It's the end of the semester.This means that students are rustling through the hallways, searching for instructors whose last names they can't remember ("Mac, Mac, Mac - something," sputtered one. "He's an old guy.") and faculty offices they've never visited before ("Can I walk in here?" asked another, pointing to the general office area.)
The flurry of celebration invitations and announcements has become an avalanche in the virtual email box (jazz picnics! banquets! retirement parties! retirement receptions! transfer celebrations! art walks! multicultural menus! dance concerts! fairs! commencement!) What's a girl to do?
Ah yes, the signs of the season are here.
Along with the season, some questions have come our way.
Rebel Girl can't answer them but maybe you can.
Number One: A quick search of the college website reveals no announcements about the ever popular end-of-the-semester Scholarship Awards ceremeony where a parade of our best and brightest receive big checks. It could be that the announcement was lost in the previously mentioned avalanche but now more than a few student applicants have asked Rebel Girl about it. It could be that all of Rebel Girl's students are losers and the losers along with their instructors aren't told about the ceremeony. Harumph. But faculty who have written a dozen of so letters of recomendation deserve to know if they need to arrange for childcare or other plans in order to attend. When is the shin-dig scheduled?
Number 2: For some faculty, questions remain about the efficacy of the college's Early College Program at neighboring high schools. There are special concerns and questions about the teaching of particular biology courses to such a young audience.
Number 3: Some people remain curous about the reasons the flag was flown at half-mast for about a week in mid-semester. Any ideas?
Number 4: Will shrimp be served at the faculty reception before commencement?
Number 5: Will the chancellor's commencement speech be its usual stew of Bartlett's Quotations meets Hallmark? Rumor has it that someone is running a pool about the number of quotations Raghu will use in his speech. Rebel Girl heard that last year's winner walked away with $175 - not bad for a five dollar investment. The winning number last year? 15!
UPDATE:
I think it is only fair to note that a notice regarding the Scholarship event (see below) did in fact go out on Fri 3/27/2009 @ 11:01 AM. This has been verified. See below. --RB
50 comments:
I like the oldtimey poster.
I noticed the flag thing too - I think it was in eraly March but I don't know why.
There hasn't been an announcment about the scholarship award ceremeony - only the people choosing the winners and the people giving the money have been told.
I don't know if all the winners have been contacted yet. I can't imagine they have.
Maybe we should move this event to earlier in the semester - not the ceremony but the decision-making process. It seems especially rushed and late this year.
I think people working on this do a great job - but the calendar needs to be adjusted so people can be notified in a timely manner.
Who's doing the pool?
Prepare to be blown away at commencement. It will take place on the lawn between BSTIC and PAC buildings. Nice and hot and windy! Yikes!!
Windy indeed! that must be why Rebel Girl chose the Follies Bergere poster - a wee bit of foreshadowing.
(I'm in for $5 in the pool - who do I talk to? The man simply cannot give a speech without every other word being someone else's.)
They were flying the flag at half staff because they recently discovered Ronald Reagan had died.
The Early College Program is an accident waiting to happen.
Who decides which students are eligible to enroll in which classes?
Who will be liable in the end for complaints from parents about course content, etc?
wasn't the ECP (Early College Program) the brain child of Dennis White?
I love it when students ask when office hours are - in the next to last week of the semester.
Here's a question to add to your list: where's Greg Bishopp?
He used to be omnipresent and now he has vanished.
Was he sucked into some black hole in the BSTIC building?
Don't our regular full-size IVC adult students also sign up in the Early College Program?
Then they have to squeeze themselves into those tiny chairs. Ouch.
Check out today's "Rate Your Students" for an excellent last week of the semester rant.
hey - they just sent out a "reminder" about the Scholarship Ceremony - 10:48 AM.
It's next Thursday the 14th.
Call me picky but doesn't "reminder" suggest that we had already been informed of it?
Picky.
I hear that there is great pressure to dumb down the courses taught at the high schools.
The award ceremony info should be posted on the calendar. These dates are decided way in advance - There's no surprise about this. But yes, notifications should go out sooner.
For what it's worth, the first email announcment went out Fri 3/27/2009 at 11:39 AM.
I've been sifting through my email all morning - thanks for this. I knew it was somewhere. March, huh?
Part of the problem is the avalanche of email announcements that Rebel Girl refers to - I must get 20 plus a day.
It would be good to have some kind of central event calendar - I searched the wesbite for the date but just came up with old press releases and the front webpage just lists the transfer events and the commencement.
When you click on the campus events calendar, the awards ceremony isn't listed there - but there all multiple daily listings for EXPANDED BOX OFFICE HOURS. What's up with THAT?
Now that you mention it, I haven't seen Gregg Bishop in ages...
At my institution, faculty complained so much about the daily deluge of email announcements (and declared that because of the volume, they just started deleting them without reading 'em) that we instigated a new policy: just one all-inclusive email notice with announcements (arranged by day of the week) every day.
But--maybe you guessed it--even this has become too much and a different sort of annoyance. Still, it's an improvement. I know you have far bigger things on your minds, but it's worth considering, if you have any power over this sort of thing.
I LIKE the idea of a weekly email announcement - Diane could always send the fancy images as attachment that people could open as they wish.
I didn't even KNOW there was an online events calendar but that other poster is right - there's not much on it except for the odd EXPANDED BOX OFFICE HOURS.
The event is now posted on the IVC Calendar of Evts. Here it is:
Event: Scholarship Awards Ceremony
When: Thursday May 14, 2009, 9:00 AM
Where: IVC Performing Arts Center
Details: The 24th annual Irvine Valley College Scholarship Awards Ceremony will be held on Thursday, May 14, 2009 at 9:00 a.m. in the IVC Performing Arts Center.
