UC Chancellor Gillman speaks out

In response to the recent attacks and threats and in light of the one received in our community this week, UC Chancellor Howard Gillman speaks out against such acts which is what an education leader is supposed to do. Hint, hint. 

Standing Together Against Hate and Anti-Semitism

Feb. 28, 2017

To the Anteater community:

The dramatic increase nationwide in threats of violence against Jewish schools, community centers and other organizations – 90 bomb threats since the start of the year and 20 just yesterday – hit close to home Monday afternoon when our neighboring Merage Jewish Community Center received a bomb threat and was forced to evacuate.

These despicable demonstrations of violent anti-Semitism assault not only members of our Jewish community but all people of goodwill. Our Jewish students, faculty, staff, partners and neighbors should take strength from knowing that the UCI community stands with them during these troubling times.

These events further illustrate the importance of the “Higher Ground” report by our Office of Inclusive Excellence and its call to combat anti-Semitism and other forms of intolerance and bigotry. Programming under the “Higher Ground” initiative began earlier this year, and we will continue to work with our campus and community partners to overshadow hatred with education, research and open discussion.

We respond to the darkness with the light of knowledge and mutual respect. In the face of violent threats, we add our voices to the chorus that declares we will not be intimidated as we pursue our mission to create and sustain a world in which diverse groups of people work together to advance our mutual well-being and common humanity.

Chancellor Howard Gillman

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Meanwhile at OCC and Irvine...

Orange Coast College student Karina Mendoza’s Black History Month artwork lists 18 people killed by police and the words “Promise that you will sing about me” at the top. A multicolored flag at the bottom signifies the LGBT community, beside the words “#SayTheirName” and “BlackLivesMatter.” (Karina Mendoza)

From the Los Angeles Times:

Black History Month artwork torn down at Orange Coast College; investigation launched
excerpt:

Mendoza's project was among many art pieces submitted by students and community members to commemorate Black History Month. Mendoza collaborated on the exhibit with other students and OCC's Student Equity Program, which says it seeks to guarantee "fair treatment, access, opportunity and advancement for all students ... regardless of background."

"It's really upsetting and it bothers me that people can't be respectful," Mendoza said. "Obviously my artwork still needs to be up."

Jewish centers in Irvine, Los Angeles among latest targets in new round of bomb threats

excerpt:

In Irvine, about 1,000 people were evacuated from the Merage Jewish Community Center about 4:40 p.m. Monday when a bomb threat was called into the center, according to the Irvine Police Department. No one was injured during the incident.

Orange County Sheriff’s Department bomb-sniffing dogs searched the buildings and a parking lot, at 1 Federation Way, and “nothing suspicious was located,” police said in a statement.

Clarification: Trump uses "military" as an adjective!

     Do you suppose he meant to say "as a metaphor"?
     Idjit.

Suspension lifted for OCC student

from the LA Times:

Suspension lifted for Orange County student who recorded professor's anti-Trump comments

excerpt:

The Coast Community College District Board of Trustees has directed Orange Coast College to revoke its suspension of a student who secretly video-recorded his human-sexuality professor calling President Trump’s election victory “an act of terrorism.”

The student, Caleb O’Neil, “will continue to attend classes without interruption,” according to a statement released Thursday by Orange Coast College.

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The Artist's Intention

Seen.

In Maryland:
School removes pro-diversity posters because they’re ‘anti-Trump’

A Maryland public school demanded that teachers remove pro-diversity posters from classrooms because they were deemed too political and anti-President Donald Trump....

They were initially removed after being deemed political, but teachers argued the posters were up in support of diversity. They were allowed to be re-hung, before the school reversed course and determined the posters were inflammatory because of the artist’s intention in designing them...

Carroll County Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Steven Johnson told the Huffington Post that the posters were “symbolic” of anti-Trump sentiment in the same way the Confederate flag represented slavery.

“The Confederate flag in and of itself has no image of slavery or hatred or oppression, but it’s symbolic of that,” Johnson said. “These posters have absolutely no mention of Trump or any other political issue ― it’s the symbolism of what they were representing. They were carried in these protests.”

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Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/nation-world/national/article134110969.html#storylink=cpy

Carroll County Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Steven Johnson told the Huffington Post that the posters were “symbolic” of anti-Trump sentiment in the same way the Confederate flag represented slavery.

