Especially less-than-excellent

NOW, A WORD FROM OUR ACCREDITORS. The Accrediting agency (ACCJC) sends out its letters on January 31—tomorrow—so we’ll soon learn their assessment of our two colleges. It’s hard to predict what they’ll do. I’ve heard no rumors.

Toward the end of our last cycle, Mathur and the board seemed to do everything in their power to mess things up. It’s as though they were trying to prove that they are precisely the bastards they are widely suspected of being. But the Commissioners can be way political and self-serving and all the usual shitty and depressing things. Will they actually do their job? Will they wash their hands of us? Who can say?

MATHUR UNLEASHED. So far, it looks like the power shift from Lang to Wagner (board president) has meant that Mathur is now allowed to roam freely, scaring children, torching fields, poisoning wells, and so on. (The leash that master Lang wielded was weird and long, but at least he used one.) For instance, recently, Mathur and his team of hounds have racked up quite a record of peeing on policies with regard to hiring committees. What? There are rules re committee membership? Screw that! There's no third-level interview for deans? There is now!

Luckily, thus far, watchdogs have used effective counter-measures against Mathur's dictates re faculty hiring.

WHAT ABOUT BEEFING UP FACULTY SALARIES? We’ve heard next to nothing about our unfolding 50% problem, the MASSIVE Mathurian Fuckup that dares not speak its name. It was barely mentioned at last week’s board meeting, the meeting in which Nothing Happened.

But my guess is that things will get ugly. Great pressure will be applied to slash non-instructional costs. All the creative bookkeeping in the world isn’t going to bring us up to 50%. (See Look at the data.)

If you read Dissent, then you know that Trustee Don Wagner—our new board president—has expressed an odd perspective about the 50% problem, namely, that we should just hand back the money to the state. Hmmm. Why would he propose such a thing?

Because, dear readers, the 50% problem is precisely this: that we are spending too little on instruction compared to other things. And instruction means faculty salaries. Now, normally, you can comply with the law without resorting to huge faculty salaries, but things ain't normal, cuz Mathur's an idiot, and so everything's a rush job. In this emergency, all we can do is beef up faculty salaries.

But there’s no way that certain trustees—Wagner, Fuentes, Lang—are gonna sit for ad hoc faculty raises, since, as you know, faculty work only 36-hour weeks for ten months of the year while pulling down on average about $100K a year. (Who says? Tom Fuentes says. See Fuentes bashes faculty.)

That’s the word in some circles, anyway.

RED, RED HERRING. Even though the 50% law has been around since, like, 1960, Fuentes and company have been running around as though it just came down Main Street like Godzilla. Fuentes and other district officials recently met with the other OC community college districts to carp about that law. Or so said Mr. Fuentes during his report at the last board meeting.

Fuentes’ efforts are, of course, a red herring. See, we’re not supposed to notice that, unlike the SOCCCD, all those other districts are complying with the 50% law, and are liable to do so well into the future. We’re not supposed to notice that, because Mathur blew off the law for years, we’re destined to be out of compliance for some time. —Either that or some serious pain will be dispensed in the district.

Mathur won’t feel any pain. He makes $300,000 a year.

UPDATE: yesterday, I included here brief mention of an IVC administrator about whom we've been hearing for years. I stated that the latest story (it came to us from a reliable person) concerned her over-spending her budget. Certain knowledgeable persons contacted me and suggested that the matter in question is more complex than the story suggests and that the assertion that the dean over-spent her budget is inaccurate. Dissent regrets any factual error regarding that administrator and her actions re budgeting.

Declined to Endorse

WORTH NOTING is an article from today's Los Angeles Times, California in Brief section. The headline: Teachers Disagree on Endorsements. Now the text:

The state's largest teachers union bucked its elections committee and declined to endorse Hillary Clinton for president at last weekend's delegate meeting in Los Angeles.

Supporters of rival Barack Obama characterized the indecisiveness of the 340,00-member California Teachers Assn. as a strategic victory.

"What impact the endorsement has now doesn't measure up to the potential damage if the endorsed person doesn't win," said Michael day, president of the Teachers Assn. of Long Beach, who attended as an observer.

Other teachers unions, including the California Federation of Teaches and the United Teachers of Los Angeles, have also declined to endorse a candidate.

Rebel Girl can only imagine what the scene was at the CTA State Council meeting when this went down. Reb served as a State Council delegate for many years, as some of you may remember because you voted for her and helped oust Sherry Miller White.

Rebel Girl can't recall another time when the CTA State Council floor failed to support the recommendation coming out of the committee, especially one of such import. Whenever the call was close, then the meeting room doors were closed and the mood grew tense and the rhetoric was ratcheted up and up. The status quo, which likes itself so much, generally prevailed. You know how it is.

But something else happened last weekend in the Grand Ballroom of some stuffy airport hotel. Rebel Girl sort of wishes she had been there for that one.

Primary day in California has been moved to February 5th (don't get Reb started on that one or she will fill your ear with her complaints about Fabian Nunez).

Vote.

How It Happens (Rebel Girl)

     The characterization confused Rebel Girl at first. She recognized the name but the out-of-bounds skier killed by the avalanche was also described as "veteran character actor" and "age 60." That didn't seem right. Then she did the math. She considered the fact that he had been acting since before she met him nearly 25 years ago. She considered what 25 years could do to one's age and career status. So, he had probably reached "veteran status" and considering he never became a leading man, "character" seemed about right too. It was him all right. The husband of a handsome Santa Monica acting couple who had employed young Red Emma as child care provider for their son, also dubbed Red Emma. Rebel Girl and Red were in their salad days then, finishing up undergraduate work, taking jobs here and there. The handsome acting couple paid well and, when they went out of town, Red and Reb housesat for them in their handsome Santa Monica craftsman house, north of Wilshire, a walk to the beach.
     Rebel Girl wanted their life, or a version of it: the dust-free house, the wood floors, the light through the clean windows, the down comforters on the bed, the day planners filled with rehearsals and dinner parties, trips to Santa Fe and New York and yes, if she thought about it enough (but she didn't), the young handsome son, too. Rebel Girl would press the pump dispenser of the wife's lotion (once, twice, no more than that) and rub the fragrant lotion on the backs of her hands. She wanted to smell like that.
     Time went by and the handsome couple broke up and married other people and had other children. The break-up managed to surprise Rebel Girl despite her own mother's eight failed marriages. Red and Reb stayed in touch with the wife and saw the husband's face or name now and again in some production. Their handsome son grew up and learned to write poetry. He showed up at the summer writers conference where Rebel Girl and Red work and was brilliant and all grown up. Now he is finishing up his dissertation at USC. He married last year.
     And then last weekend, sitting on Chunk's living room floor, safely evacuated from their dusty canyon house with its wood floors and generally sunlight-flooded windows, their own handsome young son asleep on the couch, Rebel Girl and Red Emma watched as the handsome actor's body, wrapped in a bright yellow tarp, strapped to a sled, was pulled down the mountain. -RG

