Anthem Bows Out (Inside Higher Ed)

After years of enrollment losses, Anthem Education, a for-profit chain of colleges and career institutes, filed for bankruptcy Monday….
. . .
The Senate report described the company’s aggressive recruiting tactics as among “the most troubling” behaviors the investigation of 30 for-profits had revealed. One Anthem admissions representative would not let an undercover applicant speak with a financial aid representative until after she enrolled. In another instance, an Anthem financial aid worker fraudulently removed $250,000 in listed savings from an undercover applicant’s FAFSA in order to make the applicant eligible for federal loans. For-profit advocates said the Senate report cherry-picked data to cast for-profits in an unflattering light....

Cerritos College Police Chief Richard "Buk'' Bukowiecki Takes Own Life in Local Motel (NavelGazing)

Glenn Roquemore is an embarrassment

     It's quite a college we've got here. Last week, President Glenn Roquemore had a photo op with a rep from among the most scandalous higher ed "for-profits," namely, The U of Phoenix. Apparently, Roquemore doesn't have a clue what that organization represents—namely, hoodwinking young people, and especially veterans, selling them a bill of goods, in order to secure huge sums of taxpayer funds.
     And here's the latest: evidently, Roquemore has arranged for Army recruiters to bring one of their silly fantasy-land, snake oil recruitment "semis" to the college next week (Tuesday, the 2nd of Sept).
     The dang thing will be located in the vast expanse of concrete in front of the cafeteria. (See pic above.)
     It appears that recruiters in Army World have a fleet of semis loaded with the usual infantile and meretricious whizbangery (lasers, weapon simulators, battle simulators, XBOXs, "theme" motorcycles, etc.). —Yes, they've even got an exhibit the centerpiece of which is a fake-military chopper fabricated by those fat-heads at OC Choppers! (See below.)

Naturally, this TV chopper is not used by the Army—except for recruitment. However, says the Army, "its unique features generate positive conversations about the Army." Conversations or fantasies?

     Choppers? Lasers? XBOXs? Cool guns and tony camo? It seems to me that a college should stand for honest critical thinking and a rejection of snake-oil salesmanship. And what could be less honest and more serpentine than the kind of appeal these recruiters lay on young people?
     Here are some relevant photos I found in a document distributed among Army recruiters called Asset [Semi, etc.] User's Guide for Maximizing Accessions. "Accessions," I suppose, is Army-speak for bodies recruited. Recruiters who manage to snag one of these semis for a recruitment event are the "asset users," I guess. What the recruiters are looking for, of course, are hot "leads." That's the language of boiler-room operations.
     It's the language these people use, I kid you not.

Gosh, I wonder what an "Army Story" is?

Did you read that last one? Collecting quality leads!

Have fun shooting at stuff in the Army!

"Leadership activities"?

"Engaging virtual enemies." Yeah.

Clueless IVC Prez Glenn Roquemore smiles as he makes nice with the enemy

Vice President, Western Region, Workforce Solutions/University of Phoenix, Chuck Parker, President, Irvine Valley College, Dr. Glenn R. Roquemore

     Members of the Irvine Valley College community just received this gushing email from the President:

Irvine Valley College Signs Memorandum of Understanding with University of Phoenix 

     Irvine – Irvine Valley College (IVC) administration, faculty and staff held a formal signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the University of Phoenix, Inc. (University) on Wednesday, August 20, 2014.
     Irvine Valley College President Glenn Roquemore said, “This partnership will expand the many transfer opportunities available to the IVC students and staff. One of the major benefits of the MOU is the tuition discount."
     Irvine Valley College students transferring to University of Phoenix into an undergraduate baccalaureate degree program … will be considered as having satisfied the general education requirements for the breadth of the liberal arts degree program….