“The Confederate flag in and of itself has no image of slavery or hatred or oppression, but it’s symbolic of that,” Johnson said. “These posters have absolutely no mention of Trump or any other political issue ― it’s the symbolism of what they were representing. They were carried in these protests.”
Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/nation-world/national/article134110969.html#storylink=cpy

Recent reader comments about IVC: heads in sand

Anonymous said...
     So much of this manner—arrogant dismissiveness, aristocratic self-entitlement, deliberate enemy-making, absconding of truth and integrity and dismissal of disciplinary expertise and recklessness from the Trump-ocracy—is also so reminiscent of the hell we endured for years in the SOCCCD under the tyranny of a few past Boards and their love affair with a former IVC President, later Chancellor. Today at IVC is only marginally better than it was because, once again, the SOCCCD Board's pernicious 'head in the sand' response to IVC's issues. Clearly they remain shamefully Saddleback-centric in their concern for the environment of the college. I suspect this accreditation visit will result in a grandiose white wash and ignoring of the low morale of the college because they too have historically proven to [be] knee-pad nellies of administration['s] narrow view of truth. And if one speaks out—watch out under this administration—retaliation remains a regular event at IVC.
     ☽ 5:16 PM, February 19, 2017

Anonymous said...
     I was chatting with a friend in school of arts recently. Apparently they are unhappy with their doofus Dean. [The friend] said [the Dean] does not advocate for them, seemingly works hard to do as little as possible, is difficult to find, smiles a lot while digging for dirt but not sharing anything and ignores the Chairs while talking and listening to only a couple of people in the school. They seem to think he may just be a plant from our former VPI, while the President smiles and looks the other way. Anyone else hearing anything from any colleagues in this beleaguered school?
     ☽ 5:30 PM, February 19, 2017

Anonymous said...
     The School of the Arts is "beleaguered"? More so than any other IVC school? Really?
     Glenn's ability to smile and look any way that is best for him is how he survives.
     If you see echoes of Trumpocracy here is SOCCCD you should know that many in admin at the college and district level voted for Trump. Hence their weaselly lukewarm post-election statements.
     ☽ 6:15 PM, February 19, 2017

Anonymous said...

     Why would a dean be a plant for a former VPI? Makes no sense. Fine Arts has never had a dean they liked.  

     ☽ 10:41 PM, February 19, 2017

Anonymous said...

     The faculty in FA all too often focus on their various deans as the problems when they should really look to the larger IVC admin structure as the real obstacle (access to resources, etc.) and their own colleagues who cut special deals with Glenn and Davit based on traded favors form long ago. We're not even in their school and we can see that. The TWINS.

     ☽ 11:01 PM, February 19, 2017

The finely tuned machine whirs

New York Times

‘Last Night in Sweden’? Trump’s Remark Baffles a Nation 
(NYT)

     During a campaign-style rally on Saturday in Florida, Mr. Trump issued a sharp if discursive attack on refugee policies in Europe, ticking off a list of places that have been hit by terrorists.
     “You look at what’s happening,” he told his supporters. “We’ve got to keep our country safe. You look at what’s happening in Germany, you look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this?”
     Not the Swedes.
     Nothing particularly nefarious happened in Sweden on Friday — or Saturday, for that matter — and Swedes were left baffled.
     “Sweden? Terror attack? What has he been smoking? Questions abound,” Carl Bildt, a former prime minister and foreign minister, wrote on Twitter.
. . .
     Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a White House spokeswoman, tried to clarify the president’s remarks on Sunday, saying Mr. Trump did not mean to suggest that a particular attack had happened the night before, but rather was talking about crime in general in Sweden.
     On Sunday, Mr. Trump offered his own clarification, writing on Twitter: “My statement as to what’s happening in Sweden was in reference to a story that was broadcast on @FoxNews concerning immigrants & Sweden.”
     In that story, the Fox News correspondent Tucker Carlson interviewed Ami Horowitz, a filmmaker who asserts that migrants in Sweden have been associated with a crime wave….
     Mr. Horowitz said, “Sweden had its first terrorist Islamic attack not that long ago, so they’re now getting a taste of what we’ve been seeing across Europe already.”
     It was not clear what he was referring to. In 2010, a suicide bomber struck central Stockholm, injuring two people. The bomber, Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, 28, was an Iraqi-born Swede who had developed an affinity for Al Qaeda. But that attack occurred long before the current wave of migrants fleeing war and deprivation….

