Monday's SOCCCD Board Meeting: $62 million for proposed Saddleback Stadium project!

They've just gotta have it

     Below: from Tere’s Board Meeting Highlights for Monday’s meeting of the SOCCCD Board of Trustees, under the heading “presentations”:

• [WORKDAY] A current status report was provided on the Workday project and related software projects, following the board's request for report on the subject. Several managers and administrators provided a recap of reasoning behind the decision to move to the new enterprise resource planning system and the 3.5 year rigorous process which included contributions from all constituencies through business process analysis sessions. Moving from paper to online and toward ideal and transparent processes requires systematic change management to make a cultural shift in organizations. [My emphasis.] The group provided an overview…. Some of the challenges include getting used to new reporting and short-term increases in workload due to changes in processes. This will be examined to ensure that front line staff feel supported. ... Some items have been delayed for roll out to allow for adjustment to the current changes. The goal is to increase training and raise the comfort level during the initial two-year stabilization period. This [?] is to be expected in any major change management initiative. 

[See Workday doesn't work? (A serious district FUBAR?) (DtB, 7-3-15)]

• [STADIUM "RENOVATION"] An overview was presented about the Saddleback College Athletics Stadium renovation and site improvements project…. SC's current stadium was built in 1969 with maximum seating of 4,500 and restrooms located outside the stadium. Concession areas, press box, sidelines and safety zones are all substandard. Maintenance of natural turf is problematic. One of the biggest issues is ADA accessibility. College athletic staff propose that a new stadium would raise awareness in the community and provide a venue for SC to host regional athletic competitions and other community events. Vice Chancellor Fitzsimons provided a recap of forecasted project costs … over the past nine years. She explained how the scope of the project has grown significantly and is currently at $62 million for the total project, with the stadium itself at $49 million. The proposed future stadium would seat 8,000 and include a nine lane track, storage, concession stands, press box, adequate restrooms and team meeting rooms, synthetic turf and energy efficient lighting. Upon evaluation of the proposals, it was determined that the cost proposals exceeded the available combined budget of $39,525,000. College and district staff presented their strategies to address the project shortfall. Funding for the stadium and the site improvements were combined for planning purposes and an RFP was issued. ... The college and district have worked collaboratively on the project planning to develop the scope and identify cost efficiencies. A difference of $22 million is needed to fully fund the project and alternative funding strategies are being recommended from SC’s Promenade income and redevelopment funds.
. . . 

• [TENTATIVE BUDGETS] – The district-wide fiscal team provided a summary report on the tentative district budget including a review of the board’s budget philosophy, assumptions used for budgeting, funding categories…. They communicated concerns about certain budget trends and suggested that tightening of budgets may need to occur. COLA was 0% this year and that was a setback as it doesn’t help to offset increasing personnel costs. IVC and SC student government groups presented an overview of their budgets and highlighted accomplishments of the student leadership groups. Both colleges reported declining bookstore and associated [student] government revenues. Both student leadership groups propose moving to an opt-out funding model for 2016-2017ASG stickers/cards to increase revenues.

Slide used during presentation

The stadium dollar figure keeps changing, growing:

     Allow me to focus on the "new stadium for SC" issue. The topic of building a new ("long-promised") stadium for SC came up during a board meeting four months ago, amid the discussion of the “2018-2019 five-year construction plan.” Of course, that very topic had come up during several previous board discussions of construction plans.
     In my report of that meeting, I wrote this:

     Jemal: athletic stadium costs. They've doubled since last year. Brandye: last year, when we came to you with requests, it was $18 million for stadium. [See May 2015. See also December, 2014.] That concerned original design by consultant. Those numbers were used last year. We moved forward, met with "criteria architect." Ideas were taken to faculty, staff. Has doubled to a $36 million project. So what we do? Process we use: if over budget, we go to college and give options. She explains how other resources became available (I had a coughing fit amidst Brandye's explanation, so I dunno). Jemal expresses consternation with this change in cost. Brandye discusses realities of working with these figures, plans, contractors, etc. Jemal: please don't come to us with "back of envelope" figures again, you dig? Everybody is in agreement. about that, I guess. Pendergast: $36 million just for stadium itself? Or field, etc. also? Brandye: Don't have exact answer. She rifles through files. The $36 million is indeed specific to the stadium. Big money, man.
     Item is moved. Unanimously approved. We're approving priorities, not costs, at this point, reminds Jemal, who is peeved. Prendergast: when this first emerged, big push from foundation. It helps to have a vision to fundraise. Brandye passes question off to Burnett. Burnett says the foundation doesn't nearly have the money to cover this extra cost. Blah blah blah. They vote: unanimous.