Whew!

Pacific storm much weaker than forecast

The North Pacific storm that blew ashore Saturday night drenched Orange County but dropped less than half of the rain forecast by the National Weather Service….

On the other hand:

"This is going to be unbelievable"

From this morning’s OC Register: Canyon residents urged to evacuate:

.....Canyon residents are being urged to leave their homes this afternoon as Orange County braces for what is expected to be the largest in a wave of storms that has walloped much of Southern California this week, soaking fire-scorched hillsides and turning streets into rivers.
.....With even more rain and snow preparing to batter an already water-logged Southern California, public works crews went into damage-control mode Friday, racing to shore up canyon hillsides saturated by two heavy storms that pummeled the region this week.
.....
.....Facing grim weather predictions, county officials will order voluntary evacuations for thousands of residents living in canyon areas affected by fire and are in danger of mudslides and debris flows beginning at noon today, said Capt. Mike Blawn of the Orange County Fire Authority. Voluntary evacuations will be ordered for Modjeska, Santiago, Silverado, Harding and Williams canyons. Residents with special medical needs as well as large animals in those areas will be under mandatory evacuation orders.
.....Evacuations for residents could become mandatory if the National Weather Service issues a flash-flood warning.


.....Even with the warnings, it is unclear how many people will choose to leave their canyon homes. During one of the last evacuations that residents faced, only 90 people are believed to have left the canyons.
.....“Our fear is that people will become numb to these notices and look at us like the boy who cried wolf,” Blawn said. “But what we want them to remember is that in the end, the wolf came.”
.....County emergency officials huddled at a strategy session Friday afternoon, preparing for a wintry blast that weather forecasters are predicting could drop as much as 8 inches of rain in nine hours. Expected to arrive in Orange County this afternoon, the rain is forecast to pick up around 9 p.m., with the heaviest downpours expected to hit between midnight and 3 a.m., dropping between an inch to 1.25 inches an hour, said Dan Atkin, a weather service forecaster.
.....“If the weather patterns holds, this is going to be unbelievable,” Blawn said.
.....Heavier-than-expected rains drenched Orange County early Friday, making the soil mushy.
…..
.....County repair crews raced to bolster unstable hillsides behind several Modjeska Canyon homes after rains caused small amounts of mud and debris to come cascading down overnight Wednesday. Crews worked to clean up the mess and put up barriers behind a handful of Modjeska Canyon properties, hoping to prevent more severe slides, Blawn said.
.....Extra search-and-rescue crews and road-clearing equipment will be on standby overnight tonight, bracing for the worst-case weather picture and should the forecasted rains cause mud and debris to come crashing down into canyon homes.

"Just a Random Female"

Just saw this in the OC Weekly:

Nick Schou's "Just a Random Female," which recounted the harrowing tale of the 1986 murder of Robbin Brandley at Saddleback College and the subsequent search for her killer, will be included in the 2008 edition of The Best American Crime Reporting anthology. This book has in the past featured articles from such publications as Esquire, The Atlantic Monthly, GQ and New York magazine.

If you haven't read Nick's story yet, you should. But do yourself a favor: Make sure you're somewhere well-lit, and with lots of people around. In addition to being a heartbreaking tale of a family's loss and a page-turning police procedural, this story is absolutely terrifying.

See

Short week feels long

DESPITE THE OCCASIONALLY BLUSTERY WEATHER, it was pleasant and nice at Irvine Valley College this morning. Things were buzzin'. The sky was stormy-beautiful.

After my 9:30 class, I graded homework for an hour or so, but then Rebel Girl had an idea. She insisted that we go take a look at "Kenny the Skeleton" over in the Library. I didn't even ask what that was about. "Sure," I said. Off we went. (The library is about 1 minute from our office.)

We found Kenny—hidden in a librarian no man's land behind a swinging door—and I took a few shots. The lady in charge came around and asked what we were up to. "We've got a campus blog," I said chirpily. "This is for the blog."

"Oh," she said. She was dubious. No doubt we were the first persons ever to seek out Kenny. Obvious troublemakers.

We got outa there.

"Let's take a shot of that skeleton in A400," said the Reb. I agreed. Can't say "nope" to the Reb.

For some reason Irvine Valley College is, like, the skeleton capital of the freakin' universe. Don't know why.

The A400 skeleton is in a glass case. Very nice. It is cleverly labeled, "Human skeleton." I took a pic. Students were swarming, just getting out of class.

On our way out, we noticed a big dumb sign on the wall. The sign asked, "Nothing to do Feb. 11-15?"

"Gosh, that's a long stretch to have nothing to do," I said.

The sign continued: "Go online and vote—HOMECOMING King + Queen."

"Hey," said Reb. "Let's see if we can make these skeletons the homecoming king and queen!"

Reb's like that. Every once in a while, she creates tiny pockets of anarchy. Makes her feel better. Me too.

* * * * *

I told the Reb that I'd try to get away early to take pictures of the snow up in Modjeska Canyon, but, what with classes and grading and letter-writing and all, I couldn't get away until nearly 5:00. I headed over to the canyon anyway to see what I could see. It was getting dark.

