Corruption wriggles and writhes in a college district near you

     Last night, I posted about an occurrence during Monday’s board meeting: as IVC President Glenn Roquemore prepared to give a presentation about the college’s 25th Anniversary, board President Don Wagner suddenly declared a cake break. Five minutes later, Wagner continued the meeting, leaving no doubt that Glenn’s presentation was, well, over.
     That was the first of several uncomfortable anti-Roquemoreian moments Monday night.
     Wow.
     A day before the board meeting, I reported that Wagner was “hopping mad” about something or other—I alluded to an administrative hire that “may have” gone against Wagner’s expectations. I said that we might witness manifestations of Wagner's anger—and its object—at the board meeting.
     We sure did.

* * * * *

John

     In recent years, Trustee Wagner, IVC President Roquemore, and IVC Academic Senate President (until a year ago), Wendy Gabriella, have become allies.
     Years before that, both IVC administration and faculty shared victimhood at the hands of odious Chancellor Raghu P. Mathur. This tended to bring college administration and the Academic Senate—and especially its leader, Wendy—together: mouse and cat, battling Mean Dog. Two or three years ago, Mathur and Co. had brought the two colleges to the brink of Accreditation disaster, and thus it came about that an unusual accreditation group was formed that brought IVC faculty and administrators, and board President Wagner, together in one room, repeatedly.
     Wagner may be a bully and a hothead, but he's smart, and, in the course of these meetings, he came to see that Mathur’s portrayal of faculty—and of Wendy in particular—was a lie. The faculty he encountered were smart, dedicated, decent—the "notorious" Wendy included.
     Partly owing to his proximity to IVC (he lives in Irvine), Wagner had already developed a relationship with Roquemore. I’ll skip the details.
     Meanwhile, nobody plots and schemes and haggles like former OC GOP Big Cheese Tom Fuentes, Wagner's colleague on the board. In the presence of this Prince of Darkness, anyone who seeks to advance must do so by playing his ugly game—undignified, that—or by keeping out of Fuentes’ way while carefully readying one’s own schemes.

Craig

     By about two years ago, Wagner had come to regard Mathur much as Team Irvine has long regarded him. Especially after one or two particularly loathsome Mathurian conniveries (probably related to Accreditation and Mathur’s hatred of trustee-faculty mingling), Don’s switch had been flipped. Wagnerian peevitude, once it hits a threshhold, is a terrible, heedless thing. A roaring freight train.
     But Mathur’s protector, Tom “Godfather” Fuentes, is a similar (though reptilian and self-loathing) force; and he was not about to sit still while the Wagster iced the Gooster. And so, with the arrival of the new Wagner came a new BOT war.
     The timing was bad: Wagner had been relying on Fuentes to help him prevail in his 2nd bid to win a seat in the 70th Assembly.
     With the help of his new friends (and long-time anti-Mathurians) Milchiker, Padberg, and Jay, Wagner commenced scheduling Mathur’s banishment, causing Mathur, normally cold and calculating, to panic and thrash indecorously. It got seriously ugly. And Fuentes and his gang (Williams & Lang) could do nothing more than have the district hire OC GOP consigliere/hit man Phil Greer (kaching!) to help Mathur get a good deal as the exit door slapped ‘im in the ass. (Greer was paid $25K!)
     Despite the new obstacles, Wagner prevailed in the primary (just barely), and by late Spring, he was (according to the received view) destined for Sacramento, for his district is heavily Republican.

The Third Man (1949)

     But that meant bailing on his trustee seat, starting in December of 2010. Wagner’s hatred of Mathur extends to protecting the world, and SOCCCD in particular, from Mathur’s return. No doubt that goal has produced machinations of some sort. I suspect it has affected the Chancellor search.
     But if Mr. Muldoon, a Wagner-like Christian culture warrior, were to win Don’s seat, he would likely fall into Fuentes’ orbit, thus swinging the board back in Fuentes’ direction. That was bad enough, but it could pave the way for the return of Mathur!
     I suspect that—until very recently—Wagner “favored” Muldoon’s union-friendly opponent, T.J. Prendergast, a high school coach and a fellow unlikely to join Team Darkness. Evidence: back in September, during the televised board meeting, Wagner introduced Prendergast as though he were his trustee heir apparent!
     In general, Don’s plan was to get as many anti-Fuentean elements “in place” as possible prior to his December exodus. And, no doubt, one of those elements was Wendy’s hire.

