Monday, April 7, 2008

Talk about your "administrative instability"!


.....WELL, it’s (semi)official. Today, just a few days after Vice Chancellor (of Human Resources) Bob King announced his impending departure (aka return to full-time shystery), we learned that Vice Chancellor Andreea Serban has accepted the position of Superintendent/President at Santa Barbara City College. (Some bigwig confirmed this for me.)
.....A few weeks ago, we learned that "Park Ranger" Bob Kopecky, long-time Provost of ATEP, resigned (well, officially I guess, he's on leave, but c'mon).

.....The timing of these departures—I'm not even counting Saddleback College President Richard McCullough's Goo-induced departure in two months!—is mighty inopportune. For instance, we keep hearing that negotiations re ATEP are now at a critical stage. So why would the head of ATEP step down now?
.....King is a chief negotiator for the district in the talks re the faculty contract. We hear (from union leadership) that, recently, negotiations have reached a critical stage. So why is King leaving now? (I’ve learned that at least two recent negotiation sessions have been cancelled. What’s that about?)
.....Owing to Chancellor Raghu P. Mathur’s disastrous and inveterate flouting (forgetting?) of the 50% Law, we have been compelled to endure 38 new faculty hires, a messy spectacle that is placing extreme burdens on faculty—and especially on HR personnel. Why would the top Human Resources guy leave in the middle of this?
.....Meanwhile, both colleges of the district have been sent final fix-it tickets from the Accreds (the ACCJC), and if we don’t fix things this time, they’re gonna pull our licenses. They mean business.
.....But wasn’t “administrative instability” among the problems cited by the Accreditors (see the letter to Saddleback College (pdf))? You bet! And, in any case, doncha wanna keep your administrative team together when the sh*t hits the fan from several directions at once, threatening hideous and mortal fecal splattage?
.....Of course!

Throwing gasoline on the Accred fires
.....As you know, the Accreds have long cited a “plague of despair” and “hostility” as problems at our colleges. We’ve been hearing that from them for ten long years.
.....Now, at long last, and all of a sudden, we’ve gotta overcome the plague. They demand a miracle!
.....So tell me this. Why, at this moment, would Chancellor Mathur choose to send a hostile and fear-inducing memo to administrators, as he did last week? That is, why would he spread the plague exactly when, more than ever, we're desperate to eradicate plaguery?
.....Does Bubonic Boy secretly want our colleges to be unaccredited? Is that it?
.....What the hell kind of Chancellor is he anyway? Tell me that!

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

er, what kind of chancellor is he?

Well, he is a well-paid chancellor, that's for sure!

Anonymous said...

Maybe Andreea had to protect herself.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations to Andrea. I think she will make a fine college President.

I will miss her humor.

Anonymous said...

Bubonic Boy!!!!

Anonymous said...

She's leaving so she won't get dragged into the accreditation mess. She saw it coming, obviously.

Anonymous said...

America: The Land of Subjective Accountability

(Don't get me wrong...I'm in the same game as everybody else. Just pointin' out the facts).

God save the queen.

Anonymous said...

Maybe this kind of turnover, this lack of commitment occurs in every college district.

Does anyone have the ballpark figures of the number of administrators that have come and gone in the last ten years?

Anonymous said...

That is TWO vice-chancellors in ONE month - I wodner what's coming down the pike that they're trying to get out of the way of...

Anonymous said...

is this true? I ahven't ehard anything about it from any other source. (Not that I doubt this one - really, if you didn'tw rite it, we would know much less.)

Anonymous said...

It's true.

Anonymous said...

In years past, this kind of turnover was unheard of. Now people can't seem to leave fast enough. And it seems to be happening at all levels, from administrators to classified staff. Is anyone looking at the reasons for the trend?

torabora said...

The desks in my districts admin building are equipped with military surplus fighter plane ejection seats.

Anonymous said...

Good riddance to Andreea. She is arrogant and pompous and will fit right in with the folks in Santa Barbara.

Anonymous said...

But isn't that why she fit in so well in YOUR district?

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...