The June board meeting (aka "Where's Raghu?" or "Gary Poertner appreciation night!")

WHERE'S RAGHU?
     By 6:15, some of the trustees had finally entered the "Ronald Reagan BOT" room, and I noticed that Chancellor Raghu Mathur’s nameplate (up on the dais) had been covered with a piece of paper upon which was scrawled, “Gary Poertner, Deputy Chancellor.”
     I asked someone where Raghu was. “He is not present,” she said.
     Oh. Obviously, there was a story, but she wasn’t going to tell it. Not to me.
     Finally, board President Don Wagner arrived. The room immediately grew quiet.
     A minute later, the meeting began, with Marcia Michiker, board Clerk, reading out actions taken in closed session: (1) a 7-0 approval of Don Bushe as acting VPI (at Saddleback College) for one year. (2) 7-0 approval of Juan Avalos (?) as Vice President of Student Services, starting in July.
     Marcia’s invocation was relatively unreligious.

GARY POERTNER, RETIRING HERO
     A number of resolutions were read, including one for retiring Vice Chancellor Gary Poertner, a popular guy among trustees, administrators, and faculty, owing to his mesmerizing and sensational combo of two traits: niceness and competence.
     Upon being resolved at (upon?), and experiencing an impressive Standing O, Poertner said, “Boy, that was embarrassing.” He seemed to be breaking out in hives.
     There were no requests to speak (public comments).
     Next came board reports: Bill Jay made a pitch for recognition of those who pursue and often win grants. “Thanks,” he said.
     John Williams yammered a bit about how many hits “Mysite” and other district/college sites were getting. He congratulated Don Wagner for his Assembly seat victory—and Dave Lang, too, for his “spirited campaign.”
     Marcia congratulated the victories of Williams (for OC Public Administrator), Wagner, and Fuentes (GOP Central Committee). She congratulated Dave for a “great campaign.” She noted that everyone on the board seemed to be running for office except for her. Laughter.
     Nancy Padberg reported that she had attended an event in which the city of Mission Viejo recognized Saddleback College’s Veterans’ Memorial. MV, she said, was the first city to contribute to the effort to build the memorial.
     She also asked that the meeting be adjourned in honor of Paul Wagner, who, as you know, died a month ago.
     Don thanked Poertner for his work and noted that he and the district would genuinely miss him. He then took the opportunity to thank his colleagues and "many people in the room" who were so supportive in the last month. Nothing was said about Mathur's absence. My guess is that the fellow was told to go home and stay there.
     Tom Fuentes repeated the usual congratulations and briefly offered his condolences to Don. But he made a big point of thanking Gary P for his work over the years.
     Lang repeated the congratulations (and cursory condolences,) again emphasizing his sadness over Poertner’s departure. (Never underestimate the pettiness of certain people.)
     There were no requests for reports from trustees.

STUDENT GOV BUDGETS:
     Next came the proposed student government budgets. The two Saddleback kids gave a brief and seemingly efficient report. There were no questions. Then came the IVC kids, who, upon receiving absurdly lengthy introductions from Helen Locke, gave similarly brief and efficient reports, though they weren’t nearly as cute as the SC gals, and one of ‘em sported a thick accent that reminded me of bad WW II movies: "Feering rucky, Joe?" But it all went pretty well, I guess.
     Fuentes quipped that maybe Don should take these young people with him to Sacramento to help with balancing the state budget. Har har.

