The SOUTH ORANGE COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT —
"[The] blog he developed was something that made the district better." - Tim Jemal, SOCCCD BoT President, 7/24/23
Orange County's Public Administrator and Public Guardian John Williams has continued to expand his already bloated management staff and engage in questionable personnel practices despite warnings from the grand jury earlier this year, a new report alleged Tuesday.
The grand jury took a rare second look at Williams and his agency and found that the problems still existed.
"We couldn't believe it," grand jury foreman James Perez said. "They basically went on to do the same thing in spite of our report. It's chutzpah."
But Williams says the grand jury's allegations are not accurate, the second probe is redundant and it was released prematurely – before the deadline for his office to formally respond to the first barrage of charges against him. Working with the grand jurors was frustrating, he said, because many struggled to understand the complex documents and cases they were investigating. … The Orange County public administrator/public guardian manages more than $38 million in assets while administering the estates of more than a thousand people each year.
The public administrator is an elected job charged with settling the estates of recently deceased residents who have no known heirs. The public guardian is responsible for overseeing the estate and physical well being of folks who are unable to care for themselves, such as the mentally ill and elderly.
Those roles were combined in 2005 after Williams and then-Treasurer Tax Collector John Moorlach promised county supervisors that merging the departments would save the county $300,000. Williams earns about $145,000 a year for his work overseeing both roles, he says.
Fueled by public complaints of "inappropriate activities" within the department, the grand jury published results of its first probe in May, accusing Williams of doubling salary costs at the agency, engaging in questionable personnel practices and failing to save taxpayer money. ... After the report was published, Perez says the grand jury received more complaints about the department, which led them to take a second look.
They discovered that Williams had hired another manager, "even though there does not appear to be a suitable organizational reason for taking that action," expanding the cost of management to $1.15 million by June 2009.
Williams defends his management practices, saying the grand jury's report is riddled with inaccuracies. For example, their analysis of management salaries is misleading for several reasons: The 2005 figures don't account for the Health Care Agency staff that was helping manage operations before the public administrator and public guardian were consolidated. Also, the 2005 salary figures only reflect base pay, while the 2009 figures also include benefits. ... Additionally, he says there are nine managers in his department, not 11 as the grand jury report says.
Moorlach said the grand jury's second report seems to be an offshoot of a memo circulated by the county's human resources director.
"I think the grand jury's facts have been corroborated by our human resources dept," Moorlach said. "I'm not having trouble with the grand jury's facts. I think it would be good that we have a good discussion to air it out."
TWO WEEKS AGO (i.e., June 15), OC Register “Watchdog” reporter Teri Sforza posted an account of complaints—charges of “inflated numbers” and cheating [aka "fraud"]—regarding Saddleback College “Emeritus” PE classes at Laguna Woods Village, aka “Leisure World” (Is college cheating state for seniors’ fitness classes?).
The matter was originally pursued by dogged LWV resident Doug Goforth, but he managed to get other residents riled, yielding a petition in May, which was presented to an LWV governing board. The petition had little impact, but the issue lingers.
In a follow-up article a few hours later, Sforza said she had asked Saddleback College for a response, and she did get a brief statement from spokeswoman Jennie McCue. But Sforza had also asked for “dollar details” for these PE courses.
As of Monday afternoon (again, June 15), said Sforza, she had not yet been provided with the latter (which was understandable).
On Friday (June 19), Sforza reported that “We're still waiting on dollar figures for the Emeritus physical education program….”
As near as I can tell, she’s still waiting. Anyway, there are no indications in today's edition of the Reg (as of a few minutes ago) that the information has been provided.
OK, so this is DAY 14 of the WAIT FOR "DOLLAR DETAILS."
Gosh, maybe they have no intention of providing those details! D'you suppose?
Want to know the future of higher education? Well, higher ed is definitely going through some big changes, and one of them concerns the role and nature of “online instruction" (OI), a species of "distance ed."
Anyone with even an ounce of conservatism in their soul has to wonder about this shiny new mode of instruction. In some ways, it seems to offer distinct advantages as a way to ensure that students study and learn. In other ways, not so much. Cheating is a big worry.
(Several years ago, I added an "online" component to my traditional philosophy courses, and this has provided ways to increase interaction with students and compel students to study more. For instance, I find that Blackboard assignments have a huge advantage: they are utterly ruthless and unforgiving about due dates. They are the Borg.)
Naturally, a key question is: what does the evidence tell us? Scientifically, anecdotal evidence is nearly worthless. Academics, I find, are as clueless as the general population about this point. Amazing.
But good scientific studies are another matter. Better still are studies of studies, assuming the studies studied aren’t systematically flawed.
