We ask. We get no answer. Just silence.
I recall going to a meeting of the “scholarship” task force (or whatever it’s called) soon after Darryl was fired. We were roaring through the agenda that Vice President (for Student Services) Linda Fontanilla had composed. Bang, bang, bang!
I finally said, “Aren’t we gonna talk about the 800 pound gorilla in the room? What happened to Darryl?” Darryl had always been an important voice in the discussion of scholarships.
Nope, we weren’t gonna talk about Darryl. That’s it.
So, as usual, there’s silence. No explanation. People wonder, they theorize.
I have some idea why he got canned. It likely concerns, at least in part, the new full-time counselor over at the Veterans Center. There sure was a lot of hoopla when that guy was hired (see Honoring our vets, Lariat, 8/31/13 & Veterans Center provides outstanding services, Lariat, 9/11/3). Gosh, they even celebrated more than once just to make the point. As usual, there were the endless dog and pony shows, and, at the center of the carnival was the new guy, the full-time counselor, dedicated to helping vets.
At first, the vets on campus were very excited. The center was now in a prominent place at the entrance of the Student Service Center, and now they’ve got a full-time faculty working for them! It’s a new day!
But no. Right out of the gate, I’m told, this guy showed who he really was. He talked down to vets. He made inappropriate remarks. He yelled at people. He gave “wrong advice” to the vets he counseled.
It was a total disaster.
Some of the founders and pioneers of the Vet presence on campus were working at the Center. But they saw what there was to see and they commenced complaining to Glenn and Linda. And they kept complaining.
At first, Linda and her crowd assured everyone that they’d fix it. No problem. But there never was any fix. As usual, Glenn was behind his man.
And so the complaints persisted. After a while, Linda F came around and “made very clear” that nobody would be messing with the new counselor. "We were all to somehow get along with him, and that was it," one vet told me. “I don’t give a shit,” she would say, "if we have to close the center, but you’re gonna get along with this guy."
But the vets kept complaining.
Pretty soon, the main complainers were gone. Transferred or fired. They even tried to pull the funding for their jobs.
"It's like a ghost town over there," one longtime supporter of the vets on campus told us.
“OK, so where’s the money?” the vets would ask. Darryl too.
“It’s become a joke,” said one vet. One they’ve been telling each other for a long time now.
All the vets loved Darryl. He was in their corner. And, though he tried to mediate between the new guy and the complaining vets, he knew what the score was. The new counselor behaved badly. Even Darryl tried to rein him in.
And, as we all know, suddenly, Darryl was fired. Escorted off campus. Couldn’t even get his stuff from his office.
A few minutes later, Linda F showed up at the Vet’s Center. “I’m in charge,” she declared.
(Stay tuned for further chapters.)
*One vet told me: "I am asked this question several times a week and so are many of the other veterans that hang out on campus." He urged me to use the question as a title.
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| From July 23, 2013 SOCCCD board agenda |
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| From July 23, 2013 SOCCCD board agenda |
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| Darryl, Glenn, and some IVC veterans |
• The Veterans Center FUBAR, Part 1 — or "Why do the Veterans hate the veterans' counselor?"*
• The Veterans Center FUBAR, part 2: protection!
• The Veterans Center FUBAR, part 3: a room of one’s own
• The Veterans Center fubar, part 4: another side?
• The Veterans Center fubar, part 5: administration's dog and pony show
• The Veterans Center fubar, part 6: the "other side" re Mark Minkler
• The Veterans Center fubar, part 7: Glenn's poster boys for vet-friendliness respond to the Minklerian narrative
30 comments:
Darryl was one of the few who say the emperor had no clothes, and said so. So he has to go. He took on RM, LF, Glens buddies, so cya. The vet center was just another photo op for Glen and crowd so they can say they are vet friendly. They took their pics, shook their hands, and now f-them. The vets have a GREAT core group of guys and gals who are extremely loyal, stand by each other and support each other, as well as police each other. The center was a "safe haven" to study, decompress, and sometimes vent to those who understood what they might be going through. Darryl was their CO as well as a father figure. Glen got rid of their father. Then to have the combative counselor to stir things up and run to LF to bail him out, sheesh. It IS a ghost town there now because the vets feel dishonored, tricked, used, and lied to. Why do you think none of them showed up for the Veterans Day program in SSC? Very sad, this could have been a showcase program and an extremely positive program.
I heard that no vets showed up for the vets day event and wondered why. Now I know.
FYI - the Irvine Valley College Veterans Club Facebook page has been disabled.
The Irvine Vets Facepage, however, is still working. Check it out.