     IVC students get 10% off Phoenix tuition, which is way pricey.
     Evidently, President Roquemore is not aware that entities such as the U of Phoenix exist to make huge profits by taking advantage of students who typically receive federally insured loans, putting them in serious debt. Those students, upon graduating, typically fail to find the work they were expecting and often default on their loans, forcing the taxpayer to pay. (It's a massive bubble that, one day, will pop.)
     You’re fine with all that, are you Glenn? You're a Republican, aren't you? Yeah. I see you smiling with those vets you claim to love!
     Alas, the "predatory for-profits" problem is especially egregious in the case of Vets, who pay their way via the new GI Bill:

GI Bill funds failing for-profit California colleges
(Desert Sun)

The ever-clueless Glenn R

     Over the last five years, more than $600 million in college assistance for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans has been spent on California schools so substandard that they have failed to qualify for state financial aid.
     As a result, the GI Bill — designed to help veterans live the American dream — is supporting for-profit companies that spend lavishly on marketing but can leave veterans with worthless degrees and few job prospects, The Center for Investigative Reporting found.
. . .
     Financial records analyzed by CIR show that California is the national epicenter of this problem, with nearly 2 out of every 3 GI Bill dollars going to for-profit colleges.
     The University of Phoenix in San Diego outdistances its peers. Since 2009, the campus has received $95 million in GI Bill funds. That's more than any brick-and-mortar campus in America, more than the entire 10-campus University of California system and all UC extension programs combined.
. . .
     The school's large share of GI Bill funding reflects more than just the number of veterans enrolling. The programs are expensive. An associate degree costs $395 a credit, for instance — nearly 10 times the cost at a public community college.
     The University of Phoenix won't say how many of its veterans graduate or find jobs, but the overall graduation rate at its San Diego campus is less than 15 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Education, and more than a quarter of students default on their loans within three years of leaving school.
     Those figures fall short of the minimum standards set by the California Student Aid Commission, which dispenses state financial aid. The commission considers either a graduation rate lower than 30 percent or a loan default rate of more than 15.5 percent clear indicators of a substandard education.
     No such restrictions govern GI Bill funds. And nearly 300 California schools that received GI Bill money either were barred from receiving state financial aid at least once in the past four years or operated without accreditation, CIR has found.
. . .
     Of the $1.5 billion in GI Bill funds spent on tuition and fees in California since 2009, CIR found that more than 40 percent — $638 million —went to schools that have failed the state financial aid standard at least once in the past four years.
     Four of those schools were University of Phoenix campuses, which together took in $225 million….

An Enemy In Common? The Case Against For-Profit Colleges
(Cognoscenti [NPR Boston])

… As Americans, we should all be concerned that veterans are being taken advantage of by unscrupulous profiteers. As taxpayers, we should be aware that we are paying for this disservice. Approximately 85-95 percent of the for-profits’ revenue comes from taxpayer-supported benefits….

For-Profit College Investigation--Is the New GI Bill Working?: Questionable For-Profit Colleges Increasingly Dominate the Program
([Senator] Harkin newsletter)

…Senator Harkin's HELP Committee investigation found:
. . .

• Most for-profit colleges charge much higher tuition than comparable programs at community colleges and flagship State public universities. The investigation found Associate degree and certificate programs averaged four times the cost of degree programs at comparable community colleges. Bachelor's degree programs averaged 20 percent more than the cost of analogous programs at flagship public universities despite the credits being largely non-transferrable.
• Because 96 percent of students starting a for-profit college take federal student loans to attend a for-profit college (compared to 13 percent at community colleges), nearly all students who leave have student loan debt, even when they don't have a degree or diploma or increased earning power.
• Students who attended a for-profit college accounted for 47 percent of all Federal student loan defaults in 2008 and 2009. More than 1 in 5 students enrolling in a for-profit college-22 percent-default within 3 years of entering repayment on their student loans....

Hey-Diddly-Ho, Neighbor!

     Oldie but Goodie [2012]: See Senator Harkin’s For-Profit College Investigation: U of Phoenix

The August meeting of the SOCCCD BOT: not live, not direct, not nuttin'

     (See Tere's Board Meeting Highlights.*)
     The Board of Trustees’ August meeting is tonight at 6:15 p.m. (the closed session starts at 5:00).
     The agenda is available here.
     The faculty union (Faculty Association) plans once again to provide a green-shirted presence in the grandly hollow Ronnie Reagan Room—to draw attention to faculty needs and wants re the contract. That hasn’t worked out very well in recent months. —The presence, I mean. Nobody's been showin' up. Maybe they need a different color.
     No discussion items tonight. So it will be light on the ol' Dog und Pony.
     It’s “budget” night: general action item 6.1 is “Adopted Budget for Fiscal Year 2014-2015 Approve the FY 2014-2015 Adopted Budget as presented.” Etc.
     There’ll be foundation reports. That’s always interesting—or “interesting” or interesting.
     I won’t be there. My back is “out,” as they say, and I ain’t goin’ nowhere.

