The session—held this morning in Saddleback College's cavernous McKinney Theater—started with a few numbers by the college's Vocal Jazz Ensemble. These kids looked great and sounded great, too. I was impressed.
As usual, the Prince of Darkness (aka Tom Fuentes) served as the MC. He ended the session by playing a lugubrious video about returning vets that seemed to suggest that only vets are entitled to complain about anything, since they have been through hell and the rest of us are like pigs in clover.
Yeah, many vets have been through hell.
And exactly why is that, Mr. GOP?
Next time, I'd like to see a video that identifies the irresponsible, deceptive and stupid people who cause unnecessary and disastrous wars.
The Chancellor's remarks amounted to sustained finger-wagging. Evidently, Raghu thinks that, somehow, none of us is aware that times are tough and that people are losing their homes, their jobs.
Meanwhile, the people in the auditorium—instructors mostly—have jobs, good ones. "We need to count our blessings," said Raghu repeatedly.
We are undergoing a "major paradigm shift," said the illiterate Chancellor who has no clue where that phrase comes from but who nevertheless lectures us with it.
The "basic aid bubble" that we are living in will burst, fumed the Gooster. But some of us are living in denial about that, he said. He seemed to point his stubby finger at everyone, wagging it scoldingly. He lectured us about the politics of economic meltdowns. He demanded the emergence of new leadership, in California and in our colleges.
He once again mentioned Thomas Friedman's book, "The World is Flat."
I do believe it is the only book the fellow owns.
Yes, he really did this grade school thing with the word diversity. I especially like what he did with the letter S: "skin."
The T and Y stood for "turpitude" and "yuckiness," as I recall.
The Chancellor imagines that the value of tolerance obliges one to value the incompetent, the despotic, and the vainglorious.
No.
The benighted fellow confuses a rejection of his dark character and deeds with a rejection of him owing to his ethnicity. Again, no. Dissenters expect and demand decency. And so we oppose the conniving and unscrupulous Mathur. It's simple.
As you know, it wouldn't be a Chancellor's Opening session without one of Raghu's inane quotations. Read this one. Unfuckingbelievable. (See The Dash.)
Imagine a discussion of a passage from Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics or Kant's 2nd Critique. Maybe something about respect for others.
But no. Instead, we get New Age flatulence and paternalistic admonitions.
The Vice Chancellor entertained us mightily with a display of musicianship and technical whiz-bangery. His brief performance really was fun.
Later, he showed us a brief video of images of the 60s mostly—accompanied by Dylan's "The Times They are A-Changin'".
I think the point was that we Old Fogies have got to get on board with this Distance Ed thing, 'cause that's just the way it is, like it or not.
Yeah, that was the gist of it.
Keynote speaker Amanda Cox-Otto was very entertaining. Evidently, she was there to inform us that we are old and tired and need to get with the program or else get the hell out of the way. Guess so.
She gets points, though, for using the word "frickin'."
I'm not sure, but I think the theme of today's session was "Arbeit macht Frei." Or maybe: "be grateful you have a job and so don't be complaining about anything, especially not about your pay, you fucking, doddering idiots, you."
It was all pretty inspiring.
THE UNION LUNCHEON
The union (Faculty Association) luncheon was well attended.
Union Prez Lee H is usually a very effective speaker. This time, he didn't seem prepared. "He kinda sucks at this, doesn't he?" said someone at the next table.
I guess some of the old boys from IVC took Cox-Otto's "old and doddering" malarkey to heart, judging by their demeanor and drool. Wendy, who is neither old nor doddering, was amused.
Lee introduced this guy, some bigwig. For some reason, the fellow chose to break into a musical theater number. Not sure why. He was good, though.
Even Saddleback College's president seemed to get caught up in the wackiness. He grabbed those flowers and stuck 'em between his teeth. Well, no, but he was thinkin' about it.
The main event, I guess, was a brief presentation by the president of CTA, who did a decent job saying the usual things. "Blah, blah, blah," mostly. He announced that "The era of the apathetic voter has come to an end." He's got tickets to the Inauguration, and he's plenty proud of it.
Alannah asked him a good question. Something about what's gonna happen now to the Dept. of Education. "Blah blah blah," he said.
Spotted some old faces around the room.
Lewis was on hand to talk about the contract.
I hear that, despite Mathur and Fuentes' best efforts to screw things up, we still have enough trustee votes for approval of the new contract. Whew!