A Continental Breakfast for faculty, students, and staff will immediately precede the ceremony at 8:30 a.m. in the lobby of the Performing Arts Center. Please confirm your attendance by calling the IVC Foundation Office at (949) 451-5290.
Parking will be free that day from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. You will not need a parking pass.
hey, nice work!
What about the shrimp?
Wow, quick action. I guess someone reads the blog! Great.
What IS up with the EXPANDED BOX OFFICE HOURS?
Where IS Greg Bishopp?
Why WAS the flag at half-mast?
This stuff keeps me up at night.
YES the Scholarship Award Ceremony is now listed on the college's webpage - TWICE!
good work Reb!
Hey, maybe Rebel Girl can continue her crusade for the restoration of feminine hygiene products in the restrooms.
After all, aren't more than half of our students female?
Shouldn't the college show a modicum of interest in meeting this kind of basic health need? I mean, in prison they supply female inmates are supplied with feminine hygiene products. At high schools too - hmm, maybe the people teaching in the Early College Program can import from tampons to our restrooms.
The flag was flown at half-mast when those police officers were killed in Oakland in March. The order to lower the flag came from the Governor's office.
I think that kind of information would be good to distribute to the college community so that people understand who the lowered flag is honoring.
Those in the know, know - but many and I include our students, staff anmd faculty among them, do not - how would we?
I like the idea mentioned earlier about some kind of weekly email newsletter. This kind of thing would be perfect for that.
Or Chunk and rebel Girl could post it on the blog on a sidebar.
What do you think?
I think that kind of information would be good to distribute to the college community so that people understand who the lowered flag is honoring.
Those in the know, know - but many and I include our students, staff anmd faculty among them, do not - how would we?
I like the idea mentioned earlier about some kind of weekly email newsletter. This kind of thing would be perfect for that.
Or Chunk and rebel Girl could post it on the blog on a sidebar.
What do you think?
I think ONE weekly email update of all events (NOT TWO DOZEN) plus an UPDATED Calendar would go a long way to helping us figure out what is happening when. To tell us about a May event in March is problematic.
I don't think Chunk wants to run a sidebar of calandar events do you Chunk?
A student just told me that she was notified last night via email about her award - she was grateful but seemed confused by the late notice. She worries that she won't be able to attend the ceremeony because she works mornings and won't be able to arrange to be gone from the job.
I do think we should try to finish the process and notification a bit sooner.
Dear 7:18. If you think you can do better with the scholarship program, feel free to contact Gwen Plano and volunteer. LOL.
Warmest regards,
John Gotthard
ps. Not all of the winner emails have been sent. Students who have not received an email shouldn't despair yet. Another round of emails will be sent Friday or Monday.
I think all that 7:18 suggested was simply trying to make the process finish up sooner, that's all. It seems just a bit problematic to have only a few days notice during a time when students are studying for finals, finishing up, graduating, etc.
Lately we have tried to do more things earlier rather than later - hiring, for example and commencement planning.
Why not the scholarship notifications as well?
Everybody loves the program - I think people are just raising just a couple points about how to make it better.
My two cents.
wow - lots of catching up to do but for now - I think it's GREAT that people share ideas on this blog - perhaps more honestly than they feel they can in meetings.
What is wrong about pointing out the obvious:
A process that results in sending notifications of scholarship awards one week to four days in advance of the ceremony is, well, a problem. Give people at least a 2-3 weeks.
The chancellor turns out speeches that would make a high school English teacher cringe - one platituide after another with no original thought.
How could anyone think that notifying people today or Monday about an event that necessitates their attendance on Thursday morning is timely and encouraging of a good turnout? Or even respectful? It's obvious that it is not.
Flippantly telling people that if they don't like it they can volunteer is too easy and smacks of defensiveness - why not admit the obvious and just adjust the calendar - which, by the way, volunteers can't do.
(By the way, I love it that people say things on the blog they would never says in meeting where they just nod and agree and flatter themselves and each other because they are too scared to be honest or appear too smart or too weak. They can't even admit they read the blog. It's sort of sad too.)
Really well-said, 9:07.
Gotthard's response shows you why few people are willing to make public statements of constructive criticism about anything around here.
yeah, Gotthard seems to have picked up the same fine touch shared by so many: you don't like it? Then why don't you do it or else SHUT the F- UP.
has it ever occurred to any of you that that wasn't Gotthard at all - I mean, why would he write something so stupid like that?
12:50, you aren't doing Gotthard any favors by asking, "Why would he write something stupid?" Leave it be. Pass in silence.
12:35 - I prefer the phrase "put up or shut up", but yours works, too.
LOL. I am going to miss you guys. You really do put the "fun" in "dysfunctional".
Cheers all. Enjoy the scholarship ceremony.
-j
ooh, the IVC admin style - such a class act!
Everyone has shown an impressive commitment to this topic but can we now move along to the corruption of John William perhaps?
Is Gotthard still here on campus? I thought he was leaving! Shows how insensitive some of those "scholarship" people are--students have day care and transportation issues, had already planned study groups for finals, and now Gotthard and his ilk blame US who give voice to their general concerns? Me? I served on the scholarhips committee for years--still didn't have any say in how it was organized. That's the problem with our administrative types--they think the world revolves around them. I'll be helping to watch the child of one of my students so she can pick up her check and celebrate. Wish I could have been there to cheer her on. That's what someone's poor planning has done.
Gotthard's like so many - pick up a great check for a few years - then move on. Another feather in our cap.
Gosh, administrators like Gotthard do so much to create good will within and outside the community!
gotthard wasn't an administrator. he was classified... easily replaced.
That's the problem, when Classified leave they are not replaced.
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