We're "not in this to make money"

TigerAnn hunting, this morning.

1981 primitive Internet report on KRON


This morning’s New York Times offers a glimpse into the weird past (A Newspaper? On a PC? That’s Crazy Talk), when reading the morning paper on one's computer sounded like, well, weird and unlikely shit of the future.

Ha ha ha.

The scene: 1981, San Francisco. A local news broadcast.

As the Times explains, the “best part comes about one minute into the clip, when one of the Examiner’s editors explains that the paper is ‘not in this to make money.’”

In 2003, the venerable San Francisco Examiner, which had once published the works of Ambrose Bierce, Mark Twain, and Jack London, became a free tabloid.

40 employees were let go the next day.

Tee-hee-hee.

TigerAnn doesn't seem to think about the future or the past. Near as I can tell, she lives entirely in the moment.

I saw her chase a momentary moth.

She failed to catch it, but she was pleased with herself still.

She took a dust bath; she sunned herself.

Be thou like the Tige.

Mostly joyful iconoclastery:

FOCUS' "HOCUS POCUS" live, 1973

My little bro Ray and I would listen to this and

laugh like hell.

But we loved it.

Ray loved Frank Zappa and the Mothers:

"We're Only In It For the Money," 1968

Flower Punk (to the music of "Hey Joe")

Hey punk, where you goin’ with that
Flower in your hand? (repeat)
Well, I’m goin’ up to frisco to join a
Psychedelic band.

Hey punk, where you goin’ with that
Button on your shirt? (repeat)
I’m goin’ to the love-in to sit & play
My bongos in the dirt.

Hey punk, where you goin’ with that
Hair on your head? (repeat)
I’m goin’ to the dance to get some action,
Then I’m goin’ home to bed.

Hey punk, where you goin’ with those
Beads around your neck? (repeat)
I’m goin’ to the shrink so he can help me
Be a nervous wreck...

(...with a little "Wild Thing" thrown in at the end)

Yeah, but Jimi still rules:
Ray would have agreed: Jimi rules.

Accreditation watch (and good news for 13 Stoploss!)

ACCREDITATION:

Friday, 12:45 p.m.: No word yet from the ACCJC (accreditors). As you know, we’re expecting a fax of the ACCJC’s letters informing the colleges of its decision re the accreditation of Irvine Valley College and Saddleback College, officially to be released on the 31st (but available, theoretically, today).

Friday, 1:05 p.m.: I have it on good authority (very good) that college officials communicated with the ACCJC this morning, and the ACCJC indicated that it put the letters in the mail this morning at 11:00. For some reason, the ACCJC will not be faxing the letters until Monday morning.

So try to have a nice weekend!

13 STOPLOSS RULES!

Military bloggers: I see that our pal Jason of 13 Stoploss is/was a finalist in MILblogging.blog’s Third Annual Milbloggies awards. (Jason is a student here at Irvine Valley College.)

Jason’s fine blog (great writing, great photos) falls under the category “U.S. Military Veteran.” The finalists are/were:

A Battlefield Tourist
PTSD, A Soldier's Perspective
13 Stoploss
Michael Yon: Online Magazine

This is old news, it seems (three months old). Still, it's something we want to note, now that we're aware of it.

Do yourself a favor and check out Jason's blog.

UPDATE:

7:00 p.m.: the IVC community just received this email from IVC VPI Craig Justice and the two accreditation co-chairs (Gabriella and Rudmann):

Dear Colleagues,

The College has been informed by the Accreditation Commission that the hard copy of the Accreditation Action Letter regarding the 2008 Progress Report was placed in the mail earlier today, January 30, 2009. The College has requested to be placed on the ACCJC fax list and was informed that the Action Letter will be faxed on Monday, February 2, 2009. As soon as the fax is received, the Irvine Valley College community will be informed immediately of the information....

I would imagine that the Saddleback College community received a similar letter.

America tries to think

• From this morning’s Inside Higher Ed:
Blinding Them With Science

American college freshmen know fewer facts about science than do their Chinese counterparts, according to a new study, but both groups have a comparably poor ability to reason scientifically.

The original research, published in this week’s issue of Science, suggests that educators in both countries must not simply change what they teach in the classroom but how they teach it if they hope to improve their students’ ability to reason. Lei Bao, the study’s lead author and director of Ohio State University’s Physics Education Research Group, said this runs contrary to the commonly held belief that reasoning skills develop as students are “rigorously taught the facts.”
…
After taking the Force Concept Inventory — which tests basic knowledge of mechanics — the Chinese students had an average score of nearly 86 percent, and the American students had an average score of around 49 percent….
…
After taking the Brief Electricity and Magnetism Assessment — testing more theoretical and complicated concepts — the Chinese students had an average score of almost 66 percent, and the American students averaged nearly 27 percent. Bao noted that the American students performed so poorly that their average score is just better than the “chance level” of 20 percent, as if they had chosen their answers at random.
…
Following these two tests of physics knowledge, the participants were given the Lawson Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning, in which they consider scientific hypotheses and propose a solution using deductive reasoning. The Chinese students had an average score of nearly 75 percent, and the American students averaged about 74 percent….

