All Hallows' Eve

Halloween at IVC

Kiss the boot of shiny, shiny leather
Shiny leather in the dark
Tongue of thongs, the belt that does await you
Strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart

Senator or rock icon?

     I’ve got a bad cold, and so this might just be the ravings of foggy-headed sick dude.
     I’ve been at home in bed, natch, but Rebel Girl's been fightin' in the trenches. At the college, she's been pursuing the mystery of the “half staff flag” outside A100.
     Why on Earth would President Glenn Roquemore lower the flag (‘cept when he replaces it every ten or fifteen years)? He doesn’t generally notice much of anything, let alone somebody famous’s death. The last time was when Lady Di croaked in that Paris tunnel. After sixteen years, he still grieves.
     Long story short, the Reb has heard that Glenn’s been bilious and melancholy all week. She’s deduced that Glenn is mourning the loss of Lou Reed, chief songwriter of the groundbreaking 60s band the “Velvet Underground.” He died on Sunday. Hence the half-staffery.

     Glenn, a Velvets fan? Can it be? Don’t see how.
     Still, I seem to remember the Reb telling me—was it yesterday? this morning? my mind is so fuzzy!—that denizens of A100 started noticing a dirge-like sound, complete with droning atonal violas, seemingly emanating from the moldy interstices and poke holes of the much-modified (and thus thoroughly honeycombed) walls of Glenn’s Cavern—a lurid hovel reportedly decorated with black light posters of Keanu Reeves in The Devil’s Advocate and Point Break.
     Craig, that diehard devotee of the West Coast Sound (Byrds, Turtles, Eagles, Spirit), identified the source of the dronage immediately. “It’s coming from over there,” said he, pointing at Glenn’s deceptively solid door.
     Perturbed, he added: “I think it’s one of those kinky tunes by that weird-assed New York leather band that dare not speak its name. ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties,’ I think. Or maybe ‘Venus in Furs.’”

     David G soon came by with a white saucer (an old trick) and verified the identification. “Yep,” he said, lifting the saucer from Glenn's door. “Unless I’m very much mistaken, I'm hearing an endless loop of ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’!”

A blackened shroud, a hand-me-down gown
Of rags and silks, a costume
Fit for one who sits and cries
For all tomorrow's parties

Darius Porter, Freeway Suicide or Accident Victim, Remembered by IVC Basketball Team (NavelGazing)

     Irvine Valley College's basketball program is mourning the loss of a former player, while wondering if the young man took his own life by wandering on foot into freeway traffic.
     Darius Porter was killed the evening of Oct. 21 by oncoming traffic on the northbound lane of the Santa Ana (5) Freeway.
     Investigators are still trying to determine if Porter's death around 6:45 p.m. was the result of an accident or suicide, according to Lt. Jeffrey Hallock of the Orange County Sheriff's Department.
     One witness reported he tried unsuccessfully to convince Porter to stay at the scene after he was struck by a vehicle on a surface street, suffering a head injury. Porter then ran up the freeway onramp at Avery Parkway. The coroner's report indicates he was struck by multiple vehicles.
     Kristen Wilcox of the Saddleback College student newspaper The Lariat reports Porter came out of Temescal Canyon High School in Lake Elsinore to play small forward as a freshman at Irvine Valley last season.
     "On behalf of Irvine Valley College, we want to express our sincere condolences to the family and friends of Darius Porter," Jerry Hernandez, the men's basketball coach, says in a statement. "The Irvine Valley family was deeply saddened to hear the news of his death. Darius will truly be missed. In the year that he was part of our program, we knew him as a great teammate and friend. We have offered counseling support, if needed, to our players during this tough time. Again, our heartfelt sympathy and prayers go out to everyone who knew, cared for and loved Darius. We are sorry for their loss."….

Board closed session actions

     Be sure to read Tere’s Board Meeting Highlights.
     Two CLOSED SESSION items caught my eye:

• On a 7-0 vote, the board approved a resolution terminating the employment of an academic administrator at Saddleback College and directed administration to send the appropriate notice to the employee.

• The board approved all remaining administrators listed on the agenda a renewal of a three-year contract with the exception of the Saddleback College administrator listed in the above action.