In this morning’s Inside Higher Ed (The Evidence), we learn that the U.S. Dept. of Education has just released a study regarding the efficacy of online instruction (OI). According to the study, says IHE, "students who took all or part of their instruction online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through face-to-face instruction."
Hmmm. That factoid in itself doesn't mean much. After all, the set of online students is liable to be different than the set of trad students: maybe the former are more conscentious or observant (after all, they noticed the availability of online courses)?
But it sounds like the DOE got this right. First of all, it pursued a meta-analysis. IHE explains:
A meta-analysis is one that takes all of the existing studies and looks at them for patterns and conclusions that can be drawn from the accumulation of evidence.
And DOE was careful to discriminate between studies:
On the topic of online learning, there is a steady stream of studies, but many of them focus on limited issues or lack control groups. The Education Department report said that it had identified more than 1,000 empirical studies of online learning that were published from 1996 through July 2008. For its conclusions, however, the Education Department considered only a small number (51) of independent studies that met strict criteria. They had to contrast an online teaching experience to a face-to-face situation, measure student learning outcomes, use a "rigorous research design," and provide adequate information to calculate the differences. [My emphases.]
Sounds good.
Previous studies suggested that online instruction is the equal of “face-to-face” instruction in causing students to learn. But the meta-analysis actually gives OI the edge.
The study discriminated between OI modes and found that the “use of video or online quizzes – frequently encouraged for online education – “does not appear to enhance learning,"…. Good to know.
IS IT ALL ABOUT STUDY TIME?
Check this out:
...[T]he report attributes much of the success in learning online (blended or entirely) not to technology but to time. "Studies in which learners in the online condition spent more time on task than students in the face-to-face condition found a greater benefit for online learning," the report says. ... "Despite what appears to be strong support for online learning applications, the studies in this meta-analysis do not demonstrate that online learning is superior as a medium," the report says. "In many of the studies showing an advantage for online learning, the online and classroom conditions differed in terms of time spent, curriculum and pedagogy. It was the combination of elements in the treatment conditions (which was likely to have included additional learning time and materials as well as additional opportunities for collaboration) that produced the observed learning advantages." [My emphases.]
Is this saying that, since these online courses happen (for some reason) to involve more study time (etc.) than the control trad courses, it might just be that difference, and not something intrinsic to OI, that is explaining the superiority of OI?
Not sure. Seems so.
Ed Secretary Arne Duncan is quoted as saying, “This new report reinforces that effective teachers need to incorporate digital content into everyday classes and consider open-source learning management systems, which have proven cost effective in school districts and colleges nationwide”…. Arne sounds like a politician--someone who deletes qualifiers from his/her verbiage. That's not good.
Lawrence N. Gold, director of higher education at the American Federation of Teachers, is quoted as saying something, well, wise:
"This report correctly recognizes that online learning and blended learning are growing components of higher education and, employed properly, can play a significant role in promoting student learning. Further public investment in experimentation and technology is certainly warranted…. [W]e should not take the report as saying it is simply better to move to online learning. These results demonstrate why more research is needed – broadly based research that moves well beyond case studies conducted by distance education practitioners, research focused on student retention in online environments and especially research that looks behind the instructional medium to isolate the characteristics of instruction that produce positive results. Successful education has always been about engaging students whether it is in an online environment, face to face or in a blended setting. And fundamental to that is having faculty who are fully supported and engaged in that process as well." [My emphases.]
That seems exactly right.
It’s beginning to look like we’d do best to embrace this brave new world of OI. But cautiously.
It’s always best to blend innovation ("revolution") with caution ("conservatism"), I think. What I fear is that, in this case as in so many others, we will leave out the conservatism, rapidly moving into the better world, as though we knew exactly what and where that is. And only a fool would stop for directions.
Will we once again be chirpy simpletons with garish banners and snappy slogans?
Of course!
I hate when that happens.
IHE also has an article about the feds pursuing availability of free on-line training courses:
Obama administration may propose "open" classes and create "National Skills College" to coordinate offerings at high schools and community colleges. Other help for 2-year institutions may include $10 billion facilities loan fund
I am embarrassed and troubled to admit that most people mystify me. For instance, I seem to be surrounded by people who view the having of religious “faith” as some sort of virtue.
But, on its face, faith looks like a vice.
My Merriam-Webster dictionary offers several definitions of faith, including this one: “firm belief in something for which there is no proof.” That’s the sense of the word that interests me. Many people seem to think that it is good and meritorious to have faith in God and God’s big project: to believe in this stuff despite the absence of proof or even strong evidence that any of this stuff is real.
Now, most of the time, we are inclined to ridicule people who believe in this way. A dozen years ago, those Heaven’s Gate people believed that the time had come to leave Earth, since it was about to be “recycled.” They left Earth by killing themselves, taking drugs and putting plastic bags over their heads. As near as I can tell, they are now just plain dead and the Earth is just plain unrecycled.