IVC professor, blog contributor overcome following exposure to overheard comment

by intrepid girl reporter Lana Lang

A highly-rated IVC Professor and occasional contributor to Dissent the Blog was hospitalized Wednesday, following accidental exposure to an inane comment.

The incident occurred in the early afternoon of January 28, as the instructor was crossing the campus A-Quad. As a result of exposure to the overheard remark, apparently uttered by another professor, the victim began to experience flu-like symptoms, headache, nausea, dizziness, ennui, and near vomiting, in addition to some “unpleasant changes in skin tone,” according to the school nurse.

The toxic comment was reported to have been delivered by a “somewhat well-dressed woman” possibly in her early-thirties, with a “piss-poor make-up job and a dire need for some decent nylons,” who gave indications of being an instructor in the Social Sciences. The remark was delivered to a small group of students, apparently as part of a post-class wrap-up in front of the A-200 building, and is believed to have run as follows:

“All the universe is a series of energy transformations,” the instructor declared, in tones so solemn they had to be heard to be believed, “And I think that human consciousness too, is a kind of energy transformation, that’s what it is, and that could explain . . .”

—The rest of the pronouncement was not heard, as the victim, and primary witness, was overwhelmed by nausea and horror.

Managing only a few more staggered steps, she, the victim, who was on her way to class at the time, collapsed, toppling violently to the ground. Nearly unconscious, the young woman had to be rushed to UCI Medical Center for treatment in a hyperbaric chamber.

Additionally, a few students were reported to have been slightly overcome by vague feelings of elation, but may not have suffered the full effects of the remark, reported the school nurse.

An IVC police officer said the tragedy should serve as a warning for people to stop saying things that are “so freakin' stupid.”

The occurrence serves as reminder that college professors have an obligation to at least attempt to make some sense when they speak, and to avoid comments that are completely lacking in intellectual rigor, said an unnamed school official.

“Unless, of course, they are merely joking,” he added.

Completely empty-headed statements and other sub-moronic prattle should always be scrupulously avoided, he emphasized, “At least outside the classroom.”

◊ Contributor "Lana Lang" is in reality an IVC science instructor and wag. Note: "Lana" supplied the graphic of herself.

The Ray Bradbury event at Irvine Valley College

Some could barely contain their excitement, knowing that they would soon be talking to the author of Fahrenheit 451, Martian Chronicles, and so much more.

"Jesus Christ!" So said the beloved writer each time he got excited tonight. (I do believe he even said "goddamit" once.)

He told stories about famous directors (Federico Fellini, John Huston), writers (Aldous Huxley, Christopher Isherwood), special effects guys (Ray Harryhausen), and I don't know who all.

He told of going to Ireland with John Huston to write a screenplay of Moby-Dick. "I am Herman Melville," he told the director toward the end of the project.

Bradbury, who is 88 years old, spoke of love. He is, he told us, "the world's greatest lover." His loves—books, libraries, movies, people, etc.—have always yielded something beyond themselves, he insists.

"Do what you love and love what you do," he announced.

Annie tells me she was mightily inspired by the fellow.

"Yeah? What are you inspired to do?"

People stood in long lines to get their picture taken with Mr. Bradbury. He's a generous guy.

Annie took this pic of the outside of the Performing Arts Center.

Here's Wendy with her daughter and the latter's boyfriend. I hadn't seen Gabby for years. She's a Bradbury fan, it seems.

So, too, are Julie and Keith, who were lookin' mighty happy. And why not?

Annie managed to take this picture of herself. The earrings are "from the 40s," she told me.

Well, it was a big success. A good time was had by all, I think. (Not that I had much to do with it.)

Ray Bradbury

Clarisse: But why do you burn books?

Guy Montag: Books make people unhappy, they make them anti-social.

Clarisse: Do you think I'm anti-social?

Guy Montag: Why do you ask?

Clarisse: Well... I'm a teacher, not quite actually, I'm still on probation. I was called to the administration office today, and I don't think I said the right things. I'm not at all happy about my answers.

Ray Bradbury will join us tonight at IVC, in conversation with writer and professor Marjorie Luesebrink. No doubt it will be a full house, SRO - but some tickets are still available. Call 949-451-5202 to reserve yours.

Just about everyone in the depertment of English has their own Ray Bradbury story. This is probably true for every department of English. One IVC professor went on her first date with hubby-to-be at a Ray Bradbury reading in San Diego. They'll reprise that first date tonight.

Rebel Girl fell hard for Bradbury when she was young. The Martian Chronicles. Something Wicked this Way Comes. Dandelion Wine. The Illustrated Man. Fahrenheit 451. And the stories! The Kilamanjaro Device. The Garbage Collector. The Sound of Summer Running.