No snow, really. It had melted. Still, check out the pics. Especially the trees. Love those trees.

Up on Modjeska Grade, where most everything burned.

Down on the canyon floor.

As I headed home, I caught a glimpse of some snow up on the mountain (Modjeska Peak).

"Whoosh!" goes the Chrysler 300, in the cold night air. Heading toward Cook's Corner—and home.

P.S.: Just the other day, I found this old topographic map of our mountains. Evidently, it was produced by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1942. I've added some things in red. (Click on it to make it larger.)


Find: Aldous Huxley's place, Nixon's haunt (the steakhouse), Arden, etc.

Let it Snow!

~
.....Rebel Girl doesn't have a camera on hand but from the vantage point of her living room window this morning she can see with her two aging eyes snow on the peaks surrounding Modjeska Canyon.
.....After the fire and the ash and the mud, snow on the burnt peaks is pretty darn beautiful.
.....She knows that if you take a look toward Saddleback Mountain today you too will see snow. Go ahead. Look.
.....And someone take a photo please. Send it on to Rebel Girl or Chunk (you know how to reach us) and we'll publish the best of the lot.

Harassment vs. Academic Freedom

From this morning’s Inside Higher Ed: Harassment vs. Academic Freedom, Round Two:

…Donald Hindley first learned through twin October 30 letters that he was deemed in violation of Brandeis University’s nondiscrimination policy for allegedly uttering “inappropriate and racially derogatory statements.” The provost, Marty Krauss, informed the professor of politics that a “monitor” would observe his classroom and that he would be required to attend “anti-discrimination training.” The administration’s sanctions were deemed unusual by veteran observers of academic freedom, such as the American Association of University Professors, and the allegations set off a furor among faculty members at the institution, named for the free-expression defender and Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis.

“Brandeis still refuses to let me or my lawyers know what I am supposed to have said or done that allegedly constituted racial harassment and/or discrimination,” Hindley said in an e-mail.

Last month, the provost rejected an appeal by the university’s Committee on Faculty Rights and Responsibilities, leading Hindley to seek counsel and outside backing to pressure the university directly. At issue is a fundamental dispute about which is more important: protecting academic freedom, or ensuring students’ willingness to come forward with allegations of harassment?

The monitoring of his class has stopped this semester, and Hindley has so far refused to participate in the mandated training sessions. According to statements he and others have made to campus newspapers, the allegations revolve around students’ interpretation of comments he made using the term “wetback,” a derogatory reference to Mexican immigrants. Hindley, who has taught at Brandeis for almost 50 years, said he was using the term in his Latin American politics course in the context of explaining how it had been used historically. The department chair, Steven L. Burg, has previously said that at least two students approached him separately about Hindley’s remarks.

A campus publication, The Brandeis Hoot, pseudonymously interviewed one of the students, who said Hindley had used phrases like “mi petite negrita” and “wetbacks.”

…The dispute first escalated when the Faculty Senate took up the issue in a November 8 emergency session, unanimously expressing that it was “seriously concerned about procedures.... The Human Resources policies stress the importance of resolving such issues in an ‘informal manner’ with ‘flexible’ solutions. Furthermore, the Provost’s letter to the professor includes reference to ‘termination’ as a possibility if the professor does not accept the suggested remedies. This violates section VIIC2a of the Faculty Handbook: ‘When considering suspension or dismissal, the Provost will first consult with the Faculty Senate Council.’ No such consultation occurred before this letter was delivered.”

Accepting Hindley’s appeal, the Committee on Faculty Rights and Responsibilities wrote to the provost on November 29, asking her to fully reverse her decision, citing threats to academic freedom, procedural irregularities and excessive punishments. For example, the committee said that the sanctions against Hindley should have been lifted under the appeals process; instead, a monitor was immediately sent to his classes after the decision.

The committee argues that the administration didn’t follow basic procedures as outlined in the Faculty Handbook and the nondiscrimination policy, such as allowing Hindley to choose a witness to be present throughout the process. Responding to the committee’s letter on December 10, the provost rejected its findings and referred to “errors, both factual and legal,” in the analysis. “I am committed to academic freedom for our faculty and students, but I am equally committed to the principle that we will not tolerate racially harassing speech,” Krauss wrote….

Rio Salado Puts Brakes on Proposed Sale:

The chancellor of the Maricopa County Community College District sent an e-mail message to its employees late Wednesday saying that the institution would not seriously consider a private investor’s offer to buy the online operations of Rio Salado College, its “college without walls.”

“I feel the need to set the record straight,” Rufus Glasper, chancellor of the Maricopa system, wrote in the e-mail…. “Rio Salado College is not for sale.”....

It never ends

In this morning's LA Times: Interim O.C. sheriff faces state probe:

The state attorney general is reviewing whether interim Orange County Sheriff Jack Anderson broke the law by appearing in uniform while trying to dissuade the San Clemente City Council from endorsing a former sheriff's lieutenant as a replacement for indicted Sheriff Michael S. Carona, who later resigned.

During a council meeting in November, shortly after Carona was indicted on corruption charges, Anderson, then an assistant sheriff, told the council members that Lt. Bill Hunt was not qualified to serve as Orange County sheriff.

Anderson has since announced his own desire to be the full-time sheriff. Hunt and several others also are considered candidates for the job….

In this morning’s Inside Higher Ed: Can an Investor Buy a Community College?:

…A private investor has offered to buy the online operations and students of Rio Salado College — a community college in Arizona where about half of the 60,000 students study only online — for at least $400 million, and officials at the Maricopa County Community College District, of which Rio Salado is a part, are considering the offer….

