The June meeting of the SOCCCD BOT: "jackass free"

     [Please see Tere's Board Meeting Highlights.]
     I just entered the "Ronald Reagan" room here at Saddleback College—at pretty close to 6:00—and the meeting seems to have just begun. Evidently, no actions were taken by the board during closed session.
     Bill Jay lays on the religion pretty thick for his invocation. Dave Lang asks the audience to join him in "paying respects" to the flag. Really? To the flag? (Sorry, I'm a philosopher.)

Commendations:

     Right away, Nancy tears into the meeting. "Commendations" commence. Martin Carbone, Saddleback College Emeritus volunteer, comes up to receive recognition.
     Burnett explains that two commendation recipients couldn't attend. The SC chapter of Phi Theta Kappa wasn't present somehow. Also, Andrew Craven isn't present for some reason. I think he's in charge of parking or something. Lots of applause. You know how this goes.
     IVC's Glenn Roquemore comes up, asking that Diane Oaks and her "team" come up. They got some sort of recognition from CC Pro. So this is a case of giving a prize to people for getting a prize. (I don't understand why they stop there; why not give 'em another prize for the prize they just gave em'?) They seem like deserving people, though. They're pretty smiley and happy.
     Glenn asks Officer Tony Mancini to step up. He got an award from the CCUPCA for identifying a suspect, etc.
   
     Public comments: 

     Bob Cosgrove comes up, praises some people re SC's accreditation effort. (It sounds as though there's a dying squirrel in Bob's mike.) Mentions a Saddleback College retreat. Commends various people. Bob's old-fashioned that way. "An excellent presentation" by Todd B, evidently.
     A person named Mark Goodleaf also wants to address the board--re "IVC's ATEP," the purported layoff (an instructor in a particular program) coming up to a vote tonight. If you were to understand the contribution of this program (whatever it is), you wouldn't consider doing this, he says. I don't need to teach there, but I have for years, he says. "That's not why I'm here." Talks about the contribution of the school (program?). And "the youth." I was a little bit afraid of the youth, but...blah, blah, blah. These students are now contributing to the community. They're "positive citizens," fully employed. This wouldn't have happened were it not for ATEP and this particular program!

Board reports:

     Bill Jay: no report

     Tim Jemal: it was a pleasure last month to participate in commencement at IVC. Commends everyone involved. Went off "pretty well," he says. Had an opportunity to be interviewed on TV. A legislative action, TV show--something about Emeritus. Legislation that would throw older folks "under the bus," and he doesn't support it. The budget seems to be stabilizing. FTES equivalent of 1200 elderly students at Saddleback, evidently. Etc.
     Marcia Milchiker: agrees with Tim about the Emeritus Institute (should support it, protect it). Have always fought for these courses, these students. Last meeting, I read a list of the "60 things" I did. This time, commencements. "Can't thank enough" the people responsible. Went to Human Services certificate award ceremony. Marcia says she got a certificate from those people for having always attended.
     Mentions Bob Cosgrove's remark about me (yes me) at the last board meeting (Bob noted my efforts reporting on board meetings). A "Cumbaya" moment, says Marcia: in his report about the last board meeting, Roy Bauer wrote (she reads this):

     Yes folks, here we are yet again for another meeting of the SOCCCD BOT. This is, as I’ve suggested previously, the best BOT the district likely has ever had, which ain’t saying much, I know [big laugh], but it’s a damned good thing nonetheless. Essentially, the board is now jackass-free. [More laughter.] Plus we've got a Chancellor we can work with and trust.