THE CHANCELLOR SEARCH PROCESS/THE DISTRICT BUDGET:
    The usual guy (John Wilbol[?] of Chancellor Searches 'R Us) gave the update on the Chancellor search process. The committee is requiring a writing sample, he said. The committee will be asking 12-14 questions. "Blah, blah, blah."
     The upshot seems to be that there’s significant interest in the position and the search process is on track. The first interviews (of about 10-12 candidates) will occur on Sept. 2 and 3. The committee will likely have recommendations for the board by early to mid September.
     Any questions?
     Tom Fuentes wanted to know how many “recommendations” would be sent to the board. Answer: at least three, maybe more. As you know, Fuentes is a "top down" kind of guy.
     Eventually, Gary P presented the tentative district budget, which will likely be very much like the actual budget, to be presented in August.
     Gary mentioned the nature of the battle over the budget in Sacramento: Dems seek to protect programs; Repubs seek to avoid taxes. The trend, said Gary, seems to be a shifting of responsibilities from the state to local government. Because these responsibilities are costly, what we have here is a de facto restructuring of funding.
     Gary made quite a point of how fortunate the SOCCCD is amid the financial woes of virtually all other districts and institutions. While other districts are moving toward furloughs and such, we’re sittin’ pretty with money in the bank. Across the state, there was a 6% decrease in course offerings last year—but not in the SOCCCD. Nosir.
     We’ve got to keep our situation—our relative fortunatitude—“in perspective,” said Gary. He made a point of naming the people (in his office, I guess) who do the “real work”: Beth, et al.
     As he has done at previous board meetings, Gary showed past and projected Basic Aid receipts. Back in 1999, when we shifted to Basic Aid, we received $5.6 million (that's the "gravy" on top of the normal state taters). By 2009, we received $51 million. This year, it’s $38.6 million, and the projection for next year is $36 million. See the trend?
     Said Gary: OK, any questions? There were a few. In answering Marcia’s question, Gary summed up his feelings by saying, “I’m not worried about our budget at all.” (That might've been a joke; but if it was, nobody got it.)
     Tom Fuentes, looking for things to politicize inappropriately, asked if the district has ever been forced to tap into its “reserve” (which nowadays is set at over 7%). Of course, he knew the answer.
     Answer: not since Gary’s been around (he arrived about eleven years ago as part of the Cedric Sampson package). In “prior years,” however, said Gary, the board did dip into the reserve “and more.”
     A few minutes later, Williams, who is eternally identified with (besides stupidity) the sorry board that engaged in so much reserve-dipping that the district was placed on the state chancellor’s fiscal “watch list,” once again put forth the canard that that action was compelled by the “Orange County bankruptcy.” (Funny, the other OC CC districts didn’t end up on the watch list.)
     Dave Lang seemed bothered at the small amount of the budget going to “capital outlay”—which seems to be code for “new buildings.” It’s especially tiny at IVC, he said. He squinted at a spot in front of him.
     He also took some sort of swipe at faculty, which seems to be a Langian motif, now that the fellow is universally reviled and has been thoroughly rejected by OC voters. He alluded to some carping regarding fairness in allocations that he read in the Saddleback College accred self-study draft. He attributed “disingenuousness" to these writers--or maybe to others. Dunno.
     Gary was asked to weigh in on that issue, but he wasn’t going to bite. “You’re a short-timer, go for it!” joked Wagner. No doing. Poertner remained mute, a statue.
     Nancy Padberg, psychically pointing at John Williams stupid visage, reminded us that, when she arrived (late in ’98), we were on that watch list. Since then, the board has enforced a rule according to which basic aid bucks are spent only on one-time expenses, not ongoing expenses. Further, the amount of minimal reserve moola has been increased. So we’re fiscally healthy! She thanked Gary for his fine stewardship of district finances. Every word was a tiny dart flying toward John's fat head.

ILLITERACY AT THE TOP:
     Next up was the district mission/vision statements. Have you read 'em? Here goes:

Vision:
To be an educational leader in a changing world. [Wow. How' bout, "Love; it's what makes a college"?]

Mission:
To provide a dynamic learning environment and diverse opportunities fostering student success and contributing to the community. [Couldn't they run this by the English dept.? Good Lord!]

Core Values/Guiding Principles:
We invest in our students' success, employees, physical plant, and community, with wise use of our resources. [We invest in our students' employees and their physical plant?]

     Good grief. (Do you suppose Raghu wrote this stuff?)
     These verbal turds were adopted without discussion. It was unanimous. It's a good thing nobody pays attention to 'em.

ACCRED SELF-STUDIES; LANG FRETS:
     Eventually, the board got to the accreditation self-studies for the two colleges. No presentation was scheduled. Any questions?
     Again, Lang piped up. He encouraged trustees to take a close look at the reports. Since he was on the committee for Saddleback, he recommended in particular that everyone read Standard 4 (on leadership and governance), especially 327, 331, and “all the way to 360.” Lang seemed to say that that discussion concerned the resources being funneled to ATEP, our endlessly underdeveloped technical college over by the old blimp boxes in Tustin.
     It sounded like Lang wanted discussion of that portion of the accred report to be agendized soon. Don't know what that's about.