Bradbury was one of the ones that made her love words and imagination, one who taught her how they could transform the world. Rebel Girl's world then was in dire need of transforming.

Then, it must have been 1978 or 79, she won an award for high school writers and finally got the meet the man himself. It was at a gathering sponored by the Southwest Manuscripters, the local writers who had read her stories and given her prize money, money that would pay for rent, food, textbooks for El Camino College.

Bradbury talked about writing but he also spoke about how he rode the bus, how he used to feed coins into the rental typewriters at the downtown Los Angeles Library in order to compose his first stories. He talked, in other words, about being without.

Rebel Girl doesn't have the photograph of the famous writer and the high student that was taken that evening. The photo was lost like so much in those days. She lacked the kind of mother or family that provided that service - you know, putting things in scrapbooks or photo albums or special boxes. And she didn't know how to save things for herself.

But she did learn how to write, she thinks now. That's one way to save things and to retrieve what is lost. So, no photograph - but the memory and these words - enough.

Orange County right-wing lunatic watch

"My purpose is total integration of biblical law into our lives."

—Howard Ahmanson, Jr. (Quoted in the OC Reg, 1993)

Yesterday, our pal Gustavo Arellano (of the OC Weekly) posted about his curious recent correspondence with Howard Ahmanson, Jr., a religious extremist and pal o’ Tom Fuentes’. I seem to recall that Arellano once described him as the most important Orange Countian you've never heard of. (See Howard F. Ahmanson, Jr. responds to Weekly query.)

Evidently, Gustavo had written to Ahmanson, asking him questions about, among other things, (1) Ahmanson’s contributions to the CAPO Unified School District's wacky “reform” trustees (who have received financial support from a “back to basics” [aka “we hate public education and teachers unions”] organization, Education Alliance, which received seed money from Ahmanson and on whose board SOCCCD board prez Don Wagner sits) and (2) Ahmanson’s take on the Newport Beach's St. James Episcopal Church situation—they’re currently homeless owing to their support of a homophobic Ugandan Bishop. Ahmanson was a member of that church.

Amazingly, Ahmanson responded, implying, among other things, his love of Ry Cooder's Chavez Ravine CD!

Evidently, Ahmanson has no problem with the Ugandan lunatic. Nevertheless, for other reasons, he’s moved on to another church.

● There's a new "progressive" blog in Orange County. It's called Orange County Progressive.

Yes, progressives. In Orange County. Strange, isn't it?

Ray Bradbury, coming soon

Ray on Prunes of the future


For more info on Bradbury's visit to IVC (this Wednesday evening 1/28) visit The Mark on the Wall by clicking here.

Tickets are free but you need to make a reservation.

CAPO crappo: union busting "reformers"?

From a recent OC Weekly article concerning the troubled Capistrano Unified School District’s “reform” trustees:

[At a recent meeting, supportive shouts] jab against rumors that the reform trustees, whose campaigns were largely financed by such conservative groups as the Education Alliance and Howard Ahmanson’s Fieldstead & Co., seek to sabotage public education from the inside out. The Education Alliance, which publicly opposes the influence of teachers’ unions, has been a point of contention for the new board’s critics. The Capistrano Unified Education Association, the local teachers’ union, endorsed trustee Christensen and current board president Ellen Addonizio when they ran in 2006; after the Education Alliance got more involved, though, the union vocally and financially backed the opponents of the “reform” slate in 2008. Posts on the website of the local chapter of the California School Employees Association (CSEA), which represents classified staff (including custodians and librarians), say Carter’s dismissal may have been part of a plan to “break the union,” a charge the trustees deny. (Have the problems of the Capo Unified School Board been solved after the recall/reform movement won?)

The President of the SOCCCD board of trustees, Don Wagner, is on the Education Alliance board.

SOCCCD trustee Tom Fuentes is a close friend of Howard Ahmanson’s. Ahmanson is a religious extremist and key financial backer of Creationism, Intelligent Design, and such measures as Proposition 8.

Education Alliance was first formed in the early 90s to promote anti-public ed and anti-union initiatives (e.g., 1994's “school voucher” initiative and 1998's union-busting Prop 226). For years, it was funded by—surprise, surprise!—Howard Ahmanson.

At the last SOCCCD meeting of the board of trustees, at Fuentes' request, OC Treasurer Chriss Street was on hand to explain that local property tax collections, on which the SOCCCD depends, will soon take a hit. With him was his employee Anna Bryson, a noisy Bush supporter, who happens to be among CAPO's "reform" trustees. Bryson has definitely received financial support for her campaigns from Education Alliance (see).

Gosh it's a cozy world.

Chunky feng shui

I bought a couple of bookcases recently—at Munro's in Santa Ana—and, yesterday, they arrived. Way cool. Made locally.

TigerAnn says "hey."