     High praise from Roy Bauer, says Marcia. [Much laughter-like noise. Mostly, I keep my eyes closed, hoping for the moment to pass.] Nancy says something positive. I give her a thumbs up. What did that mean? I don't know. Everybody seems to be in a good mood about this. Well, OK, me too.
     TJ Prendergast: discusses the problem of addiction to prescription drugs. Attended an event about that, wants to spread the word. A disturbing trend.
     Nancy Padberg: she offers a helpful household tip: if you go to your pharmacist, they've got some method to dispose of your old drugs, she says. (You mail 'em somewhere.) Attended this and that. Won some prize somewhere. Mentions retirements: Don B, someone else.
     James Wright: also attended graduation ceremonies, both "wonderful events." Went to retirement dinner for Carl Abrams. Gravely mentions recent tragedy at Santa Monica College.
     [I see that the latest board innovation is a timer, a countdown from 3 minutes or 2 minutes while the person speaks. Nancy is like the Library Cop on Seinfeld.]
     Dave Lang: I also enjoyed both commencement ceremonies. Dave thanks the two Presidents. Participated in the SC golf tournament. "Not a skilled foursome..."
     Student trustee David Robinson: thanked board members for "warm welcome." Condolences and prayers re Santa Monica College tragedy. (Prayers? These kids today!)
     Chancellor's (Gary Poertner's) report: "I have no report this evening."
     IVC President Glenn Roquemore: blah, blah, blah.
     Saddleback College Prez Tod Burnett: introduces Kathy Werle. (Do you suppose she's getting tired of all this attention?) She stands; receives applause. Tod appreciated strong faculty turnout for commencement. Thanked people who helped with the event. Thanked the Ac. Senate for bestowing honorary degree on UCI Chancellor Drake, the keynote speaker. Mentions a successful governance retreat.

Reports requested: 

     TJ Prendergast requests a report of impact on employees (cadillac tax, etc.) of federal health care bill implementation. They vote (to pursue report): unanimous approval. Nancy opines that it seems like a good idea (asking for the report)

Item 4.1 — discussion item — Basic aid allocation recommendation for FY 2013-4

     Deb Fitzsimmons presents.
     Discusses BAARC (Basic Aid Allocation Recommendation Council), "the district wide participatory committee responsible for making recommendations to the Chancellor."
     Outlines BAAARC's activities, timeline. BP3110 was strictly followed. [This concerns an accred recommendation to do budgeting in a less top-down fashion.]
     Net amount available for BAAAARC. Allocation: $52,853,446
     Capital projects: $26 mil. Various others.
     District wide tech projects: $10.8 mil
     Small renovation projects: $ 5.75 mil
     etc.
     ANY QUESTIONS?:

     Prendergast: this is a lot of work; nice to see so many groups involved, making sure that it's not top-down. I hope the groups agree with that. This is a really good thing. (Response to accreditation recommendation.)
     Jemal: echoes Prendergast's comment. Happy about techno investment. There's a lot in here. Asks Bramucci to summarize....
     B: Student Success Dashboard. Everything will be on one page per student. Mostly we're just keeping the lights on, getting things refreshed. Replacing desktops. This dashboard thing is a culmination of lots that we've done.
     Jemal: when will the dashboard be operable? B: was supposed to be a year project. Contingent on ....
     Padberg instructs trustees on how to use the new buttons on their desktop. Lang asks, "Which button?" Confusion. Nancy gives up: "just raise your hand." [Laughter.]
     Lang: congrats to the BAAAAARC. Getting lots of imput from the entire community [as per accred rec]. Also pleased we're making investment in tech. It seems to me that we once had discussion about some of this generating a revenue stream? Any news on that front?
     B: there's some work that needs to take place for that.

Consent calendar. There's a correction. Lang pulls 5.8. Vote: unanimous

     5.8: confused about this item — Brandye comes up to explain about demolishing classroom cluster "building project." She's her usual clear and competent self, it seems.

     6.1: tentative budget. 

     Again, Deb Fitz presents. Shows the usual stats, slides. Again, there seems to be a dying squirrel in her mike. [Meanwhile, the meeting has been plagued with minor problems with the overhead or "computer" system. Nancy is slightly peeved about that.]
     Sorry for my disinclination to follow this presentation. I'm just in no mood to think about numbers, fiscal. Evidently, nothing alarming or surprising is being said. The board exhibits mild interest, perhaps boredom.
     Fitz is talking "liability" and "estimates," etc. Prop 30. Etc.
     Fitz gives her usual evidently clear and competent presentation. On it goes. I always get the feeling that she does a good job with this stuff, but that's an odd coming from someone who neither understands nor seeks to understand fiscal matters. Whatever.
     She continues..... She looks pretty earnest, but everything's OK, I guess. The board seems reasonably pleased. She said something about funds for "scheduled maintenance." The factoid is pleasing, evidently.
     Nancy: we're sticking to our rule about basic aid funds are we? (a reference to the idea that basic aid funds are never for ongoing expenses)? F: yep.
     Student trustee Robinson asks: do you anticipate keeping fee [?] to $40? F: state fees are set by state.
     Prendergast: we're waiting for the Governor to sign the current budget, are we? Good news mostly about amount budgeted? F: very positive for Cal CC system as a whole; very positive for our district in particular. Governor has veto power on certain sections. It'll be interesting to see "which bills pass." P: something about 1.63% growth. Someone comes up to explain some seeming discrepancy, I know not what. Everything is cool, though. Sorry, I don't know what this is about. Half of my brain is on summer holiday.
     Lang: back to comment about deferred maintenance money available at state. What sort of allocation for us? F: It's project based. "About 2% of the total." She gets into the weeds, I'm not following. Blah blah blah. Lang: several of our capital improvement projects involve state monies. How will that be affected by state budget? F: shouldn't be.
     Voting on the item: unanimous approval.