GOOD NIGHT:
     During his report on behalf of Irvine Valley College, Glenn Roquemore offered a series of words about Poertner: “calm, logical, educated, experienced, solid friend.”
     OK. At least he didn't say, "plastics."
     He looked at Gary. “Please keep your cell phone charged,” he said. Laughter.
     Bill Hewitt noted that faculty productivity has gone up significantly this year. He said he had attended a recent IVC accred discussion, and he was impressed with the collegiality on display there.
     Like many before him, he had warm words for Gary Poertner.
     The meeting lasted but an hour and a half. Amazing.

Christian Legal Society at Hastings can't discriminate against gays

     Our own trustee Don Wagner went to Hastings. I wonder if he was a member of the Christian Legal Society there?

Anti-Bias Rules Upheld (Inside Higher Ed)

     The Supreme Court ruled today, 5-to-4, that public colleges and universities may require religious organizations seeking recognition or funds as campus groups to comply with anti-bias rules.
     The ruling came in a lawsuit by the Christian Legal Society, which challenged the anti-bias rules of the Hastings College of Law of the University of California. The Hastings policy bars discrimination based on sexual orientation and the Christian Legal Society bars gay people from becoming members. Hastings has argued – with backing from many in public higher education – that state universities have an obligation to adhere to strict anti-bias rules. But the Christian Legal Society – with backing from many religious groups – has argued that forcing it to comply with anti-bias rules amounts to infringing on its First Amendment right to freedom of religion.
     The Supreme Court's decision, by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, found that the law school's policy was "a reasonable, viewpoint-neutral condition on access" that did not raise First Amendment issues in the way the Christian Legal Society argued....

Supreme Court Rules for Law School in Case Over Christian Student Group (Chronicle of Higher Education)

     The U.S. Supreme Court today upheld a California public law school's policy of denying official recognition to student groups with membership rules it regards as discriminatory. In a 5-to-4 decision, the court's liberal wing was joined by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy in holding that the law school's requirement that student groups accept all comers — and not reject people from membership based on their beliefs — is reasonable and viewpoint neutral, and therefore does not conflict with the First Amendment. The case at issue stemmed from a lawsuit brought against the University of California's Hastings College of Law by the Christian Legal Society, which argued that the law school's policy infringed on the First Amendment rights of religious groups that wanted to ensure members shared their beliefs.

     The seemingly inexorable (and largely unheralded) decline of American higher education continues:

Step Too Far on Textbook Costs? (Inside Higher Ed)

     With students, parents and politicians all frustrated by high textbook costs, recent years have seen many innovations as well as state and federal legislation….
     Legislation passed by the Pennsylvania Senate last week … features another requirement – one that is disturbing faculty leaders nationally. The bill requires faculty members at the state's community colleges and universities to select "the least expensive, educationally sound textbooks."
     While the Pennsylvania House of Representatives has yet to take up the bill, faculty groups are concerned about it because it would dictate specific choices to professors on which books to select. And while many professors say that they try to avoid expensive textbooks and to select reasonably priced works, many say that they regularly select books that are slightly more expensive than other "educationally sound" options, but that are better.
     "This vague and possibly unenforceable standard undermines the right of faculty members to select the best textbook, even if it is more expensive than the alternatives," says a statement issued Friday by the American Association of University Professors."
     'Educationally sound' also potentially sets a rather low standard for textbook selection. As a legal requirement, it will have a chilling effect on faculty members' ability to exercise their academic freedom in planning courses of the highest quality. Certainly the legislature has no business deciding what is 'educationally sound' in a college classroom. Only faculty members have the capacity to choose the books that best meet their pedagogical aims. If there is a tradeoff to be made between quality and price, only faculty members have the professional competence to make that choice."
     The statement adds: "The Pennsylvania legislation is also worrying because it is part of a national trend to regulate textbook selection.…”. . .
     An aide to State Sen. Andy Dinniman said that the legislator would explain why his bill did not intrude on academic freedom, but the senator did not call back. In a news release he issued after the bill was passed, however, he said: "I am not interested in and do not want to limit the rights of faculty to select appropriate textbooks. All I want to do is make sure that when textbooks and course materials are selected, that student cost is factored into the equation."….