Tom

     Naturally, as this unfolds, Fuentes is unhappy. During a special board session last summer, Fuentes screamed at Roquemore, bellowing that “the fix is in.” During previous meetings, similarly ugly episodes occurred when the board debated the desirability of the new IVC deanship. (I have always favored the deanship myself.)
     Now, really, I don’t know why (as per persistent rumor) it was allowed to occur that a certain person was taken out of the dean sweepstakes (if, um, that happened). (Yes, I’m assuming that certain persons have no compunction about ordering certain underlings to forward a certain candidate [or not] to the next round.) I have no doubt that the fix was in. The job description alone makes that clear. And then there’s the oddly brief and limited advertisement of the position. (Until someone noticed, there was no ad in the Chronicle!)
     But it happened (as per rumor).
     Inquiring minds wanna know why.

* * * * *

Don Wagner

     Last night, one reader (“Anonymous”) offered a theory:

     Let's string together some rumors we've all heard and see what happens:
     Glenn [Roquemore] is rumored to have (1) wanted to succeed his mentor, Mathur, and (2) make [Vice President] Craig Justice the new president. But Wagner wouldn't go there. [When the Chancellor candidates forwarded by the search committee were found wanting by the board, Wagner evidently sought to recruit Gary Poertner, not Roquemore.] We now know that the rumor about Gary Poertner [(3) namely, that he’s the choice for Chancellor] is true. So, to get back at Wagner … for not [giving him] the chancellor job, it's rumored that, following a suspect process, (4) Glenn's knocked Wendy out of the running for the dean position that (5) Wagner had pushed [this is fact, not rumor], which (6) leaves Wagner angry at Glenn for … double-cross[ing him]. Meanwhile, Wendy's just a victim of Glenn's and Craig's failed power play.
     Six separate rumors and they hang together nicely. Wagner went to bat for Glenn and IVC to get rid of one rat bastard [namely, Chancellor Raghu Mathur], only to find out that Glenn had learned his lessons well and is just another duplicitous, self-dealing, rat bastard. Only a fool would ever again trust Glenn Roquemore or Craig Justice. It's simple really. [I've edited for clarity.]

Wendy

     Some district denizens I’ve spoken with today (gosh, I do get around) are attracted to this theory.
     I’m still on the fence. Tell us what you think.
     Naturally, we at Dissent the Blog have long fretted and hinted and warned about the violations of “process” (of fairness, transparency, decency) described in the above saga. People like Wagner (and his allies, I suppose) naturally think that the cure for cheatin’, stealin’, and manipulatin’ rat bastards is to out- cheat, steal, and manipulate said bastards.
     But no. Believe it or not, some of us just want a stop to all the corruption.
     Decency. That’s the ticket.
     That's always been the ticket.

* * * * *

     P.S.: I'm told that, now, Wagner is actively campaigning for Muldoon.
     Also: an old rumor is worth mentioning: that John Williams seeks to resign from the board. He'll likely do that within the next few months.
     Imagine the machinations!

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The Third Man

A centralized online university for California?

California Higher-Education System Needs Drastic Reforms, Report Says (Chronicle of Higher Education)

     California’s vaunted higher-education system has stopped innovating and will need major restructuring in order to come anywhere near doing its part to meet President Obama’s degree-attainment goals, argues a report released today by the Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California at Berkeley. John A. Douglass, the paper’s author, says the state should create a centralized online university, allow some community colleges to issue four-year degrees, and create a new system of polytechnic universities that would train students in applied fields.