     Tentative student government budget(s).
     SC student Prez (didn't catch his name) presents. (Nice suit, dude.) Goes through process, etc. Pretty halting, awkward. Luckily, everything is projected on screen. His presentation is brief, thank God.
     Lang: I think you did a wonderful job. We're starting the year with pretty healthy beginning fund balance. You're using all of the funds available except for emerg. reserve for the categories you've indicated. So why do you have an ending balance?
     Student: we have a rollover every year. The figure is an estimate based on last year. Lang seems satisfied.
     Next, IVC student gov budget. This time, Jee Chung(?) speaks. Says he wants to be quick and clear. Formal, a bit awkward. Goes through process. Halting, but again, the slides lay out the data. Yadda Yadda. Painful. But no more than usual.
     Jemal: IVC revenue seems higher than Saddleback's, which is odd (Saddleback is much bigger.) To what may this be attributed? Nancy points to Saddleback kid: ASC receives 40% contract revenue, he says. The other 60 not in alignment with "our mission."
     Burnett: the college determined that ASG was being asked to make decisions on ongoing academic matters. Inappropriate. So a change was made, and now ASG sticks to its mission.
     Prendergast: great presentations. In past, we've gotten comparisons of last year with this year. Fitz: yes, that makes sense. That comparison will be included in the final budget.
     Student Trustee Robinson: do you anticipate increase in scholarship allotment? ASG kid says something about $20,000.
     Lang: since we don't have the comparative info now—can you give us idea on what you have emphasized in this budget vs. last year? Answer: our co-curricular programs, he says.
     Wright: do you talk with your colleague at SC? I noticed discrepancies between the two colleges re ASG budget items. (I didn't follow the resolution of this. Too weary.)
     Unanimous approving vote (with Jay out of the room on a bathroom break).

Oscar

6.3: Authorizing design-build procurement for the SC site improvements project
     Brandye D presents.
     Prendergast: do we know when we use this approach--do we have criteria about which (approach) to use when? (Reference to previously customary approach—Lease/leaseback—vs. newer design-build approach)
     B: we have a preference for "design-build." Etc. I didn't follow this, but P seemed satisfied.
     Lang: unfortunate publicity recently surrounding (cc college construction?, overruns?), how still competitively bid? Give us some comfort in this area, says Dave.
     B: some of the controversies you've heard about—these districts use a less stringent approach in bidding. We understand the conservative nature of our board, so we are very conservative in our approach. Current approach mirrors competitive bid process, etc.
     Jemal: follow-up to Lang. Is there a dollar amount minimum (I didn't get this). The answer involved the figure $15,000--that is, the approach in question applies to all projects over that amount (I think). Don't expect that to change, says B. [This issue--the advantages to moving to design-build--was discussed at length previously. As I recall, B and Co. have been very positive about our use of design-build vs. Lease/leaseback. The latter seems inevitably to lead to big problems with sub-contractors, thus contractors. They get locked into prices and then things change, they go belly-up. This new method avoids all that.)
     Jemal: Projects over $15k will be competitively bid then? (The answer seemed to be "sort of" or "yes" but I didn't follow the details.)
     Milchiker: why prefer design-build? Blah blah blah. The board seemed satisfied.

6.4: Board policy revisions. Unanimous approval.