Nothing happened

.....I’m tempted simply to say that nothing happened at tonight’s meeting of the SOCCCD board of trustees.
.....The closed session started at 3:00 and was supposed to be over by 6:00, but the trustees didn’t emerge until 7:30 or so. I really don’t know what they were doing in there all that time. We all figured they were screamin’ at each other about something.
.....When the open session finally started, I was surprised by the board’s mood. We all expected the trustees to be horribly grumpy. Nope. They got down to business, and there was a minimum of snipery, although Nancy’s invocation seemed to have a bit of an edge to it.
.....I do believe that her invocation made a special mention of Carl Karcher—you know, the hamburger guy.
.....The board took its time with resolutions and presentation re Professors of the Year. The part-timers didn’t show, but the remaining honorees did. No doubt Tracy will have pictures. (See Tracy's highlights.)
.....There were no public comments.
.....Trustee reports were unremarkable.
.....McCullough, Roquemore, and Kopecky updated us on educational and facilities master plans. That was mildly interesting I suppose. Nothing new.
.....I shoulda brought my Whoopee cushion.
.....Marcia pulled lots of things from the consent calendar, though that didn’t seem to produce the usual grumbling. She wanted to see the landscaping planned for the IVC Performing Arts Center and ATEP. Sure, why not.
.....As per usual, Nancy P had lots of questions about any new expenditures that might be hinky. Also, she was peeved about the list of District Institutional Memberships. Some of her favorite trustee organizations weren’t on the list, but another organization—one she did not like—did appear on the list. What’s up with that?
.....At first, Mathur became defensive; then he lurched into dismissiveness. Don tried to move things along, but then Tom piped up to urge the tabling of the item. Why not wait for more info?, asked Tom. In the end, the trustees voted to table, with an almost imperceptibly testy Don offering the only dissenting vote.
.....VC Bob King needed to make a last-minute change to the academic personnel actions, which inspired Dave Lang to fret about Brown Act concerns—i.e., does this provide sufficient notice? King was ready. He explained that he had sought the advice of one Wendy Gabriella, and she was OK with it. “Well, as long as you’ve got her approval, we’re cool,” said Wagner, smiling.
.....Next came the classified personnel actions. Wagner immediately turned to Wendy and asked, “Any problem with this one?”
.....It was a goddam love fest.
.....The board couldn’t say enough wonderful things about the Saddleback College Veteran’s Memorial Project, which, evidently, has been spearheaded by Nancy Padberg.
.....Well, that was about it. I videotaped lots of it, but I don’t know why.
.....That Don Wagner should does run an efficient meeting. Golly.

Hookers, togetherness, board meeting

1. IN THE NEWS. In this morning’s Inside Higher Ed:

• A wave of books and reports about French undergraduates paying for higher education by working as prostitutes has led government officials to pledge more assistance for low-income students, The Guardian reported. One estimate — disputed by government officials — is that 40,000 students are working as prostitutes.

• Anderson University, an Indiana institution affiliated with the Church of God, held its first on-campus dance this weekend, the Associated Press reported. Trustees last year lifted a ban on dancing. James Edwards, the university’s president, commented to the AP on the fact that many of the hundreds who attended didn’t actually dance. ” I don’t know if there’s a lot of great dancing going on or a lot of great standing going on,” he said, “but there’s a lot of togetherness going on.”

2. BOARD MEETING. Meeting of the SOCCCD board of trustees tonight. For the agenda outline, go to January agenda

The closed session starts at 3:00. Among the items listed:

Conference with Real Property Negotiators (GC 54956.8)

1. Property – Lease of Portion of Advanced Technology and Education Park (ATEP) Property at 15445 Lansdowne Road, Tustin, CA - Agency Designated Representative – Dr. Raghu Mathur;

Negotiating Parties (1) Camelot Entertainment; (2) CSU-Fullerton; (3) Young Americans; and (4) Chapman University/University College.

Under Negotiation – Price and Terms of Payment

On the open agenda (6:00 p.m.):

4.1 Saddleback College, Irvine Valley College and ATEP: Educational and Facilities Master Plan Update
Information presented by Dr. Richard D. McCullough, President, Saddleback College, Dr. Glenn R. Roquemore, President, Irvine Valley College, and Dr. Robert Kopecky, Provost, ATEP.

5.14 SOCCCD: Revised Authorization for District Institutional Memberships 2007/2008
Approve memberships as presented.

6.1 ATEP: Submittal of Short Range Plan to the City of Tustin
Accept for Review and Study.

6.8 Saddleback College: Veteran’s Memorial Project
Approve the Veteran’s Memorial project.

Sorrow's springs are the same

The widow of my writing professor called last night from her home in Joshua Tree. She called this time last year and the year before. We've never met, but since her husband (though she would probably prefer another term) Richard Lee died, she calls. She refers to our holiday card and how pleased she is that she still receives it and asks about our family, our work, our writing. We talk about her late husband, which, I suppose is the reason she calls us. In some way, she is calling him.

Tonight we talked for half an hour. She has finished her memoir about Greenwich Village in the 40s and her time with Georgia O'Keefe and the deKoonings, Franz Kline, Joseph Heller, Joaquim Probst and others. Eventually, she met Dr. Lee (as I called him) there, when he was a student at NYU. They fell in love and moved out here when he got the position at Cal State in 1955. So, in 1981, when I wandered into his classroom clutching my overwritten poems, he had been teaching there for almost 40 years.

Here he is in the CSULB faculty parking lot. The photo was taken by David Barker and featured in Barker's book 12 Poets and Their Cars, published in 1972.

At the end of our conversation, she invited us to visit her and, since I've already thought about how beautiful the desert will be this spring with the rain and all, when I said yes, it didn't feel as if I were lying. It felt like the truth. I hope it is.

Dr. Richard Lee ran the poetry workshop I lingered in at Cal State Long Beach in the early 1980s. He had other, better students than I, including roots rocker and bluesman Dave Alvin. Another talented student was one Kyle Anne Bates who also published in IVC's literary journal, the Ear. (L.T. would remember her and her work, a poem about a UPS delivery person, I believe.)

Dr. Lee (I could never call him Richard) taught me how to read closely and widely and with joy. He loved Gerard Manley Hopkins, a poet who was unafraid of exclamation points and joy. Hopkins would have loved Joshua Tree.

This one is for Dr. Lee:

Spring and Fall - Gerard Manley Hopkins

Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By & by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you wíll weep & know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sorrow's springs are the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What héart héard of, ghóst guéssed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.

