Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Patti Smith rules; Captain Adjunct remembers; Mathur contributes

• PATTI FLICK
In this morning's New York Times, Manohla Dargis reviews—and thoroughly enjoys—a new film about the great Patti Smith: Patti Smith: Dream of Life.

Sounds like a must-see!

• GOLDEN AGE
Meanwhile, over at the OC Register’s College Life blog (Summer Reading (1971)), Captain Adjunct, aka Red Emma, aka Andrew Tonkovich reminisces about childhood trips to the public library, endless entertaining explorations of hagiography—all against a backdrop of bombs dropped on kids far away. And yet, says the Captain, it was the Golden Age of public education.

• MATHUR'S POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS.
Today, I came across a record of Chancellor Raghu Mathur’s political contributions. As you know, some observers object to the "politicization" of the SOCCCD by Mathur and the Board. For instance, our board, led by Don Wagner, acted to cease the colleges' memberships in the American Library Association, since, in their judgment, the organization is a bunch of "liberal busybodies." A few years ago, trustee Tom Fuentes lead the board in denying approval of a study abroad trip to Spain on the grounds that Spain had "abandoned" our soldiers by pulling its troops out of Iraq. (The action was later reversed, over Fuentes and Wagner's objections.)

It is commonly supposed that chancellors should advise trustees and steer them clear of unnecessary controversy and politics. Despite his extraordinary $300K salary, Mathur does not lead the board at all, repeatedly standing by mute as the board stirs up anger and conflict. Further, he has allowed the board to conduct itself in a manner that has now threatened the continued accreditation of our two colleges.

If these trustees were genuinely "fiscally conservative," they'd fire Mathur's ass for the lousy job he's done all these years. No doubt, urged on by so-called "conservative" Tom Fuentes, they'll give him a raise instead.

Evidently, Mathur's not given much political money lately. According to NewsMeat, in April of 2006, the fellow gave $500 to Bill Morrow (House). He did the same the previous December.

Back in December of 1991, he gave $250 to Senate candidate John F. Seymour.

Naturally, both candidates are Republicans. Mathur's a Republican. All of the trustees are Republicans. Their pal Mike Carona—they love to bring that guy around—is a Republican too. Wall-to-wall Republicans. Zero clue.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Keep your nose out of the Chancellor's business and just do what you're paid to do, Roy. You'll have less heartburn and you might even smile a little more each day, which would be a good thing for your students.

Anonymous said...

Troll alert!

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, 9:17, Ragoo's business IS our business! What he does or doesn't do harms us as employees, harms the colleges and the district's pitiful reputations, and has a negative impact upon taxpayers' money that is not being wisely spent.

The world needs more watchdogs, not fewer ones, Mr. Troll. And as to Roy's smiling and his students? He (and they) do just fine together in pursuit of ethical truth.

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...