The DtB year in review, part 2: "Nothing says '9-11' like a helicopter landing on your campus"

      Here’s Part 2 of the DtB review of the year 2013. (Check out Part 1 here):

AUGUST.

• Saddleback College's "Mission, Vision, and Values":

     …In general, I would say that SC’s vision is essentially the same as one of those lurid “new and improved!” stickers slapped onto a cereal box. It’s bullshit for bullshitters….

• IVC’s vision, mission, and goals: nonsense on stilts:

     …At this point, I have a question: in what sense is the IVC "Mission" statement not a "Vision" statement? And vice versa? They both seem to set out the college's purpose, its task, what it hopes to achieve. In both cases, there's a focus on "student success."
     Is this some kind of word game? If so, why not call the "mission" the "potato" and the "vision" the "hairball"?…. I wanna play!

• Robert Lombardi:

     …During one terrible meeting in 1997(?), when trustee Frogue made groundless accusatory remarks about a colleague, I yelled at him, calling him a "coward." Lombardi didn't seem to mind. At the end of the meeting, as he shuffled through the crowd out the door, Lombardi looked at me and said, "I like your style," or something to that effect….

• "The little college in the orange groves":

     …Today, I came across a twenty-year-old LA Times article that reveals the relationship the college once had to its many orange trees….

• Dispatches from Greece: cicadas on steroids: those Greeks have a word for everything!

• The Chancellor's Opening Session: Poertner’s sobering address

• Pro IVC: moving the goal post, declaring victory?:

     …This year’s PRO IVC Goal was $350k (see top left on original webpage flyer).
     After the campaign was over, the Foundation/Administration crowed that they had exceeded their goal. Hooray!
      But wait! They only collected $204k. How then could they have exceeded their goal?
      Answer: they simply changed it, after the fact. See the more recent page (above) where the "goal" has somehow shrunk from $350k to $200k. No explanation is offered.
      But it gets worse. The $204k collected for 2012-13 was $25,000 less than the amount collected during the 2011-12 campaign ($229k)….

Babs Beno

• District press release re ATEP: Property Swap to Improve Development Potential in Tustin Legacy

• ACCJC gets spanked (Babs gets beno'ed): “The U.S. Department of Education has warned the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges [ACCJC] that it is out of compliance with several federal regulations and could face a possible sanction if the problems are not corrected within 12 months.”

• The Seven and their Afflictions:

     …Board members, it seems, are forever afflicted with a condition—let’s call it the “Smiley Suit & Title” Error (SSATE)*—in which powerful and multi-faceted indications of TROUBLE are immediately rendered no-account by a few apparently sincere assurances whispered by the likes of Glenn Roquemore† and Tod Burnett‡—those well-dressed and well-mannered, but manifestly OOTD (out of their depth) galoots….

Not sure they know IVC even exists

• "Overheard During FLEX Week" OR "The Manufacture of Consent":

     …Monday morning, IVC: the spectacle of someone who is not in the room being introduced to the room as the Shiny New Hire and being told to stand up and recognize the applause. Now, this happens all the time around here.
     The kicker this time: this someone was not only not in the room, but had never before been in the room–and, in fact, would never, ever be in the room. In reality, the person had weeks earlier declined the offer of employment for reasons that won't be revealed here (but let's just say they are embarrassingly numerous and highlight longstanding issues that were revealed in the recent district climate survey. Can't someone in HR or elsewhere tell new hires something about the salary scale and its steps? The contract? The workload? Is overload teaching optional or can a chair really compel faculty to teach overload? Good grief! Is no one in charge?)….

• Mr. Morley's assurances:

     As you know, IVC’s Scholarship Program has been under fire in recent years. I won’t go into all the details again.
     One unfortunate incident concerned a student, PT, who, way back in 2012, was selected to receive a Humanities and Languages scholarship, entitling him to $250. Soon thereafter, his name even appeared in the printed scholarship program (May, 2012) as a recipient.
     The problem seemed to concern subsequent stages of the process, for PT never received the money.
     Some of us complained, pointing to the Scholarship Program and the Foundation.
     The Foundation Director, Richard Morley, took exception to this. In June of 2013, he declared that it was the first he had heard about it. That was surprising to many of us. Several in the School of H&L had been plenty noisy about it for over a year.
     Morley claimed that he would take care of the problem (i.e., send the money) right away.
     Well, maybe he did and maybe he didn’t.
     Let’s review the facts….