Somebody Got to Have Some Sense on this Highway

No school today.

I reminded my students last week of this fact. They knew. It's the first week of classes and they know exactly how many holidays to expect. They're counting down already.

It's the federal holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, I said. We didn't always have this holiday, I told them, aware of the fact that for most of them, born this semester circa late 1980s, the holiday always had been. Do something, I said. And then, feeling very old, I added, when I was your age we used to march down to the South African Embassy and sit in and shut it down. You don't have to do that anymore, I added. Some on them smiled. The rest looked a little alarmed. Now that was a great excuse for missing class, I went on. (I couldn't stop myself.) You just told your teacher that you were in jail. I smiled. Widely.

Today at our home, we will read Faith Ringgold's wonderful "My Dream of Martin Luther King" with our little guy and listen to King's speeches on the radio.

This morning's New York Times gave us this holiday offering: Sarah Vowell's "Radical Love Gets a Holiday."

Here's some choice excerpts but you can click on the title above for the whole text. Go ahead. Click.

...Because I am a culturally Christian atheist the same way my atheist Reform friends are culturally Jewish, I look forward to Martin Luther King’s Birthday — when the news momentarily replaces the rants of the faith-based spitfires with clips of what an actually Christlike Christian sounds like — with the kind of fondness with which my pal Ben looks back on the decent, affectionate ideal that was his summer camp.

I have become just another citizen whose only religion is the freedom of religion and as such I patrol the wall of separation between church and state like some jumpy East German guarding Checkpoint Charlie back before Ronald Reagan single-handedly tore it down.

Which is why I am relieved that journalists and voters keep asking Mike Huckabee, the Republican presidential candidate, what he meant 10 years ago when he told a meeting of his fellow Baptists, “I hope we answer the alarm clock and take this nation back for Christ.” That is a curiously unconstitutional opinion for someone seeking the job of defending the Constitution, not to mention historically inaccurate considering the mostly deist founders were about as spiritual as the original cast of “Hair.”

But I am also relieved when Mr. Huckabee occasionally blurts out some Sunday School sentiment about how he doesn’t think a poor child should have to sleep in a car. Of course, this whiff of Jesus makes some of his fellow Republicans turn on him as if he’s Michael Dukakis. Because they fear that trying to find the homeless homes translates into raising the taxes they must render unto Caesar.Whoever wins the presidential election this year will be a Christian. (Unless of course it’s that one guy who is a member of a Muslim sleeper cell. Just when you think the electoral process couldn’t get any more stupid....) So the rest of us might as well suck it up and see if we can pick the Christian who is, if incapable of loving his or her enemies, the one who seems least likely to drum up a bunch of extra, new enemies to hate.

In this age of a slower, grubbier mutually assured destruction, when no one’s typed the word “nonviolence” since the typewriter, it’s worth reading Dr. King’s quarrel with the cold war’s MAD ploy. In the “loving your enemies” text he tells a pretty little parable about how one night his brother A. D. drove him to Tennessee. Infuriated by all the other cars’ brights, A. D. vowed to crank his lights and blind the next driver passing by. Dr. King told him not to, that it would just get everybody killed. “Somebody got to have some sense on this highway,” he said.

Advanced Technology & Education Park slideshow

Click on the BIG ARROW to start!
Click on individual photos to make 'em bigger.
(Don't forget to put on some music. Slides always go better with music!)

IVC PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
SLIDESHOW

Dissent's canyon slide show

Click on the ARROW to start the slide show.
Click on individual photos to enlarge them.
Some of 'em don't look like much until you do that.
(You might as well play some music while you view the show!)

PROFILE: the Foundation’s Adam Probolsky, Superhero

.....IN MY OPINION, not enough is said about the remarkable people who serve on the Irvine Valley College Foundation.
.....—People like the ubiquitous ADAM PROBOLSKY, who serves on the Foundation’s Board of Governors along with his pal Jon Fleischman, who, until about a year ago, was Sheriff Mike Carona’s Deputy Director for Public Affairs.
.....Dissenters first encountered Adam Probolsky back in July of 2000, when the GOP’s Tom Fuentes showed up at a special board meeting to apply for the role of replacement of resigning trustee (and Holocaust denier. Oops!) Steve Frogue. At the time (see Duck crap), we reported:

.....Fuentes’ appointment seemed to be, well, highly orchestrated. Consider: of the three candidates who were interviewed on the 12th [of July, 2000], only Fuentes showed up with written answers for each of the Board’s questions. Someone in the audience told me that the pro-Fuentes remarks offered that night by three Old Guard unionists [including Ray Chandos and Sharon McMillan] were read from documents written in the same font as was displayed on Fuentes’ prepared answer sheets. Possibly this verbiage was provided by the remarkable Adam Probolsky, a fat man in a white shirt who kept running around the board room fixin’ things. Probolsky, one of Fuentes’ lieutenants, is a consultant for local right-wing politicos. His partner is the son of Lou Sheldon (of the “Traditional Values Coalition”).

.....Another remarkable personage entered (or reentered) the picture at the time—Mike Schroeder, OC kingpin and head of the local “Republican mafia” (evidently, a role he inherited from Fuentes). I had a meeting in July or August of 2000 with Fuentes in which Schroeder sat in. Schroeder had been the state GOP chair, and, in that role, he assisted our attempt to recall Mr. Frogue.
.....Still with me? OK. Just two days ago, Mr. Probolsky’s name came up in Dana Parsons’ column (see Replacement for Carona too close for comfort) in the Times. Parsons revealed the curious politics behind the selection of Jack Anderson as exiting OC Sheriff Mike Carona’s replacement:

.....…Under federal indictment on corruption charges [Oops!], Carona had returned to office Jan. 7 after a two-month paid hiatus but decided to step down this week so he could get free legal help—something he couldn't do if he stayed.
.....Slight problem. Who would take over?
.....When he took his initial leave, Carona tapped loyalist Jo Ann Galisky to run the department.
.....Slight problem. It's unclear whether the county [Republican] party would fall in behind her as the permanent face of local law enforcement.
.....However, it would fall in line behind Jack Anderson, an assistant sheriff and member of the party's central committee. So, Carona, who made it clear this week he wanted Anderson to succeed him on a permanent basis, named him second in command.