     For the subsequent March board meeting, I reported the following (re Board Prez Jemal’s “board report”):

     Trustee Tim Jemal: thanked everyone for awards dinner. Wunnerful, wunnerful, wunnerful. Will attend something at IVC this weekend. Wanted to mention "the stadium." [Was he talkin' to me?] I'm personally very much in support of building a fancy schmancy stadium at SC. [Did someone suggest otherwise? Was it me?] But process is important, he said. I implore the college and the district to work together on this. But fiscal issues are important as well. We need to do this in a way that makes sense. "We need to do it the right way, you all know that."

     Perhaps [?] this remark was a corrective to my suggestion that Jemal had been "peeved" about the stadium issue in February. He didn't want to get tagged as "anti-stadium."
     During the May board meeting, Saddleback College President Burnett briefly discussed his college’s big needs; he then noted that he hoped the stadium would be built.

     No doubt about it. Saddlebackians have "big new stadium" on the brain, and they've had that conditions for many years. Several trustees have been likewise afflicted.
     But the notion that there's a crying need for a big new stadium at Saddleback College (never mind that IVC doesn't even have a stadium) is rank Saddlebackcentrism. Yep, I've been carpin' about Saddlebackcentrism, especially at the district (e.g., among trustees), for a while.
     Recently, too. In my UPDATE (6-17-2016) to DtB’s saga of socccd, I wrote:

Saddleback's [relative] shrinkage amidst continued Saddlebackcentrism

• Facts is facts: as Saddleback College slowly sinks into a secondary role in the district, population-wise (they’ll deny this, of course), many of its denizens continue to imagine that that college is the center of the universe; and they are determined to construct an enormous new stadium befitting such a grand entity. Expect much Sturm und Drang over this. Some of the trustees (including current Board Prez Tim Jemal) seem prepared to just say no to the pro-stadium crowd. [Well, not “no,” I guess. He's just concerned about cost and process. He's made it clear that he says "yes," despite the new and alarming cost figures.] 

• (We at DtB have long complained about the endless Saddlebackcentrism of the district, exhibited routinely by such board members as Mr. Wright, among others (see here). One manifestation: the board’s refusal to see the wisdom of moving district headquarters off of the SC campus to a more “neutral” location. See here.)

     Don't know what I mean by "Saddlebackcentrism"? Here's the, um, definition:

Saddlebackcentrism: regarding Saddleback College as the central or most important element of existence, especially as opposed to God or Irvine Valley College.

     A "for instance":

     Bill Jay: some of us went to the Foundation event recently [he reported]. People don't realize the tremendous job the Foundation does. (Annoyingly, when he refers to "the foundation," he seems to be referring to Saddleback College's Foundation.) We've won three national championships, but we have no stadium. The Foundation is working on that. We'll have a stadium. [Note the “we.”] 

–My description of Bill Jay’s board report, April 29, 2013

     Those people always talk that way. Pisses me off.

SEE ALSO

The February meeting of the SOCCCD Board of Trustees: Saddlebackians want a new stadium and it's all that matters! (February, 2014)

Planet Der Socccd

A lovely graphic for the district

Part II is HERE

Report: Hundreds of thousands in Orange County are struggling financially (OC Reg)

     …[B]efore we boast about our quality of life, consider the grim statistics in the county’s annual Community Indicators Report, released last week.

• Nearly 1 in 4 residents lives in poverty.
• Nearly two-thirds of local jobs don’t pay enough for a worker to rent a one-bedroom apartment.
• Orange County’s cost of living is 85 percent above the national average, but its median income is only 42 percent higher than the nation’s median.

     The stark reality is that hundreds of thousands among our 3.2 million residents struggle against immense odds....

Accreditor on Life Support (Inside Higher Ed)

     The Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools got closer to being terminated Thursday after the federal panel that oversees accrediting agencies voted to de-recognize the council, the largest national accreditor that oversees many for-profit colleges….