McCain: how dictatorships begin

Trump: endlessly spewing falsehoods

More horn tootage: Rebel Girl's book makes a kinda big splash

Orange County in a box. 

Rebel Girl thinks she has been having a better week than the new President.  Check it out.

First, in the wake of  publication of her sabbatical project, now a handsome trade paperback co-edited with her husband, titled Orange County: A Literary Field Guide, book events have been SRO and sales have been strong.

Second, UCI News profiled Rebel and Red, with a photo shoot and an interview and everything. Check it out here.

Toot

Then, the OC Weekly published a version of Gustavo Arellano's terrific foreword with the modest title, "Why Orange County: A Literary Field Guide Is the Greatest Collection About Our Wacky OC."

Then today Rebel Girl and Red started hearing from folks about how the UCI Chancellor bragged about them in his Monthly Message from Chancellor Howard Gillman, delivered to faculty, staff, students, parents of students, alumni, etc.  It's nice to finally make one's alma mater proud. Here's what Gillman has to say:

Influential alumni

A big selling point for UCI, aside from outstanding academics and an adorably quirky mascot, is our proximity to pristine beaches, rolling foothills and stunning canyons. Taking in the region’s beautiful landscape is sure to inspire creative minds. This month, two inspired alumni of UCI’s renowned M.F.A. Programs in Writing, Lisa Alvarez ’92 and Andrew Tonkovich ’93, published an anthology that offers a literary tour of Orange County from past to present. Orange County: A Literary Field Guide showcases the works of 21 UCI alumni, faculty and former faculty, including award-winning writers Michael Chabon and Yusef Komunyakaa. Andrew Tonkovich, who also is an English lecturer at UCI, said he hopes the tome will help build a sense of solidarity and appreciation for the region.

Classy.

Rebel Girl is teaching from the text in her WR 1 classes and today a student told her what she had been hoping to hear: "It's neat to read about where we live."

Yes. A good week!

Plus there are fields of California poppies on the hills in canyons.  Take a look at Modjeska Canyon in its glory.

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OCC student suspended, made to write apology, essay

OCC student suspended after filming teacher saying Trump's election was 'an act of terrorism'
(OC Reg)

     An Orange Coast College student who secretly videotaped his instructor making anti-Trump statements was suspended from school and told to write a letter of apology as well as a three-page essay about the incident.
     The college suspended Caleb O’Neil for the current semester and the summer term, saying he violated a Coast Community College District policy prohibiting recording someone on district property without that person’s consent.
     “It is my hope that this experience will lead you to truly think through your actions and the consequences of those actions when making decisions in the future,” Victoria Lugo, interim dean of students, wrote in a Feb. 9 letter to O’Neil, whose video clips of instructor Olga Perez Stable Cox in December went viral.
     William Becker, an attorney representing O’Neil, said the sanctions are excessive and the student’s legal rights have been violated. O’Neil, 19, plans to appeal and can continue to attend classes during that process, Becker said.
     “This is an attack by leftists in academia to protect the expressive rights of their radical instructors at the expense of the expressive rights of conservative students on campus,” said Becker, president of Freedom X, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving religious and conservative freedom of expression.
     O’Neil, who campaigned for Trump, couldn’t be reached for comment on Tuesday….
. . .
     Three other students, all leaders with the school’s College Republicans, which posted the video clips, received letters saying there was insufficient evidence to proceed against them, said Joshua Recalde-Martinez, one of the three….
. . .
     To be allowed back in school, the letter says, O’Neil’s essay is to be three pages and double-spaced and must discuss why he videotaped the professor. Also, the essay is to cover his “thoughts and analysis” on why he decided to share the videos, what he thought would happen to Cox and “the impact of the video going ‘viral’ and the ensuing damage to Orange Coast College students, faculty and staff.”
     O’Neil videotaped Cox as she called the election of Donald Trump “an act of terrorism” and declared that those “leading the assault are among us.”
     O’Neil took the video to leaders from the school’s College Republicans, who, joined by attorney Shawn Steel, complained to the campus administration. A week later, saying they were frustrated that the administration had not acted on their concerns of a teacher using her classroom as a bully pulpit, the campus Republicans posted video clips online, where they quickly became national news.
     The attention led Cox, 66, an instructor at the school for 42 years, to temporarily leave her home following an onslaught of angry, sometimes threatening mail.
     In an interview with the Register last month, Cox said her comments to students – made in all of her three human sexuality classes – were meant to comfort those who were upset about the election of Trump and offer resources should students feel discriminated against….