.....Here we see the Mafia in action. Pay attention to what comes next. According to Parsons,

..... [Carona] couldn't name [Anderson] undersheriff, the position Galisky held, because Anderson didn't meet the county requirements for the post. Before he left office, Carona demoted Galisky.

.....—Garsh!


.....Our boy Probolsky now enters the picture. Parsons continues:

.....Anderson met the press Tuesday, assisted not by any of the paid Sheriff's Department spokesmen, but by Adam Probolsky, an ex-officio member of the GOP's central committee and a volunteer with the Sheriff Department's reserve program.
.....Probolsky serves on a few local governmental positions and is a pollster by trade. He said he helped Anderson in his role as volunteer reserve. He has stepped in for the county on other matters, Probolsky said, such as helping out with media during the protracted wildfire season. All he did for Anderson, Probolsky said, was provide reporters with names of public officials who had worked with Anderson and could offer perspective on him.
.....Not to be naive, but I asked Probolsky—well-known as an unapologetic political animal—if politics shouldn't have been separated from Anderson's press event.
....."I don't think you have to separate the politics," he said.
.....The central committee is sprinkled with names of people holding elective office, he noted, adding that the Sheriff's Department is a political office, as well.
.....I asked him how he happened to be at Anderson's event. "Did I get a call from a higher power?" Probolsky said. "No. I took it upon myself to say, 'Here's a project I think I can help with.' "

.....Mindful of Probolsky’s outsized helpfulness and ubiquity (he even helped with the fire!), Rebel Girl calls Adam a kind of “superhero”—you know, with special abilities from some higher power. I've got to agree.

.....A couple of summers ago, Adam suddenly appeared in one of my philosophy courses, listening intently. Amazing! How does the man do it all!

.....Another place where the P-man pops up is the current JANET NGUYEN saga. You remember: back in 2007, she ran against Schroeder-anointed Trung Nguyen for OC Supervisor in a special election to replace resigning Lou Correa. Carlos Bustamante also ran—seemingly as the GOP cigar-chompers' favorite. But on election night, it appeared that Trung won, though just barely. But Janet had her eye on the Mafia and she cried foul over perceived irregularities in Westminster. (See Claiming voter fraud.) So she got a recount, and she emerged the winner by three votes! But, see, Team Schroeder hates to lose, and so he took the matter to a higher court and, yesterday, the matter was finally settled in Janet’s favor. (See Janet Wins.) Whew!
.....But what about Probolsky? Here’s where things get seriously zany. Eleven months ago (see Probolsky won’t involve himself ), we had occasion to quote Martin Wisckol’s THE BUZZ. Martin had quite a story to tell concerning that wacky special Supervisor election. Prima facie, the local GOP backed rising star Carlos Bustamante, who was opposed by Janet Nguyen and Trung Nguyen, among others. Here's the story:

.....The venerable Lincoln Club apparently had its own money used against it to defeat the club's candidate, [Republican rising star] Carlos Bustamante, in this month's special election for county supervisor.
.....The OC club is made up of Republican business people that participate in campaigns on many different levels….
.....The PAC, which was coordinated in part by GOP consultant Adam Probolsky, ended that election with about $2,700 left. The account was collecting dust when somebody decided to rename it, raise more money and use it for attacks on Lincoln Club-endorsee Bustamante.  [My emphasis.]
....."It just gets weirder and weirder," said Matt [“Jubal”] Cunningham, the Red County/OC Blog editor trying to unravel the intra-party cloak-and-dagger affair.
.....The new treasurer of the committee, now called the Orange County Healthcare, Education & Neighborhood Leaders PAC, hasn't returned Cunningham's calls. But Cunningham tracked down some of the PAC's latest contributors as also being Janet Nguyen supporters.

.....Probolsky, it so happens, has done some work for Nguyen, and that has lead to speculation that he had a hand in transforming the PAC.
....."There is no advantage for me to get involved in that discussion," Probolsky told the Buzz when asked if he would deny the speculation.

..... .....--Now wait a minute. Probolsky's pal Mike Schroeder is Janet Nguyen opponent Trung Nguyen's attorney. Right?
.....This don't add up. Well, whatever. The point is that the Foundation’s P-man sure does get around. And he's clever. And he sure is helpful.

TRIVIA:

.....I looked up the above-mentioned PAC (see Contributors) and found that, in October of ’06, the Lincoln Club gave $15K to this PAC. That makes sense, I guess. That’s when the PAC was geared to getting Bustamante, not Janet N, elected.
.....Another contributor listed is the “LAW OFFICES OF HOWARD J. KLEIN,” who contributed twelve days earlier.
.....Wait a minute. Isn’t Klein the Chairman of the IVC Foundation? (See IVC Foundation.) Yep.
.....Klein was also a contributor to Sheriff Mike Carona’s first campaign, as was the Foundation’s Mark H. Cheung, John Fleischman, Mary Aileen Matheis, and, of course, Adam Probolsky.
.....As you know, several years ago, the IVC Foundation named Mike Carona IVC’s “Hometown Hero.”

.....Oh yeah. Guess who's the treasurer of the Saddleback College Foundation Board? It is none other than Adam's brother, Brian!
.....Gosh, it sometimes seems like everything’s connected! Know what I mean?

What about Gustavo Arellano?

1. Yesterday, at the IVC Academic Senate meeting, Senators were shown drafts of new board policies that are up for approval (on Tuesday, I think). Among them is a policy permitting alcoholic beverages at Foundation functions held on campus. That's good. Punch and cookies are gettin' mighty old.

The writing of the policy isn't so good, though. The policy reads, "The Chancellor...is authorized to approve...the serving of alcoholic beverages...if the alcoholic beverages is for use at foundation...events."

It gets worse. Really.

Baboons run this district.