     --Uh-oh. Here's the list of administrators that appeared on the agenda:

This so-called city

     As you know, not everyone appreciates the City of Irvine’s intense Irvineness.
     Yesterday, NavelGazing’s Matt Coker quoted an assessment of this “planned” city by James Howard Kunstler, author of The Geography of Nowhere:

     This so-called "city" was once a ranch comprising hundreds of thousands of acres consolidated out of old Spanish land grants by one James Irvine…. The so-called city named after Mr. Irvine—and still largely controlled by a private real estate development company he founded—prides itself on being rationally planned. By this they mean that all the angles have been figured out for producing massive volumes of exquisitely-tuned suburban sprawl at a nice profit.

     One thing this demonstrates is that rational planning is not the same thing as intelligence because the end result on-the-ground is a nightmare of the most extreme car dependency in the nation, arguably even worse than Los Angeles. That it is also a nightmare of crushing uniformity, disconnection, boredom, and ennui probably matters less because the essence of the place's character is that it has no future. There is absolutely no way that the American people can continue their Happy Motoring frolic for another generation, yet the Irvine Company is still busy slapping together new monocultures of housing pods, strip malls, and all the other usual furnishings with the kind of stupid confidence of people intoxicated on Rotary Club bullshit—which is to say zeal minus consciousness. It is the same frame-of-mind that produces the famous Orange County right wing politics.

     Golly.

So long, Lou

     Troubled, brilliant, melancholy, perverse—Lou Reed was a complex man. His songs offered unflinching honesty about a world seen by a bright and humane man who, like John Lennon, seemed to endlessly struggle with his status as a rock-and-roll god. But, for me, none of that matters; what matters is that many of Reed’s songs hit just the right note of awareness, empathy and world-wearriness. Killer stuff.

     I often find myself saying that I don’t really have heroes. But that’s not quite right. Because of the amazing, handmade—and often sonically powerful—music of the early Velvets, Lou Reed will always be one of my heroes. –RB 

Lisa says that it’s alright
When she meets me alone at night
Lisa says that she has her fun
And she’ll do it with just about anyone

Lisa says, Lisa says
Lisa says, Lisa says

Lisa says that she’s on the run
Looking for a special one
Lisa says that every time she makes it straight
She knows her heart will break

Lisa says, Lisa says
Lisa says, Lisa says

Looking for a party, some action
Going to make it feel OK
But what do you find, when the time has come undone
Look at it run

Lisa says, Lisa says
Lisa says, woo, Lisa says
Lisa says, oh, Lisa says
Lisa says… 

Sunday morning 
and I'm falling

I've got a feeling I don't want to know

Early dawning, Sunday morning

It's all the streets you crossed, not so long ago

Watch out, the world's behind you

There's always someone around you who will call

It's nothing at all

her life was saved by rock 'n' roll

Jenny said, when she was just five years old
you know there's nothin' happening at all
Every time she put on the radio
there was nothin' goin' down at all
not at all

One fine mornin', she puts on a New York station
and she couldn't believe what she heard at all
She started dancin' to that fine-fine-fine-fine music
ooohhh, her life was saved by rock 'n' roll
hey baby, rock 'n' roll...

*

The agenda for Monday's meeting of the SOCCCD BOT (Administrators: "evaluation of performance")

     As is his custom, today, several days before the monthly meeting of the SOCCCD Board of Trustees, Chancellor Gary Poertner emailed the district community with a link to the meeting's agenda.

     Among closed session (5:00-6:00 p.m.) items is the following:

     I do hope the board is paying attention. Surely they've noticed that IVC is run by baboons. I'm thinking especially of one particularly baboonish baboon (pace baboons). His name is Glenn.

     Not sure about Saddleback College. Bonobos maybe.

     Naturally, some "discussion" items are listed (for the open session, starting at 6:00):

Testing of A200 now completed

Denizens (other than students) of IVC’s A200 building just received this email from VPI Craig Justice:

Subject: A200 Building Notification re Testing for Biological Exposure

. . .

The Director of Facilities and Maintenance has reported that testing of the entire A200 Building is now completed. The samples taken are now being analyzed. As soon as the test results are available, the report will be released.

