Monday, October 29, 2018

Roquemore: a failure to lead


     6:15 - Well, the country is roiling in heavy seas right now, and most of us are anxiously on the lookout for more rogue waves. But I'm here, after a long absence, at the October meeting of the SOCCCD Board of Trustees. It's a spittoon in that vast sea. But it's our spittoon. And it's roiling too.
Pres. Roquemore
     The faculty union's expected to show tonight all pissed off about the lowball tactics of the district negotiating team re the contract. So, there's that.
     But there's plenty more to be pissed off about. We at Irvine Valley College are sick to death of our incompetent and corrupt president. His latest atrocity? Well, he seems unconcerned about threats to his faculty and even about swastikas scrawled on campus bathroom doors. He doesn't communicate about that stuff. Doesn't feel the need too.
     And those faculty? They were investigated. Unbelievable.
     I could go on.
     The trustees are starting to show up. I've seen two of 'em so far. Prendergast, Jemal, Lang. --More in a moment.

     6:21 - The union crowd is lining up in the back of the hall. Some of the usual suspects—staff—are stalking the room and warming seats. There are some unfamiliar faces, too. Newly hired administrators?

     6:23 - A week or two ago, a student was seen scrawling a swastika on a bathroom stall door (or somesuch) here at the college. There'd been a few other Neanderthalic spasms on campus recently: students with knives, haters of various kinds. At the Senate meeting, senators got steamed: how come we're not informed of this kinda thing? How come the President of this Goddam College in the Orange Groves doesn't SAY something?
     WTF! we said (or some said). Other colleges (and High Schools, etc.) know what to do, but, no, not the clueless Trump-voting , anti-intellectualist Roquemore.
     Here on the pages of DtB we started carping about all this last week. Then Pittsburgh happened.
     Gotta go.

     6:28 - Looks like all of the trustees are in the room—though two of 'em aren't in their seats. Things will start jumping' in just two minutes.
     Whitt finally sits down. Prendergast is talking with somebody in front of me.  —I see our new Chancellor. Haven't met her yet....
     Looks like the union crowd are mostly a no-show. Maybe they got what they wanted?

     6:30 - Jemal opens the meeting. Prendergast: "no report" - actions in closed session.
     Wright does prayer: "our father who art in heaven, ... Amen"
     Jay leads the pledge. It's all very lurid.

     One request for public comment: Kathy Schmeidler.
     Schmeidler: (wearing an FA shirt). The board, she says, seems to be pursuing a philosophy that was appropriate twenty years ago, but it hasn't been modulated appropriately in intervening years. Taxpayers expect something different now. Sometimes you adjust beautifully (!), but some of the time, you don't, board. (Use of district resources.)
     Two items. At one point the district negotiating team pushed idea that the district should own anything produced by faculty on district time. Absurd. The other issue: our foundation. The board can make it easy or hard to support the good work at the colleges. I do hope the board will take that into account and support foundation efforts—doing things outside the normal budget and support student learning and activities—things that are impossible to do without the foundation. Thank you.
     Jemal: any other requests? Nope.

Board reports:

     Trustee Dave Lang: he blabs about football games. Teacher of year awards at Disneyland Motel. THEN: Personally dealing with attack on synagogue in Pitsburgh. President's remarks disgraceful and embarrassing. We don't need more armed guards.
     Trustee Barbara Jay: Doug Barr's history of Saddleback College. Appreciate that. Trustees self-evaluation, blah blah blah. OC Business council conference, blah blah
     Trustee Tim Jemal: attended groundbreaking, Health and Wellness center, IVC. Attended the Economic forecast. Joining Lang: condolences re Pittsburgh Tree of Life center...
     I recently heard about the swastika business at IVC. Deeply concerning. Symbol of fascism, racism, etc. The 1st Amendment allows citizens to freely express themselves. That doesn't preclude our board rejecting bigotry and violence. I am greatly concerned about this resurgence of white supremacy and Neo-nazis. Appreciate Irvine Police chief Hamel and city councilwoman Melissa Fox response. (And where was the IVC response? It came belatedly.) Both condemn the acts of vandalism, etc. at IVC. But we should lead too. It is the responsibility of our leadership to lead too. (Yeah, he's spanking Roquemore.)
     Trustee Marcia Milchiger: excellent remarks, she says. I won't repeat what you've said; I agree with those remarks. She then blathers about the district retreat. OC Legislative Task force meeting. What should they concentrate on this year? Blah blah blah. Something about Halloween. She had fliers. Something about a voting booth (at Saddleback?)
     TJ Prendergast: thankful to be able to see professor of year thing. Blah.
     Trustee James Wright: appreciate comments about Pittsburgh massacre. Then talks about homecoming dance. Went to forums. IVC Health Center project groundbreaking at IVC.
     Trustee Terri Whitt: would like to say—shares the same sentiments as Lang. Attended board retreat. No-one likes to go to those. It was excellent, wonderful. Something about football. Foundation meeting. Thanks Doug Barr for his work on history of district/college. Invites others to join the "5 k run." It's for us to get together. It's for our vets. Put your effort into it.
     Student trustee Hoang - yammers about retreat, etc. Notes her forums. Blah blah blah. Females at IVC empowerment, etc. Feminist club; safe space. (Cute kid.) Pursuing "rights for students."
     Chancellor's report (Burke): blah
     Presidents' reports
     Roquemore: yes, I fully agree about the swastikas. "There's no room for this kind of activity...." "We are dedicated to stop this kind of activity, where it is coming from." (What an asshole.) Goes on about Coach Pestolisi. "He's always been a superstar on campus." Sand volleyball. Congrats to him.
     Saddleback college: we had a power outage at start of Presidential forums. We had the shake-out. Quite a week. (I think he's just an interim guy.) (Yeah, "Interim Pres Buysse")
     Student government reports.
     Some kid starts talking about Halloween and voting. A costume party and "other festivities." Arranging for buses to bus kids to vote. (No one will show up.) Nice effort though. A survey for food and housing and security at Saddleback. Sounds pretty good.
     Nobody representing IVC (students).

