Another fine example of Mathur's leadership

I KEEP trying to ignore it, but no one will let me.

Many citizens of our little district community were amazed last Thursday when Chancellor Raghu Mathur spammed us with Governor Schwarzenegger’s infamous executive order in response to the state budget impasse. You know the one. According to the AP:

Schwarzenegger's order…eliminated 10,300 seasonal, contract and part-time positions. It also ordered that up to 200,000 permanent, full-time state workers will receive the federal minimum wage of $6.55 an hour in their paychecks until the budget is passed. (Associated Press.)

The order included a “request” that, among others, state college employees be included in the action:

IT IS FURTHER REQUESTED that other entities of State government not under my direct executive authority, including … the University of California, the California State University, [and] California Community Colleges … assist in the implementation of this Order and implement similar mitigation measures that will help to preserve the State’s cash supply during this budget impasse.

Naturally, that line was in the email Mathur sent to district employees. Mathur offered no explanation of what the Governor's order means for our district and its employees. He allowed us to think that, apparently, we too would be living on minimum wage. Good grief!

Then, 77 minutes later, came a second Mathur missive, which said:

We would like to offer clarification of the Governor’s executive order to address our state’s budget crisis. This information was forwarded to inform employees of the dire nature of the crisis and how it will affect some state employees.

Please be assured that employees of the South Orange County Community College District will receive their payroll checks. There are no plans to terminate temporary/hourly employees at this time.

Let us extend our support during this difficult period to the families affected by the Governorʼs executive order.

Raghu P. Mathur, Ed.D
Chancellor

Oh. So he forwarded the Governor’s order to “inform” us of the “dire nature of the crisis and how it will affect some state employees.” I guess he figured we wouldn’t understand the seriousness of the situation unless we went through 77 minutes of supposing that it would affect us directly.

Thanks, dad. You sure are tough on us kids. In fact, you’re solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

But that’s because you care.

Sam Kinison in "Back to School": he really seems to care


ADMINISTRATORS WANT GREATER FACULTY ROLE IN GOVERNANCE
This morning’s Inside Higher Ed reports on a national survey of college administrators:

A majority (60 percent) believe that faculty members should play a bigger role in running campuses, with most of the rest happy with the status quo and only a few believing that professors should play less of a role. But while seeking more of a faculty role, the administrators share a highly critical view of faculty knowledge and perspective when it comes to campus decision making, with a broad consensus finding professors focused far too much on their own issues or departmental issues, and lacking either the knowledge or perspective to think about institutions as a whole and to promote change.

Sounds about right.

• I WRITE, THEREFORE I POLUTE.
Just in case you required proof that the New York Times' resident postmodern academic curmudgeon, Stanley Fish, is an asshole, read his latest piece: I Am, Therefore I Pollute. Read the reader comments too.