--Craig Justice, Vice President for Instruction

SEE also Room A205: action finally taken "seven weeks after the problem was reported" (Oct. 9)

Foundation funds discrepancy

     At last Thursday’s Academic Senate (Rep Council) meeting, Senate officers muttered something about the IVC Foundation: “we still don’t know anything about our finances” there, said someone. The Ac. Sen. Prez noted that the situation has “raised eyebrows” high. Evidently, there is a discrepancy involving $60,000. An audit will get to the bottom of that. –Something about the Pro-IVC matching funds. They “can’t get the two sets of books to align.” In the past, the Senate Prez has discouraged theories involving the nefarious; rather, likely, mere nincompoopery is afoot.
     That’s an IVC motif.

International Students at IVC

     UPDATE: As a senator for IVC’s School of Humanities and Languages, I attended the recent Academic Senate (rep council) meeting, last Thursday. Among topics discussed: an (informal?) proposal, originating from college strategic planning committees, to “increase the capacity” of the international student program. I.e., do we want to enroll still more international students? The demand exists. It is likely that this expansion would enhance revenue. It would have other advantages. Hence the advocacy.
     At one point during the meeting, Davit Khachatryan, the college’s beleaguered Director of Fiscal Services [Davit and admin have not impressed anyone with their planning abilities or bookkeeping], offered an “overview of the current college fiscal status and projections for the next 3-5 years.”
     Evidently, expanding the program is among the college’s “planning assumptions”—a technical concept not to be confused with a decision to go forward with that expansion. (“No, no,” I was assured, “no such decision has yet been made.”)
     According to my notes, the number of international students (ISs) for 2012-13 is 664. Projected for 2013-14 is 730.

     If we expand IS (in the manner proposed), revenue for 2014-15 are projected at about $500,000. For 2015-16, it would be about $834,000. For 2016-17, it would be about $1,386,000, with a (IS) headcount of 972.
     The senators have discussed the expansion of IS during the last two meetings, and it did seem to me that there is considerable hesitation among them, or some of them, regarding this proposal. How would this affect our completion rates? What would happen to the program over time? Etc.
     I sense considerably less hesitation among top administration. [End of update]
          * * *
     As you may know, Irvine Valley College is contemplating expanding its International Students program. One obvious motive is financial.
     But is it really a good idea? For instance, it seems likely that we will come to depend on this revenue stream. Is that a good idea?
     A recent CHE article:

Diversity Aside, International Students Bring a Financial Incentive (Chronicle of Higher Education)

     As college campuses face financial uncertainty and tough enrollment seasons, it’s no secret that attracting more international students can yield benefits beyond the intangibles, like a more diverse student body.
. . .
     But once institutions start enrolling international students—regardless of their initial motivations—they come to depend on those foreign students as a revenue stream. Gannon University, a private institution in Pennsylvania where international students make up roughly 10 percent of the student population, enrolled 213 international students, up from 140 last year. “Had we not had international enrollments,” said William R. Edmondson, vice president for enrollment at the university, “we would not be in the financial position that we are in now.”

'It's in the Syllabus!' (Inside Higher Ed)

Some things are better worn than said. At least that's what one Austin Community College professor of English thinks, based on his "It's in the syllabus" T-shirt….

Wacky Saturday photo log

Teddy was playin', as per usual

He's a sweet kid

These are his famous "tiger pants"

Went to Orange, Rutabegorz

Modjeska Grade; that's Catalina Island back there, I think.

Santiago Canyon

Spotted a deer along the road

On the way back home

Dead Weather

My fave car video show

Hump day felinity

Hazel looking down on me literally (from the loft) and figuratively (general feline superiority).

Stella identifies with sad Dodger.

Above photos provided by Miss J

TigerAnn: a penny for your thoughts?

Teddy: Where's dad?

Boo Radley and John and Yoko. 

Red Emma is one of the Best Americans!

Red Emma makes good, very good. 

We always knew Red Emma was a pretty good American but we never knew he was among the best Americans!