Why did the Heaven’s Gateians hold those beliefs? Not sure, but the zany convictions of HG leader Marshall Applewhite had something to do with his alleged near-death experience after a heart attack.
“That’s silly,” we say. “You’re bound to be a bit addled while recovering from a heart attack!”
But when more ordinary people explain their religious beliefs—e.g., belief in Christ as our Lord and savior—they don’t seem to have anything better to offer. They’ll refer to feeling transported while singing hymns at church or experiencing some kind of transcendent moment whilst looking into the night sky. (I can relate to that one.) Stuff like that.
“Well, why then (I ask the Christian) should you feel any more confident in your beliefs than that Applewhite guy? How are you different from him?”
“Shut up. Applewhite was a nut. HG was a cult.”
“Yeah, but that’s just about membership size, right? There are lots of people like you and there are few people like Apple Boy.”
These conversations never seem to get me anywhere.
Yesterday’s Schott’s Vocab (Weekend Competition) is soliciting definitions of the word “faith.”
But wait. Words mean what speakers mean by them—a meaning that survives (for as long as it survives) because it is useful to us. And if there weren’t general agreement about word meanings, language wouldn’t work.
So what’s this business about asking people for “their” definitions? That’s like asking a guy how he uses his chair or his comb. I don’t ask such questions.
It would make more sense to me to ask whether the meaning of a word is such that we ought to have some important belief that uses that word. Thus, for instance, given that “faith” is believing without evidence, we can ask: should one ever have beliefs based on faith?
Maybe some who answer the “what’s your definition?” question really mean to answer the latter question. Dunno.
Here are some entries to Schott’s solicitation:
The suspension of reason and rationality for a dream.
Faith is knowing something should be true, being certain it is, and having no insight into one’s collisions with reality.
Faith: Security in numbers.
Faith is the tenacity with which a belief or myth is adhered to, regardless of any proof for its veracity.
Faith is a socially acceptable insanity in the same way that alcohol is a socially acceptable drug.
Since Schott’s readers are ipso facto New York Times readers, you’ve gotta expect entries that are witty or that are show-offy or that are snidely opinionated (I skipped over some of the worst offenders in this regard).
So most of these definitions are just what we’d expect, I suppose.
The stuff about a “collision with reality” is funny, I guess. (To me, that phrase is always funny.) Most of the rest strike me as little more than variations on the dictionary definition, plus some 'tude.
For me, two of these stand out a little bit. “Faith,” says one wag, is “security in numbers.” I suppose the point is that most people manage to avoid being embarrassed by their failure to apply minimum standards of rationality to their religious beliefs because such beliefs are so “normal” and time-honored and thus they must be true--or at least it wouldn't be too embarrassing if they turned out to be false.
My own view is that human beings are capable of almost anything (i.e., any atrocity or idiocy), as long as it can be said that “we’ve always done things like this.” Even now, tradition and normalcy are much more powerful than reason. It's pretty disheartening.
The last definition is somewhat interesting: “Faith is a socially acceptable insanity in the same way that alcohol is a socially acceptable drug.” This definition strikes me as more earnest than clever.
I guess it’s pretty obvious what the definer means by calling faith “insanity.” Faith is some sort of extreme rational error or failing. I get it.
But it’s one that is somehow acceptable. Yes, I get that too.
Like drinking alcohol? Here, I get lost. I suppose the obvious points to make about alcohol are that (1) you shouldn’t drink too much of it too often and that (2) it is silly to prohibit other drugs but not alcohol.
But our definer seems to be thinking (am I wrong?) that drinking alcohol per se is some sort of madness, one that is tolerated.
–A teetotaler, I guess. I’ve known people who seem unwilling to recognize that one can enjoy alcohol without abusing it. Is that who we’re dealing with here? Wadda nut.
I’m sympathetic to this “definition,” but I suppose I’d prefer to use another example: “Faith is a socially acceptable insanity in the same way that the notion that we have a right to bear arms is socially acceptable [insanity].”
The problem here is that one is trying to make a somewhat controversial point by relying on another controversial point.
Probably, the core of the point is just that, if one steps back to take a clear and objective look at “us,” one cannot avoid noticing that this “faith” thing that we do, like a few other things that we do, is plain hogwash. It's indefensible.
Aha! Like many insights, this one turns out just to be a variation of the Emperor’s new clothes allegory.
If I were to write a book (don’t worry, I won’t) that captures Roy’s wisdom, it would include a handful of propositions, one of which would be: most folly is manifest.
(But how can that be, Master?!)
Yes, yes, exactly. Now run along and think about that, Grasshopper (and stay out of that damned closet!).