     Meanwhile, a clueless Frisco board is throwing its weight around, at the expense of legally-mandated faculty authority:

Competing Principles (Inside Higher Ed)

     …The conflict began earlier this year when a group of the college’s trustees organized “equity hearings” aimed at figuring out why minority students were overrepresented in the college’s remedial courses and if they were shortchanged by a sequence that did not get them “college ready” until they had completed, on average, two-and-a-half years of remedial English and a year and a half of math. The trustees argued that there must be a better way to structure the remedial track and encouraged the faculty to offer a one-year, or two-semester, track for all remedial students to get “college ready.”. . .
     Faculty members did not take kindly to a mandate from the trustees to make curricular changes – decisions they think, by and large, should be made by professors.
     “There’s been a fair amount of contention about the process here,” said Karen Saginor, president of the Academic Senate and a tenured librarian at the college. “Under state law, any curricular decisions have to be made by faculty. The normal process is that the departments that are affected write proposals. In this case, a couple of trustees wrote a resolution saying that the curriculum will be like this, and that was just not really the way to do it.”
     Still, many faculty members are sympathetic to the argument that the remedial track, especially in English and math, takes way too long to complete, leading many students to leave college before reaching college courses. Faculty would just have preferred to bring forth concerns about it themselves.. . .
     From many trustees’ perspective, however, waiting for faculty to come to a consensus on how to improve remediation would simply take too long and hurt those students already in the pipeline – hence their call to action.. . .
     “We need to have more flexibility,” [Board President Milton] Marks said. “You have to be nimble enough to accommodate different learning styles. I would like to see students placed into rapid remediation if that’s best for them. We need to put students in the right place to enable them to succeed.”. . .
     Compromise between the two sides came in the form of a proposal from Don Q. Griffin, the college’s chancellor, Thursday night at the latest trustee meeting. Instead of mandating that the entire remedial track in English and math be shortened to a two-semester maximum, Griffin's proposal introduces the rapid model in steps.
     “Let’s take 20 percent of the program and do it this way,” Griffin said. “Then, after one year, you’ll have enough evidence to see how it’s working. Then, after two years, maybe you’ll have enough data to know what students can profit from this experience and we can convince people of the data. I do expect this rapid model will work.”….

Archives: Canada, 1953-4

Wedding in Niagara Falls (Canadian side), 1953.

(Click on photos to enlarge them.)

"Honeymoon" across Canada. Mom was 18 or 19. They brought rifles with them. In those days, everybody seemed to be gun happy. Lots of hunting. I think the car was a "Monarch," a Canadian version of a Ford.

My dad used his trusty German "Retina" camera throughout the 50s.

He didn't replace it until the late 60s. (The replacement: a Pentax.)

Annie arrived in 1954.
(I showed up a year later.)

Mom with friends (probably in British Columbia).

Canada had a very generous immigration policy back then. Immigrants from many countries competed for jobs, and it was tough. My dad's training as an electrician in Germany seemed to take 'im far, though. He usually found good jobs and was often given considerable responsibility, despite the prevailing prejudices against immigrants (and especially against those clever but beastly Gerries!)

My folks made lots of friends in Canada, even among the "English," and they seem to have kept in touch with many of them to this day.

    This last pic is from about 1952 (or 1951), I think. Mom just got off the boat!
     My parents met on that barge, a former WW II Liberty Ship--you know, the kind with the design flaw that made 'em break in half at the most inconvenient moments! Kaiser Steel made them quickly.
     I do believe that mom was seventeen when she made the crossing (by herself). That's pretty young to be facing a new world alone. She didn't speak the language and had no job lined up, which was pretty typical.
     Many adventures followed. Early on, she worked as a maid for an English officer and his family. She fell in love with their German Shepherd (which, natch, was called an "Alsatian").
     She and dad would sneak her out through her bedroom window, into the snow and off to chilly dates with little food.