MUSIC FOR A SATURDAY EVENING:

GENE CLARK & CARLA OLSON: "Almost Saturday Night"

Gene Clark was in the Byrds, remember? Great song by John Fogerty.

RANDY NEWMAN: "Sail Away"

I love this guy's early stuff. Just the best.

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS: “Other Side”

Don't know why I love this song so much, but I do. From about 8 years ago, I guess.

MOTT THE HOOPLE: “Sea Diver”

This is what I was listening to in high school. Still love this stuff. Ian Hunter is one of those lost geniuses, though he still performs.

"Not comforted": new So Cal earthquake data

I’ve long noted that, though individual humans are often dazzlingly perceptive, humans qua groups are dizzyingly stupid.

Our doltish Group Being is a sort of Svengali to most people, and so there you are.

As individuals, we are entranced; we are stupefied.

We are idjits.

This is one reason why, over the years, I’ve occasionally done stories about the real possibility of natural disasters, such as tsunamis, floods. Boy, when it comes to nature’s wicked but predictable ways, societies are way knuckleheaded. Way, way. And Southern Californians are no exception. They'll stare straight into the face of imminent disaster and blithely discuss their next trip to freakin' Disneyland.


Study finds troubling pattern of Southern California quakes (In this morning’s LA Times):

By Jia-Rui Chong

…The Carrizo Plain section of the San Andreas has not seen a massive quake since the much-researched Fort Tejon temblor of 1857, which at an estimated magnitude of 7.9 is considered the most powerful earthquake to hit Southern California in modern times.

But … new research by UC Irvine scientists … found that major quakes occurred there roughly every 137 years over the last 700 years. Until now, scientists believed big quakes occurred along the fault roughly every 200 years.

The findings are significant because seismologists have long believed this portion of the fault is capable of sparking the so-called Big One that officials have for decades warned will eventually occur in Southern California.
…
Many scientists thought the Carrizo area produced relatively infrequent but large-scale earthquakes such as the Fort Tejon temblor. The new work suggests the area produces more quakes but also ones of a smaller magnitude than Fort Tejon, said Ray Weldon, a University of Oregon geologist….

Such temblors, experts warned, would likely be at least as big as the 1994 Northridge quake, which had a magnitude of 6.7.
…
… About 100 miles northwest of Los Angeles, the Carrizo area was one of the main sections that ruptured in the 1857 quake. That rupture, roaring southwest into the Los Angeles Basin, rocked parts of the region so hard that men were thrown to the ground.
…
By looking at the pattern of soils and using radiocarbon dating on charcoal deposits, [Lisa Grant Ludwig, a principal investigator on the study] found evidence of five large earthquakes dating back to the early 1200s. She found a gap of some 400 years between the 1857 earthquake and the one before, but only about 100 years separating the three preceding quakes.

Back then, the earthquake age estimates were very rough and the samples had to be fairly large…. Ludwig saved field notes and hundreds of soil samples in glass vials in her garage for more than 15 years, hoping that radiocarbon dating techniques would improve.
…
[When that finally occurred, they] went back to her archive, and the redating effort, led by scholar Sinan Akciz, found that the four big earthquakes before the 1857 temblor probably occurred around 1310, 1393, 1585 and 1640.

…
Because they are looking at only a handful of earthquakes, scientists can't be sure that the pattern will hold, Ludwig said.

"But we know it increases the probability of an earthquake," she said. "There's not any way I can look at the data and be comforted by it."….

BE PREPARED:

• OC Red Cross Urges Earthquake Preparedness, Awareness

• Earthquake Preparedness Tip Sheets (Governor's Office of Emergency Services)

• Southern California Earthquake Center

Rebel Girl's Poetry Corner: "hope made wise by dread"

It's been quite a week.

Rebel Girl found herself humming My Country 'Tis of Thee in the shower, in her car, while she cooked.

Something's up, she thought, or else she's turning back into the girl scout who used to carry the colors with such pride that she'd cry.

Maybe she's becoming, after all these years, Aretha Franklin.

Cool.

Here's a poem from Frank Bidart:

Inauguration Day

Today, despite what is dead

staring out across America I see since
Lincoln gunmen
nursing fantasies of purity betrayed,
dreaming to restore
the glories of their blood and state

despite what is dead but lodged within us, hope

under the lustrous flooding moon
the White House is still
Whitman's White House, its
gorgeous front
full of reality, full of illusion

hope made wise by dread begins again

Tuesday's board meeting—Roy's report

Maybe you noticed that I haven’t actually given a report on Tuesday’s board meeting. I offered videos instead.

[Tom Fuentes’ clueless soldiers
Faculty refute Tom Fuentes’ distortions
OC Treasurer opines for Fuentes]

But Dissent readers don’t seem to like those, so here’s my belated verbiage. (That means "words," Walter.)

