“Üye olmak için tıklayın,” we’re told

.....Have you seen the South Orange County Community College District website lately? Nowadays, there, one finds a “video welcome” by Chancellor Mathur in a section entitled “What’s New?”
.....Mathur’s performance on this video is, as usual, wooden, but it is sure to please his fans, namely, Mathur. All others will be consternated and stupefied.
.....Listed among what is "new" are five things:

• IVC Performing Arts Center
• SC Veterans Memorial Project
• ATEP Campus Opens in Tustin
• Annual Report Showcasing Technology
• 2008 Commencement Photo Essay

.....Not much of this is new, of course. I clicked on the first link—IVC’s Performing Arts Center (PAC)—and that brought me to a pleasant-looking blog entitled "IVC Performing Arts" that appears to have nothing whatsoever to do with the IVC performing arts or the IVC PAC. It does, however, appear to be new.
.....The blog comprises seven increasingly badly-written movie reviews of popular films: Iron Man, Sex and the City, The Incredible Hulk, etc. The writing is unsophisticated. Concerning “Iron Man,” we’re told that “the Iron Man costume was kicking major ass.”
.....Then there's the blog's blogroll, which lists four sites, none of them making the slightest sense. The “forum” is indeed a forum. Unfortunately, it is in Turkish. Really.
.....“Üye olmak için tıklayın,” we’re told.
.....Another blog on the blogroll is labeled “ferrari [sic] pictures.” I clicked it, and that took me to a blog called “Freak Cars,” which presents photos of exotic sports cars, including Alfa Romeos, VWs, and Bugattis.
.....No Ferraris.

[UPDATE: Rebel Girl informs me that, today {Monday}, the above problems have been ironed out. Today, upon clicking the district website's IVC Performing Arts Center link, one is actually taken to a site about the IVC Performing Arts Center. Those, however, who wish to stroll down Memory Lane can return to that odd, Turk-friendly, Ferrari- and film-loving blog—still entitled "IVC Performing Arts"—by clicking here. ]

.....The “Veterans Memorial” link is a Saddleback College page that lists seven links (in English!) about the memorial, including one called “testimonials.” Police Chief Harry Parmer “testifies” as follows: “That this memorial to veterans will be displayed at an institution of higher learning is precedent setting.”

.....The ATEP link is unremarkable (and 8 months old). It is sad to see Bob Kopecky referred to as the Park Ranger, er, Provost, a title that he has now shed.

.....The technology “report” is actually a glossy and expensive pamphlet packed with colorful whiz-bangery. Unfortunately, it begins with Mathur's mug plus a quotation: “Change is becoming a constant in American society…. Our three campuses are advancing change….”
.....Advancing change? Mathur's an idiot.

.....Still, the pamphlet is impressive. The “District at a Glance” pages (20-23) are especially interesting. I’ve included some of the charts and graphs here.
.....What’s with the 60/40 ratio of women to men? Is this a trend?

As you can see, the "ethnicity" of IVC students is 26% Asian and 4% Middle Eastern. This suggests, to me at least, that roughly 30% of IVC students would likely find the distinctly Judeo-Christian prayers offered by some of our trustees at district and college events to be, well, decidedly otherly.
.....That would be fine, I guess, if some of their faiths (Islam, Buddhism, etc.), along with the perspective of atheists and agnostics ("Let's have a moment of quiet desperation, shall we?"), got some play too. But that doesn't happen, now does it?
.....Nope.