The pride of Trident U

[See 20+ comments below. See original post: Kiana and Glenn's nepotistic regime comes to a sudden end]

     This study found the overall quality of educational administration programs in the United States to be poor. The majority of programs range from inadequate to appalling, even at some of the country's leading universities. Collectively, school leadership programs are not successful on any of the nine quality criteria presented [in this report]. 

—From Educating School Leaders by Arthur Levine

     I'VE LEARNED a bit more about Chemistry Professor, Kiana Tabibzadeh, and her imminent transfer to Saddleback College—owing, evidently, to "nepotism" concerns.
     Tabibzadeh's husband is, of course, IVC President-for-Life Glenn Roquemore.
     Despite his corruption and incompetence, he's been IVC Prez for nearly 16 years.

* * *

     During this afternoon's meeting of the IVC Academic Senate, I asked about this matter. Here's what I learned:

• Evidently, at some point, "junior faculty" complained about a circumstance related to Tabibzadeh's role as Chair of the School of Physical Sciences and Technologies. I haven't learned any details, but it is likely that the complaints concerned Tabibzadeh's conduct and difficulties addressing that conduct in view of her relationship with the college president.
• [Tabibzadeh has long been notorious for her conduct as faculty and as chair and protection she enjoys (and routinely calls upon) as wife of the college president.
• [It is interesting to note that, prior to his ascendancy to administration in 1997 at the start of then-President Mathur's notorious regime (at IVC), Roquemore had been working with administrator Pam Deegan to address Mathur's misconduct as chair of the School.]
• Both faculty union (Faculty Association), and senate, officers were involved in this matter to some extent.
• These complaints ultimately led to involvement of the recently hired Vice Chancellor of Human Resources, Cindy Vyskocil.
• In the end, Tabibzadeh "volunteered" to transfer to Saddleback College.

* * *

     During the meeting, I read from the district's nepotism policy:

The District does not prohibit the employment of relatives (or domestic partners as defined by Family Code) in the same department, or division/school, with the exception that they shall not be assigned to a regular position within the same department, division/school, or site that has an immediate family member who is in a position to recommend or influence personnel decisions.

     Roquemore has been Vice President or President at IVC since January of 2000. Tabibzadeh has been a full-time instructor at IVC since 1997. (Roquemore was on her search committee. Reportedly, he was dating her at the time.) Assuming that the district's "nepotism" policy has not changed substantially, and given that Roquemore and Tabibzadeh's relationship goes back at least to 2000, it is clear that the college has been in violation of its nepotism policy since that time—i.e.,  for 18 years.
     WTF.
     And it appears that the violation is not merely technical. If long-time reports are accurate, Roquemore has been providing cover for Tabibzadeh's excesses and abuses for that entire period.
     People have lost jobs, y'know.

* * *

Dr. Wenling Li

     Tabibzadeh has a surprisingly high salary. How come?
     Part of the answer is her doctorate, earned in 2015. I did a little checking and found her dissertation (here). It is entitled "Student Academic Achievement in College Chemistry" (it's a degree in "education leadership," not chemistry), and it was conferred by Trident University International, a tiny, new (2007) for-profit located in beauteous Cypress, CA.
     Trident has no campus, since all of its instruction is online.
     Tabibzadeh's dissertation committee is curious. Included among its three members are Sanjay Gupta and Brent Monte, both Math instructors at IVC. The committee chair is Dr. Wenling Li, "Doctoral Studies Director" of Trident's College of Education.

* * *

     So what kind of place is Trident (TUI)?
     I found a report (2012) on Trident by the "Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions." It paints a dismal picture:

On T's dissertation committee

     TUI spent $1,118 per student on instruction in 2009, compared to $494 per student on marketing and $2,056 per student on profit. The amount that privately held companies examined by the committee spend on instruction ranges from $1,118 (TUI) to $6,389 per student per year. In contrast, public and non-profit schools generally spend a higher amount per student on instruction. Other California-based colleges spent, on a per student basis, $15,039 at the University of California-Irvine, and $35,920 at the University of Southern California.
. . .
     In 2011, WASC called on TUI to show cause why its accreditation should not be terminated on March 30, 2012. WASC's Show Cause Order resulted from its finding that TUI failed to meet standards regarding defining and achieving educational objectives. On February 24, 2012, the order to show cause was lifted, but TUI was placed on probation by the accreditor for making progress towards, but still not meeting, the accreditor's standards.

Gupta: on T's dissertation committee

     The Order followed a March 2010 warning letter, expressing concern about TUI's Capacity and Preparatory Review (CPR) report, a key report in WASC's accreditation review process. WASC acknowledged that "considerable effort had been undertaken by a large number of people in support of the University's CPR report." Even with that effort, however, WASC also noted that its review team "found the report difficult to follow and lacking in reflection and supportive evidence beyond assertions."
     WASC accepted TUI's report, but noted several standards that the school needed to address before the next stage of accreditation review, the Educational Effectiveness Review (EER). WASC also rescheduled the EER to allow more time to address the lacking standards. WASC cautioned that Trident should address those standards "with analysis of evidence rather than the conclusionary approach present in the CPR report [sic]."
     The EER was rescheduled for the spring of 2011. On February 24, 2012, WASC lifted the order to show cause and placed the school on probation.