No requests for reports
No discussion items tonight.
Nothing pulled from consent calendar! Passes unanimously.
Jemal: "I guess we're doing something right."

GENERAL ACTION ITEMS:
6.1 - Board Policy subcommittee (three board members). Lang: all board policies or only those concerning the board? Wants to be careful about not micromanaging. Prendergast: we don't feel enough involved in policies. Lang: seeking clarity. Jemal: explanatory comment by Chancellor. Especially those policies that directly involve us (board members). It'll go through the usual channels, discussed openly. Prendergast: want to be more active, but no micromanaging. Want a little bit more involvement in the process. Jemal: yes, we can participate. Lang: sounds to me like this thing "is not fully cooked yet." "My opinion." We haven't fully thought this out. Prendergast agrees. So let's wait until next month. Alludes to "reorg in December." The motion to table. Whitt: I don't have a problem with this. Prendergast and Jemal disagree about meaning of this item. Lang: needs to be more restrictive role. Jemal: "I think it's clear and long overdue." Milchiker: lets table it "just to be collegial." Jemal: we shouldn't be involved in the AR, just the policy. We wrote very prescriptive policies in the past, Want to get away from that,. TABLED - unanimously.
6.2 - Board of Trustee goals. Chancellor Burke: drafted at the retreat. Took them then to district wide planning committee. Blah blah blah. Goal 2 a little too ambitious? (7-8% more reasonable.)
     Prendergast: some of these goals came from the state. The state number was much lower. Blah blah blah.
     Milchiker: usually we have wishy-washy goals. These are "so measurable." "We're already up there [our colleges' rates]; I don't mind increasing the percentage."
     Wright: what are our transfer rates right now? For all colleges? "I don't have that at hand."
     Milchiker: IVC is #1 in CAl.
     Lang: I think this requires a little bit more work on our part (the goals). This needs a little bit more work. Let's bring it back. Couple of comments: a typo. Would change such-and-such.... blah blah blah.
     Prendergast: we worked these out at retreat.
     Jemal: asks the Chancellor to weigh in. Do we need to work further on this? Chance: no. "I don't believe so." Let's move this forward.
     Prendergast: No heads will roll if we don't meat these goals. Just goals.
     Jemal: Chancellor has pointed out that our goals have been 'less than measurable" in recent years. Tying her goals to our goals.
     Lang: I like that they're measurable. Are they achievable? Maybe not realistic. Some of these could be worded better.
     They commence wordsmithing, such as they do. Sheesh. Lang says he doesn't want to spend the night wordsmithing this thing.
     This board reminds me of a set of lead balls connected with twine, flying in several directions through empty space.
     I dunno what they did in the end. I lost interest. I guess they approved the goals.
6.3 - IVC Barranca entrance. — they vote.
6.4 - More about the entrance/easement.
6.5 - IVC awarded $2 million.
6.6 - ... Not very interesting.
. . .
6.9 - Study Abroad, Oxford, AOK
. . .
6.12 - $783 k for temporary fencing at ATEP!
. . .
6.15 - BOARD POLICY REVISION.
. . .
6.19 - One-time stipends for faculty, conversion to Canvas. Jemal: how much longer will we be paying out these stipends. Answer: another two years. Jemal: this will be coming back every meeting? Yes, We've only paid out 1.4 million as yet. Apparently, IVC converted before there was any stipend. IVC faculty can ask for it now. Jemal seemed pissed about it. —Only Lang votes no.
. . .
6.22 - Public hearing, district initial proposal (contract) CSEA.
    Public can comment. OPEN. Public comments? No desire for public comments. Closed.
6.23 - student discipline at IVC. Prendergast: disciplinary hearing, expulsion of student. (Don't know if this is the kid with the knife.) Unanimous.
6.24 - Student petition from Saddleback Student. Denied for reinstatement pursuing degree program. Approved unanimously,
6.25 - Police Officers Association tentative agreement. Approval unanimous.

REPORTS:
BLAH BLAH BLAH (Went through these quickly; no actions)

Reports from administrative and governance groups:

SC Academic Senate - Saddened by recent events, etc.
Faculty Association (union): Kurt Meyer: "we're the faculty" shirt worn. It takes a village to teach a student, etc. We're most central and most vital to our educational mission, etc.  We comprise 1000 part-time faculty. Very encouraged: negotiating teams have come to agreement on salary tonight. 
But let's be better. Let's move to 75% full-time faculty.
Jemal: "very nice statement."
IVC Ac Senate: busy this semester. Congrats to negotiating teams. We're trying to get to the bottom of "defaced fliers" and swastikas.
Etc.
The new Human Sources person sounds sharp.
Somebody said something about a bake sale. That's it for me.

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

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...