6.5: BPs for review and study.
     Lang: BP164, the first one. This item involves increase in trustee stipend from $400 to $700 per month. There's good justification for that. Has been through shared governance process. Public should be aware of this increase. Nancy: we've been authorized to do this for years, but held back because of budget. Accept for review and study? Unanimous. (This issue last came up four years ago: Trustees to delay 67% pay increase for themselves, Jan 16, 2009; Trustees set to nearly double their monthly stipend, Dec 2, 2008)

6.6: request, rescind sabbatical leave. Unanimously approved
6.7: Academic Personal actions. Unanimous
6.8: Classified Personal actions. Unanimous.
6.9: resolution re classified employee layoff. Revenue not there to continue. Thus lay off recommended.
Prendergast: is the position related to the program the public speaker referred to earlier?
     Bugay: yes. It's categorically funded.
     Roquemore: we've lost the (something). Grants involved. Coming to an end without any replacement funds. The funds are drying up. Unanimous approval of rec. layoff.
7.1: info item about speakers.
. . .

8.0: reports from shared governance groups. 

     I'll just mention highlights here, if any occur.
     SC academic senate guy (unfamiliar to me). Echoed Bob's comments. Mentions retreat. "Collegial and informative experience." A "palpable sense of comaraderie in the room." 1st Senate meeting: new degrees approved. (Boy does this guy have lots to say. But he does a good job.)
     There is now a site for "History of Saddleback College." Professor Cobos' website. 1967-68, oral histories. "Making history, the first years of Saddleback College."
     Faculty union: negotiation team.
     No rep for IVC Ac. Senate.
     Peebles: no report beyond written.
     Bramucci: blah blah blah about technology
     Bugay: something about training deans, coming from ACCA. Local personages involved.
     Fitzsimmons: [The timer's working!] Blah blah blah. Awesome fiscal team, etc.
     IVC classified ac senate, Dennis Gordon: conference, etc. End of year celebration. My last meeting: appreciate this opportunity. Board meetings: "A refreshing change from how it's been in the past."
. . .
    Wright: Adjourned meeting in memory of Steve Sworder, who recently passed away.
    The meeting ends before 8:00 p.m. Pretty dang efficient.

Lots of cloud

     [The further adventures of the Bauer family of Trabuco Canyon, including my parents, my sister (Annie) and I—who live nearby—and sometimes my younger bro (Ron) and his family.]

"It's alive!"

     On Sunday, Ron & Susan and the kids came by to help celebrate Father’s Day, and that went very well, though, as usual, it felt like a hurricane. (But I'm not complainin'!)
     After Ron and the gang blew out toward the ocean, I found what I took to be Susan’s cell phone on the bed in the extra bedroom. (The kids had been in there, playing, telling ghost stories, etc.) I drew attention to the thing as I left for home that night. “I think Susan left this here,” I said.
     Next day: Annie and I came by for lunch. There occurred three conversations. [Imagine now that I am Rod Serling.] Three Bauerian adventures in thought and language—in an area which we call the Bauer Zone.
     The main adventure, which centered on the word "it," was sandwiched between a before and an after adventure:

a priori

     Ma: “Roy called about his radio this morning.”
     “Roy?” I ask. “I'm Roy. You mean Ron, right?”
     “Oh yes, of course,” says Ma. “Ron, then, called about his radio.”
     “His radio?” I asked. “What radio?”
     “Yeah, the radio you found yesterday,” said Pa.
     I stared at Annie. She stared at me. I then said: “do you mean the cell phone I found?”
     “Yeah, the radio,” said Ma.
     Annie got up to find the dang thing.
     “Oh,” I said, “that’s not a radio. It's some kind of cell phone, I think.”
     Annie found it nearby and brought it to the table. She removed the gizmo in question from its small leather sleeve. Said she: “It’s a Blackberry.” She briefly explained what that is.
     “Right,” I said. “Its not a radio and it's not a cell phone. It’s an internet/email/phone gizmo, a precursor to smart phones, sort of. You know what smart phones are?”
     “The original cellphones,” asserts Pa, “were called radiophones.”
     Oh. Beyond anything else he was trying to do, my dad was signaling that we had better drop the subject. We—Annie and I—were causing disharmony, evidently, by picking at my mother and her trivial linguistic errors.
     OK.

a posteriori

"Who's alive?"

