“God instructed me to hit him with a pie”: Monday’s board meeting

.....AN OLD GUY named Carl Christensen addressed the board, fretting about the “imbalance” in Saddleback College’s history offerings, which deemphasize, he said, history after World War II. He may as well have addressed potted plants for all the reaction he got from this board.
.....Next, the board broke into their annual “organizational” meeting, whereupon Trustee John Williams nominated Don Wagner for President of the board (Tom Fuentes seconded). That passed unanimously. Don beamed.
.....At that point, Chancellor Raghu P. Mathur popped up to give exiting board president Dave Lang a big stack of plaques and prizes, one by one, including one from the Governor. It was a delicious display of Mathurian brownnosery, and everyone was highly amused.
.....Tom Fuentes, natch, then nominated Williams as board VP. Nancy Padberg voted against that idea. Fuentes was made Clerk again. He seemed to respond by blowing tiny bubbles with the spittle on his lower lip.
.....Dave Lang, who ended a three-year stint as president and who plainly sees himself as terribly important, offered his long goodbyes. He thanked his “particularly dedicated” board colleagues (especially Wagner and Fuentes), our “hard-working” Chancellor, and various administrators.
.....If he mentioned faculty and faculty leadership, it was under the umbrella term “and others.” This plainly annoyed faculty in attendance.
.....Fuentes then left because he was feeling ill.
.....During board reports and at other times during the meeting, trustees sang the praises of Saddleback College President Rich McCullough, who recently announced his retirement, effective in June. They really seemed to praise him.
.....During his report, Chancellor Mathur made a point of thanking “all workers,” somehow implying that some workers (faculty) are thanked far too often and too strongly as far as he was concerned.
.....Trustee John Williams, junketeer extraordinaire, requested a detailed report on nepotism in the district. Don’t know what that’s about.
.....Don Wagner ran the meeting as though he were in a hurry to go home to watch House. Wham, bam.

THE FLAT WORLD

.....Eventually, trustees got to their sole “discussion” item, though they didn’t seem to want to discuss it. As you know, Mathur reads one book per decade, and the last one was Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat, which describes “globalization” and its challenges. Mathur has enthusiastically “shared” this book with trustees and with various administrators. He has memorized its ISBN number and he owns an edible edition—or, rather, he once did. (Evidently, Mathur is unaware that good books are published all the time. Not just this one.)
.....Mathur’s obsession with Friedman’s trendy tome somehow yielded this odd little presentation, called “language in a flat world,” by the two colleges’ VPIs—namely, Rajen Vurdien and Craig Justice. (Tracy provides a link to the presentation.) Globalization, we were told, is threatening language diversity, for some tongues, such as English, have become “killer languages.”
.....I kept waiting for Rajen and Craig to explain whether English’s homicidal ways are to be welcomed or repelled, but I couldn’t tell which way they went on that question. Both ways maybe.
.....They presented facts and trends regarding language instruction at the two colleges. Spanish and some other languages are in decline (at least at Saddleback) while Chinese and Korean are on the rise. I was surprised to find that the two colleges differ so much with regard to language instruction.
.....The VPI Twins seemed to suggest that, perhaps, we should prepare for English’s unstoppable killing spree. Maybe, they said, we should partner with foreign universities to teach English. Will we be teaching less and less in the area of foreign languages?, they asked. Should we promote “regional languages,” such as Spanish and Korean?
.....Don’t ask me.
.....I must confess that the presentation confused me a bit. It seemed to confuse the trustees too, who had virtually nothing to say about it. On the other hand, they praised it.
.....Whatever.