2. A member of the Commencement Speaker task force solicited suggestions for a speaker. I think the last speaker was a successful bodybuilder/fitness guru. (Faculty on the committee wanted a writer; students wanted the muscle guy.) The speaker before that, I think, owned a successful chain of fish taco restaurants. He wore a colorful shirt. Nice guy.

During the meeting, one senator, a member of the PE department, suggested that we secure an Orange County Olympic gold medalist. I guess they could do curls or something. Or just stand there with their gold baubles.

I opined that, though I was not necessarily opposed to muscle or fish speakers, it would be refreshing if, for once, we could secure a speaker who represented intellectual attainment. Years ago—i.e., anteGoo—our commencement speakers included writers. Now, they're all Republican politicians or businessmen.

Some senators worried that Chancellor Raghu "Micromanager" Mathur might fix the selection. What's the use of having a task force if the fix is in? Yeah, well.

How about writer Gustavo Arellano? He's swell! I can just see it. We'll ask Gustavo, and, Gustavo will say yes (how could he resist?), and then Mathur will step in to give the job to Lou Bone.

That is my prediction.


3. There are indications that Mathur has joined HR in boldly violating district hiring policies. One persistent story is that he "directed" the two college presidents whom to select for the various faculty hiring committees—and he did so in a manner that violated the policy's provision according to which two-thirds of each committee must be faculty. When this became clear, vigilant faculty (who have made an effort to bone up on the details of our hard-won hiring policy, the result of a successful lawsuit) blew the whistle. Nope, you've got to follow the policy.

As you know, owing to a gigantic SCREW UP by the Chancellor, we are now compelled to hire 45 faculty ASAP (in order to increase the proportion of spending on instruction, which is supposed to be at least 50%). Each college president is entitled, as per board policy, to select three members for each hiring committee.

Unless, of course, Raghu P. Mathur is the Chancellor. Then they're not. He is.

Or so he seems to think.

4. Don't forget! There's a meeting of the SOCCCD board of trustees on Tuesday. I'm bringing my camcorder.

5. Have you been following the Janet Nguyen case? The OC Weekly is all over her victory over Mike Schroeder and Co. (the Fuentesphere). See NGUYEN VS. NGUYEN: JANET WINS!

I do have one complaint, though. The OC Weekly stole our Carona/Knack joke. See THE BALLAD OF MIKE CARONA. I think their graphic (above) sucks, compared to ours (below):

Plus, Rebel Girl was singing "My, My, My Carona" back in early November! (Did I miss an email?).

We'll let it go this time!

Medieval Tech Support (with English subtitles)

I expect the incredibly tolerant and cheerful folks at Technology Services will especially enjoy this one. It's Friday, ya'll.

Watch a movie. It won't take long.

This one is courtesy of a fellow who knew the Rebel Girl way back when, like, say, 1975.

The language - Norwegian.

U of Phoenix & fraud

From this morning’s New York Times: Fraud by University Owner Is Found:

PHOENIX (AP) — The Apollo Group Inc., the company that owns the University of Phoenix, fraudulently misled investors in 2004 about student recruitment policies, a federal jury decided Wednesday. The panel ordered the company to pay shareholders about $280 million.

Jurors said Apollo officials “knowingly and recklessly” made false statements in a news release, a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission and four conference calls with market analysts. By doing so, jurors said, Apollo violated federal securities laws.

…Shareholders claimed that Apollo misled investors four years ago when it kept secret a 2004 Department of Education report that criticized the University of Phoenix’s recruitment policies. The report concluded that the university paid enrollment counselors solely based on the “recruiters’ success in securing enrollments,” which violated federal regulations….

See also Piling on the U of P.

Rebel Girl's Lifestyle Tips for this Electoral Season

~
.....In the aftermath of the last presidential election, Rebel Girl spent an inordinate amount of time staying up late, listening to the songs of the Spanish Civil war (Freiheit!), and sipping Greek Metaxa (five stars!).
.....It seemed to help.
.....This year, she's getting started early and has vowed healthier habits.
.....If you too feel the looming doom, she suggests brewing large mugs of Redbush Chai tea (resist the sweetener!) and reading George Orwell. He always helps.
.....Today's reading is from his essay "The Lion and the Unicorn," published in 1941. An excerpt (bolded phrases are Reb's, of course):

"Almost entirely we are governed by the rich, and by people who step into positions of command by right of birth. Few if any of these people are consciously treacherous, some of them are not even fools, but as a class they are quite incapable of leading us to victory. They could not do it, even if their material interests did not constantly trip them up. As I pointed out earlier, they have been artificially stupefied. Quite apart from anything else, the rule of money sees to it that we shall be governed largely by the old - that is, by people utterly unable to grasp what age they are living in or what enemy they are fighting. Nothing was more desolating at the beginning of this war [WW II] than the way in which the whole of the older generation conspired to pretend that it was the war of 1914-18 over again. All the old duds were back on the job, twenty years older, with the skull plainer in their faces… It was like a tea-party of ghosts. And that state of affairs has barely altered. The shock of disaster brought a few able men like Bevin to the front, but in general we are still commanded by people who managed to live through the years 1931-9 without even discovering that Hitler was dangerous. A generation of the unteachable is hanging upon us like a necklace of corpses."

Fuentes bashes faculty

A video that presents Trustee Fuentes' remarks during a notorious 2004 Leisure World TV interview:

IVC's "Hometown Hero" resigns

See Carona to resign in the OC Reg:

Sheriff Mike Carona announced his resignation today “with a heavy heart,” saying it would be best for the department and the county if he was not distracted while defending himself against federal public corruption charges. Carona placed his announcement on the department’s Web site and is expected to meet with reporters later today.

From the Times: O.C. sheriff's resignation causes turmoil:

...As he departed, Carona took steps to leave his political imprint on the department, firing one of his assistant sheriffs, Dan Martini, without explanation, and appointing as interim sheriff one of his biggest loyalists.

His choice of Assistant Sheriff Jack Anderson to run the department immediately raised concerns in some quarters, because in addition to being a strong Carona ally, Anderson is an official of the Orange County Republican Party….