     Ma: “He sure has some cloud.” ["He" was some guy—doesn't matter who. I never found out.]
     Pa: “Yeah, lots of cloud.”
     Me: “What’s that you’re saying? ‘Cloud’?”
     “Yeah,” says Pa. “Juice.” He sure had a lot of juice. Or cloud.” He said this with his usual enthusiasm for having mastered a colloquial expression. (My folks are originally from Germany. My dad loves to pick up "new" expressions.)
     I offer: “I think you mean ‘clout.’ He had lots of clout.” (This reminded me of the "blood cloth" saga. Do your recall that one?)
     My dad commences staring in disbelief.
     “That’s what I said,” says Ma. “Cloud. He has lots of cloud.”
     Friends and acquaintances sometimes witness these episodes. At such times, my mother's obliviousness and cheerful disregarding positivity is invariably warmly embraced as Big Old World Charm. —Really Big.
     “No," said I. “It’s not ‘cloud.’ It’s ‘clout,’ with a ‘t.’”
     I pronounce the word very clearly, stressing the hard “t” sound: “ClouTTTT.”
     “Clout?”
     “Yep. That's what you mean to say. He has CLOUT.” (I worry that my folks are running around saying "cloud" when they mean "clout." But I really shouldn't. One more malapropism among dozens: who cares?)
     Says Ma: “Why do they spell it with a ‘t’?”
     “They don’t spell the word 'cloud' with a 't.' The word is clout; they spell that word with a 't.'”
     Ma and Pa look at each other. I do believe they’re giving each other the “there he goes again” look.
     It’s a look of resignation and dismissal. It is communicated quickly, efficiently. A shorthand.
     It is final, a death sentence.
     It means: Evidently, our son Roy is a real troublemaker. And, perversely, he insist on finding error where there is none.
     Why does our son do this? It's a painful thing to contemplate. Horrible, really.
     Tick, tick, tick, tick....
     Oh well, we'll just soldier on, as we always have. We will survive, somehow. (Sigh.)
     --They immediately drop the subject, having identified the nature of the problem and its solution.

OK, so here’s the main event. Get ready.

"He is."

     “Annie, maybe you can help us with the ad for the rental,” said mom.
     “Just put it on Craig’s List,” Annie proclaims.
     Guess so. I know what Craig's List is, but I've never actually gone there. Annie's into Craig's List. Yeah, whatever.
     My folks, however, don’t know about Craig’s List. They know it has something to do with computers and the internet (two things that they refuse to distinguish). Any mention of the internet is, to them, like mention of, say, a “College Professor” to, say, a Tea Partier. It's a red flag waved in front of a bull.
     Bewilderment. Plus hostility. That's what comes up. And a primitive impulse to grab a torch and commence marching up a hill to a castle to help secure an evil-doer's fiery death.
     “We have that ad. It’s been done and done and done,” said Ma.
     She was referring, I think, to all of the ads of all of the rentals in her life, going back many years. Yes, there’ve been many of those, I suppose.
     But here's the thing: none of those ads has much to do with this ad for this house.
     “Well, it doesn’t cost anything to write a specific ad for this rental,” said Annie.
     “It doesn’t need to be different,” said my mom.
     “Well, this isn’t complicated. Just a brief description of the house,” said Annie.
     “It’s pretty much the same thing,” said mom.
     “What is?” I ask.
     “You can write the ad and give it to me. I’ll take it from there,” said Annie.
     “It’s crazy,” said mom.
     “What is exactly? What do you meant by ‘it’? What, exactly, is crazy?”
     Uh-oh. That never works—every time I ask my mom to explain who or what she is referring to by some pronoun, she gets seriously defensive and hostile. Then my dad gets seriously defensive and hostile on her behalf. I could tell that she and my dad (and maybe my sister too) were getting confused about what they were talking about. There’s the needed ad. There's the decision where to run it. There’s the old ads for the same rental--created years ago, before anyone knew about Craig's List. There’s the effort and action of putting out the ad. Etc. I could sort it out for them, but I'd pay a price: I would be accused of "lecturing" them, of bullying them with all manner of clarity and logic. But there's only so much of this kind of endless confused discussion that I can listen to before I say, "Please stop!"
     My folks have a funny way with language. It is very typical of them to use "he," "she," or "it" without any clear idea what they are referring to. They do it all the time. Things are confused all the time.
     It drives me nuts.

"Who's he?"