     *I noticed this in Tere's "Board Meeting Highlights":

The board meeting was adjourned in memory of Saddleback College Professor Michael Runyan who died suddenly last month. Professor Runyan was one of the first faculty hired at Saddleback in 1977. He was a dedicated English professor and colleague who retired in 2008. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.

A-100 - besieged by golf carts

Partial view of the scene at 4:20 or so on Thursday.

It was late in the day when Rebel Girl made her way across campus and counted one, two, three, f—  er, somewhere near 12 golf carts (Is that our entire fleet?) surrounding A-100, parking in all manner of places: sidewalks, grassy knoll, embankment. It was a spectacle that managed to even get the attention of students.

The quick photo above taken by Rebel Girl's Android cell phone camera does not do the scene justice.  It looked like a convention or an insurrection or a blockade.  Something big was happening.

One participant who had slipped out to buy coffee at the Ye Olde Coffee Cart alluded to an impromptu impassioned meeting between the college president and those workers with complaints about the recent dramatic change in work hours. The encounter seemed sustained, lasting at least an hour or more.

As she was busy, busy, busy - she can't report on any upshot from the meeting but perhaps our loyal readers can.

See also
An odious schedule change in the offing for (IVC) F&M classified?

The inevitable Constance Carroll,
formerly Pres of Saddleback College

California Legislature Approves Bachelor's Degrees at Community Colleges
(Inside Higher Ed)

     California's Legislature on Thursday approved legislation that would allow 15 of the state's community college districts to issue four-year degrees. Governor Jerry Brown now will consider the bill, which would make California one of more than 20 states that have enacted similar legislation. It would allow the group of two-year colleges to begin offering bachelor's degrees next year in a limited number of programs that have a high demand in the workforce, including dental hygiene, radiologic technology, health information science and automotive technology.
     The chancellor of the state's community college system, Brice Harris, last year convened a group to consider the move. Constance M. Carroll, chancellor of the San Diego Community College District, served on the committee and supported the legislation.
     "In cases where businesses, health care organizations and other industries now require a bachelor's degree at their entry level, it is imperative that community colleges step forward to ensure the competitiveness of our students," Carroll said in a written statement. "That is a win-win proposition for our students, for employers, and for the economy.”

Three arrested in alleged Irvine, L.A. brothels (OC Reg)
Irvine to Pursue Court Action Against Former Consultant (Voice of OC)

Beauteous OC, Land o' Abiding Corruption

Has watchdog effort to oversee O.C. campaign laws lost its bite?
(OC Register)

     …[OC’s longtime government ethics watchdog, Shirley] Grindle is supremely steamed. “I would like the voters to know what extremes this board [of Supervisors] is going to to avoid what I believe most conscientious voters want – a centralized, local ethics commission that can not only administer, monitor and enforce the local campaign ordinance, but also handle whistleblower complaints regarding conflicts of interest, fraud, waste, nepotism and sexual harassment,” she said….
. . .
     In its plea for an independent ethics commission last year, the grand jury chronicled a litany of corruption allegations dating back to the 1970s – citing 43 county politicians indicted from 1974 to 1977 alone. The supervisors declined the plea….

There will be dancing in the streets (Rebel Girl)

Kindergarten class portrait, at Killefer School on North Lemon Street, Orange, California, 1945. Emigdio Vasquez is in the second row, second from the left.  Photo donated by Emigdio Vasquez. Part of the "Shades of Orange" project.

Sunday evening found Rebel Girl at her alma mater UCI (zot! zot!), the New Swan's production of "Romeo and Juliet." A nice way to mark the end of summer. As it happens, two former students were in the audience (after 22 years of teaching, it is almost impossible to be anywhere in the county without running into former students). She sat next to one of them, a former journalist who is now employed by Chapman University as a public relations writer.

Rebel Girl mentioned her recent trip to Orange and the Cypress Street mural. The writer knew all about it. She told Rebel Girl that Chapman was going to have a re-dedication ceremony for the newly restored mural in October and promised to send her information.

Then yesterday, on the way home from a long day at school, there was Gustavo Arellano's weekly radio commentary on Santa Monica College station KCRW. Gustavo, newly married to beloved IVC alum Delilah Snell, was paying his respects to Emigdio Vasquez and holding forth on the future of el maestro's works.