• The odd bromidular emissions of community college “experts”:

     …As you know, officials and hired experts in the state community college system are paragons of scientific competence and integrity. It's well known. I mean, they’re all about data and evidence, man. Don’t you doubt it, cuz they throw those words around constantly.
     So if they do something, it's ipso facto scientific.
     And, as it turns out, the Experts just did a study that’s a lot like mine! The name of the study report is: What students say they need to succeed – Key themes from a study of student support.
     Let’s call it the “STN” study (for “say they need”). Check it out! It's official!....

• Making sense of the RG Group's curious report:

     …I’ve been thinking about yesterday’s post, which examined—and ridiculed—a recent report, by the RG Group, entitled What students say they need to succeed – Key themes from a study of student support.
     Evidently, it is being passed around as an important tool (data!) within the CC system for improving student success (completion, persistence, etc.)….

Wendy runs for Assembly

• South County 73rd AD Melee Attracts a Democrat: Prof. Wendy Gabriella, Esq. - The Energizer Bunny's First Hurrah

• August meeting of the SOCCCD Board of Trustees: "Golly, the climate is improving!":

…Chancellor Gary Poertner: change is coming. Expectation of improvement at state and federal level. Sentiment of most of the nation. Need to improve our competencies. Over the weekend: President's speech about improvement of higher education. Discussed high cost or higher ed. Noted that the increase in costs over 30 years (public colleges), 250%. Median family income had gone up only 16%. And so rising cost way out of balance. He also wants to develop metrics of college performance, etc. In Cal, we already have such things. Awarding credit based on competency, not seat time. Discussed barriers to innovation and competition. We'll hear more and more about these ideas. I strongly feel that our faculty and other employees need to be involved in shaping the coming change. We don't want to stand by, we want to participate….

• Some people don’t seem to like the look of IVC’s PAC

• 20 Cal CCs face Accred problems

• Glenn Roquemore: omnishambles:

     …Well, remarkably, about a year ago, President Roquemore fell into a sudden panic, having “discovered” that, according to projections, college expenses would soon exceed revenue! (They seem to have discovered the same situation down at Saddleback as well.)
     How can this situation have come as a surprise?, we all wondered. Don’t you people plan for the possible future? Don't you ask yourselves if we're prepared for stuff that might happen? What, you didn't know that expenses were creeping up but revenue was flat?
     Guess not.
     Next: it soon became clear that, despite an agreement Roquemore made with the Academic Senate that the college would hire 10 faculty that year (IVC decided to spread out hires over three years; meanwhile, Saddleback hired en masse), he gave every indication of preparing to unilaterally cancel all hires as a money-saving measure. (That's Omnishambolic moment #2, in case you're keeping count.)
     Naturally, faculty were angry. After all, there’s more going on at the college than hires; and, in any case, hiring faculty—just to replace those we've lost!—should be a priority! No?
     Plus what about the agreement?
     When senate leadership caught wind of Roquemore’s disposition to ixnay the ireshay, they immediately hit the alarm button; they did everything they could think of to derail the Heedless (and seemingly Headless) Rocky Express….

—and then, what happened next

Watch the skies everywhere. Keep looking. Keep watching the skies.

SEPTEMBER.

• The remarkable inferiority of education research

     …It’s pretty damned clear that, for the most part, education research is dreadful, a factoid long recognized but widely discussed especially in the last twenty or so years, as the issue of education reform has heated up, now enveloping higher education.
     What amazes me is that so many of my colleagues are unaware of education research's well-deserved reputation as dreck….

Adjuncts: will trustees listen?

• Dear faculty: FU:

     …On Friday, some of us* received an email, from the Office of the President, that informed us of “new processes for Campus Events.”†
     They are preposterously demanding….

• More Roquemorean OMNISHAMBLES:

     …Despite being buried in the middle of a 4-day weekend, Monday’s post concerning last Friday’s high-handed college announcement of an absurd new room request procedure (according to which, evidently, requests for “any activity” must be made 90 days in advance!) attracted a torrent of comments, many of them expressing frustration about much else beyond daft room usage directives…. 