Yet, there he is, on pages 412-427 of the 2013 edition of The Best American Nonrequired Reading, edited by Dave Eggers with an introduction by Walter Mosley, among the likes of Jennifer Egan, Nick Hornby, Karen Russell and Lynda Barry.

Simon Kilacky

In Red's story, titled "Falling," an enormous hole opens up at a religious retreat (where atheists are regularly installed in foxholes) and swallows a man whole.  Hilarity ensues.

Careful readers may recognize some familiar types.

Take for instance this character:

"But this is not to be, not after the disappearance of the atheist Dr. Simon Kilacky, age forty-eight, part-time geology instructor, speech team faculty advisor, and women's softball coach from a small community college in Orange County, California."

Some fun. Watch your step Dr. Kilacky!

Check out the story here.

Congratulations Red!

Best American Red Emma visits the Best American Hole. 

*

Andrew Tonkovich

Long Beach college to charge more for some courses (OC Reg)
The governor signs a bill authorizing the community college to test two-tiered pricing.
     Long Beach City College will become the first community college in California to charge nearly $500 more for some high-demand classes under a two-tiered tuition plan signed into law Thursday.
     The five-year pilot project will allow Long Beach community college officials to offer certain three-unit classes for a planned $627 during summer and winter. The same courses will continue to cost $138 during fall and spring – or $489 less.
. . .
     “It defeats one of the main purposes for going to a junior college,” said Fullerton College student Don Lundy, 32, a student trustee for the North Orange County Community College District. “If students were going to pay that much money for a class, they would go to a Cal State or UC.”….

Theodore, cat

Goodnight

It is important never to tune one's guitar too much
The Kills - "The Last Goodbye" 2/9/2012 David Letterman

Mold buzzage (among other buzzages)

     Owing to the recent release of the A205 “mold report” and recent DtB posts, there was a fair amount of angry mold buzzage at the college today.
     Lots of folks dropped by to offer their two cents. “Sure,” they said, “Glenn cares about bullshit like IVC becoming an earthquake command center [he wants “employees” to “facilitate the continuity of government” post temblor] but he couldn’t care less that toxic stachybotrys mold is growing in a classroom fewer than a hundred yards from his office,” said some wag.
     “If there isn’t a photo op in it for him, Glenn doesn’t give a shit about it,” said another.
     Some expressed concern: “Hey,” they said, “should I worry about my office? I share a wall with A205.” –Stuff like that.
     I still haven’t had a chance to read the report, but I’m told that, according to the report, hideous black mold was found on A205’s “west wall.”
     The west wall? I consulted my mental map: “That would be the wall on the internal, not the external wall (i.e., the wall contiguous with other rooms in A200), right? How can that be?”
     I consulted the concrete map of the college found on the IVC website. Here’s an even better image:

There is no "west wall" of A205; rather, there is a northwest wall and a southwest wall

     The red indicates (more or less) room A205. A205 doesn’t have a “west” wall so much as a northwest and southwest wall. (See.) So which one is the “west” wall?
     Since it is nearest to the exterior, the southwest wall is the likely culprit. (No. See update below.) It is about seven feet from my (and Rebel Girl’s) office. (See blue X.) We are separated from the (southern part of the) mold wall by a court or quadrangle area that is about seven feet wide, one of IVC's inexplicable nooks (mirrored by identical pointless nookage on the other side of the building).
     Gosh.
     It looks like there’s a growing interest among A200 denizens in extending mold inspections beyond A205.
     But don’t worry. If that happens, since Glenn and Craig are in charge, no action will be taken for another two months or so.



From the recently released report

UPDATE (10/10): I finally read (some of) the report. It asserts that there were high levels of (the bad kind of) mold on the west wall "at the window." But there is no window in the west wall (i.e., the northwest or southwest walls). I shall assume, therefore, that the report is referring to the entrance of A205, which includes a window, and which is exactly at the corner of the northwest and northeast "walls." The only other windows are those along the southeast "wall," i.e., the exterior wall adjacent to the sidewalk. Those windows, and that wall, are decidedly unwestern.

Room A205: action finally taken "seven weeks after the problem was reported"

Moldy classroom (How does this “facilitate the continuity of government," Glenn?)