I had high hopes for spectacular fireworks Tuesday night, but they were dashed by Lee Haggerty’s email reporting that the contract item had been pulled. Haggerty’s memo was odd, what with its reference to (I guess) hard economic times. Well, it’ll be hard times next month and the month after that too, so is this a permanent tabling of the item? Let’s hope not.

During the meeting, board Prez Don Wagner, too, alluded to the rotten economic turn in his explanation for pulling the item. One hopes the plan is to allow more lobbying of trustees and/or more negotiating. Something.

Tomfoolery!

We’ve certainly got a special board. It was fun looking up there at 'em, contemplating the tangled web of hatred. Nancy Padberg hates John Williams, ‘cause Williams fired her three years ago. But Williams now has gotta hate Tom Fuentes (if he didn’t hate him before) for dropping a demagogue bomb on ‘im over his dastardly support of the faculty contract proposal.

But Fuentes and his crew of spin-meisters slimed Padberg, too—why not?—and so, though she must still loathe Williams, at least she and Johnny now have a #1 Loathe Object in common. Meanwhile, Don Wagner’s gotta be pretty peeved about Fuentes’ maneuver, which makes anything resembling fair deliberation about the contract pretty much impossible. Thank you, Tom.

And Dave Lang’s gotta be steamed, too, ‘cause he had no problem with the 5% COLA part of the proposal, but he’s getting slammed along with Fuentes as being anti-faculty and totally Neanderthal. Dave wants to be loved. He's only a quisling, not a Karl Rovian Neanderthal, thinks Dave.

Meanwhile, Bill Jay still likes the contract proposal (and seems to love everybody), and Marcia Milchiker—well, she can be found on Neptune.

At one point during the meeting, she said something particularly daffy, whereupon Fuentes quipped, “Quit while you’re ahead, Marcia!” Then Wagner yelled: “But she’s not ahead!”


Tom leaks

As you know, in recent weeks, OC Register blogger Steve Greenhut has reported the initial vote taken by the board in closed session. It was 4-3, says Greenhut, with Wagner, Fuentes, and Lang opposing the proposed contract. I did not know that.

But how is it that Greenhut knew what went on in a closed session? One naturally supposes that Fuentes unburdened himself to Greenhut about these highly sensitive deliberations.

Classy guy, that Tom Fuentes.

Everybody on the board must be just as pleased as punch about the guy. I wonder what the Lord thinks of ‘em? My guess is that Tom thinks that God thinks that a guy gets to lie and cheat and mess around, as long as he does it for Lordly ends.

I’m an ethicist, and we call such people “assholes.”

Motley crew

Saddleback College’s Ozzie-‘n’-Harrietesque student government crowd came back from the malt shop with a new and improved proposed budget—one that pretty much satisfied the board’s complaints of two months ago. These kids, and Thorny too, have now opted to spend big money on scholarships, etc., which is great. So Fuentes and the others fell over themselves praising these young people. It was amazing bullshit. Those ASG kids seemed to sniff the air.

The always-dapper Mr. Arnold Bray, the district’s consultant/lobbyist (I think), provided a budget update. (He has the best shoes I've ever seen.) He reported that there are officials who seek to hand over our “basic aid” tax money to the K-12 districts. Right now, it’s just an idea, he said. But he’ll keep us up to speed on this thing so we'll be ready to pounce and squeal if necessary.

Did I mention that Marcia Milchiker’s “invocation” sounded like a press release about community colleges? It didn’t sound to me like she was summoning the Deity. It was more like she was reading from the college catalog.

So we all stood there in this prayerful posture, wondering what in hell Marcia thought she was doing. And then, at the end, Marcia said, “Amen.” It was like watching a GEICO commercial that ends with the Pope blessing that goddam lizard.

Bad news

Trustees fell over themselves expressing grief, etc., about the death of Saddleback College’s Howard Adams, obviously a swell guy. We also learned that Saddleback College’s Cal Nelson (more recently a rent-a-dean at IVC) had suffered a stroke. Everybody loves Cal.

Because the meeting started late, the board decided to postpone the update on the “basic skills initiative.” I think Rajen was disappointed.

During board reports, Don Wagner referred to some basketball game last Friday between Saddleback College and IVC. He said that the gym was filled with presidents: himself, Burnett, Roquemore, Gabriella, et al. “You couldn’t swing a stick without hitting a president,” he quipped. Something like that, anyway. We had a good laugh.

Peevitude displayed

When Lee Haggerty got up to defend the faculty contract proposal (see video below), he and Wagner got into a pissing contest, and it was very unpleasant and, well, highly entertaining. Wagner looked seriously pissed. But then Haggerty suggested that he didn’t like being lectured at neither, and Don didn't have a comeback for that one, and so I suspect that Don now spends his evenings poking needles into a little Lee Haggerty "Union" doll.

Oddly, for once, Chancellor Raghu P. Mathur didn’t have much to say. Maybe Wagner muzzled him. Could be. He pretty much stuck to offering factoids about headcount and whatnot.

