Welcome Week!

Lots of balloons. No parking.

Rebel Girl

WELL, here we are, Day #2 of Fall 2011 and one can feel the crisis in California's higher education right here at the little college of the orange groves. Limited class offerings here meet greater demand because of fewer classes elsewhere. Crunch, crunch, crunch. So hard to turn so many away. Today's LA Times reports:

"As it is, the state's 112 community colleges will offer 5% fewer classes this fall, Chancellor Jack Scott said. Based on projected annual demand, an estimated 670,000 students who otherwise would enroll in at least one class will not be served, he added."

Unfair advantage

It seems as if IVC has more than its share of those 670,000 disappointed students. Many of them seemed to show up just in case, wanting to put their names on any wait list anywhere.

These same students also want parking spots. Their presence has been especially noticeable in the morning hours where cars circle and cruise looking for a spot, any spot. Yes, parking during the first week of classes has always been challenging but one could usually find a spot. Not so this week for many.

This week also marks a change in policy for parking enforcement. No longer is there a grace period. Signs were posted everywhere announcing the change in police as were uniforms enforcing it through vigorous writing of tickets.

Case in point.

Artist's reconstruction

Day One. One instructor arrived at 10:00 AM, an hour before class on Monday only to spend 30 minutes looking for a spot, any spot, staff or otherwise, to no avail. All the staff spots were full, full, full—though she wondered if they were full with staff cars. From the looks of it, no. She did get a little excited when she pulled into the lot near BSTIC (the Business Sciences and Technology Innovation Center) and spotted what appeared to be an open STAFF parking space—but the space was partially occupied by a shiny pick-up truck parked deliberately so that the vehicle would take up two spaces instead of one. Grrr.

"That's mine!"

Finally, the instructor followed others into the dirt lot near the Goodwill truck on Jeffrey. Two lots were marked out—or so it seemed. Both sported signs that read "No parking"—but people parked anyway. The instructor was feeling the pressure of impending class and followed suit. What's a girl to do?

So she parked, wishing she had her usual donation bag for Goodwill, ran across campus, taught one class, then another—ran back, worried about a ticket—found none, moved the car to a now open staff spot (the big shiny pick-up was still occupying two spots and had not received a ticket either) and ran back to teach another class.

Day Two. The same scenario. Arrive early, circle, circle, circle — to no avail. Drive by the shiny pick-up, still taking up two spaces, give up, park next to the Goodwill truck. Run across campus, teach two back-back classes, one in a non-air–conditioned classroom (Note that in the first class students joke about parking in the strip mall and the not-so-nearby church lot "They won't tow—they're Christians!"), finally return to lot to find—ouch. A $38.00 parking ticket.

From several years ago

Drive to the police station to pick up form to contest ticket. Drive by shiny pick-up and note it has no ticket. Stop by faculty office to receive comfort from colleagues and tell them about the shiny pick-up that takes up two places. Listen as they say: Oh that pick-up? He always does that. He never gets a ticket. People have complained for a long time but he's somebody's friend. They like him.

Drive home. Strategize about the next couple days. Should she follow the suggestions and arrive two or three hours earlier? But that would mean arrive at 8 a.m. on Thursday and teaching through until 10 at night. Should she park at the church? Bring a bag of donations and park by the Goodwill truck and place the receipt in the window? Buy a big shiny pick-up and become one of the guys? Park her tiny hybrid in back of the big shiny pick-up and see who gets ticketed first? —RG

• Removed coach Patton insists he did nothing wrong (OCVarsity.com)

State chancellors get blunt & sober; "Education" a "culture of low standards"

Thanks, Don

CSU, community colleges try to cope with cutbacks (San Francisco Chronicle)

     California is witnessing a slow and steady decline of its prized systems of higher education specifically because legislative Republicans have blocked efforts to raise taxes to pay for them, the community college and state university chancellors said Monday in a blunt and sobering back-to-school message.
     Both systems together lost $1.3 billion in state funding this year after Republican lawmakers invoked a pledge not to raise taxes, and the Legislature passed a budget with deep cuts.
     As a result, community colleges are offering 5 percent fewer courses across all 112 campuses this year, with an unprecedented 670,000 students turned away for lack of space, Chancellor Jack Scott said.
     Across CSU's 23 campuses, students will find fewer instructors and more crowded classrooms this year, while library shelves will be left unfilled and roofs allowed to leak, Chancellor Charles Reed said....

"I always got a A."

OTHER NEWS:
Study Critiques Disproportionately High Grades for Education Students (Inside Higher Ed)

     Students in education courses are given consistently higher grades than are students in other college disciplines, according to a study published by the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research Monday. The study, by Cory Koedel, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Missouri at Columbia, cites that and other evidence to make the case that teachers are trained in "a larger culture of low standards for educators," in line with "the low evaluation standards by which teachers are judged in K-12 schools."