     Yesterday, faculty (et al.) were finally provided with the results of tests done on room A205 at IVC. I haven't had the chance to read these documents, but I gather that they indicate that A205 is hazardous.
     I have received a copy of an email, dated Oct. 9, from one of the full-time instructors that regularly teaches in room A205—Wendy Gabriella—to Faculty Association (union) official Lewis Long, regarding that room. Here it is in full:

Dean Karima Feldhus' email of October 8, 2013 partially addresses the issue and thank you for your response. However, the test results forwarded confirming high levels of mold in A205 raises further questions.

1) What compensation is available to faculty who were sick, went to the doctor and incurred co-payments as well as our share of the cost of office visits as well as prescription costs? How do we file claims for reimbursement?

The heartbreak of moldy
anthropology

2) I have been sick since July 3rd. What type of compensation is available for almost 90 days of not being able to breathe? Other faculty and students have been sick as well. How will the district address this?

3) I did not cancel classes but I know that some of my colleagues who taught in A205 in the summer of 2013 did have to cancel classes. Is there a way to make sure that their sick leave is not charged?

4) I have five students (that I know of) this semester who are sick and have been diagnosed with bronchitis and upper respiratory infections. How will the district compensate the students for their medical expenses?

5) What safeguards are in place to ensure that the other classrooms and offices in A200 are safe for faculty and students. Mold usually does not affect one room. 

They keep forgetting to lock the door.

6) Of course, the larger question is: What procedures are in place at the college to address the situation when four faculty members teaching in the same classroom are diagnosed with upper respiratory illnesses? After I found out about the related upper respiratory illnesses of four faculty members whose only common denominator was teaching in A205 in the summer of 2013, I reported the situation to Vice President of Instruction Craig Justice during the first week of instruction, August 19, 2013. He subsequently indicated that testing was being done on the HVAC system. However, and most importantly, classes remained in A205 until Thursday, October 2, 2013. That means that our faculty and our students remained in a classroom contaminated with mold for seven weeks after the problem was reported. Additionally, even though the classroom was closed on October 2, 2013 and a sign with instructions "DO NOT ENTER" was placed on the door, Dean Karima Feldhus and I witnessed classes being held in A205 on October 2, 2013. Further, on October 2, 2013, when I showed up for my 12:30 class, the "DO NOT ENTER" sign was posted on the door, the door was unlocked, the lights were on, and my students were sitting in the classroom. What procedures and lines of communication need to be established to prevent this from happening in the future? 

In conclusion, this situation directly pertains to faculty work conditions. I would like to formally request that the Faculty Association, in consultation with the District, establish procedures for protecting the health of our students and faculty with a detailed debriefing of what happened in A205. The A200 building has a long history of mold dating back to 1990 as does the A100 building. There is a documented history at the college of employees suffering as a result of mold contamination. We do not know how many of our students have been affected. It was obvious that four faculty members diagnosed with upper respiratory illnesses in the summer of 2013 was not a coincidence. Given the long history of mold, the classroom should have been immediately closed and then testing should have begun rather than allowing 7 weeks of further exposure and suffering during the testing. Given the long history of mold at the college, I would think that in order to ensure student success, there should be procedures in place to immediately address mold related illnesses which have been frequent and sustained since 1990. This is not the first incident of mold related illnesses. Students and faculty cannot learn and be successful in an environment contaminated with mold. 

Reportedly, an "unpleasant growth" in the west wall

Many thanks to Elizabeth Chambers who informed me that my symptoms were the same as another faculty member's symptoms, otherwise I would have thought that is was just me as we all did, including our students. Dr. Chamber's comment prompted me to inquire a bit further and discover that every instructor teaching in A205 during the summer of 2013 was diagnosed with upper respiratory infections. Also thank you to Dean Karima Feldhus who attempted to assist in the regulation of the temperature in A205 and was informed that the choice was an igloo or a sauna. Obviously, I should have opted for the igloo. But why is an igloo or a sauna the choice?

We're on the case, as usual!

Please forward my email to the Faculty Association and the college and district administration as necessary in resolving the issues I have raised.

On behalf of the affected faculty members and students, I am formally requesting a response from the Faculty Association regarding the issues I have raised.