SEE ALSO Trump-hater California college prof. Olga Cox has a sex slave (Fellowship of the Minds [a Christian conservative site, aka fake news])

"Can students record a teacher, as a study tool or to ward off politics?"

New signs went up in classrooms at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa:
 (Photo by Matt Masin, Orange County Register/SCNG)

The Orange County Register asks:
Can students record a teacher, as a study tool or to ward off politics?
And gets many different answers.

Excerpt:

In our cell phone world, where particularly the young feel compelled to document every move on social media, is it so bad if a student just wants to record an instructor’s lesson as a study tool?

Or to show others when a teacher, in the student’s view, is getting too political?

Of the 20-plus colleges, universities and large school districts contacted across Southern California, all said students may not record in the classroom without the teacher’s permission.

That stance is backed by state law, with one exception: Instructors must permit students with a disability to record if that helps them learn. Any violator could be disciplined by the school.

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Someone's Bottom Line

from Forbes:

Trump's Immigration Ban Could Cost U.S. Colleges $700 Million

excerpt:

Sahab Masoumian, a 22-year-old engineering student at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, Calif., hasn't been able to think of anything but President Donald Trump’s ban on visitors from seven predominantly Muslim countries since his academic term began on Monday. "If I tell you I'm not fearful, I'd be lying. I'm scared," he said.

Masoumian was born in Tehran, Iran, and lived in Turkey for about one year while his family sought asylum in the U.S. Now a permanent resident, Masoumian hopes to transfer to California State Polytechnic University-Pomona and take up aerospace engineering. He dreams of landing a job at Boeing Co., the world’s largest plane maker. But since Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration, Masoumian has been questioning whether he wants to remain in the U.S. after he graduates college.

It's the opposite of what Republican Party leaders used to hope for. Mitt Romney in 2012 said he wanted to "staple a green card" to every foreign recipient of an advanced degree.
...
U.S. colleges stand to lose as much as $700 million in annual revenue if Trump’s ban on visitors from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen becomes permanent, according to estimates by College Factual, a higher education research website.

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At OCC: Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign

A sign posted at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa. (Alex Chan | Daily Pilot)

From the Los Angeles Times:

After Trump video flap, signs warn Orange Coast College students against recording classes without permission

excerpt:

Almost two months after a secretly recorded video of an Orange Coast College professor's postelection comments about President Trump touched off a firestorm, signs reminding students that in-class recordings are prohibited without instructors' permission have been posted for the spring semester.

The classroom signs cite the Coast Community College District's student code of conduct and the California Education Code, which prohibit recordings without permission.

The Ceiling Tile of Damocles

Don't look up. Or do. 

Guess which building, which room.

Winner gets to fill out the work order.

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Facts is facts, Donald is Donald

In One Facebook Post, Three Misleading Statements by President Trump About His Immigration Order (NYT)

     President Trump and his aides have repeatedly suggested that the executive order temporarily barring refugees and blocking citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States is an outgrowth of Obama administration policy.

MR. TRUMP’S STATEMENT ON FACEBOOK, JAN. 29
     “The seven countries named in the Executive Order are the same countries previously identified by the Obama administration as sources of terror.”

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED
     The seven countries were largely chosen by the Republican-led Congress.
. . .
MR. TRUMP’S STATEMENT ON FACEBOOK, JAN. 29
     “My policy is similar to what President Obama did in 2011 when he banned visas or refugees from Iraq for six months.”

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED
     Obama never barred Iraqi refugees.
. . .
MR. TRUMP’S STATEMENT ON FACEBOOK, JAN. 29
     “To be clear, this is not a Muslim ban, as the media is falsely reporting. This is not about religion — this is about terror and keeping our country safe.”

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED
     After he signed the order, Mr. Trump said that Christians would be given priority once the United States resumed taking in refugees....

     Mr. Trump has said that the travel ban does not target Muslims, noting there are more than 40 majority-Muslim countries worldwide that are not affected.
     But Mr. Trump said in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network that Christians would be given priority once the United States resumed taking in refugees.
     The White House has said Mr. Trump simply wants to give preference to persecuted minorities. And in majority-Muslim countries, Christians are often religious minorities.
     During the campaign Mr. Trump framed the plan as a temporary ban on all Muslim visitors. He also recently described the executive order as a “ban.”....

