Monday, February 26, 2007

Scenes from a board meeting


☞ Tonight's meeting of the SOUTH ORANGE COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT Board of Trustees was the usual thing.

● Don Wagner came out swinging against the Accrediting Teams and their "absurd" perspective.

● Raghu Mathur and his little pal Dave Lang came within an inch of violating the Brown Act. They didn't seem to care.

● Groups, including the "Young Americans," spent two hours selling their vision for ATEP—only to discover that the Chancellor had already agendized (or thought he had, anyway) a recommendation that he commence negotiating with the other guys (Camelot, those producers of Nada). Even Tom looked askance.

● The Board Majority (Lang, Wagner, Fuentes, Williams) continued their SNIPERY with Nancy Padberg. Marcia and Bill seemed bewildered.

● The Chancellor & Board's new "streamlining" innovations were swell. The meeting went an hour long.

—Like I said, the usual.

I'm too tired to explain it all. Maybe tomorrow. But here are some pics.

First a prayer, then the Pledge. The Saddleback Academic Senate objected to the prayer. Williams wants to leave the matter to the public—at the next election.

Tom was in a good mood. But he seemed gaunt, like he'd stayed in a sauna too long.

A lady named "Cat," I think, explained about being a Young American. She's Australian.

Bob and Wendy did a good job representing the faculty senates.

The Young Americans were young, and mostly American. (They seemed to be pathologically chirpy, too.)

I'm beginning to think that these two are in love, what with all their winking and smiling. Not that there's anything wrong with that. In fact, its kinda refreshing.

Wendy called the board on a serious agenda SNAFU. She saved 'em from illegality, she did. I suggested to her that she send 'em a bill.

These two always seem to be laughing at a dirty joke or worse. They're like a couple of punks sitting at the back of the room. Hate that.

I took this as I was driving to the meeting, near Lake Forest. Yes, sometimes, the sun is a blob.

Once There was a Process

~
OR SO PEOPLE SAY. Maybe it's just a title for a bad country and western song.


Still, we at DISSENT believe that there was once a process on this campus that helped determine how space was allocated. You'd think that maybe the Facilities Committee has something to do with this. Maybe not. The name may be misleading. Perhaps their primary concern is elsewhere, say NASCAR or Mediterranean cuisine.

At any rate, small rewards for those with information leading to the discovery of a process – or at least, the history of a process. Surely, there was once a process for the equitable distribution of space that took into consideration the needs of programs, trends in growth and enrollment and instructional integrity. Maybe not.

Maybe we just begged, or bribed, or went through the back door, wherever that is.

Anyway, please feel free to give your information via the comment system (anonymous if you wish) or simply keep doing what some of you do: slide pieces of paper under our office door. We don't mind. It's nice to know that you are there.

Chunk photographs the future


—Namely, niece Sarah (4 years old) and nephew Adam (2 and a half) — Sunday evening, Trabuco Canyon.



Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...