I'm old enough to remember the monstrous, aging Kathryn Kuhlman, faith healing lunatic.
Michael Jackson, an enormously talented and influential pop star of mixed and increasingly dubious accomplishment, has died a premature and miserable death, as anybody with half a brain thought he likely would. And so now he’s gone.
No doubt this is a terrible time for his family and friends.
The rest of us: surely we can see that his death deserves little attention. It isn’t particularly meaningful or important, now is it?
Snap out of it!
We cannot say that we are being fooled. It is not entirely inaccurate to say that we are being "informed." … The efficient mass production of pseudo-events—in all kinds of packages, in black-and-white, in technicolor, in words, and in a thousand other forms—is the work of the whole machinery of our society. It is the daily product of men of good will. … The people must be informed!
Fans lighted candles at an spontaneous gathering in Hong Kong, while in the Philippines, a dance tribute was planned for a prison in Cebu, where Byron Garcia, a security consultant, had 1,500 inmates join in a synchronized dance to the “Thriller” video.
“My heart is heavy because my idol died,” he said.
UC Irvine said today that it may have to cut as much as $70 million to help the state balance its budget, a figure that might lead to fewer classes, deeper lay-offs and a consolidation of some programs. ¶ The news comes less than a month after UCI said that it would have to reduce spending by $40 million to help the state. That figure rose to $55 million, then to $70 million….
“Diseases don’t recognize borders or look for citizenship papers,” medical anthropologist Corinne Shear Wood once told students at Cal State Fullerton. Neither did Wood, whose quest to help the disadvantaged took her around the world, on journeys where she did everything from fighting leprosy in Pakistan to exploring traditional Maori medicine in New Zealand….
Teenage musicians from throughout the county traveled to Saddleback College this week for a chance to learn from professional jazz players. ¶ The pros, most of them adjunct faculty members, are teaching 41 students everything from basic music theory to advanced improvisation….
The Iranian government now says Neda Agha-Soltan—the 26-year-old martyr in the struggle for freedom in that tense country—may have been killed by a gunman who mistook her for the sister of an Iranian "terrorist," the Islamic Republic News Agency reports today.
Rather than blaming the marksman, Iran suggested "those groups who want to create division in the nation" are responsible for Neda's death, even hinting at something of a conspiracy by saying government foes planned the woman's killing "to accuse the Islamic republic of ruthlessly dealing with the opposition."
That's not likely to appease members of GreeNeda, a new "movement of unity" that has sprung up just about anywhere in the world where there are Persians living, including Orange County. Composed of participants in several local freedom rallies already, they will hold an all-day "teach-in" Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., in Aldrich Park at the center of the UC Irvine campus….
About 700 colleges signed up for the new Post-9/11 GI Bill’s Yellow Ribbon Program, which allows colleges to enter into dollar-for-dollar matching agreements with the federal government to pay veterans' educational costs above those covered by the base GI Bill benefit (which varies by state and is tied to undergraduate, resident public university tuition rates). While the Department of Veterans Affairs has not yet released its final list of participating colleges, Keith Wilson, director of the VA’s education service, expects the 700 figure to stay pretty stable. “It’ll grow a little bit. I know we’ve still got some [cases] where we’re seeking clarification from the school, and a couple we need additional information from; the forms weren’t filled out completely. But it’s not going to change dramatically.”….
A few hours ago, Sam Stein, reporting for Huffington Post, noted that Fox News was covering the big Sanford meltdown story all right—only, in Fox's super-special version of reality, Governor Sanford is a Democrat:
The network known for its conservative leaning ran footage of Mark Sanford admitting to an extramarital affair on Wednesday with a Chyron [an electronically generated caption] identifying the South Carolina Republican – near tears – as a D, for Democrat.
(Fox eventually "corrected" their "mistake.")
And, no, this isn’t the first time that the network for Stupid People employed this clever gambit. You'll recall that, when Mark Foley admitted to alcohol problems (after some seriously inappropriate behavior with congressional pages), Fox did the same dang thing.
I guess the people at Fox understand their audience well, i.e., they understand that those silly rednecks and Bible thumpers are just incredibly f*cking stupid.
The Royal Observatory, Greenwich, is staging an exhibition of some of the most spectacular images of Saturn and its moons captured by Nasa's Cassini-Huygens craft
Granted, there is a lot of waste in any institution but the recent closure of Silverado Elementary reveals a level of waste that goes beyond, say, the normal end-of- school year cleanout.
The pictures tell the story better than Rebel Girl can.
To be told that the school district doesn't have enough money to keep your child's school open - and then to open the dumpster and see the equivalent of a small library discarded makes one wonder about management policies, oversight and, frankly, competence.
The books in the dumpsters added, say, insult to injury.
There is, one parent quipped, just one short step between throwing away usable books and burning them. Ouch.