THE 50% LAW: ORWELLIAN GOO

.....Among the meeting’s “information” items was a “report on compliance with [the] 50% Law during 2007-08.” As you know, Mathur and Co. have fucked up disastrously, allowing the district to trend strongly below the mandatory 50% line with regard to expenditures on instruction. (They saw it coming; they were heedless; they threw huge chunks of cash at ATEP.) As a consequence, the district has been scrambling to cut non-instructional costs, hire faculty, etc.
.....Mathur persists in offering public remarks about our predicament with ZERO recognition of his responsibility for it. He did that again last night, even adopting, as is his custom, the attitude of a stern parent lecturing recalcitrant children.
.....He makes about $300,000 a year.
.....IVC Academic Senate President Wendy G reminded the board of the 50% Advisory Committee recommendations. Among them: that measures to address our fiscal difficulty should proceed in relation to our larger plans, including each college’s strategic plan. Sometimes, she suggested, that is “not happening.” She cited the apparent decision to cut an “executive assistant” from IVC’s Office of the President. That office, she reminded the board, is particularly important. Cutting staff there can really hurt; it can have ripple effects.
.....Nancy Padberg picked up on that point. She asked if the Chancellor intended to cut executive assistants also at Saddleback College—and at the district. She wondered if, by this action, he were not throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
.....Mathur responded by playing the old “shared pain” card. Leadership has to set an example by cutting in their areas too. (I wonder if he intends to give back some of his salary.)
.....Marcia Milchiker joined in. The two colleges, she said, are spending well over 50% on instruction. The 50% difficulty concerns the district and ATEP, not the colleges. Plus, by making these cuts, isn’t the Chancellor micromanaging the colleges?
.....Lang seemed to agree with Milchiker, Padberg, and Jay. He emphasized the importance of the process by which “savings items” are chosen. He seemed to say that, in future, the Chancellor should provide specific cost-saving figures and such per potential cut.
.....Bill Jay found some of the district’s numbers confusing (as did I and others). What’s all this talk about 13 and 14 million dollars?
.....The faculty union’s Ken W noted that, last week, the Chancellor issued an edict—near as I can tell, one that was unfamiliar to administrators—according to which instructors could not teach more than 60% of their load in distance ed. This sort of rule, he said, diminishes the colleges’ ability to maximize enrollment, for deans must now scramble to find replacement instructors. (Note: increasingly, DE is our cash cow.) This, he said, is a case of micromanagement.

.....Trustee Wagner intoned nastily that he hoped that “someday [you] will move past calling anything you don’t like ‘micromanagement.’”
.....To his credit, Ken did not permit his head to pop.
.....Mathur suddenly affected the manner of a wounded and dying hero. Gosh, he said, the term “micromanagement” sure is being used loosely (brownnose, brownnose, roly-poly brownnose). This complaint, he said, is an attempt to “politicize” something that is not political. He commenced railing against instructors who teach 100% of their courses online. How, he asked, can faculty satisfy their other duties (office hours, committee work) if they teach online? He “cautioned” the board against discussing this matter in an inappropriate setting.
.....(Mathur was throwing up a cloud of dust. Nothing prevents deans from requiring of faculty, even those who do all of their teaching online, to hold office hours and do committee work.)
.....In truth, Mathur’s 60% edict was likely just one of his typical efforts to hurt his “enemies,” i.e., his critics, some of whom happen to embrace distance ed.
.....Padberg said that she agreed with Marcia, except for one thing: she has no complaint with the 50% Law, which, she said, is “good.” She suggested that the district needs to take a hard look at expenses at the district and at ATEP. We have, she said, a bureaucracy that has “ballooned” at the district level.
.....Marcia then expressed surprise regarding the 60% edict. Aren’t we trying to grow DE instruction?, she asked. How does this edict help with the 50% problem?
.....Mathur roared that it is “false” to say that district bureaucracy has grown. (He’s a lying sack of shit.) He commenced lecturing Nancy and Marcia. The issue of instructor limits on distance ed courses is “bargainable,” he said.
.....Huh? If it’s bargainable, then it should be bargained; it should not be a matter of Chancellor edicts. —So declared Bill Jay. Good point!
.....You should definitely watch this discussion (go to #7.1) yourself when it becomes available at the district website. It was pretty obvious that Mathur was hopping mad. He started to make that rat-face. You know the one.
.....It was wonderful.

See also

• Tracy's Board Highlights &
• Night of Narcissus