For-Profit-College Fiasco: Why a Watchdog Needs a Watchdog (NYT)

     Last year, the for-profit Corinthian Colleges chain collapsed under the weight of government investigations and allegations of fraud. Its demise left tens of thousands of Corinthian students with loans that will ultimately cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars to forgive.
     This week, the private accrediting group that allowed Corinthian to stay open for business will face its own existential threat, when federal regulators decide whether to shut it down. That decision will go a long way toward determining whether education companies will continue to have free rein to profit from government financial aid programs.
. . .
     Considering the scale of what went wrong for many students enrolled in ACICS-accredited colleges, it’s hard to see how to fix things without government action. If the government’s committee does intervene, it will need to establish standards for what constitutes “bad enough” in college accreditation — and, thus, in colleges themselves.
     Many accreditors and colleges would probably prefer this didn’t happen. But given the severity of the problem, the committee may have no choice.

Scorecard for Accreditors (IHE)

     The Education Department has created new data reports on the performance of accrediting agencies, using measures such as graduation and loan repayment rates at colleges the agencies oversee.

The SOCCCD saga: an update

     Perhaps you're aware that DtB offers an account of our district's history called the "SOCCCD saga." It's an interesting history.
     You can find it HERE. (It is among our "pages," some of which are indicated on the "tabs" above.)

     Recently, I appended an UPDATE, covering events of the last two or so years. Check it out.
     Feel free to critique it. I would be happy to add others' verbiage and ideas, subtract my bad verbiage and ideas. Anything to improve it.
     The update is, of course, at the end of the POST. Way down there. It's dated June 17, 2016.

I'm not a big fan of the bombastic and unsubtle Mr. Maher, but this rant is pretty funny.


Love this guy. He's a sort of contemporary Texas bluesman. His real name is Alejandro Rose-Garcia.

Ten years ago...

Teapeople: that would be in the past, in 2006. OK?

In a possible world (Dissent; June 9, 2006)


Protecting life as we know it (Dissent; 6/13/06)

O HERE'S MY POINT. I am continually amazed by the short memory of SOCCCD denizens. Some battle will be fought--over, say, how to respond to violations of faculty rights, or, say, how best to approach the upcoming trustee election--and then, a few years later, the battle will be fought again, but with zero recognition that we’ve been through this before and that costly & important truths were then revealed.

That's when the Twilight Zone theme starts playing. Or maybe the Groundhog Day theme.

Let’s remember just what happened a decade ago. A small group of greedy and unprincipled and secretive faculty sought control of the Board by any means necessary, including support of right winged wackos, such as the Holocaust Denying Steve Frogue, the sleazy John Williams, and, a bit later, the acutely anti-faculty and anti-union Don Wagner, Nancy Padberg, and Tom Fuentes. (Maybe Padberg's improved since then.)

I recall a meeting—9 ½ years ago—in which the Faculty Association president was asked to explain the organization’s unprincipled tactics. We asked: How can you defend using a deceptive and homophobic flier? (See The homophobic flier.) How can you defend supporting a Holocaust Denier? How can you defend installing a slate of conservative anti-union Republicans?

We did all that--especially resort to the flier--she said, to protect “life as we know it." She repeated those words as if they were magic. "Life as we know it." Shazzam!

Some of us were upset by this answer. Some of us were not upset! That's pretty upsetting.

Face it: our current plight is, without doubt, a residue of that disastrous Old Guard victory of 1996. Protecting “life as we know it” by any means necessary has given us a board that hates faculty, a board that can't be got rid of for as long as Mr. Connected is around. (Maybe.)

So when you run into Mike or Sherry or Sharon or Raghu or Patrick or Curt or any of the rest, be sure to express your appreciation of history. Say: THANKS FOR THE MASSIVE & INVETERATE DISTRICTULAR SHITULOSITY.

And when somebody like me or Reb or Red comes along and insists on reminding you of events of the past decade, please don’t complain that that’s “old news” or that we’re just “complaining again” and “being negative.” No, that’s not it at all.

You know the Santayana quotation.

OK then.

(For a brief account of SOCCCD history in the last decade, go to Dissent's Very Short History of the District's Troubles.)



Shiny nuts and bolts (Dissent; 6/14/06)

Time passes slowly up here in the mountains,
We sit beside bridges and walk beside fountains,
Catch the wild fishes that float through the stream,
Time passes slowly when you're lost in a dream.

--Bob Dylan

Wow, what a great looking day! Took some pics this morning around my house. Check ‘em out!