Rebel Girl is often pleased to point out irony. The difference in usage, for instance, between the words oversight and oversight. One means accountablity and the other means error. But we here in the canyons have had enough irony, nearly losing our whole canyon and then our school. So, no, irony is not helpful today, not on a day spent rescuing books from god help us, a school! It's not so comforting or even helpful, not when it can't seem to find a place to mean anything. Sigh. Back to sorting. At least these lovely volumes will find new homes. They're destined for an after-school tutoring program in Santa Ana.
"We're going to continue to do this as the state economy continues to crumble and the state of education seems to deteriorate," [Student Body President Alex] Flores said.
WASHINGTON -- The thesis behind a meeting of educators and policy makers here Monday was that higher education is facing a crisis and that if its leaders fail to respond adequately, the consequences will be significant for colleges and the country…. … …The afternoon's discussion focused on the ways in which college leaders have or haven't responded to the array of technological, demographic and budgetary changes that are combining to increase the pressure on colleges and universities to perform….
Board Prez Don Wagner looked odd, albeit better, without his mustache
Went to the June meeting of the SOCCCD board of trustees tonight. Wanna report? I’ll just do this little impressionistic/"camera eye” thing—I can do that quickly—and then I can get back to watching Doctor G. (See Tracy’s highlights.)
Trustees looked grim/mean, wanted to be anywhere but there…Don looked super-pasty faced. What’s wrong with 'im?! (Then, an epiphany: good God! No mustache!)
6:33: meeting started. Clerk reported nada from closed session… Three new managers introduced…warm and fuzzies: instructor Fumiko I. honored at the Cherry Blossom Festival, with 30,000 souls, including people from the “Japanese and American communities,” said Glenn….
Mathur tried to show one of his “Did you know?” factoidal video extravaganzas (maybe it was about those cherry blossoms), but this was the night of the techno glitch, so Don ‘n’ Raghu steamed and stewed and slow-burned about that. Upshot: No factoidal video. (“Somebody will pay,” he muttered, his lower lip drooping impossibly southward toward Hades.)
Tom Fuentes reported that he gave a commencement address at Agrestic State U (Mathur 'n' Fuentes got honorary sheepskins there), up in LA. —He was proud, like a turd sporting a tiny goose feather….
Nobody mentioned Williams'“scandalously incompetent county official” problem or the still-fresh “PE-for-Geezers courses” flap—Williams kept smiling like an idiot, his only defense. Bramucci and Co. gave a presentation about the colleges' online instruction—looks like, quickly but surely, students are eschewing campus visitations in favor of inertial cyberspace stay-at-home-itude. Do the math! I think we’re witnessing Trad College's gradual extinction, not that that's necessarily a bad thing (it's only accidentally a bad thing). Dean PatF offered something from the “bottom of” her heart in gratitude of trustees, but it was undignified…. (Some day, we’ll look back, and we’ll realize that it was right about now that COLLEGE IN AMERICA started circling the drain, disappearing like lead-piped Roman bath houses.)
“I am a biology professor,” announced Marcia, as Don smiled sardonically…. Gosh, thanks you guys, for giving us more spare bandwidth, said Bramucci: it was "kiss-ass night" down at the Ronnie Reagan Room, I guess.... Free beer for big smoochers. (Well, Mathur probably ordered 'em do this smoochin', so you can't really blame 'em.)
“I see lawyers” (in the audience), said funny Don, worried—Yeah, but item 6.3 (ATEP agreement for some firm to provide development services) went through like butta and sans discussion or questions. It’s democracy, baby, which is kinda hollow when the demos (that’s Greek) are a gaggle of apathetic and clueless jackasses who never show up for anything and who, no doubt, will look all hurt when the Big One hits and their Toyotas have eucalyptus trees smack in the middle of 'em. "Why didn't they warn us?" they'll cry. "Fix my booboo!"
Well, I'm warning you now. Get ready for the eucalypti.
IVC student gov. presented their tentative budget…pretty girl an’ dazed lanky vet taking turns giving dry-as-dust presentation as Helen L hovered like a vampire bat… The Saddleback kids did a slicker job—their treasurer (Ms. Andrews) was as sharp as a tack (chirpy too), and she took the next big techno SNAFU in stride like a pro, even apologizing for others’ f*ck-up…. Let’s make her Chancellor, I shouted (in my mind). Meanwhile, Fuentes squinted so hard that I couldn’t tell if he was asleep, dead, or pissed off. I still don’t know. (Have you noticed all the suspicion about Steve Jobs’ recent organ swap? Hey, you don't know hinky until you've thought through the facts of Tom's "fortuitous" liver switcheroo….and I bet he has an earthquake shelter, too, stocked with liver pills and Glocks...)
