Tuesday, June 2, 2015

The IVC guide to insulting the IVC community

Diane Oaks
     This afternoon, Daniel Gross, the Director of Composition (among other duties) at UCI emailed TAs, lecturers, et al. about an opportunity, a job. “Greetings,” he said. If you “are interested in this job, please get in touch directly with Diane Oaks at Irvine Valley College….”
     Diane Oaks, of course, is the Director of PR and whatnot here at Irvine Valley College.
     What’s the job? Gross explains by providing Diane’s memo to him:
     I am looking to hire a UCI faculty member to edit our IVC style guidelines.
     We have created an IRVINE VALLEY COLLEGE style guide similar to the UCI style guidelines:

Daniel Gross
     We are hoping [you] might recommend a UCI faculty member who would help us EDIT or [sic] IVC STYLE GUIDELINES = we are interested in paying your faculty member a stipend for this project.
     Thanks so much! 
     Diane
     Golly.
     Why on earth didn’t she just contact the English Department here at IVC? Perhaps they are not up to the task, in her estimation.
     Good grief.

62 comments:

E.B. White said...

Of course another great thing about this missive is that some folks who teach at UCI ALSO teach at IVC so this is how we heard about this project. Perhaps their employment at IVC eliminates them from consideration. Style is certainly needed here. Anyone know how big the stipend is?

Anonymous said...

She hates us.

Anonymous said...

Curious that this call was not shared among your faculty and staff. Your English department for sure but what about journalism, communications or your publications department? It's unlikely that faculty at a research university would be interested in such a project unless the stipend were really large which I doubt it is. Didn't UCI used to have all those deconstructionists as faculty? Maybe one of them would like to create a style guide. I'd love to see that.

Anonymous said...

Dianne IS in charge of the publications department! Guess she doesn't think much of her staff. WOW.......

Anonymous said...

It's not really that curious. Diane has a recent history of not being very faculty friendly. Hopefully, she will read this and realize how condescending her "public relations" can be....

Anonymous said...

7:51, then why has she been promoting them? Two significant promotions in the last several months! Check the BOT agendas.

Anonymous said...

Embarrassing. Especially the errors in her own message.

Anonymous said...

She is simply BAD PR!

Anonymous said...

This was an opportunity that was sadly missed and now bungled. Did she not know that the two campuses employ the same people? Or did she not care? The latter I think - and this from a PR person! Ha. Yes, someone find the stipend amount please. It's nice to be throwing money around outside the district as well as inside.

Anonymous said...

4:43 she filled empty positions from within.

Anonymous said...

4:43, yes, then she promoted them.

Anonymous said...

Where does the stipend money come from? Who approves the expenditure? At our campus such a task would be covered by the publications office; it's part of the job description. You guys must be in the money. This would never fly in our district. Would someone who works at an adjacent community college district be eligible to apply?

Brenda Borron said...

I did talk with Diane, who came to me. Elaine Rubenstein began this project. Diane asked me about finishing this job, and I told her that I do not have the requisite skills or the attention to detail that is demanded. Creating a style sheet is a highly technical task. I suggested that Diane contact Elaine to see if she could finish the job on stipend. And I gave her a second name, someone at Saddleback who has previously worked at IVC. Diane is in a tough position, and she does more for us than many of us know.

Anonymous said...

There are, what 12-13, English faculty members and how many adjuncts? If one English faculty member says no, that hardly precludes asking others. It is true diane is in a tough space and is in an intermediary role between two factions of the campus. However, as a PR person, she should be able to handle difficult situations with finesse and she does not.

Anonymous said...

I agree with 2:36pm. Leave her alone!!!

Anonymous said...

dianne as usual creates her own process and insults the faculty. i am not surprised. where did the funding come from? style? nobody will follow it anyway. are we all supposed to type all of our emails in arial 12? she wrote in her request that she is copying off of uci style. lol! why spend money?

Anonymous said...

Her secretary is so rude. Where do we find people like this? Oh, must be that interview process.

Anonymous said...

We all do more than any of us know, at least most of us. The issue here is process - plus a failure to recognize on-campus resources. Creating a style sheet can be a challenging task and certainly some of us are not up to the task. But we have a few of people on staff at IVC with those skills. In the English department, among the 40+ adjunct who work hard and know this place are a number who would be able to do the job well -and who deserve the opportunity. Some of them have experience and training in technical writing PR and journalism. Many of them have been here for years. Unfortunately none of them were asked or given the opportunity to apply.

Anonymous said...

Who is the chair of the English department these days? Don't you have an adjunct faculty member who also teaches legal writing somewhere else? A fellow who works mostly in the evenings? Been there for years? It would be good to reach out to folks on our own campus before going elsewhere. Just common sense, good form and hey, good use of resources.

Anonymous said...

Don't even get me started on Ms. R!

Anonymous said...