On this fine day, only slightly diminished by news of Karl Rove’s good fortune, I drove to IVC to interview a prospective part-timer. He turned out to be just what we were lookin’ for, plus he’s a jazz musician, having tickled them ivories with the likes of Poncho Sanchez. Very cool.

I showed the Piano Man around, explaining about the general atmosphere of shitulosity. “Oh, I’m used to that,” he said. “I teach at Santa Ana.”

Oh.

A few minutes later, I ran into a colleague who was bitchin’ and moanin’ about room A203, which is sort of attached to the Humanities and Languages Office. “Good Lord,” said the colleague, “sometimes I go in there on Monday and it’s up to here in trash!”

“Here” was his chest. I think he was exaggerating. But I’d heard this complaint about 203 before, from various others. Even the chest part.

He explained how often he had complained and how it didn’t seem to matter. “How hard is it to clean this room on some kinda schedule?” he roared. “Just how hard is that?! Why do I gotta keep callin’? Jeez!”


I got my camera and went in there. Though there wasn’t much trash, except some spillage from the trash container, the room did look generally crapulistic. Urinary even. The floor was Scuff City, the white boards were bird-shit grey, and the phrase “don’t give a shit” wafted lazily across the room.


Rebel Girl had called me a week or so ago to report that “they” were tearing down those shitty old temporaries that we’ve been carpin’ about on these pages over the last few months. Carp carp carp.

I told her I wasn’t about to drive way out to Irvine just to take a picture of that.

So, today, I checked it out. Sure enough, where the notorious “Shithouse” once stood, now there’s a big ugly empty lot, mostly dirt.

With trash. And chunks of asphalt. And big shiny nuts and bolts.


Oddly, I found a friend there, loitering peevishly. I walked up to her. She snickered and grumbled. Then she announced: “I think this is a hazard. They should rope this off.” She pointed to the nuts and bolts.

They didn’t look so bad to me, but what do I know?

“How come there are nuts and bolts?” she asked. She nudged a nut with her toe as though she were checking for signs of life.

“Dunno.”


I left. The sun was shining. There was a fine breeze. It was good.

People keep asking me, “So what’s happening?” But I dunno. Nobody who knows stuff tells me anything. Plus, I don’t wanna bother ‘em during summer.

One thing’s for sure, though. It’s during the summer when they try to get away with stuff.

Don’t be surprised if, when you come back, you find that they tore the college down and hauled everything away.

Except for those shiny nuts and bolts.



Finger paint fiasco (Dissent; 6/15/06)

An area of lawn at Irvine Valley College was supposed to evoke 

IVC students' “patriotism and piety.”

By Bud Towne

June 15, 2006

OK everybody, stick your hand in the paint and then smear it onto the paper!

That was the idea, anyway. Officials at Irvine Valley College sought to get a large crowd of students together yesterday in a bid to create the “world's largest finger painting.” The project is a part of a month-long campaign to draw attention to the campus by celebrating what some IVC administrators are calling “IVC’s awesome patriotism and piety.”

“Our students are way more patriotic and pious than students at other colleges,” chirped a high-ranking administrator. “So we decided to fingerpaint, since IVC is a school, sort of, and finger painting happens at school.”

“We had high hopes,” added a second administrator.


“Just think of it! We’d be in the Guinness Book of World Records! It would be the crowning glory of a long series of achievements at this fine college!”

But then, yesterday, no students showed up.

"It would have been great," said the first administrator, shaking his head. "I believe that world record holders get a free trip to the brewery."

"Eventually," said the other administrator, "we scraped up a few young scholars who were sleeping in the library.”

“But those guys had really small hands,” said the first administrator.

In the end, maintenance personnel were instructed to spray paint a large blue hand on the 100-yard wide piece of canvas on the lawn in front of the Student Services Center. But since it was the only image on the canvas, and it was smack dab in the middle, it looked tiny.

“It’s better than nothing,” said the first administrator.

“Yeah,” said the second.


For a related story, go to Smile...for the "World's Biggest Camera"

Still shitty after all these years; —PLUS: Roquemore of ages

Mr. Goo/Mr. GOP

     As you know, nowadays, former SOCCCD Chancellor (and inveterate rat bastard) Raghu Mathur is an adjunct chem instructor at the North Orange County Community College District (Cypress & Fullerton Colleges). It's his retirement gig, I guess.

