library to see how Chancellor Raghu Mathur's second "Q&A" was going. Yesterday's Q&A went badly. It was poorly attended and seemed to bring out the worst in the fellow. Raghu was pointing his Finger of Blame a lot. The air in the room was a suffocating mixture of uncomfortable silence and intimidatitude.
Today's Q&A attracted maybe six people, none of them faculty. And the air seemed even worse. When I got there—about 10:30—Raghu was being treated to some intense brown-nosery by two classified employees, one of whom took the curious position that an Accreditation report is no place for a college to "air its dirty laundry."
As you know, accreditation is the process whereby colleges demonstrate their adherence to quality standards. This includes efforts by the colleges themselves to identify their flaws—including any "errant practices"—for the sake of overcoming them.
The accreditation process is, in a phrase, friggin' laundry time.
Evidently, the dirty laundry de jour is the unseemly conduct of the Chancellor and board members during the last two board meetings—spectacles fully on display, in streaming video, at a district website. (Starting in August, meetings of the SOCCCD Board of Trustees have been viewable, in streaming video, at this site—yes, click on these blue words. Jump to 7.2 for the September meeting and 7.1 for the August meeting.)
Well, today, as I walked into the Q&A, Mr. Brown Schnoz had just noted that IVC Accred Report writers recently submitted two new paragraphs for the report. In one paragraph, he said, they cited the portions of August and September's board meetings that concerned the Accreditation Reports. They provided a link to the video!
It was during these parts of the meetings that Raghu and his board pals acted like jerks, ramming substandard verbiage down the throats of college accreditation writers.
My God! These terrible FACULTY persons are trying to get the Accreditors to SEE FOR THEMSELVES WHAT REALLY GOES ON in our district by inviting 'em to watch the video on the district's website!
What's the matter with 'em? Are they SATANISTS?!
Yes, yes, yes, nodded Raghu. It's unbelievable, isn't it? But you understand, my good fellow, don't you?After a moment, Raghu added: "You should run for office." And he smiled.
P.S.:
AGAIN: If you'd like to view the board discussions referred to above, Click on this blue writing here.
Jump to 7.1 of the August meeting and 7.2 of the September meeting. (And for a hoot, don't forget to check out the "public comment" at the start of the September meeting.)Could somebody download this stuff for us? I can't do that from here. (I ain't got broadband.)
BTW: to contact the accrediting agency and its commission (the ACCJC), click here.
—666
11 comments:
Do you suppose that streaming video will somehow mysteriously disappear?
The senate presidents shouldn't sign the reports.
Sure, the reports will be sent and sure the usual noises will be made on both sides and sure -- well, we've been there, done that, haven't we?
But don't give them the signatures. It's all we got not to give right now.
I think ATEP is going south on 'im. The City of Tustin doesn't like Mathur's dream and they don't like Mathur.
Last week, the board seemed to commit to spending 9 million dollars in the coming years just for the dinky campus we have there now!
9 million dollars and 400 students. What a deal! If Mathur's big dreams for ATEP don't come through, he'll be garbage, even from the POV of a rat bastard like Fuentes.
Chunk,
Can you post videos of the board meetings in question? You've done that before...or at least a link.
That way everyone will see their behavior - including themselves.
Thanks for the terrific public service that this blog provides by the way.
Actually, I did post it. Just click on the highlighted (in blue) phrase "board videos" in the post.
OR go to Board videos.
Jump to 7.1 for August and 7.2 for September. Those are the relevant discussions.
It's well worth watching.
Excellent! Friday night at the movies! We used to call it "Fright Night"!
A few wows! are in order re the streaming video. Firstly, to hear the voice of the Goomonster... I am humbled. Wow. Secondly, the electronic scoreboard. Impressive! That rates an Oh Wow! But the biggest wow is reserved for the not one, nor two, but NINE (I counted them!) American flags. I reserve an exhausted, and patriotic, Wow! for that. I don't know how that can be topped.
strange... in the August video, there's only one American flag. I suppose that some meetings are more patriotic than others... or perhaps the board members wanted a flag in the background for their TV close-ups.
Nine flags?
maybe that's where the $$$ for the part-time staff in the duplicating center went...
Wow - a terrific public service indeed is this blog.
Yes, click on the link provided by Chunk to contact the Areds - or simply email (like I did):
accjc@accjc.org
My notes was short and sweet. I pointed out that faculty, staff and most adminstrators had been working in good faith over a period of time to produce an honest assessment of where the colleges were - only to be undone at the end by the Chancellor and others who acted outside the process to distort the final report.
I also added a link to the last two board meetings and directed the readers to simply scan down the posted agendas to find the appropriate item numbers - which can then be found under the "jump to" to facilitate viewing.
Impressive technology.
Kudos to the district for its technological record - I like how we can use it at this point to undermine their own lies.
Anyway, write a letter.
I do hope the senate presidents don't cave under the pressure they must be getting.
Please don't sign.
I hope tehy read this blog.
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