• The Bugsy watch

• We get a map—and a helicopter? 9-11, IVC style:

     …"Nothing says '9-11' like a helicopter landing on your campus." So said an unnamed source.
     150 spaces of parking lot 5 will be reserved for today's 9-11 hoopla.
     Administration sent us this graphic. "See, there." Lot 5 is in front of the PAC, I think.
     Why is this event scheduled for prime time? Just who is in charge around here?....

• A civility policy—at a college?:

     …With the Accreds breathing down our necks, the Chancellor and at least one of our college presidents have been anxious to pass some sort of board policy regarding our embrace of “civility.” The problem, of course, is that such a policy could turn into a platform for disciplining faculty. Not good.
     That’s why the first draft of the proposed “civility policy” was nixed by, first, the IVC Academic Senate, and then the SC Academic Senate.
     It remains to be seen whether the new and improved draft will pass muster….

• Rebel Girl asks: how and why has this been allowed to happen?:

     …Produced by the School of Humanities and Languages, filmed by avant-garde cinematographer Sonja Bangston (Check out those shadows! Shades of Indonesian shadow puppetry!) and starring the Department of English's own Professor Lewis Long (rodeo cowboy, Porsche enthusiast, Dickens scholar, union thug and master of the negotiating table), this short film offers a damning case study of how 15 years of systematic under-hiring in the face of the otherwise steady growth of the small college in the orange groves has affected one department. Some critics liken it to the Academy Award-winning documentaries Harlan County U.S.A. and Godzilla Eats the Accreditation Team. The ghost of IVC's Voice raves: "It's powerful, provocative, exciting and frightening—because it's real."
     In a series of simple yet effective PowerPoint stills, Long presents a case rooted in history and statistics—in other words, reality and not, say, unannounced and inexplicable helicopter visitations, photo-opular security stipends, and nepotism most foul….

Are things clearer yet?

• This is your college on drugs: the Cal "Corporate College" event & parking snafu

• Update on Wendy Gabriella’s bid for AD 73: Opponent Bryson appears to be the last gasp of the Fuentes-generation local GOP. And she’s quite the wacko: she's scrapped textbooks in Capo because they don't match her knuckle-dragging view of the world….

• Power goes out in 39 minutes. Deal with it. - How things happen at IVC

• Amanda Ripley "The Smartest Kids in the World" - education abroad

• Today, at Bugsy’s gravesite

Merrifield

• Micael "Mike" Merrifield: RIP

• THE IRVINE VALLEY CHRONICLES: no ideas, just clichés & buzzwords:

     …Just in case there was any doubt that IVC is a royally F-ed up place, today, faculty received an email from the Academic Senate President, asking us, on behalf of the Strategic Planning Oversight and Budget Development Committee (everyone calls it "SPOBDC," pronounced spob-dick), to fill out a survey.
     The survey offers a list of familiar buzzwords and clichés that are supposed to express "values."
     Evidently, the all-important SPOBDCians assume that, once a community has chosen its fave “values” terms—from a list created by said spobdickians—it has ipso facto identified a college “values statement.”
     Really? Um, maybe they're aiming at superficiality and buzzitude. Yeah, that's gotta be it. Who, among the educated, would approach a values statement by picking buzzwords from a list?....

OCTOBER.

• The Mold Monster Returns? or "Faculty keep getting sick":

…If you were not teaching in that room or taking a class you may not have noticed the flier taped to the door that forbade entry under any circumstance. Pretty strong language. Rebel Girl, rebellious and foolhardy as always, tried the knob. The door swung open (of course!) and she entered….

• The MOLD saga continues: Roquemore and his merry SNAFUsters:

     …faculty who teach in IVC's A205 (the "Anthro" room) figure out that there’s a disturbing pattern among instructors who use the room: they’re suffering bronchitis and the like. (See The mold monster returns?) They alert the authorities, who blow them off as per usual, but then students who’ve apparently been sickened by A205—four of 'em—come out of the woodwork and that’s when things start jumpin’—in the way that things jump at IVC, namely:
     Administration have the HVAC system inspected, and it checks out A-OK. That means that the problem is specific to A205—likely the mold monster. This information isn’t sent to the faculty or students—it's the usual IVC communication zilchitude. But, somehow, the info does get to faculty….