There are not any department chairs in summer because there is no pay. That's why she asked UCI.

Anonymous said...

6:49, lots of English faculty are qualified to do this work. There's no reason that it should be the English chair. It ain't rocket science. Working for a stipend during summer wouldn't be difficult to arrange.

Anonymous said...

At our sister college, the Style Editor was one of the journalism instructors. This work is close to rocket science--detailed, technical and consistent. Such work applies to publications that go out to others--student newspaper, student writing journals, Accreditation reports.

Anonymous said...

Then why doesn't your college ask one of their journalism instructors? Or an English instructor with a journalism background?

Anonymous said...

Long story but we don't have journalism instructors at IVC. we don't believe in journalism. It is not welcome here. The First Amendment is not welcome either. (See you have to cap that. I know something about style.)

Anonymous said...

Pathetic

Anonymous said...

Commencement speaker debacle and now this.
Not a very good month for the pio. If marketing does produce a style format it should be REVIEWED by the senates with their input and finalized by SPAC.
The style of IVC should not be decided by one goat.
btw keep the Oxford comma!

Anonymous said...

I don't know if Senate and SPAC review are necessary. This might be why progress is so slow. I don't know why a stipend is needed to completed a job started by an employee who retired three (four?) years ago. I beg to differ but a a style sheet is NOT rocket science and this college is NOT that complex. I wish I could farm out my job tasks to UCI.

Anonymous said...

Isn't one of the issues if whether this place is run as a college campus community with collegial shared governance or a top-down corporation or the military? I

Anonymous said...

9:40 & 4:14, obviously, the super-high fashion Miss R. needed that promotion so she could accessorize. Them Gucci bags & shoes don't come cheap, ya know...

Anonymous said...

That's a sexist comment 10:35

Anonymous said...

The comments about process are the most instructive. Corporate model or collegiality? College or company? But even a good, healthy company uses resources at hand or at least approaches them first.

Anonymous said...

We have administrators that crave credit so they can justify their obscene, high salary jobs. To that end they will not yield so others (in house) can shine. Therefore they will always have present, a surrounding aura of jealousy along with the occasional stink eye because they are in charge and only they know what's best.

Anonymous said...

Glad to see people objecting to the occasional sexist comments on the blog. I wish they would speak up at the various meetings on campus. One dean in particular could be schooled in this, especially before he become president.

Anonymous said...

If a non-district employee is chosen for the job, they will not be paid a stipend. They will be paid as an independent contractor. If that is the case, a contract will be required and included in the list of contracts to be ratified in the consent calendar section of the board agenda. You can see the college, vendor, general purpose of the contract, and the dollar amount in the agenda item.

Anonymous said...

Good point 7:56... knowing how swell things go at IVC I would not be surprised if the "style" contact went out to lowest bid.

Anonymous said...

So, this "job" must already be ratified, yes? Bully for them as some times the stipends take a very long time to get paid.

Anonymous said...

What ever happened with that Climate Survey from Nov 2014? Did they release it yet? Isn't it due around this time? Anybody know the status?

Anonymous said...

Yes the climate survey has been released.

Anonymous said...

Where can one find it?

Anonymous said...

Ask the director of research.

Anonymous said...

The climate is warm and getting warmer.

Anonymous said...

I blame it all on rap music and Ms. R's beemer.

Anonymous said...

6:11, pointing out facts is not sexist.

Anonymous said...

Whose facts?

Anonymous said...

THE facts!! Pull your head out of the sand!

Anonymous said...

Will you guys post something else so these people will write something else?

Anonymous said...

1:03, no luck finding the report. Can somebody please direct us to the report? Thanks.

Anonymous said...

The report is under review.

Anonymous said...

The climate report is available on Inside IVC.

Anonymous said...

Under what heading, section?

Roy Bauer said...

I don't think the climate survey results have ever been made available.

Anonymous said...

They have in prior years, usually around April.

Anonymous said...

I blame it on Ms. R's ridiculous high heel clogs lol so funny watching her trying to walk.

Anonymous said...

Can you please look into that for us, Roy?

Roy Bauer said...

As I indicated earlier this morning, I've not been able to find any report of that survey's results (November, 2014)

Anonymous said...

The report has been released to those who need to know about it.

Anonymous said...

How about releasing it as it was originally intended and promised, to everyone in this College community. What gives, Roy, aren't you even curious?

Roy Bauer said...

WTF? I would love to see the survey results as much as anyone. I looked for them (in the usual places) and could not find them. Do you imagine that I have special access to such things? Idjit.

Anonymous said...

The climate is being adjusted.

Anonymous said...

Diane cannot be trusted. She badmouths faculty and staff and has very little regard towards students. Time for a change.

Anonymous said...

What do you expect from someone worked at SeaWorld. No,we do not torture our killerwhales. No, we do not follow process. lol

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

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