So much for those "Veteran's Angels" dinners and galas. It's Going to hard to impress donors with no veterans around, good luck with that Morley.
Couldn't have said it better myself. SEMPER FI
The Vets have seen nothing from the "Veteran's Angels". It's all smoke and mirrors. They feel like they are being pimped out for the "fundraisers"!
Linda Fontanella was very nice to the Veterans and their program until the week after the ribbon cutting ceremony. After Mayor Choi and a Wells Fargo representative saw her "make nice" with Veterans, Wells Fargo cut Richard Morley a mystery 50,000$ check that NOBODY has seen. Then Linda shows her true colors and replaces every Veteran who worked in that center within a week.
Being a Veteran Friendly school means that you treat Veterans with dignity even when you, Linda Fontanella, aren't taking pictures with the Mayor of Irvine and a Wells Fargo rep with a big cardboard check.
The vets being called "hostile" and criticized and denigrated by Fontanella and Minkler are the very same ones that the college was glad to trot out and take picture of when it suited them.
We've just been recognized as a "VET UNFRIENDLY" campus. Let's face it, as long as we have leadership (Glenn) that refuses to deal with incompetent, rude and uncivil behavior by Linda F, Mark Minker, Richard Morley and others, nothing will change.
I had hoped that some of the newer Board members would wake up to the problems here at IVC, but they are evidently too enamored with Saddleback to notice the crap that goes on around here.
The very people who made the vet center a success have been pushed out - and not only pushed out, but discouraged from any contact with the vets. This despite the fact that it was their care and attention that created the camaraderie that made the center the success it was - as well as the other events associated with it. It was this success that allowed them to raise the money and resources that they have now used to destroy the place. I don't know how the college president can support and defend the recent actions and (insulting) words) of those people but I assume he does because I have not heard anything different.
Does it take a lawsuit against the district for a hostile environment to get this madness to stop?
Linda will only care if people find out
Board Policy 180 sure would have come in handy today LoL
you know what comes up when you google
minkler american counseling association graduate student of the year 2004
nothing
I found the page at which the American Counseling Association lists winners of its awards:
here
I cannot find Minkler's name anywhere under the heading "graduate student of the year."
I can find nothing about "district vii"
THIS IS NOT RIGHT!!!!!!!!
Someone with experience in counseling - and people with integrity and experience in supervising counseling - should have behaved MUCH better than this. FUBAR indeed. Thanks for your attention to this matter. Nobody else seems to care.
Hahaha, well said!
Thanks for giving us some information at last about Darryl. It's awful when someone just disappears and you are told not to ask questions and not to expect any explanation. That no way to run a college. He worked here for YEARS and was well known and liked. He deserved better and we do too.
I heard Mr. Cox grossly mismanaged department finances, paid excessive overtime to one particular employee for a long time, had a huge backlog of unresloved fin-aid cases, and behaved badly at a college event where he was intoxicated, which I'm told, was the last straw.
You "heard" all this?
Ah yes, this is how communication at IVC works! And if public intoxication were a fireable offense the ranks of admin would be pretty thin. Not that I am naming any names, no. But I guess if one gets a bit tipsy and then starts some truth-telling, well, that's different. One gets fired for not being drunk but for being truthful.
The problem here of course, once again, we're never told anything and when we ask, as colleagues, as adults, as people who have worked here 10, 20, 30 years were are told to shut up in no uncertain terms. So people have to rely on what they "hear' whether it's in the hallway, at the water cooler, int eh parking , at a bar or on the blog. They get pissed at the blog but if they did there jobs, well, we wouldn't need the blog.
I appreciate the blog, it's the only real communication we have on campus we can rely on. Everything else is hushed up or false rumors are started (like the one above about Darryl) and allowed to ruin a person's reputation.
No rumor. It is all sadly true. I really liked Daryl.
How can they complain about the huge backlog of unresolved cases and in the same breath chastise him for paying overtime to his employees? They can't have it both ways. Furthermore, I find it interesting that after managing the Fin Aid office for so long, suddenly his behavior and methods are grounds for dismissal.
What'up with the reduced hours of Financial Aid? M-Th 10-2:30, closed Friday, no evening hours. No services available for evening students at all.
Just behaving badly in public while drunk is grounds, especially by an administrator representing the College. See board policy: moral turpitude. Alcohol is not a truth serum, it induces people to talk shit.
We have a moral turpitude clause in the Board Policy? Gee, how many times has THAT been invoked?
Does anyone know specifically what this bad behavior consisted of?
He is a crooked as they come. I am glad he got fired!
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