     “There you go again,” mom said. “I’m being perfectly clear.”
     “Look, I just want to understand what you’re saying. If somebody hears another person say, ‘It’s on the table,’ it’s always fair to ask, ‘what do you mean by IT?’ WHAT is on the table?”
     Good Lord, was I asking for it. I had torn open a festering wound!
     “We don’t need a lecture,” says my dad.
     “You (I was facing my mom) just used a sentence with the word ‘it.’ I’m just asking you what you are referring to with that word. That's all.”
     “There he goes again,” says my dad. “Let’s be pleasant. It's a nice day. Let’s change the subject.”
     That pissed me off. “I’m not being unpleasant," I said. "I’m only asking what you (mom) are talking about.”
     I turned to Annie: “Isn’t it fair to ask what a person means by ‘it’ when they use the word ‘it’?”
     “Well, yes," she said. "And when Roy asked you (Ma) what you meant by ‘it,’ I had no idea what you meant either. And then, when Roy asked what you meant, you didn’t answer,” said Annie.
    "I just want to know what you are saying," I said. "That's all."
    "No," she said. "You do this," she said, accusingly.
     Yeah, I do.
     But mostly now, I don't. And that's OK too. Really, it is.
     I love these people anyway.
     Good grief.

Saddleback memories

     A recent post by the OC Weekly’s Gustavo Arellano (An Incomplete, Embarrassing Timeline of Anti-Black Moments in Orange County) reminded me of an incident in Saddleback College’s past

from Dec. 30, 2009:
Much ado about nothing? —Or: a pattern of distressing incidents at a cheery college in a sunny place (OC) with a cloudy history

I’ve been looking for stories about our district’s history, and, in the course of pursuing the lurid tale of a certain notorious former chancellor (no, not Mathur), I came across an old (4/10/94) OC Reg article about “anti-black harassment” at Saddleback College—and the hiring of Ned Doffoney, an African-American (not the first; he succeeded Constance Carroll), as President. (See A VISION OF CONFIDENCE: Ned Doffoney, president of a college with a history of racial problems, says he is not single-issue oriented).

You know about Ned: he’s from Louisiana but spent time in education in LA before taking on the Saddleback gig. After he was ousted by 1997’s notorious right-wing Board Majority (Frogue, Williams, et al.), he went back to Louisiana. More recently, he was the President of Fresno City College and, a year and a half ago, he became the Chancellor or the North Orange County Community College District. (See North Orange County gets a New Chancellor.)

According to the Reg article, back in early 1994, “anti-black harassment” had often “put the college in the news”—for years, evidently going back to about 1991.

The Reg explained:

Since 1991, a handful of black staff members and students have sporadically received threatening or harassing fliers or phone calls. Last fall, two black students running for homecoming king and queen abandoned their quests after receiving hate mail. ¶ In November, even as nearly 600 people packed a campus forum on racial intolerance, Ricc Waddell, the would-be homecoming king and president of the black student association, found a threatening, racist note under his vehicle's windshield wiper.

According to the Reg, at the time, the college had hired consultants “to help smooth the way as the campus becomes more diverse.” Evidently, just then, these consultants were about to file “a report…calling for a department of ethnic studies.” (See College May Offer Ethnic Studies Dept. (L.A. Times, 5/19/94).)

The Reg seemed to expect the recommendation to inspire opposition “from parts of the faculty.”

Don’t know what that’s about. (Do you?)

This Waddell kid (of the black student association) was pretty cynical about the Doffoney hire:

…Waddell, 23, the history and psychology major who was the target of the latest racist fliers, said Doffoney has yet to "see the irony in this whole situation." ¶ "He's the master token, and he doesn't realize it," Waddell said. "I just think he's being brought in as a pacifier. (District trustees) don't want Saddleback to get the name of being racist."

But Ned is a pretty charming—and genuinely nice—guy, and so Waddell met with him and then reported that "He's a real cool guy. I'm very happy that he's here."

Nevertheless, Waddell opined that Doffoney would be dealing with a “hostile climate” for minorities. (No doubt there was some hostility. Any old-timers want to weigh in on whether this episode leaves a false impression? A correct impression? A small handful of rat bastards can cause quite a stink. Is that what this was, essentially? On the other hand, South County is the home of both the Minutemen and the Birthers, both arguably racist organizations. Newport Beach, of course, is the home of the nation's foremost Holocaust denial organization, the IHR, whose friends came to the district in significant numbers to support their hero Steve Frogue a decade ago.)

Within a year or two after Doffoney’s arrival, trustee Steve Frogue commenced his perplexing series of criticisms of the IVC Academic Senate--and the Jewish Anti-Defamation LeagueHe even seemed to question an instructor’s inviting an ADL official to speak to a class (at IVC), learning about the Holocaust.

Naturally, that didn’t please the district’s Jewish population.