FTES (full time equivalent students) is up 9% at Saddleback College and (ahem) it’s up 15.4% at IVC. Sounds good. Later, Bob C added up those numbers and came up with 25%, but I suspect that he was just having a bout of goofiness, which happens to the elderly. (Just kidding Bob.)

I think mention was made of the “Ray Bradbury” event at IVC next Wednesday. That should be cool. I’ve already got my tickets, which were free. I’m taking TigerAnn.

She just loves The Martian Chronicles, that silly cat.

Investigation of Coast Chancellor remains mysterious

Marla Jo Fisher of the OC Reg (Coast college district names acting chancellor), reports that trustees of the Coast Community College District have appointed Coastline College President Ding-Jo Currie as acting chancellor.

Two weeks ago, Coast trustees put Chancellor Ken Yglesias on administrative leave while “unspecified charges” against him were being investigated.

Evidently, Currie offered no clues as to the nature of the investigation.

Fisher spoke with Dean Mancina of the faculty union. Mancina speculated that Yglesias' ouster “might have something to do with the fact that Yglesias and ousted trustee Armando Ruiz were friends.”

Tom Fuentes' clueless soldiers attack the contract proposal

Video clips from Tuesday's meeting of the SOCCCD board, including related comments by trustees Williams, Fuentes, and Lang.

For a kind of rebuttal to these public speakers, see yesterday's post.

Faculty refute Tom Fuentes' distortions of the proposed faculty contract

From last night's meeting of the South Orange County Community College District Board of Trustees.

OC Treasurer Chriss Street opines

I attended most of last night's meeting of the South Orange County Community College Board of Trustees.

Nothing of any great importance occurred last night (at least during the first 3/4 of the meeting). The faculty contract item had been pulled. Nevertheless, board president Don Wagner allowed several guests to speak on the matter, including OC Treasurer Chriss Street, who seemed to be there to predict fiscal doom and gloom. (I'm not sure, but that decision may have been unprecedented.)

No doubt, notoriously anti-union trustee Tom Fuentes arranged for Street’s appearance as part of his effort to prevent a faculty raise. As is his custom, Fuentes has turned a complex issue into a matter of stupid and ugly politics. Intelligent deliberation about the proposed contract is now virtually impossible.

Street’s remarks concern the SOCCCD’s unusual “basic aid” funding, which depends on locally collected property taxes. Street’s point is that those funds will soon shrink substantially. (Also this night, a lobbyist for the community colleges indicated that there are officials who seek to channel this “basic aid” money to K-12 districts—and thus away from the SOCCCD. John Williams offered a strong opinion in opposition to that idea.)

Last night, other speakers referred to the fact that the proposed contract includes an approximately 5% increase that is in fact a COLA provided to all others state employees (including SOCCCD non-faculty employees) last year. Hence, most of this so-called proposed “raise” includes an increase already granted to employees across the state.

I do hope—and expect—that the faculty will secure this 5% increase. Speaking for myself only, I think that, under the circumstances (namely, the economic downturn), there is room for compromise regarding the rest of the proposed increase. Times are tough, and sacrifice is in order. But, again, I would insist on the 5%.


Later today, I'll have other videos from Tuesday's meeting.

Walkin' that Ribbon of Highway

How to Kill a Mockingbird

It's been an MLK Birthday/Obama Inaugural weekend at Rebel Girl's abode. It started early when, inspired by her pals in D.C., she wrote this post: Get Your Ball Gown On.

On Friday, sans ball gown and ball, she wore her official Obama campaign t-shirt out in the world. Orange County for Obama, it read. Most seemed happy to see it. The shoe salesman from Sri Lanka shared that he had supported Obama and joked about how, before the election, he imagined he could send his shoe-stretching devices for the torturers to use in Gitmo – now I won't have to, he said. Ha ha. It wasn't the best joke but Reb understood the spirit in which it was given. The saleslady at the Salvation Army offered that she was praying for the new president and wished him and his family well. At the farmers' market, the man who sold rum-soaked Italian cakes offered her a slice, claiming it was part of Obama stimulus plan.

Then there was the middle-aged man with thinning blonde hair who approached Reb at the market. He stopped and didn't smile. He pointed his finger at her chest and said: "Your boy makes me worry."

Reb smiled. "Don't be," she replied and walked on. She bought organic Fuji apples, avocados, two fillets of John Dory, beets, arugula and early asparagus, 3 for $5.00.

She kept thinking of that fellow all that day, how the sun seemed to thin when he spoke, his tone of voice, his finger, the way his "Your boy" made her feel.

# # #

Perhaps ten years ago, Rebel Girl had a student in her evening creative writing class. Nice young man. But one day he wasn't there and the next week she saw him at the coffee cart and did what she does – made him come to her office to pick up the work he missed. She's like that. It was early in the semester. She was still getting to know her students. They were still getting to know her.