Sincerely,
Wendy Gabriella

We wonder where the moola went

     IVC President Glenn Roquemore has made a big deal about getting $50,000 from Wells Fargo.
     DtB asks: where are these dollars? Where were they spent?
     Nobody seems to know. (Ask the Veterans.)

"The people called it Ragtime." (Rebel Girl)

Showing off his jazz hands.

Meanwhile, Rebel Girl has been spending some serious quality time over at Fullerton College. The little guy has been cast in Ragtime: the musical which means that, at eleven years old, he is now a community college student (enrolled in THEA 174), attending rehearsals four days a week, writing four page character analyses and singing 24/7. While he is cast as a member of the ensemble (playing a resident of New Rochelle, an Italian immigrant and a newsboy) and understudy for the lead child role (Little Boy), he could, Rebel Girl wants you to know, play any other role in the play if called to do so. She has heard him. He is especially impressive as Younger Brother, Booker T. Washington and Harry Houdini.

Rebel Girl wishes to report that she finds our neighboring college to be a vibrant place.  It is instructive to spend so much time in the classroom at another institution, watching multiple instructors work together (music, voice, theater in collaboration) with a variety of students, seeing how those students respond, watching them work together to build something beautiful, ambitious, important. The highly regarded director, Gary Krinke, is retiring this year and this production will be one of his last.

 Fullerton College is celebrating its centennial this year and the semester has been especially full with one celebration after another, though Rebel Girl is impressed less with the big events (smart and impressive as they are) but more with the simple stuff of campus life: the weekly newspaper, the literary journal, the clubs and their service projects, the easy sense of accessible student life happening in small and big ways on a daily basis.  And those activities seem to be the best kind: driven and led by the students themselves.

 Anyway, it's been fun.

The Little Guy at Centennial Day.

The Tony award-winning play opens next week and runs eight performances.  It is an adaptation of the acclaimed novel by E.L. Doctorow and first opened in 1998 on Broadway with Audra MacDonald and Brian Stokes Mitchell (and a very young Lea Michelle as Little Girl).  Red Emma used to teach that novel years ago when he taught at IVC.  Doctorow himself taught at UC Irvine back in the 70s, while he was finishing another novel, The Book of Daniel, which features closing scenes in Corona del Mar and Disneyland.   One of Doctorow's students was Richard Ford, Pulitzer Prize winning novelist who read here at IVC back in the vibrant days of the early 80s, before he won the Pulitzer. When Rebel Girl saw Ford last summer, she reminded him of that.  He is 69 years old now but still remembered the little college in the orange groves and the short story he read in the reading series put together by the editor of our now defunct literary journal which was, until its demise, one of the longest lived lit journal published by a community college. Perhaps when IVC celebrates its centennial - or maybe just its 50th - the visit by one of the nation's most acclaimed novelists might earn a footnote in the college's history.  I am sure someone has photos somewhere. Maybe the newspaper covered it.

And now, a shameless plug: consider traveling to central Orange County for a wonderful evening of compelling American theater.  The show opens next week. If you purchase tickets (thank you!) PLEASE remember to credit the Little Guy (aka Louis Tonkovich) at the time of your purchase. As this is a community college production and Louis is now an enrolled student at the college (!), doing outreach for the show is part of his coursework. The cast list has been provided to the box office so they will know who to credit once you mention his name. Tickets are $12.50 for presale reserved seating, $15.00 at the door, reserved seating.

Show dates: Thursday, 10/17 at 7:00PM (opening night!), Friday, 10/18 at 7:00PM, Saturday, 10/19 at 7:00PM, Sunday, 10/20 at 2:00PM, Thursday, 10/24 at 7:00PM, Friday, 10/25 at 7:00PM, Saturday, 10/26 at 7:00PM, Sunday, 10/27 at 2:00PM.

Let Rebel Girl know if you're going.  She'll look for you before and after the shows.  She is there every night because, well, the Little Guy doesn't drive yet. 

*

Teddy had a good day

 Young Teddy had a good day.

He's a seriously sweet guy, he is.

Wants to play all the time; note his famous ear tips

His eyes are big magic marbles that see what I do not