Here's the link to Gustavo's commentary: click here. Listen and learn.

Bride and groom.

Meanwhile, on the homefront, it looks like Emigdio's IVC mural will have a new location and, like Chapman University, IVC will commemorate this with a re-dedication ceremony. What grand news.

Stay tuned.

And go visit the mural where it is in B-100.  Try to find the Mexican pyramid hidden in the fields.  See the yellow face of the old A-quad clock tower.

Dancing in the streets. Bride and groom. Downtown Santa Ana.  (Note Red Emma in his fine summer seersucker standing behind the band, clapping his hands.)

Great Park Public Relations Consultants Get 5 P.M. Deadline to End Odd Contract Secrecy
(R. Scott Moxley, NavelGazing)

     The auditor working to uncover explanations for wild, dubious spending of Orange County Great Park funds by a prior Irvine City Council majority of Larry Agran, Beth Krom and Sukhee Kang has given that trio's favored political consultants a 5 p.m. deadline to disclose key expense records….

Unrelated:

1959: East Orange

Orange: La Jamaica Festival, 1965

I said time ain't gonna cure you
Honey, time don't give a shit
Time ain't gonna cure you
Honey, time's just gonna hit on you
You've got to go straight ahead....

Paying Respects

Saturday morning Rebel Girl woke early and drove to Orange, to the Holy Family Cathedral, to pay her respects to Emigdio Vasquez, an artist and muralist whose work documented life in Orange County and who was a familiar presence at the little college in the orange groves in the 1990s.

There's much to say but not enough time to write it all, but she will say this. Rebel Girl was fortunate enough to be in the company of a dear friend and colleague who, like Emigdio, grew up in Orange. The friend knew the neighborhood, went to the church and attended Catholic school alongside Emigdio's younger brother. The church was full enough, mostly the stout robust figures of the community faithful, almost entirely Mexican American plus some local officials and community leaders. Rebel Girl spotted Rueben Martinez, bookstore owner and MacArthur fellow, onetime IVC commencement speaker.  He still had that regal head of hair but it is all white now, and he seemed thinner, as if age was catching up.
 
After the service, the friend drove Rebel Girl around, pointing out this and that, remembering what still remained and what was no longer there. She knew it all - the homes, the families, the businesses, the packing houses. As they drove down Cypress, the friend looked for one of Emigdio's most beloved pieces, an early work painted on the side of the apartment building across from where he lived with his parents. They found it, newly restored by Emigdio's son Higgy and Chapman University.  Under the bright late morning summer sky, it glistened as if the paint were still wet, as if the artist must still be nearby admiring what he had just finished.

As they stood there, a passing car paused. The driver was a young man, a straw fedora perched on his head. (Chicano? Mexicano? Latino? He looked as if he belonged on the mural they were admiring.) He rolled down the window and called out, "He just passed away. The artist."

Yes, Rebel Girl nodded.

"They're having his services at the church," he added helpfully, motioning behind him.

"Yes," Rebel Girl replied. "We were there."

It was a moment that Rebel Girl could imagine Emigdio painting, the young man behind the wheel had a face he would love. And Rebel Girl loved the sense of neighborhood, of community where such a young man would stop and speak to two strangers about the death of the man who had lived there for over 70 years.

See that photo on the lower right on the funeral fold? A profile photo? Rebel Girl's friend took that and it appeared in the 1991 issue of The Ear, the college literary journal, which the friend edited that year. The photo accompanied an interview with Emigdio and his artwork graced the cover. That was back in 1991. Emigdio liked the photo, she told Rebel Girl, because it made him look young. And here it was again, after all those years. Life. Life!

Photograph by Linda Thomas.

*

By tomorrow I'll be leaving
By tomorrow I'll be gone
If you want to tell me something
You had better make it strong
'Cause I think I'm coming down....

Cypress St., Old Orange (painting by E Vasquez)

by Emigdio Vasquez

Cypress St., Old Orange

The Register: "Renowned muralist Emigdio Vasquez dies"

The Register's appreciation offers details about the service and lots of cool photos.

To read the rest of the article, click here.