The student followed her to her office and while she rifled through the papers on her desk, he looked around her office. His eyes settled on the framed portrait of Dr. King on her bookcase. It's that famous one of him in his office, with a portrait of Gandhi on the wall behind him.

"My grandfather worked with Dr. King," he said. Reb looked up. "So did a lot of fine people," she replied. "Dr. King couldn't do it alone."

"You might have heard of him," he went on.

"Maybe," she said. "I've studied that period. I've taught it. Try me."

"Medgar Evers," he replied.

Reb swallowed. "I certainly have," she said.

She wondered how the grandson of one of the Civil Rights Movement's most famous martyrs ended up in her class – but she figured that that was community college – the world comes to your classroom, history shuffles its feet on your office floor. She wanted to ask him many things, but she resisted the impulse. It was, he suggested once, a challenge to be the grandson of such a revered figure. A lot to live up to.

# # #

The movie of the weekend has been "To Kill a Mockingbird," which is just about right for the little guy and still works its powers on his parents.

The little guy, nearly seven years old, kept calling it "How to Kill a Mockingbird." He liked Boo Radley best, of course, and feisty Scout and how the kids, Jem, Dill and Scout, got to run wild in the summertime. Henry Cunningham has his own gun and just like Jem, the little guy was impressed and jealous.

His father admired the parenting skills of Atticus.

His mother, of course, went for that other heart of the story, the tragic Tom Robinson, the grown man referred to as, of course, a "boy." The simple, chilling slap of the word.

By the end, they found the book on the shelf and were looking up lines. It seemed the right thing, maybe not the best thing but good enough, with Dr. King's speeches on the radio and the Obama family ready to move into the White House. Here's one:

"They're certainly entitled to think that, and they're entitled to full respect for their opinions... but before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience. "

~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 11, spoken by the character Atticus

# # #

Rebel Girl is up early this morning. Can't sleep. That's okay. She'll call her father in a little while. He wakes up early too. Her octogenarian father, WWII vet and lifelong firefighter, didn't vote for Obama in the primaries because, as he told his daughter, he knew a sad thing or two about America. Her father would recognize the type of fellow who approached her in the farmers market with his "your boy." He'd recognize the prejudice percolating through Harper Lee's small town of Maycomb. If Rebel Girl ventures to share her frustration and disappointment about what won't be happening at the college where she works, he'll say, What did you expect?

That's the America he grew up in. Reb's father knows how people killed mockingbirds without a second thought. Like Atticus, he was trying to protect his daughter, teach her too. After all, even Atticus Finch believed that Tom Robinson might prevail on appeal. Tom thought different, ran and was shot dead. So Rebel Girl's father didn't waste his vote on what couldn't be in March. His daughter did. They argued, genially.

November was different. Rebel Girl's Father voted for what he thought was impossible. The impossible prevailed. And today, well. Here we go.

The Inauguration as festivity—one party too many

There can be no doubt that tomorrow’s Inauguration is an important historical event, a massive shift in leadership at a very difficult time. In the last four months, I have occasionally suggested to my students that we’re living through history—not only because of the election—and we may as well be conscious of that.

"Pay attention," I tell them.

But it seems that tomorrow’s Inauguration is viewed by many as essentially a celebration of an achievement, a victory. In a way, it is, but in important ways, it is, or it should be, a time for sobriety, not festivity, for the real battle is still to come.

With regard to the Inauguration-as-festivity: I do think it's one party too many. We've been partying (in some sense) since early November. Meanwhile, things are going from bad to worse, at least with regard to the economy, while President Moron sits on his hands and spins revisionist tales about his eight years of incompetence and contempt.



I feel bad for Prez-elect Obama. My guess is that the last thing he needs or wants is another "celebration" over his victory. I suppose there was no stopping it. But that is unfortunate, for the tasks before him (for us) are spectacularly difficult, even with the leadership of so seemingly talented and wise a man.



I dunno, but it seems to me that, when a guy is given a grave and nearly impossible task, you join him in worry and hope—and in hunkering down for uncertainty and sacrifice.

You don't celebrate. Or you do, but you do it quietly, reverentially, like confident soldiers with improved leadership, knowing the battle has finally come to them, and they are hopeful that they will rise to the occasion.

(Graphic: adaptation of a Mike Luckovich cartoon.)

Sarah, yesterday.

Adam, yesterday.

The sky, early this morning.

A great under-appreciated band:

The Bottle Rockets:

"I'll be Comin' Around"

“Delivery”: deathwatch for the Humanities

In his column yesterday in the New York Times, Stanley Fish discusses an important new book that explains and describes the, um, death of the Humanities (The Last Professor).

Fish begins by identifying a traditional conception of higher education according to which the university seeks, not utility, but understanding. He quotes the great Michael Oakeshott:

“There is an important difference between learning which is concerned with the degree of understanding necessary to practice a skill, and learning which is expressly focused upon an enterprise of understanding and explaining.”