     MR. GOP.
     You’ll recall that Mathur has always presented himself as “Mr. staunch Republican,” and he can always be counted on to join the chorus of “fiscally conservative” politicos and educators, denouncing taxation in any form. For instance, he routinely joined the old SOCCCD board—dominated by Mr. Fuentes and Mr. Wagner—in its distaste for school bond measures and any other measures that amounted to increasing taxes.
     (That's pretty ironic. That the SOCCCD enjoys and has long enjoyed the liberality of the “basic aid” boondoggle—an arrangement always popular among our GOP trustees—means, of course, that South County taxpayers spend far beyond the state average per student. More money spent = more tax money spent.)
     Now get this. Back in 2014, the NOCCCD pursued a bond measure for campus improvements, Measure J (see OC Reg). Despite being "the second-largest school bond in Orange County history," it achieved the necessary 55% voter support. It did so with 15 votes to spare! Whew!
     And who was there, at a meeting of the NOCCCD Board of Trustees one year later, thanking the board for its support of this bond measure and advocating construction of a new science building? Well, it was none other than the taxpayers' friend, Raghu P. Mathur, rat bastard extraordinaire. According to an NOCCCD newsletter,

Ron Armale, Cypress College Physical Science Department Chair; Adel Rajab, Biology Department Coordinator; and Raghu Mathur, Chemistry Adjunct Professor; and Jolena Grande, Mortuary Science Instructor, all thanked the Board for supporting Measure J, and spoke in support of a new Science, Engineering, and Math building, rather than renovating the existing facility. [My emphasis.]

     Mathur's hypocrisy will surprise noone who is familiar with the fellow's history in the district.
     About the vote: according to the OC Reg (Dec., 2014), Ned Doffoney, NOCCCD Chancellor (and former Saddleback College President), stated that “We’re humbled and grateful for the tremendous support of voters who participated in this historically low-turnout election.”
     I don't know why he was pleased about the latter. Ned can be inscrutable.

* * *

     Upon Googling "Raghu Mathur," one finds the fellow's name popping up even more recently, this time as a supporter of the candidacy of Old Guard Republican Ken Williams for OC Board of Ed. In the “endorsements” section of Williams’ campaign website, Mathur is listed as an “educational leader”:

“Raghu Mathur, Ed.D., Chancellor, South Orange Conuty [sic] Community College District (Ret.); Professor, School of Education, Argosy University (Ret.).”

     Natch, Williams is no supporter of school bonds. In the “issues” section of his website, he declares that

I strongly support Proposition 13, and I oppose new taxes or bonds that deepen the fiscal crisis of our state and local governments. I oppose new taxes….

* * *

     THE ROQUEMORE OF AGES.
     On an even more dismal note, I wanted to remind you all that, starting July 1, Glenn Roquemore will be starting his fifteenth year as President of Irvine Valley College. (Glenn became IVC Prez on July 1, 2002.)

IVC alum and her new business profiled in L.A. Times

Recently IVC alum Delilah Snell and her new business venture, Alta Baja Market, was profiled in the Weekend section of the Sunday Los Angeles Times. Delilah, an Orange County native, was an active student on the IVC campus in the 1990s.

Alta Baja Market welcomes newcomers, but not at locals' expense by Sarah Bennett:

excerpt:

Using food to intersect two worlds that don't often collide here, Alta Baja Market soft-opened late last month as a bridge between old and new SanTana.

In the space formerly occupied by chef Jason Quinn's upscale Honor Roll, co-owners Delilah Snell and Natasha Monnereau are selling hard-to-find foods, drinks and goods from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, celebrating the bounty of a region that stretches from Southern California to the American Southwest to Mexico to parts between with price points for everyone.

"I shop at Northgate Market [there's one a block away], but there needs to be more options for Latino products and also just goods that are from underrepresented makers," says Snell, a longtime local business owner, master food preserver, do-it-yourself advocate and food activist who started Santa Ana's first farmers market more than a decade ago....

...Snell owned Santa Ana eco-boutique The Road Less Traveled for eight years and is a co-founder of Patchwork Show, a twice annual multi-city arts and crafts fair, as well as Craftcation, a business conference for DIY makers that features lectures, panels and food workshops. Monnereau, a Level 1 sommelier, is a native of New Mexico, where she says "green chile is a way of life."

In their spare time, they individually travel throughout Mexico and the Southwest, seeking out regional specialties and buying bulk items — like bolito beans, sorghum and chimayo chiles — to bring back for friends.