*

Chancellor for Golden West, Coastline, Orange Coast colleges resigns (OC Reg)
…In a Wednesday night email to district employees obtained by the Register, Chancellor Andrew Jones didn’t indicate exactly what prompted his resignation, but said it came with “mixed emotions.”….
. . .
     The trustees and Jones have clashed for at least 10 months. In October, the district released a report showing that four of the five trustees felt their relationship with Jones either needed improvement or was unacceptable. In the comment section of the survey, the trustees criticized Jones as disengaged....

The Washington Post pays its respects: Emigdio Vasquez

Artist Emigdio Vasquez in 2005. (Rosemary Vasquez-Tuthill/Via Associated Press)

It's not everyday that an artist whose work hangs at Irvine Valley College is noticed in the pages of the Washington Post.  It is today though.  In the nation's capital, the newspaper of record pays its respects to Emigdio Vasquez.

From "Emigdio Vasquez, pioneer in Chicano art movement, dies at 75" by John Rogers:

Emigdio Vasquez, whose bold use of color, exacting brush skills and uncanny ability to capture everyday people in dramatic moments made him one of the most influential pioneers of the Chicano art movement, died Aug. 9 at an assisted-living home in Newport Beach, Calif. He was 75....

 To read the rest, click here.

*
Blast from the past: 
From the Los Angeles Times, May  1991:

Irvine Valley College will observe Cinco de Mayo with a multimedia presentation Sunday evening in the college's courtyard and Gallery Hall. An exhibition by Emigdio Vasquez, "Treinta Anos de Trabajo," covering 30 years of the artist's work, will be on display through May 17. A new issue of The Elephant-ear, the college's journal of art and writing, featuring Vasquez' work on the cover, will be distributed. Gallery events begin at 6 p.m. with music starting at 8 p.m., performed by the jazz group of Strunz and Farah. The event is free.

Wow - remember those days?  Art, literature, music, culture.




*

To help Emigdio's family with the cost of his memorial, click here.

It’s crap, OK? Deal with it

Scientists are baffled by the education community and their methods

Failure to Replicate (Inside Higher Ed)

     …[P]sychologists are not the worst offenders when it comes to replication, it turns out. That distinction might belong to education researchers, according to an article published today in the journal Educational Researcher.
. . .
     Only 0.13 percent [i.e., one tenth of one percent] of education articles published in the field’s top 100 journals are replications, write Matthew Makel, a gifted-education research specialist at Duke University, and Jonathan Plucker, a professor of educational psychology and cognitive science at Indiana University….
     Makel and Plucker … found that 221 of 164,589 total articles replicated a previous study….
     What’s more, 48.2 percent of the replications were performed by the same research team that had produced the original study….

More colorful "research"

     Replications are an essential part of validating scientific knowledge. They control for sampling errors and weed out fraud. A replication might show, for instance, that an educational intervention’s effects are less pronounced than a previous study contended.

     So why do so few replications appear in education journals? The article, “Facts Are More Important Than Novelty: Replication in the Education Sciences,” argues that education journals routinely prize studies that yield novel and exciting results over studies that corroborate – or disconfirm – previous findings. Conducting replications, the researchers write, “is largely viewed in the social science research community as lacking prestige, originality, or excitement.”
. . . .
     Makel and Plucker, however, say that replication matters greatly. What’s at stake, they say, is education’s standing as a discipline. Dismissing replication, they write, “indicates a value of novelty over truth … and a serious misunderstanding of both science and creativity.”….
. . . .
     “When I talk to my friends in the natural sciences, they’re just baffled by how this is even a question or a controversy in psychology and education,” Makel said. “Replication is such a normal part of the process for them.”....

     See also EdDreck: the "experts"

The LA Times pays homage to O.C. artist Emigdio Vasquez

Emigdio Vasquez, with detail of his mural "The Legacy of Cesar Chavez" at Santa Ana College. Photo by .Allen J. Schaben, Los Angeles Times

Rebel Girl woke up this morning is an appreciation of Emigdio Vasquez in the Los Angeles Times. In his article, "Orange County's 'Godfather of Chicano Art' dead at 75," Adolofo Flores writes,

Vasquez, known as Orange County's Godfather of Chicano Art, created more than 400 paintings and 22 murals throughout the county. The “Legacy of Cesar Chavez” at Santa Ana College is one of his most well-known murals.

“My dad liked the gritty subjects, old people’s skins and the grittiness of the city,” Vasquez-Tuthill said.