• "The people called it Ragtime."

• 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.)

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

Gabriella: 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?

• Red Emma is one of the Best Americans!:

     …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….

• felinity

• International Students at IVC:

     …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?

• 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.

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

     I do hope the board is paying attention. Surely they've noticed that IVC is run by baboons.

• Lou Reed
• Lou Reed

• Board closed session actions:

     The board approved all remaining administrators listed on the agenda a renewal of a three-year contract….

     —including, alas, the College Presidents
     Good grief.

• Halloween at IVC:

     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"….

NOVEMBER.

• Dissent's weekly "Hallway Blather":

MORE MOLD!
COUNSELORS DESPERATE TO KEEP "FACULTY" DESIGNATION!
NOT MUCH ROOM FOR BOOKS AT THIS COLLEGE!
CONTINUED ROQUEMORIAN RACK & RUIN!

• Today's "mold" meeting: just cricket sh*t:

     I noted that, earlier today, I examined the wall at the end of the hall (at the southeast corner of A200), and I noticed an alarming degree of dilapidation. Further, I noted what appeared to be a significant amount of “termite feces” piled up at the bottom of the (interior side of the) wall.
     “That’s not termite feces; that’s cricket feces,” declared a certain instructor whose office is closest to the affected area. She immediately walked over and inspected the wall. She soon returned, declaring that it’s “cricket shit, not termite shit.” This yielded a brief discussion of the nature and evolution of termite turds, which, we were told, are “like sand, not flat.”
     “They turn black,” added John.

• Women's Studies at other local colleges/universities:

     Recently, I described the remarkable hostility with which faculty in the School of Guidance and Counseling recently responded to a proposal, by an instructor (a historian) in the School of Humanities and Languages, to develop a more comprehensive Women’s Studies (type) program, to be located in H&L….

• Dissent's weekly "Hallway Blather":

SADDLEBACK COLLEGE IN THE NIGHT!
DEAN TAGS INSTRUCTOR FOR CUTTING HIS CLASSES SHORT!
WHENCE INTERMINABLE ROQUEMORIAN SHITTITUDE?
WHY DO TRUSTEES ENFORCE PRESIDENTIAL MEDIOCRITY?

Anti-puppy, too

• Today’s Board Forum: big fuzzy balls:

     Earlier, from 12:30 to 2:00, the same crew (with Roquemore instead of Burnett) held a forum at IVC. Here and there, trustees alluded to that. Sounds like getting the IVC crowd to say something, anything, was like pulling teeth. Teeth got extracted lots easier under Bonzo’s Bigtop.
     Natch, the board did a prayer, which turned out to be a moment of silence for veterans and typhoon victims. That was followed by the Pledge. At that point, there were maybe 40 in the audience, though the number later swelled to 60 or so.
     Board Prez Nancy P welcomed everyone in her usual minimally friendly manner. When it comes to spending friendliness, the woman is thrifty. She enjoys these forums, she said. She then turned the whole shebang over to the Chancellor, Gary P.
. . .
     No, I’m not making this up. These are the alleged “barriers” to mutual respect, etc. Only administrators—with their ed degrees and enthusiasm for sheer uselessness—could come up with verbiage that inelegant and muddle-headed.
. . .
     Tim Jemal said something about hearing from a guy (connected to the SC Foundation?) who opined that he’d never heard of IVC until the dang place was mentioned by SC. What up with that? Why is IVC so “under the radar”? There were other references to IVC’s oblivion.
. . .
     Kathy Werle stood up to say something. I kept thinking: you must be so happy!
     That’s about when a series of big, fuzzy softballs were launched toward the board by that goofy SC crowd. Somebody got up to yammer about how she “loves the new progress.” (My notes just say: “rosy horseshit.")

• Women's Studies courses at IVC: a deeper look

• The Veterans Center FUBAR, Part 1 — or "Why do the Veterans hate the veterans' counselor?"*

 -- See entire  Veterans Center FUBAR series