Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Random factoids and observations

1. I attended the start of IVC’s Veterans Day ceremony yesterday, which was held more or less between the new Performing Arts Center and the even newer Beefsteak Bld. Everybody walked from all points of the compass to the little stand against the big blue wall.


--Everybody, that is, except His Highness Raghu P. Mathur, who was transported all the way from his car to the stand in a special electric cart. I was not alone in staring the fellow down with severe disapprobation.

2. As you know, we netted precisely bupkis in our efforts to unseat trustees Tom Fuentes and Dave Lang in last week’s board election. Carolyn Inmon came mighty close to unseating Lang, and Bob Bliss did surprisingly well, too—but, in the end, we got zip.

Well, at least we didn’t lose Bill Jay.

OK, know this. Experts going way back (remember consultant Eileen Padberg back in 2000?) have told the faculty union: concentrate on one seat. Don’t try to take on several trustee seats at once!

Do we ever listen? Nope. We get excited; we think God is on our side, or something (He is, but He’s no help). “We can do this!” we shout. (Er, "Maybe we can!")

Forgetaboutit. Next time, we concentrate on one solitary trustee, take ‘im out. That’s it. All else is folly.

3. Most of us, it seems, are very happy about the way the Presidential race turned out. It’s the dawning of a new era!

It’s not a bad time for our district either. Likely, we’ll survive our Accreditation predicament, thanks largely to some very dedicated people among faculty and staff. I suppose that trustee Don Wagner deserves credit here too. As a close observer of this process, however, I know how crucial has been the leadership of a small handful of faculty.

As usual, most district denizens have no idea how much is owed to so few. (We'll find out about accreditation in January.)

And, thanks to last spring’s absurd hiring extravaganza, we’ve got lots of new faculty. It’s a real opportunity, I say. Let’s get ‘em involved in governance right away! That old advice about protecting new faculty is just BULLSHIT. If this new crew doesn't get dialed in, we're toast, cuz we can't count on.... Well, you know. Thank God for newbies.

The board is left unchanged, but I think we’re OK. My sense of things is that Mr. Fuentes is not the dominant figure that he once was, in part because of an uninterrupted string of misadventures and screw-ups presented mostly by his boy Raghu P. Mathur, the Worst Chancellor in the World. At this point, Chancellor Goo is an embarrassment and liability to everyone (save GOP Corruption Boy). Administrators hate him; trustees distrust or disdain him; even his faculty supporters seem to have abandoned him. (Has anyone seen Walter?)

Nobody who travels in education circles in this county--or state--is unaware of Mathur’s reputation as a creep.

I say we just ignore him. He can keep the office. He can even show up for commencement. Hell, he can keep the Mercedes. We’ll just work around him!

4. I’ve been resting up from some health problems (dang blood sugar issues!), and so I took it really easy today. I did manage the installation of four tiny knobs on my dresser. Friends recently returned from Italy, and one of my pals brought me five goofy little colored knobs, hand-painted by tiny Italians.

My friends reported that Italy is great, but, they add, when you go there, don’t expect things to actually work like they do in the USA. Toilets, door handles, phones--they're pretty rickety. If these colored knobs are any indication, Italians make cheesy hardware too.

Yeah, but these knobs sure do look great! Check 'em out.

Tiger Ann says “hey.”

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