In an artist statement posted on UC Santa Barbara’s library website, Vasquez wrote that he considered his art to be part of the working-class experience that surrounded his life.

“This environment holds inspiring visions of human warmth and cultural heritage,” Vasquez wrote. “I want to convey to the viewer the intense reality which people experience. Art must be more than aesthetic or decoration. Art creates an environment which enlarges humanity.”

To read the rest, click here.

Rebel Girl has learned that there is an effort to raise money to help pay the family pay for the expenses of a memorial.  To contribute (and to learn more about Vasquez), click here.

One of Vasquez's murals hangs in the B-100 building at Irvine Valley College where it has been creating an environment which enlarges our humanity for some years now. It would be a nice gesture for the college (faculty, staff, administration - the district!) to make a contribution in his memory to help his family defray their costs.  Think about it as we finish up our meetings this week. Rebel Girl is happy to facilitate such a donation.

*

This afternoon: Teddy, cat

Fifteen pounds of feline fur, fury, and felicity.
From an hour ago:
Teddy enjoys exploring his hill. He does that most days.

He sniffs stuff. It's a cat thing.

He enjoys rolling around on the coarse surface of the driveway.

He's Mr. Personality, he is.

My latest "portrait" of the boy

The Chancellor's Opening Session: live and direct! (Plus: guerrilla action, co-opted)

brochure

     8:45 - It's just started. The student trustee has come up to lead us in The Pledge. We stand and deliver. (Well, I'm standing, anyway.)

     BOT Prez TJ Prendergast now speaks. He is introducing other trustees: Marcia Milchiker, James Wright.
     Prendergast pours forth the usual bromides and such. "Student Success, blah blah blah." Sheesh. "Your work is inspiring and valuable." "Have an exciting year." Applause.
     Chancellor Gary Poertner comes up and gives formal recognition to Dr. Brice Harris, State Chancellor. Applause. Then he introduces his "executive team," et al. Introduces his most trusted "critic," his wife.
     Next: Saddleback Prez Tod Burnett (applause); IVC Prez Glenn Roquemore (applause). Trustee Tim Jemal just arrived (more idiotic applause). (I do think we should think about applauding our applause. Why the hell not?)
     Now Gary introduces VC Bob Brammuci, VC David Bugay, SC Ac. Sen Prez Dan Walsh, IVC Ac. Sen Prez, Kathy Schmeidler, and so on. The usual suspects.
     The room (in IVC's disfigured barn, the Performing Arts Building) is pretty full, I'd say. There are a few scattered seats left.
     Burnett comes up to introduce new faculty at SC. Applause, applause. Blah blah.
     The little brochure that goes with this shindig is slicker than ever before. Nice pics, professionally done, I guess. I inspect it. (See above.)
     ...Burnett is still going. Sheesh! Lots of hires, I guess. Applause, applause.
     Now Roquemore. Introduces IVC's new faculty. Same deal. Lots of applause. Congrats to all.
     Poertner: introduces new administrators and managers. (And some who have changed their responsibilities.) "Don Busche, never goes away." Laughter, applause. On he goes with this stuff.

Harris

     Poertner: introducing presentations. "Our number 1 priority, student success," he says, utterly predictably. Student success and completion, blah blah blah. Goes through goals: blah blah blah. Discusses a new software, Workday. (This is dry, man.) Much better than what we had before, he says. (Gosh, we've heard this all before. Let's hope it's true this time.) He's really doing a sales job on Workday. Good grief, does he own stock in the company? Gosh, Georgetown uses it, too. It must be good!
     Economic and workplace development, blah, blah, blah. Program development for courses at ATEP. We've got approval for IVC's building at ATEP. "We continue to seek funding and partnerships...." Yeah, ATEP's goin' great guns.
     "I'm very pleased with the state of our district." "Our work is great, but our mission is greater." No small job, man.
     Now (he says), let's take a break from this: some music. Two kids are gonna do "Wien, du Stadt Meiner Träume." It's the "Eyes Wide Shut" tune. Suddenly, we're in Edwardian Vienna, and yet it doesn't seem at all like Edwardian Vienna. These kids sound pretty good, though. Applause.
     Introduces State Chancellor Brice Harris. Blah blah blah. Oh good, he got his Ed.D. from Nova Southeastern. Kind of a mail order degree, isn't it? Big applause.