After a break, consent calendar got spread fast with budda, except for 5.2—What’s this (asked Don) about the proposal to increase the parking ticket amount—and campus cops giving tickets now for lapsed tags and stuff? Is this revenue enhancement? Don’t like it. Big Brother is big and brotherly enough.
Somebody out there started 'splainin', but the Wag said No, I wanna hear why the Chancellor here (rivet!) recommended such a thing....Raghu seemed flummoxed...eventually, he burped forth that he was just supporting Prez B's recommendation, is all.... Hmmm—what was that all about? Tension.
Don wanted to know why "our toad" had recommended dinging students for lapsed tags and such
Questioning cops? Williams got all defensive and brandished his 9 mil, which he promptly dropped on Don’s toe. An' he didn’t get Don’s point, neither. It was "philosophical," and John is more copical and idiotical. Poor Don: I almost never agree w/ him, and now this! At least he got two others to vote with him, even if those two beamed in their votes from Neptune.
Gary P presented the tentative district budget, and that was sometimes riveting (frogs, toads), sometimes mind-numbing (Glenfiddich, meth)… Basic Aid is gradually disappearing… from 47 mil down to 37 mil in one year!…. Categorical funding will take a big (and categorical!) hit from the state (17% 36%?). So do we backfill with Basic Aid? Yes, yes, yes, said John and Marcia, but “Wait, wait, wait,” said Gary. We’ve always funded the colleges like they’d be funded by the state—it's a philosophical matter—and so if the state cuts funding for this stuff, then that’s what we do, too, unless we want to work with a different philosophy, know what I mean? Plus basic aid is for one-time expenses, so is that the idea here? One time?
John and Marcia seemed thwarted, bewildered. John smiled harder. His head cracked open. Nothin' was revealed (i.e., something was revealed, namely, a hollow skull plus a tiny chickpea).
“Let’s not overreact,” said Marcia, “until later.” Yeah. We’ll overreact then. Mathur (who had said nothing and who showed up looking like an old fat toad), saw an opportunity (or a fly), and commenced spitting and croaking, cuz he loves playin’ the “wise old” amphibian. “Yeah, better think twice about this, that's for sure.” He managed to wag that finger without revealing it. Everybody stared. Guess so, they thunk. Yup maybe so.
But, in truth, Mathur was probably right. (Dang!) Plus, said Raghu, what do you think is gonna happen when we boost EOPS and DSPS and every other kind of PS—while all the other colleges are backin’ off as per state tightwaddery? Why, students will be wheelin’ and break-dancing up to our doorstep from all over the county, is all! Then what? Will we keep paying for this crew while everything else goes to hell in a handbasket?
Don't think so!
Everyone looked staunch.
One thing: the colleges won’t be adding any sections in the Fall, just filling up any extra seats. Won’t be accommodating that influx, no sir.
What are we, Santa F*cking Claus? Plus there's that slippery freakin' slope!
Pretty much everything after that was quickie/slam dunk. Only: Marcia got all excited about the 18 new faculty—but wait! Actually, only 13 are new; others are replacements. Tom was very interested in that number. That many?! Now?! Didn’t like it, not a bit, judging by his mega-squintery.
Yeah, but surely he realizes that it was his boy RAGHU who fucked up the 50% rule, forcing us to hire all these people, ready or not! You squawk when we don't hire; you squawk when we do hire: Are you just here to squawk, Tom?
What are you, some kind of Republican?
When Lee H announced that he would be a delegate at the big NEA conference (NEA is like the biggest organization in the known universe, and they’re about as sensible and sweet as the BORG), just about all of the trustees ('ceptin’ Marcia, who was examining a bug) stared at him like he was saying, “I plan to have sex with several farm animals atop the Matterhorn in July.”
Me too (I mean, I stared, too—not the farm animal thing).
(Note: three of these photos from Tracy's "highlights.")
A week ago, OC Register “Watchdog” reporter Teri Sforza posted an account of complaints—charges of “inflated numbers” and cheating [aka "fraud"]—regarding Saddleback College “Emeritus” PE classes at Laguna Woods Village, aka “Leisure World” (Is college cheating state for seniors’ fitness classes?).
The matter was originally pursued by dogged LWV resident Doug Goforth, but he managed to get other residents riled, yielding a petition in May, which was presented to an LWV governing board. The petition had little impact, but the issue lingers.
In a follow-up article a few hours later, Sforza said she had asked Saddleback College for a response, and she did get a brief statement from spokeswoman Jennie McCue. But Sforza had also asked for “dollar details” for these PE courses.
As of Monday afternoon, said Sforza, she had not yet been provided with the latter (which was understandable).
On Friday (i.e., four days later), Sforza reported that “We're still waiting on dollar figures for the Emeritus physical education program….”
