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| Pics of IVC "Student Success Center," taken today |
The President of the Irvine Valley College Academic Senate,
Lisa Davis Allen, has long dreamed of a special facility for faculty—a center for “excellence.”
I’m on the Senate. Maybe it’s just me, but it always seemed that one could hear crickets whenever she mentioned this idea at senate meetings.
But she persevered, and, by late last spring, goshdarnit, her dream of a CAFÉ—i.e., a “Center for the Advancement of Faculty Excellence”—started gettin’ real. As it turned out, at about that time, administration was playing yet another round of facilities musical chairs—that never seems to end—and, by summer, it appeared that the Media Resource Center (MRC)—inside the fancy new BSTIC building—would be sent packing, to be replaced by, well, the faculty CAFÉ.
Now, you’ve got to understand that the space then occupied by the MRC was
seriously cool. It had (and has) lots of sleek Mac computers, an ultra-modern transparent wall, a wrap-around view, and so on. It is surely the coolest space at the college.
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| The internal entrance to the "Student Success Center." |
Naturally, the MRC/CAFÉ switcheroo was done very badly. People are never told what’s going on at IVC—they’ve pretty much only got rumors and after-the-fact reports. (Name any issue. Ask people what they know about it. A:
nothing.)
In this informational vacuum, people knew only that the MRC was getting evicted from the super-cool space in BSTIC, and faculty would take its place with something called a “CAFÉ.” Naturally, people took umbrage, aghast at the very idea of replacing student-in-cool-space with faculty-in-cool-space. Some of these employees even seemed to think that the CAFÉ was gonna be, well, a
café!
In the absence of info, people draw those kinds of conclusions. Why wouldn't they?
To make matters worse, the Senate held a CAFÉ grand (or semi-grand or sub-grand) opening during Fall Flex Week, and the flier for the event made clear that only
full-timers were invited! It all sounded kinda
elite.
We at DtB noted all of this, of course. No effort to clarify matters for us was ever made. We heard nothing from anybody.
Pretty soon, there was yet another reshuffling of the IVC facilities deck. The plan to move the CAFÉ into the BSTIC space was nixed. All the computers remained there, but, for an entire semester, that space remained empty and unused! No explanation was given for any of this.
Typical.
When I returned from my sabbatical (early January), I was told that the CAFÉ has at long last found a home, namely, the former
Student Learning Center in the IVC Library (see earlier post:
CAFÉ BIBLIOTHÈQUE).
The Grand Opening is Wednesday. (See flier at left)
Meanwhile, after an entire semester of disuse, that cool space in BSTIC has been given over to something now called the “
Student Success Center.”
Let’s hope that idea sticks.
I dropped by the SSC today and spoke briefly with the person in charge, namely, Dr.
Brooke Choo. I know her; she’s good.
Looks like the SSC is in good hands.
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This, of course, is BSTIC. The Student Success Center is on the bottom floor, at left.
Naturally, BSTIC is not used in ways originally intended, owing to program shrinkage
and other fortuities. They should rename it MISC. |
SEE ALSO:
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| The unfortunate (i.e., bungled) August "launch" of the CAFE. Redolent of elitism most foul. |