     Harris (who avoids the podium and stalks the stage, evidently planning to use the screen):
     Harris is obviously a good speaker. Talks about his elementary school teacher wife. Tells story of some kid at wife's school who stands next to him and says, "I know who you are and I know who you're here to get." Funny stuff, man. Even a vomit joke. Cool.
     Says will talk about "Tremendous history," "Big challenges," and something else. (He moves fast.)
     Our system here in CA goes all the way back to 1907, based on state statute. We added Voc Ed in 1917. In 1976, community services were included. Etc. He's running through additions and subtractions to our "mission." Nowadays, community services has been marginalized. Hopes that that mission strand comes back.
     Our system is different from the other two (CSU, UC), he says. We're a "confederation." There are 70 districts. Above them is a Board of Governors and the Office of the Chancellor (Harris). (Not much holds it together, I guess.)
     Some say: do away with locally elected boards. But that would be difficult. Cal is a very diverse state, lots of colleges, and they serve very different populations, needs. Our present structure works well for us.
     We get counsel, advice, and influence from many. It's a "very dynamic environment." A daunting challenge (his job). When I took on this job, two opportunities arose: restoring access, enhancing success. He's decided to focus on those.

The "dirty girls" at today's groundbreaking

     We're 14th in the world with regard to the educational attainment of the group just coming out of college. So we're slipping on that score. We're stagnant (while other countries are not). The next generation will be less educated than the one before. That's not good.
     Must increase success. California is important in this regard. One in five community college students in the country are in Cal. 1 in 10 higher ed students are Californians. So "we have to get this right." Improve access, success. We need that to be globally competitive.
     Our high water mark was 2008-9 in access. We've suffered quite a loss since then. Denial of access has to stop.
     Prop 30 helped. Last year's (CA) budget helped. We'll likely have two or three good years out of Prop 30.
     What about student success? We're all very frustrated. If a student comes prepared, then there's a 70% chance of success, which is pretty dang good. But the situation is very different for less prepared students. 74% come to us unprepared for college. There's more troubling news with regard to some ethnic and age groups. We must close performance "gaps" so that we don't leave people behind.
     If you focus on "outcome," as legislators have tended to do, we'll leave people behind, serving only the ones that tend to succeed.
     Remedial course completion rate is improving dramatically, and that's great.
     He discusses the "student success initiative." Increasing college readiness. Often a mismatch between what goes on at High Schools and what is demanded of students at college. English, Math. (For instance, high school students often finish their college math early and don't get back to math until they start college, eighteen months later. No wonder they need a refresher.)

Brown: love 'im or hate
him, he's the Decider

     We need to strengthen support for entering students. But we've taken away some of the support first provided in the 60s. We need to explain financial aid to students so they know what's really in their interests. We need to align course offerings to students' needs. Improve basic skills education. Professional development needs to be improved to help us accomplish all this. Need better leadership in the system (that's for dang sure).
    We have a window of opportunity between now and 2018—because we have stability. Jerry Brown is likely to get reelected (like him or no). The Democratic majority in legislature will likely continue. We'll see financial stability as well (Prop 30). Legislature previously told us how to succeed. Now we're on the same page, and they just want us to succeed, leaving the how to us. Restoration of access, improvement of student success. We all share these goals in the system.
     There remain other big challenges. But now: restore access, improve success.
     We need to stay focused! Harris seems to mean business.
     We can and will succeed, he says.
   
     It was a very good presentaton, I think. Big applause. Harris does inspire some confidence, in my opinion. He doesn't speak in acronyms and buzz words. He speaks in plain English and he seems to know the lay of the land, politically. So I take back that nasty crack about Nova Southeastern.
     Poertner: he thanks Harris. Gives Harris T-shirts (one from each college).

     Next: Student Success Summit Overview, with Jane Horling and Roopa Mathur.
     Mathur: had a great summit. Shared best practices.
     What is student support? 10 things you can do.
     Success factors: directed, focused, nurtured, engaged, connected, valued. [I'm sorry, but this sounds like bullshit.] Write "great job" on student essays, etc. Learn student names. Etc. (Well, those ideas seem sensible.)
     Horling: sharing best practices. Idea exchanges. We don't do this enough! It worked well: putting people in the same physical space, exchanging ideas. Networking, collaboration. Please consider coming to this thang, presenting at next summit.