Digression: the "Menorah cartoon" incident, 1989-1990:

The 26-year old art editor of the Saddleback College Lariat ran a cartoon criticizing Israel's nuclear policy--using Jewish symbols (Menorah, Holocaust). People went apeshit. For a (partisan) review of the facts concerning the incident, see Orange County: A Tragicomedy in Three Acts, by Tom Moran, 3/90 in the willing-to-criticize-Israel (yikes) Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. See also Apology: offensive Lariat editorial cartoon, LA Times, 12/17/89

TigerAnn, cat

I then (as now) taught at Saddleback’s sister college to the north, and, frankly, I didn’t pay any attention—indeed, I was oblivious—to the racial tensions referred to here. I came into the (political) picture only when Frogue commenced sniffing around my office mate’s Holocaust course (c. 1995). (I wrote a piece for IVC’s Voice, criticizing Mr. Frogue’s apparent embrace of the incompetent Institute for Historical Review, a local Holocaust denial organization.)

Do any readers have information concerning these events at Saddleback College of the early 90s?

The article reveals how times have changed—not just with regard to interracial relations (which seem good these days, on our campuses). Doffoney identified among his challenges the setting up of a “computer network”: “Many of our students have computers. Their homes are technologically equipped. And it's our task to catch up," he said.

It's hard to remember a time when we didn't have computers in our offices. Our computers arrived in the mid-to-late 90s.

I recall the district dragging IVC’s computer-savvy (and otherwise-savvy) Peter Morrison out of the classroom (this must’ve been about 1997) to organize and plan this computer catch-uppery. I think they were also trying to keep him above the various frays that then raged at IVC and the district.

Did you know former Chancellor Robert Lombardi? I never had a problem with him, but he occasionally offered less-than-articulate comments to the press over the years. This particular article ends with a typical Lombardian "comment." Commenting on Doffoney, he was quoted as saying

"He makes us all easier with diversity…. When you experience people who are different from yourself and you have a real positive experience with that ... that experience helps us then deal with other people who are different than we are."

Um, yeah. Sure.

“Moments in SOCCCD History” coming soon*:

• Saddleback instructor’s lurid “wide stance” student/teacher conference in the Utt library restroom
• Saddleback instructor’s student-bimbo v. wife brass-knuck-assisted on-desk bout leading to über-costly medical payout
• Irvine Valley banana boy’s unseemly & illicit internet surfin’ in the stacks
• Irvine Valley gasbag leading student prayer huddles pre-tournament, amen

*Well, no, we won't be delving into this kind of history. I mention these events (all real) only because three of the instructors were supporters of Raghu P. Mathur and were part of the corrupt union inner circle that brought us the 1996 Board Majority. And guess what? Those are the three who weren’t fired.

Photo from Steve Turnbull’s “The Great Laguna Fire of 1993”

Comments

Anonymous‬ said...
I was there.
 Brother Ricc invited the Minister of Information from the Nation of Islam [to] speak in the BGS large lecturer hall. The "bodyguards" from the Nation Of Islam were patting down anyone who attended at the entrance. Who knows where our Campus Police where.



Later in the semester the "note incident" occurred. Things were very odd at the time. Linda Newell and her assistant Norma Yanni were the "District Diversity Office" or something like that. They seemed to have an agenda, but I couldn't figure it out.



The forum was hosted by another "Diversity Officer" from another college. Paid, of course. To me it smelled like a RICO investigation was needed. Cause some trouble and collect the cash. Why didn't Linda run the forum? Did her paid host get her a gig on his campus for a forum? Pure speculation on that part, but it sure felt like it.



Not long after that the "District Diversity Office" was dissolved and Saddleback got both employees.



I had the pleasure of working with Ned and he was a professional and a gentleman. He did what was best for the college and—shock—believed in shared governance. He was in charge, but he did listen and work for the best outcome.



Peter Morrison was a most interesting person. He pushed through a District Budget Allocation Model that favored IVC for many years. He was the terror of "DRAC". He got drafted to the District network/computer project because the colleges were bypassing the district in technology.
For those in the know "The (Ed) Buck Stopped Here".



My favorite memories of Peter was when he walked out during Frogue's tirades in the BOT meetings about the IVC Academic Senate elections. When he was done, Frogue would look up and ask "he wouldn't stay to hear me out?"

12:29 AM, December 31, 2009