To read the rest, click here.

Summer is a perfect time to check out Alta Baja Market.

Go Lasers!

Delilah, at IVC, nearly 20 years ago; today, Diep (Deb) Burbridge is
an Associate Prof at Long Beach City College

IVC Commencment speaker Chemerinsky attacks Trump in OC Register

Last week, Erwin Chemerinsky penned an opinion piece for the OC Register which will no doubt inspire many letters to the editor. Titled Trump's misguided, dangerous rhetoric, here is an excerpt:

"Donald Trump’s racist attack on the federal judge who is hearing a case involving Trump University reveals a profound misunderstanding of the judicial system. It again shows a stunning lack of understanding of the Constitution.

I have avoided in these pages or elsewhere discussing Trump, or any of the candidates. I confine myself to discussing issues of law, my area of competence. But Trump’s vitriolic rhetoric directed at U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel reveals a great deal about Trump’s views concerning the law and the courts....

...There are no excuses for what Trump said. It is an attack on Judge Curiel solely because of his race. Given chances to offer an explanation or an apology, Trump repeated the same racist comments. It is very frightening to imagine Donald Trump as president."

To read the rest, click here.

A few weeks ago, in his commencement address at IVC, Chemerinksy was more oblique in his criticism:

"I never have seen the degree of meanness from presidential candidates that has been evident this year. I do not mean this as a partisan statement or an attack on the candidates of one party or of any particular candidate. But I never have seen a political campaign with the nastiness of this one. To pick one example, one candidate, in a tweet wrote, naming a particular media figure that she 'is unattractive, both inside and out. I fully understand why her former husband left her for a man – he made a good decision.'"

Chemerinsky didn't have to identify the candidate.  It was obvious.

Trumps feels up flag. 

 *

To read the letters to the editor directed to Chemerinsky's piece, click here.

IVC alum wins Stanford's Stegner Fellowship

IVC alumni Jenn Alandy Trahan has been awarded a Stegner fellowship. Stanford University awards five fellowships each year in fiction. A partial list of Stegner fellows includes Raymond Carver, Phillp Levine, Ken Kesey, ZZ Packer, Samantha Chang, Wendell Berry, Tobias Wolff, Robert Pinsky, Vikram Seth, and Scott Turow. In other words, this is a big deal.

Jenn came to IVC after graduating from UCI with a BA in English and spent a couple years in the Creative Writing porgram here before applying to graduate school. She would fit the classic mold of a "returning student" who did not have a transfer plan because she had already completed her undergraduate work.

Read all about it via UCI:

Jenn Alandy Trahan, who received her B.A. in English from UCI in 2006, has been awarded a Stegner Fellowship from Stanford. The fellowship pays for two years within Stanford’s prestigious Creative Writing Program. Trahan was first published in W.W. Norton’s Hint Fiction anthology in 2010. Her short story, “Webb,” was nominated for a Pushcart award by Permafrost at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks in 2013. Trahan went on to receive her MA in English and her MFA in Fiction at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

Here's a link to an article Jenn wrote about  her experiences at IVC and the development of her writing: "Take A Hint: Jenn Alandy's Long Walk to Print."


Go Lasers!

*

Donald Trump's Soul

*




Neil Young, "Campaigner"

I am a lonely visitor.
I came to late to cause a stir,
Though I campaigned all my life
towards that goal.
I hardly slept the night you wept
Our secret's safe and still well kept
Where even Richard Nixon has got soul.
Even Richard Nixon has got soul.

*

Ten years ago...

John Williams, the unionist's Best Friend 
(Dissent the Blog, Thursday, June 8, 2006)

RELATED:

Faculty Association: the return of the Old Guard (and John Williams)
(Dissent the Blog, Monday, August 13, 2012)

They call it a college

 Here's our new view from our office (A239) at Irvine Valley College:

Pleasant, isn' it?
It's like we're in a prison.

This is a typically Roquemorean solution to a problem--in this case, our recent vulnerability to robbery.
Bars.
The earlier solution? Screw the windows shut--I kid you not--so we can't open 'em anymore.
People really carped about that.

Check out the jerry-built "handle" we're supposed to use "in case of an emergency."
--Like a fire, I suppose.

They've thoughtfully added graphics on the handle,
in case we don't know what "up" means.
Gee, thanks.