     Poertner: next, Innovations in Student Success

IVC:

     Roquemore, Beck, and Wilson (the latter two: ESL instrutors).
     Wilson: who are in our classes? Our population is diverse. Race, age, English background, Educational goals. Many Asian students. Persian students constitute second largest group. Our ESL population is older than the general population. Increasingly, we have "international" students, drawn by our reputation (transfer rate) and "the beach." Natch.
     Shows a picture of many different cats. Diversity. "All this diversity is like herding cats," said someone, viewing the situation. So how do we make this work? We focus on the largest group: those who seek to transfer, etc.
     Beck: two major changes. New course sequence (pathway to Writing 1). Before, students had to go backwards (moving to Wr 301) to go forward. New sequence. Can get to Wr. 1 straight from ESL. Discusses the notion of "Academic English," a language in itself. We focus on Academic English.
     Wilson: second change: ESL program acceleration. Students immersed in English environment. Language is a skill, not a subject. One can accelerate by getting a girl or boyfriend (who speaks English), join a club, etc. Immersion. But wear protection. (OK, I added the last part.)
     Beck: some ESL students really are not exposed to English much in their lives, beyond the classroom. Will have to progress step by step through the classes. But there are students who have a job or have a girl/boyfriend who speaks English. They move along faster. Can skip steps.
     The most realistic scenario: Step by step, but also skipping steps. Traditional sequence, or accelerated progression. Can switch from one to the other.
     Wilson: we want to work with our English colleagues--see if our ESL students are prepared for Writing 1, etc. Focus on data. Investing in faculty. Etc.

It was a bright, bright, sunshiny day

SC:

     Six or seven people come up, sheesh. Is it a convention?
     Burnett: K-12 partnership. Student success initiative demands this. A call to action. Burnett puts up quotations, organizes his presentation around them. Ridiculous.
     Hey, SC has been all about these parnterships, going back to 2008. Blah.
     A dean comes up and yammers (reads). Pretty boring. I'm starting to fall into a coma.
     O'Connor: speaks, doesn't read. Good. Blah, blah, blah. I'm back on the coma trail and O put me there. The guy actually uses "WAC" for writing across curriculum. He thinks in buzzwords and horseshit. Good grief.
     Blah, he says.
     "Common core," WAC, "contextualized teaching," etc. OK, I'm dying.
     --OK, that's it for me, I can take no more. After all this, there will be the traditional "pinning the tail on the donkey" (service pins)--an activity a more ridiculous than which cannot be imagined.
     I'm outa here. (It's not yet 10:30.)

The "real" groundbreaking came last (Guerrilla faculty)

A half hour later:

Groundbreaking for the new A400 Building
(future home of the School of Humanities, among others)

A400 groundbreaking: piled higher and deeper

     While I sat with some colleagues waiting for the show to begin, we commented on the hard hats (white), the golden shovels (freshly sprayed!), and other accoutrements of Dog und Pony.
     An old friend and colleague, Miss B, came out of hibernation (sabbatical) and attended the ceremony just to see the great day arrive. She told us that, earlier, she had spoken with John Edwards, Director of Facilities, and she reminded Charm Boy that, when she first arrived at IVC in 1991, she and others had been promised a "Humanities Building," to be completed by 1997.
     "So it's gonna be eighteen years late," said someone.
     Silence.
     The ceremony finally started, and it was sorta brief. Dean Karima Feldhus got the biggest applause by far. I'm sure that embarrassed her, but we don't care. We do that to her all the time.
     Some of us (not me; certainly not Karima) hatched a plan: we'd wait for the ceremony to finish, then we'd run up there and grab those shovels 'n' hard hats and do our own goddam groundbreaking. I was to take the pics.
     "OK," I said. But all I had was this laptop. Low Rez, baby.
     As it turns out, when the ceremony (including the State Chancellor and two or three trustees) was over and our Humanistic (and Languagistic) guerrillas commenced stalking and circling the long pile of dirt, the ever-observant Brandye D'Lena (district building maven) noticed this insurgency. She immediately took over the incursion and arranged for that photo and then some more--with the professional photographer on hand.
     Sheesh. It's tough tryin' to be a guerrilla these days.

Glenn said he'd keep it short, but, for a while there, we had our doubts