      Ed.D degrees are worthless even when conferred by reputable institutions. How low do you rate 'em when they're conferred by a place like Trident?
      No matter. Kiana got her salary bump.

P.S.

     ● How is Trident U ranked? I checked U.S. News and World Report. There, Trident is "unranked." Why? Because the "School refused to fill out U.S. News statistical survey."
     U.S. News did, however, have Trident "selectivity" data: the Fall 2016 acceptance rate was 96%.
     Selectivity: "least selective."

     ● A blast from the past: The Irvine Valley Chronicles, Feb. 6, 2013:

c. 2012 -Vacationing in Hawaii (?) with probie Scott

     Did you know that one of the current probies [Dan Scott] is a close personal friend of the college President? Gosh, I do hope everyone is on their best behavior. It will be interesting to learn who'll get tenure and who won't.
     —Well, maybe not "interesting."

Note: Scott did receive tenure

     ● In her dissertation, Tabibzadeh thanks "Dr. Mary Scott." This would seem to be the wife of IVC business instructor Dan Scott, who, along with Mary (Provost at Concordia U), vacationed with the Roquemores despite Dan's probationary status. (See photo above.)
     Golly.

     ● Dan Scott is a Doctor of Business Administration (DBS), evidently. And where'd he get that degree? U of Phoenix, natch. (The institution is "unranked," of course, by U.S. News & WR. Why? "School refused to fill out U.S. News statistical survey.") As you know, Roquemore, inexplicably, has a high regard of UoP. Selectivity? "Least selective."

Special relationship w/ Prez

     ● According to his LinkedIn page, Scott worked as an adjunct at Concordia U from 2004-2009. If he was married to Mary, Provost of Concordia (2006), at the time—BINGO! It's nepotism time once again.
     Evidently, Scott also worked for the ethically challenged ARAMARK corporation for 19 years.

* * *

. . .
Accreditation at Risk (Inside Higher Ed; July 15, 2011)
Agency threatens to terminate approval of online for-profit college in California, citing its failure to reveal problems with certifying that students met degree requirements.

     An online for-profit college in California [Trident] that serves mostly military service members is on the verge of losing its regional accreditation, for failing to ensure that students transferring in had fulfilled their general education requirements and, more importantly, for failing to tell the accreditor about the problem.
. . .
     That wasn't the biggest problem, though, at least in the eyes of officials at WASC. The accrediting agency had a team visit Trident in the spring, but no mention was made of the problem, Ralph S. Wolff, the agency's president, said in an interview Thursday. And in fact, "at no point did they disclose this" to us, Wolff said, noting that Western officials had learned about the issue "from a third party." The agency's Standard 1.9, he said, requires that institutions engage in "honest, open communication with WASC" and "inform WASC of material matters."
. . .
     It is not at all clear whether those promises will satisfy the Western agency, which like other accreditors is under significant scrutiny to prove that it is rigorously ensuring that students at its institutions are getting a meaningful education. The agency said its officials would conduct a special visit this fall to "evaluate Trident's progress in addressing the commission's concerns." But based on the commission's action in June, Western will terminate the institution's accreditation in March, Wolff said, "unless [it] can demonstrate to us that it has restored academic and operational integrity."

Summer 2011: controversy facing trident university international (Degree Info, Jun 2, 2012)

     …In March of this year the accreditation of Trident University International was placed on probationary status after the university succeeded in avoiding the revocation of its accreditation following receipt of a "Show Cause" letter in the Summer of 2011.…
     The management of Trident (TUI) changed after it became a for-profit institution in 2007 and over the course of the following two to three years a number of managerial staff were hired in anticipation of the university's expansion. When the transcripts and institutional integrity crisis hit TUI in the Spring and Summer of 2011 and WASC issued them the severe reprimand of a letter demanding it show cause why its accreditation should not be revoked, many of these staff worked extremely hard to analyze systems, reassure students, effect changes and generally pull the institution through the crisis. Nonetheless new registrations dropped by 40% and almost immediately after WASC transferred TUI to probationary status fifteen of those staff were fired, including the remaining VP of Marketing and the VP of Student Services.
     Then in late May of this year it was announced that staff were to work a four day week, faculty pay would be reduced and faculty jobs were being reassessed with the likelihood that the employment of a number would be terminated. In addition the way faculty time is credited on the doctoral program has been changed. As the amount of time faculty needed to spend with doctoral students was greater than that with undergraduates or masters students in the past if a faculty member was assigned to teach a doctoral student this would count as equivalent to five other students. This then was reduced to three other students and now in May it was announced that this distinction is to be abolished and teaching a doctoral student will be regarded as equivalent to teaching an undergraduate.
     This sends a clear signal to faculty about the value being placed on the university's doctoral program, one which anyway the for-profit management had regarded ambivalently. On the one hand they accepted that having a doctoral program reflected well on the university but on the other they felt that it was not cost effective unless it could be "scaled up" somehow. This was not achieved prior to the transcripts and integrity scandal and so now it looks as though the future of TUI's doctoral program might be in question. This may not be a surprise given that the university's new President has past experience at Argosy University….