Leisure World Bikers' Bar
As near as I can tell, she’s still waiting. Anyway, there are no indications in today's edition of the Reg (as of a few minutes ago) that the information has been provided.
OK, so this is DAY 7 of the WAIT FOR "DOLLAR DETAILS." It'll be interesting to see what happens—or doesn't.
(Note: if there is an issue here, it concerns not only Saddleback's Emeritus PE courses but Irvine Valley College's as well [or so it seems to me, but whaddoo I know].)
Sheesh, I just noticed that the OC Weekly’s Matt Coker took my recent “Holocaust museum shooter” dot-connecting saga (Part 1, Part 2) and ran with it. I'm pleased!
TANGLED WEB OF HATE WEAVED BY CARTO, VON BRUNN & CO.
Essentially, Matt repeats my dot-connectings, adding a few details, but he also shares his memories of a notorious board meeting back in '98, involving Nazis and JDL thugs (a meeting we described in detail in Dissent; see Oh, what a night! and Night of the Nazi):
It takes a lot to laugh, it takes a train to cry and it takes Irvine Valley College philosophy professor Roy Bauer to connect the dots between National Holocaust Museum shooter James Wenneker von Brunn, some of our most notorious local haters and The Unabauer's own South Orange County Community College District.
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As Bauer notes on his Dissent the Bloghere and here, von Brunn was once employed by Noontide Press, which is currently based in Newport Beach and is part of the Institute of Historical Review, which over the years has been located in Torrance, Costa Mesa and, most recently, Newport Beach.
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So what does any of this have to do with the community-college district? Or anything? Glad you asked.
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In 1983, von Brunn was sentenced to prison for attempted armed kidnapping of members of the Federal Reserve board. After he was released from prison in 1989, he came to Southern California to work at Noontide Press. That was during the IHR reign of now 82-year-old Willis Carto. According to Talking Points Memo blogger Zachary Roth, Von Brunn tried to use Wikipedia to promote the work of Carto, who claims to be a Jeffersonian and populist, not a racist and anti-Semite.
In 1955, Carto founded Liberty Lobby, which was best known for publishing the newspaper The Spotlight from 1975 and 2001. … It was the [paper] that promoted white supremacy and denied the Holocaust ever happened.
Carto in 1969 started Noontide Press, which has published books on white racialism and, with David Hoggan's The Six Million Myth, became among the first publishers to deny the Holocaust happened.
A decade later Carto founded the IHR as sort of an umbrella organization over all his publishing ventures. But he was booted out by his own board in the early 1990s over misuse of funds as IHR and Noontide Press was facing bankruptcy. It is believed von Brunn left Noontide Press around this time.
Carto has said he did not know von Brunn, while Weber says he only knew of him. Weber also maintains IHR and Noontide have returned to their "populist" roots since Carto's ouster. I'll let you check out his websites and decide for yourself.
Carto and several Spotlight staff members went off to start a new newspaper called American Free Press. Among his stable of writers is D.C.-based Michael Collins Piper, who hosts a weekday talk program on shortwave radio that has been described as pointedly anti-Zionist.
From 1996 to 2000 [actually, from 1992 until 2000], the South Orange County Community College District (SOCCCD) had a board trustee named Steven J. Frogue, who was also a history teacher at Foothill High School in Tustin. Frogue was controversial locally because there were reports out of his classrooms that he had said some nutty things, such as denying or questioning the number of Jewish deaths caused by the Holocaust. Other than an embarrassing headline or two, he escaped political damage that would threaten his board seat.
But then in 1998 [actually, August, 1997] Frogue tried to get the board to use taxpayer funds to cover some expenses for a John F. Kennedy assassination symposium he was organizing as a summer elective course at Irvine Valley College. [Note: actually, the forum would have been at Saddleback.] ... A war was waging at the time that pitted the conservative board majority Frogue was aligned with against some administrators and faculty members (including Bauer) over who should make decisions regarding academics, the naming of deans and other matters that had traditionally been overseen by the Faculty Senate.
Doing some digging, Frogue's foes discovered that among the "experts" the trustee had enlisted for his forum was Piper, who had just penned a book that attributed the JFK assassination to the CIA and Israel, with an assist from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Among the costs the Frogue-led majority agreed to pick up were the travel expenses of Piper and other speakers--some of whom had been branded as equally as loony.
Taking a look at Frogue's past comments with new eyes, as well as scribbling down new quotes he was making while struggling to defend himself amid a new controversy, it was discovered the trustee was a big fan of Carto, the IHR and Liberty Lobby. [Actually, some of that had already been revealed in 1994 by the IVC Voice and then the OC Reg.] The story of the little college district hosting a Holocaust denier and other nutbars at a JFK assassination forum generated national headlines, then international ones. Late night comics made fun of the SOCCCD.
