Friday, July 13, 2007

OC homeowners grow marijuana

MARIJUANA SEIZED AND PROMPTLY DISTRIBUTED AT THE FAIR. Well, we're not sure about that last part.

You’ll be happy to learn that the sheriff is once again keeping Orange County safe for democracy: Aliso Viejo pot crop found: About 6,000 plants removed Thursday near Wood Canyon:
…Despite a stakeout, no arrests were made in connection with the finds but whoever was cultivating the plants tapped into and used sprinklers operated by a homeowner association, said sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino. … Because the farms were connected to the watering system …, they required little attention from their growers, Amormino said.
OK, this means—doesn’t it?—that the homeowner association has in fact been cultivating marijuana. And good stuff too, near as I can tell. —Hang on a second.

Yeah, the stuff is great.

Zero tolerance, I say. Ignorance is no excuse. Arrest the homeowners.

HIGH SCHOOL COLLEGE. A couple of days ago, yet another attempt was made to draw attention to a Tustin/IVC partnership: After middle school comes college:
Jolene Guilian took her first college midterm exam last week. But she took it at Beckman High School–and Guilian graduated just last month from Pioneer Middle School.

She is one of 38 incoming freshmen trying to get a jump start on college this summer by enrolling in Tustin Unified's new Early College Program with Irvine Valley College.

The program allows high-schoolers to earn college credit by taking college courses without paying tuition, taught by professors in Tustin high schools. The students potentially can graduate with a high school diploma and an associate's degree at the same time.

…"We're just picking up a piece of IVC and plopping it down on the high school campus," [IVC President Glenn] Roquemore said…
Gosh, Glenn, I'm not sure a college is something to be "plopped."

That piece of IVC that Glenn is talking about doesn’t include certain pesky instructors, who have expressed concerns that college courses presented to high school kids are liable to undergo significant adjustments with regard to how much is expected of students and what may be discussed before them.

For instance, I wouldn't dream of teaching my popular Introduction to the Philosophy of Fornication to these kids. This is where I gotta draw the line.


ACADEMIC BULLIES. This morning’s Inside Higher Ed reports on an effort at Handling the ‘bad apples’ in college departments:
Department heads … mostly listened along with provosts, deans and other faculty members during a training workshop in Seattle this week….

…[T]he conference addressed departmental culture and professional development of faculty.

…[A]… theme emerged that had less to do with gender and more to do with faculty life in general. Current and past academic chairs swapped horror stories and asked how to best handle academic bullies—generally older, tenured professors who are unwilling to take direction and can create what many described as a “toxic environment” in the department.
Yeah, we’ve got some of those here at IVC.

Mostly, though, our toxicity emanates from the Chancellor’s Office.

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...