In Age of Trump, Scientists Show Signs of a Political Pulse (NYT)

     ...Some scientists have objected to plans for the Washington march, arguing that the event will feed the view among many conservatives that scientists have a political agenda.
     But the idea that they should be above the fray has been slowly unraveling as researchers realize that their own aloofness may largely be to blame for public disregard for the evidence on issues like climate change or vaccine safety. And in the era of Trump, some say it could finally come completely apart.
     “I think that many people have moved well beyond that,” said Andrew Rosenberg, director of the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, which is enlisting scientists to monitor what is occurring in federal agencies. “It’s nonsense — you need to follow your own heart. You can do science and still be a good citizen.”....

Rebel Girl Toots her own Horn: Toot, Toot!

Rebel Girl interrupts the usual coverage of the usual suspects to announce the publication of her 2009 sabbatical project which made its debut this week.  Orange County: A Literary Field Guide was published by Heyday on February 1.

Heyday describes the project this way:

Orange County: A Literary Field Guide
Edited by Lisa Alvarez and Andrew Tonkovich; Foreword by Gustavo Arellano
A literary journey through Southern California’s storied county

Even by California’s standards, the County of Orange teems with abundance: in sweeping topography along the azure Pacific, in sprawling suburbs, in promises of prosperity, and in its self-perpetuated reputation as a citrus-lined paradise. But the acclaimed fertility of this corner of California is not just agricultural or economic, as this new anthology shows. In this literary field guide, more than sixty writers—some well known, others emerging—lead readers on a tour that begins at the coast and heads inland over the Santa Ana Mountains, through the canyons, and into the cities of Anaheim, Irvine, and Orange in search of vistas of truth. Luminaries including Michael Chabon, Philip K. Dick, Steve Martin, and Susan Straight explore the complexities and contradictions of the county, locating readers in a place made in equal measure by 950 square miles of land and the imagination. A foreword by Gustavo Arellano, author of Orange County: A Personal History and the syndicated column ¡Ask a Mexican!, unravels the idealized past and paradoxical present of this much-mythologized locale.

Yeah!

The book will be used as a text at UC Irvine, Chapman University and Irvine Valley College - and, so Rebel Girl hopes, other campuses as well as she was inspired throughout this long project by the the vision of Orange County residents, especially young students reading about where they live and finding value in it.

Cover of the special UC Irvine edition.
UCI celebrates the book on Friday March 10 from 4-6 PM in Humanities Gateway. 

Rebel Girl and Red Emma will be on a kind of endless book tour throughout the county and beyond this Spring, including events and appearances at UC Irvine, Anaheim's MUZEO, Laguna's College of Art and Design, Santa Ana's Boca de Oro festival, Women For: Orange County, University of Redlands, Literary Orange, the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Gatsby Books in Long Beach, the Orange County branch of the California Writers Club, various libraries and community groups and more. Most events are free and open to the public.

To check out the events, visit the book's Facebook page.

Look for coverage of the book in the local press, including this recent piece in the Irvine Community News and Views:

Impressive in Irvine: Orange County: A Literary Field Guide

Some of the books - only some! -  that went into the 414 page book. 

Rebel Girl is particularly proud that IVC's literary journal The Ear contributed several pieces to this landmark collection. She hopes to host a reading from the book at the little college in the orange groves, perhaps in the fall.

Orange County: A Literary Field Guide is available in the usual places, bookstores, virtual and brick, and will be sold at the various events. IVC's own bookstore will soon have it in stock.

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Silent treatment

From the Register:
Trump protesters turned away at Dana Rohrabacher, Mimi Walters offices: We just want to be heard

excerpt:

Protesters seeking to express opposition to the immigration and travel ban, and other actions taken by President Donald Trump, have received less-than-welcome responses from people at the district offices of U.S. Representatives Dana Rohrabacher and Mimi Walters.

On Tuesday, property managers at Rohrabacher’s Huntington Beach office called police. And later that day protesters outside Walters’ office in Irvine were locked out.

Protesters have appeared at both offices, and at the office for Rep. Darrell Issa, several times in recent days. In at least one visit to Issa's office, a representative met with small groups to discuss the immigration and travel ban.

Photo by Nick Agro/ OC Register

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