Turf War? Community college funding in the hot seat

From this morning’s Inside Higher Ed: A Proposition They Can Refuse?:

On Thursday, …California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a fiscal emergency and proposed 10 percent cuts across the state budget. The deep cuts proposed for the state’s public education system would require lawmakers to suspend Proposition 98, a 1988 measure that sets aside about 40 percent of the General Fund revenues for K-12 and community colleges.

Against that backdrop, California voters will head to the polls in early February to decide whether a certain proportion of that allocation should be strictly reserved for community colleges – and whether California’s fees, already the lowest in the nation, should be reduced from $20 to $15 a credit hour and essentially locked in at such low rates….

“It continues to evolve, the political climate around the initiative. I think initially, when this initiative was first put together, there was a feeling that there would be a lot of support,” said Marilyn Grinsdale, a government relations officer for Citrus College, a community college in California’s San Gabriel Valley. “As the budget situation has gotten worse, I think people have suddenly started thinking, ‘We’re afraid we won’t get what we need.’”

“There has been, much to community colleges’ dismay, some opposition coming in from other systems.”

California’s controversial Proposition 92 has pitted the various components of California’s higher education system against one another. Among its supporters are the Community College League of California and community college chancellors, presidents and trustees. Among its opponents are the California State University and University of California Systems, and the powerful California Teachers Association. (Although CTA’s statewide affiliate, the Community College Association, broke from its parent organization to support the initiative).

The debate has largely denigrated into a turf war: “Proposition 92 if passed could result in unintended problems that will negatively impact the CSU and threaten funding for other critical California programs,” CSU says in its statement. “Proposition 92 requires more state funding and reduces student fees for one segment of higher education without regard to the needs of all of higher education. Since it does not create or identify any new revenue sources, unprotected state programs such as UC and CSU would be competing for a smaller share of available General Funds,” UC’s regents said in theirs….

(My emphases.)

SOCCCD's Faculty Association is a member of CCA (and ipso facto CTA). I do believe that our district is a member of CCLC. I recall that our trustees occasionally attend CCLC conferences.

Desire and Obligation

REBEL GIRL spent the last weekend before the semester at a family holiday party in Parker, Arizona, on the banks of the Colorado River, some six or seven hours across the desert. As you may know, the Colorado River is held hostage by technology. This baffles Rebel Girl. The result this weekend was that the river was "low"–too low for boat rides, too low to gaze at and have one's spirits raised. She gazed instead at the television screen and watched a football game between the Green Bay Packers and some team from Seattle that was played in a raging snow storm, which added something, she must admit, to the spectacle. She opined to the cousin nearest her that her mother used to root for Green Bay way back in the late 60s. They were good then, the cousin confirmed.

Others headed out to the infamous Desert Bar where they drank and shot at things. Upon their return, yet another cousin confided that, at the Desert Bar, he was told that his grandfather had had a vasectomy BEFORE his own father was conceived, which suggested that his bloodlines to the family were perhaps thinner than originally believed. That means that you can go home NOW, Rebel Girl said but he didn't seem to hear.

The next day, on their way home, on the California side of the river, they drove past the Wyatt Earp Post Office. It's something sitting there, in the middle of nowhere. She wished she had a letter to mail. Next time she'll stop.

Meanwhile, the new semester begins.

Crisis caveat

Faculty, welcome back.

As you know, the big news right now is the governor’s proposed budget. According to CCC Chancellor Diane Woodruff, “The California Community Colleges received a reduction of $525 million that includes a two-thirds reduction in growth funds.”

No doubt, you’ve already received lots of emails alerting you to the trouble ahead.

But NOTE WELL: there can be no doubt that Chancellor Mathur will exploit the situation to serve his interests. That’s what the man does.

As you know, owing to his bungling, our colleges are, and have been, in crisis mode re the 50% Law. The gist: state law requires that at least half of expenditures (in community colleges) go to faculty salaries and benefits (“instruction”). But, for years, in part because of ATEP start-up costs, we’ve spent increasingly less on instruction and are now doomed to cross below the 50% mark. (See The data & Documents.) Among the desperate measures we’ve taken: the en masse and ASAP hiring of faculty.


No district would do that unless it had to. Faculty hiring should be done carefully, deliberately. Not hurriedly.

Our haste has already produced fiascos. HR has bungled advertising for these 45 new hires. Check out our ad in the Chronicle of Higher Education. It's useless; and it contains errors. (This was discovered during a recent IVC Academic Senate meeting in which it occurred to folks to actually go online and check out the ads that HR was in such a hurry to get into the CHE.)

No doubt Mathur will seize the opportunity to blame all of our woes, including our 50% woes, on the state budget. He’ll announce various obnoxious initiatives too, using the budget crisis as cover.

We can’t let him get away with that.

"But wait!", you say. "The state’s budgetary woes do not apply to us because we’re on basic aid!"

Well, yes. But there’s a big “but”: despite our special funding situation (we rely on local property taxes), our board of trustees insists on funding the colleges as though we received the more common state funding. And so that means we’re headed for seriously lean times. We’ll have to spend less money.


Meanwhile, the district (i.e., Gary Poertner) projects that we are headed for non-compliance with the 50% Law (for 2007-2008) to the tune of four and a half million dollars. But the projection assumes a faculty COLA of 4.53%.

Among the provisions of the state budget: no COLA.

That means that we’re headed for an even greater degree of non-compliance (with the 50% Law) than we thought. And that means: we need to hire more faculty or increase faculty salaries/benefits.

How that all fits with spending less money ain’t exactly clear to me. (Admittedly, I’m no money guy.)

At any rate, it’s important that we learn the facts about all this and keep an eye on you-know-who.

So welcome back.

Historic districtular video

.

Relive that lovely day in May of 2004 in which the ballots were counted and it was determined that 93.5% of the faculty of our district voted "no confidence" in Chancellor Raghu P. Mathur.


The last ballot.

The League of Women Voters was on hand to make sure that everything was on the up 'n' up.

A good time was had by all.