The SOUTH ORANGE COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT —
"[The] blog he developed was something that made the district better." - Tim Jemal, SOCCCD BoT President, 7/24/23
Orange Coast College’s $113-million Student Union, College Center nears completion —LA Times Orange Coast College has been a relative ghost town since students transitioned to distance learning in March during the coronavirus pandemic, but for work crews, planners and designers the past few months have been busier than ever. And that work is beginning to bear fruit as officials with Orange Coast … announce the completion of several major building projects on the Costa Mesa campus that have been in the pipeline for more than a decade. Without the usual fanfare of a ribbon-cutting ceremony and public unveiling, work wrapped up in April on a $51-million aquatics center that is home to a 65-meter pool and 47,000 square feet of space for athletics and kinesiology courses. And now two new campus superstars — a 40,800-square-foot Student Union and a College Center, whose 119,185 square feet of space will accommodate a cafeteria as well as the campus’ culinary arts, hospitality and tourism programs — are nearly ready for their campus debut….
Late last month, Greg Patton ... was teaching a lesson on “filler words” in other languages -- think “err,” “um” or “like” in English -- in his master’s-level course on communication for management.
“Taking a break between ideas can help bring the audience in,” Patton said, according to a recording of one of the Zoom course sections and a transcription that appeared next to him on screen. “In China,” for instance, he continued, “the common pause word is ‘that that that.’ So in China it might be ne ga, ne ga, ne ga.” . . . One petition for Patton’s reinstatement with thousands of signatures says, “For him to be censored simply because a Chinese word sounds like an English pejorative term is a mistake and is not appropriate, especially given the educational setting. It also dismisses the fact that Chinese is a real language and has its own pronunciations that have no relation to English.” Ninety-four Marshall alumni, many of whom are Chinese and now live in China, wrote their own letter to the dean and other administrators, expressing support for Patton….
Departmental colleagues of Jessica Krug, the white associate professor of history at George Washington University who has been lying about being Black for her entire career, want her to resign or be fired. In a statement Friday, George Washington’s history faculty members said they are “shocked and appalled” at Krug’s “appropriation of an Afro-Caribbean identity” and betrayal of “countless current and former students, fellow scholars of Africana Studies, colleagues in our department and throughout the historical discipline, as well as community activists in New York City and beyond.”….
The discipline of history is “concerned with truth telling about the past,” the professors said, and so Krug’s conduct raises “questions about the veracity of her own research and teaching.” Krug should resign, they said, but if she doesn’t, the department recommends that she be untenured and terminated....
The Michigan State University Board of Trustees is set to vote this week to rename a campus building after some officials learned the building’s namesake was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. The measure has been recommended by the Trustee Committee on Academic Affairs.
The building was named after Stephen Nisbet, a late school principal, Michigan Education Association president, State Board of Education member and trustee at both MSU and Alma College.
The building was named after Nisbet in 1974. However, the board has highlighted information that strongly suggests Nisbet was a member of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.
The book Everyday Klansfolk: White Protestant Life and the KKK in 1920s Michigan, which was published in 2011, mentions Nisbet as a Klan member. Furthermore, his membership card is on file at the Central Michigan University Clarke Historical Library, according to a document in the board’s meeting packet….
✅What is Proposition 16? Affirmative action back on the ballot, in a more diverse and Democratic California -- The fall campaign to repeal California’s ban on affirmative action is a testament to the tectonic shift in the state’s politics since the 1990s — and a test of how far left its voters have swung from their politically purple past. Nico Savidge in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 9/8/20
✅SDSU will confine students to their dorms for additional week due to COVID-19 outbreak -- San Diego State University on Monday announced that it will keep 2,600 students confined to campus housing for an additional week due to a COVID-19 outbreak rather than allowing a Labor Day weekend lockdown to expire on Tuesday. Gary Robbins in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 9/8/20
✅600 UC San Diego students, faculty ask university to drop plans to re-open campus -- Nearly 600 UC San Diego students, faculty and staff have signed an open letter asking the school to drop plans to place thousands of undergraduates in dorms and resume some in-person classes due to the threat posed by the novel coronavirus. Gary Robbins in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 9/8/20
✅California Rx: State may dive into generic drug market -- California is poised to become the first state to develop its own line of generic drugs, targeting soaring drug prices and stepping into a fiercely competitive drug market dominated by deep-pocketed pharmaceutical companies. Angela Hart and Samantha Young in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/8/20
✅Activists concerned over rise in Orange County homeless deaths -- According to data from the coroner’s office, 146 homeless people died between April and August. During the same period last year, there were 82 deaths among the homeless. Although the coroner does not list a cause of death if it’s from natural causes, more than 90 of the causes for the homeless were left blank in reports. Ben Brazil in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/8/20
✅Today's County Covid numbers: 151 new cases; 3 new deaths; numbers steadily improving