"Human communities," I often suggest to my students, "always include members with a powerful intellectual curiosity. They want to understand." And so we have the University, a very human institution.

Fish asks, does the Oakeshottian ideal have a chance at survival?

According to Fish, in a new book, The Last Professors: The Corporate University and the Fate of the Humanities, Frank Donoghue answers “No.”

According to Fish, Donoghue rejects the notion that the old model will make a comeback—a pendulum swing back to sanity.

“Such a vision of restored stability,” says Donoghue, “is a delusion” because the conditions to which many seek a return – healthy humanities departments populated by tenure-track professors who discuss books with adoring students in a cloistered setting – have largely vanished. Except in a few private wealthy universities ..., the splendid and supported irrelevance of humanist inquiry for its own sake is already a thing of the past. In “ two or three generations,” Donoghue predicts, “humanists . . . will become an insignificant percentage of the country’s university instructional workforce.”

How has this happened? According to Donoghue, it’s been happening for a long time, at least since 1891, when Andrew Carnegie congratulated the graduates of the Pierce College of Business for being “ fully occupied in obtaining a knowledge of shorthand and typewriting” rather than wasting time “upon dead languages.”

Industrialist Richard Teller Crane was even more pointed in his 1911 dismissal of what humanists call the “life of the mind.” No one who has “a taste for literature has the right to be happy” because “the only men entitled to happiness . . . are those who are useful.”

Donoghue argues that the Carnegies and Cranes of the world have “already won the day.”

The best evidence for this is the shrinking number of tenured and tenure-track faculty and the corresponding rise of adjuncts, part-timers more akin to itinerant workers than to embedded professionals.”….
…
…Universities under increasing financial pressure, [Donoghue] explains, do not “hire the most experienced teachers, but rather the cheapest teachers.” Tenured and tenure-track teachers now make up only 35 percent of the pedagogical workforce and “this number is steadily falling.”

Once adjuncts are hired to deal with an expanding student body…, budgetary planners find it difficult to dispense with the savings they have come to rely on; and “as a result, an adjunct workforce, however imperceptible its origins … has now mushroomed into a significant fact of academic life.”

What is happening in traditional universities where the ethos of the liberal arts is still given lip service is the forthright policy of for-profit universities, which make no pretense of valuing what used to be called the “higher learning.” John Sperling, founder of the group that gave us Phoenix University, is refreshingly blunt:

“Coming here is not a rite of passage. We are not trying to develop value systems or go in for that ‘expand their minds’” nonsense.

The for-profit university is the logical end of a shift from a model of education centered in an individual professor who delivers insight and inspiration to a model that begins and ends with the imperative to deliver the information and skills necessary to gain employment.

In this latter model, the mode of delivery – a disc, a computer screen, a video hook-up – doesn’t matter so long as delivery occurs. Insofar as there are real-life faculty in the picture, their credentials and publications … are beside the point, for they are just “delivery people.”
…
Those ideas have now triumphed…, and this means, Donoghue concludes, “that all fields deemed impractical, such as philosophy, art history, and literature, will henceforth face a constant danger of being deemed unnecessary.”….

As it happens, a motif in my own philosophy courses is reflection on the nature and purpose of philosophy, about which, obviously, much can be said.

But I often emphasize the “inevitability” of philosophical questions. “There’s no avoiding them,” I say. “They keep coming at us, and they keep being important.”

Only those who lead the Life of the Mindless would regard Philosophy (and Literature and Classics) as “unnecessary.”

Well, if everything goes to hell in a hand basket, it won’t be for the first time, and at least my crowd will know how to think about that.

It's back to the hills and catacombs for a century or two. To watch and wait, to think and scribble and hope.

MONEY

SEDAN DELIVERY

Rebel Girl's Poetry Corner: "the lives/fleshing his dream of the beautiful needful thing"

Rebel Girl knows she has posted it before, but damn, it's a great poem for this great time.

She keeps going back to the poem, re-reading it, savoring it, seeing new things in each line, tears sometimes leaking out of the corners of her eyes (She wrote "lives" instead of eyes the first time she typed the line. She almost left it like that. Rebel Girl used to fancy herself a poet - a very bad poet she realized.)

So, once again, Robert Hayden, a great poet.


Frederick Douglass


When it is finally ours, this freedom, this liberty, this beautiful
and terrible thing, needful to man as air,
usable as earth; when it belongs at last to all,
when it is truly instinct, brain matter, diastole, systole,
reflex action; when it is finally won; when it is more
than the gaudy mumbo jumbo of politicians:
this man, this Douglass, this former slave, this Negro
beaten to his knees, exiled, visioning a world
where none is lonely, none hunted, alien,
this man, superb in love and logic, this man
shall be remembered. Oh, not with statues' rhetoric,
not with legends and poems and wreaths of bronze alone,
but with the lives grown out of his life, the lives
fleshing his dream of the beautiful, needful thing.