Subsequent board meetings turned into three-ring circuses—and smelled about as bad. The worst, on a steamy June 15, 1998, night, featured appearances by Piper, trenchcoated National Socialist and admitted child molester Joe Fields, Jewish Defense League wack bags Barry Krugel and Irv Rubin (now dead, from suicide or murder in jail) and other area Nazis, Zionists and the people who love them. Cameras and security guards were everywhere. Frogue looked as if he was in the midst of passing a crome-spiked German helmet up on the dais.
Having covered that meeting, this exchange between opposing audience still echoes in my head:
"Nazi!"
"Cockroach!"
Student trustee Marie Hill summed it up best: "Every time I get up in the morning and see a story about this district in the Orange County Register, it's like seeing your mother on The Jerry Springer Show."
Frogue was nearly recalled—but damn if Orange County is going to toss out an incumbent. After the controversy died down, he quietly resigned in 2000—before his term was up so his board pals could appoint his replacement. South County was rewarded with the equally odious Tom Fuentes, the former Orange County Republican Party chairman now loathed by much of the SOCCCD faculty.
Monday’s OC Reg story about the curious way that Saddleback College receives state funds for Emeritus (for-the-elderly) PE courses (Is college cheating state for seniors’ fitness classes?) has legs, I guess. As of this morning, the story, which was occasioned by the persistent complaints of Laguna Woods Woods resident DougGoforth, has attracted 64 comments, almost all of them indignant and angry. That’s not counting comments that the follow-up piece, including a brief response from Saddleback College’s Jennie McCue, has attracted.
On the other hand, only five comments were posted in the last two days, and so reader interest is flagging.
"They're free, Pops!"
In that follow-up piece (which appeared only hours after Monday’s initial article), the college had been asked to respond to Mr. Goforth’s claims, and McCue did so, but her remarks did not respond to important aspects of Goforth’s objections—essentially, that fraud is afoot.
Further, the Reg reporter, Teri Sforza, stated that “we’re still waiting on dollar figures for the Emeritus physical education program….”
Naturally, since Monday, I’ve been keeping up with the Reg, hoping to see those dollar figures and any further explanation or defense by the college. As far as I know, after five days, none has appeared (at least in the Reg).
Yesterday, the Reg posted the article again (Laguna Woods man skeptical of classes), this time essentially combining the original article with the follow-up.
Sforza repeats that:
We could be way off base here, but the entire episode sounds hauntingly similar to the “phantom classes” investigation done by our colleagues at the Register five years ago. They found that the state's community colleges artificially inflated enrollment by counting high school athletes – at their regular high school sports practices – as community college students.
Yeah. The worry here is that, once again, a kind of fraud is afoot.
Naturally, one must keep these matters in perspective: the state's community college system is huge, and the occurrence of instances of fraud simpliciter are pretty rare. Instances of systemic unselfish fraud (i.e., fraud for the sake of programs, not perpetrators' gain)are, I suppose, less rare, but by no means epitomize the system.
By Friday, had Sforza received any financial data?
We have asked Saddleback, and the state of California, for dollar details of these “Emeritus” physical education classes, both locally and statewide. We are waiting for those figures, and we'll keep you posted.
Sforza also quotes from a petition “for Eliminating Clubhouse One Saddleback Emeritus Classes,” which was presented to an LWV governing board weeks ago:
“This class is not a traditional class environment in that it is not designed for group instruction. Since there is only one Saddleback College instructor present for the class, most of the students never receive individual instruction either. The Fitness Center Staff is used to assist in the operation of the facility while these classes are in session. Most workout programs of residents are prepared by this staff outside of class. This same staff operates the Fitness Center in the afternoon and evenings without a Saddleback instructor because there is no additional benefit to the residents in having an instructor there.”
Sforza once again notes that, despite the petition, LWV’s governing board decided that residents liked the classes, though the board evidently recognized the need for some changes, including adding another instructor per course.
Some critics of Saddleback's Emeritus PE courses are pretty clueless about public education and, too often, they offer the simplistic demagogic rhetoric of the “government is the problem” crowd. But it seems to me that, at bottom, they do have a point here. Are we (i.e., the two colleges of SOCCCD) getting state funds for courses that aren’t really courses or that aren’t sufficiently course-like?
Seems so. It'll be interesting to see where this goes. Let's hope we won't once again become the poster child for some idiocy or scandal.
Jennifer Muir of the OC Reg reports that SOCCCD trustee JOHN WILLIAMS is an even bigger idiot than we thought:Fueled by public complaints of "inappropriate activities" within the department, the grand jury published results of its first probe in May, accusing Williams of doubling salary costs at the agency, engaging in questionable personnel practices and failing to save taxpayer money.
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