Academic Senate sends "resolution" to BOT recommending that the Utt Library be renamed

     Upon perusing the agenda for Monday's BOT meeting, I happened upon this letter to the Board from Saddleback College Academic Senate President Dan Walsh with a senate resolution recommending that the "James B. Utt Memorial Library" be renamed. (I found it under the governance groups' "reports" section of the agenda.) (See the letter below.)

     The resolution, evidently passed in November, notes that "the building was never officially named through any action by the SOCCCD Board of Trustees."

     The key "whereas" is this one:

Whereas ... James B. Utt repeatedly made disparaging racial remarks and voted against both the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, in contradiction to the stated Saddleback College values of collegiality and inclusiveness....

     The recommended new name? —The "Saddleback College Library and Learning Center."

     Catchy.

     Is Walsh asking that the matter be agendized? Perhaps he is hoping that can be avoided.

     The senate better hope that Fuentes isn't paying attention to all this. But I'm sure he is.

     I don't see Fuentes sitting still for this. Even in his diminished state.

     Expect fireworks.

The CAFÉ BIBLIOTHÈQUE

     CAFÉ BIBLIOTHÈQUE. I've just returned from sabbatical, and so I was a little surprised to discover—yesterday, at a senate meeting—that the IVC Academic Senate's so-called CAFÉ concept is alive and well. You'll recall that the Academic Senate's President, Lisa Davis Allen, has long championed this idea, which, a year or so ago, was explained during Senate meetings as follows:

[Academic Senate President] Lisa [Davis Allen] had an idea and has full support from [VPI] Craig [Justice]. The concept is a space, a home, for faculty to gather, to be trained, with cabinets [to] house text books, journals, a place for colleagues to talk, a place to explore and test new software and technology, a place to do grant writing, – all things that relate to excellence in ... teaching – a place to house people, technology, and support all in one place. We would be able to go into a space/place and meet with peers, discuss teaching, problems, strategies. It would be wide open. A morale booster of sorts.

     Later, the planned facility took on the acronym "CAFÉ" (i.e., the "Center for the Advancement of Faculty Éxcellence")—an unfortunate moniker, since it inspired the notion among some non-faculty that the faculty, and only faculty, would soon have their own, well, café!
     But it's not a café. OK? It's a "faculty excellence" center. No waitresses or waiters. No goofy little round tables and awnings. Maybe a coffee machine. A Mr. Coffee.
     Slightly better informed non-faculty were put out, not by the notion that faculty would soon have their own restaurant, but by the apparent fact that the CAFÉ, whatever its nature, was to replace a seriously nice space (in the fancy BSTIC building) that had for years been devoted to students (namely, the MRC). Now, as far as I know, in fact, the elimination/move of the MRC was a development independent of the appearance of the Senate's CAFÉ — it had more to do, I think, with disastrous irregularities that had been discovered in the manner in which faculty ran labs in certain areas on campus. Or perhaps it reflected simply an effort to bring back that space to the use for which it was intended (Craig Justice). Whatever the cause, the move to eliminate or move the MRC did not come about simply because faculty insisted on having some goofy faculty center.
     The anti-CAFÉ (or anti-CAFÉ at MRC) backlash in August was so strong, I guess, that the decision to locate the dang thing in that seriously cool space in BSTIC was reversed. From afar, it seemed that the "faculty space" or  CAFÉ  idea had been killed.
     But no. Yesterday, during the semester's first Academic Senate meeting, I learned that the CAFÉ idea is alive and well and the facility will in fact be located on the first floor of the IVC Library, where the old "Learning Center" used to be. (Gosh, I wonder where that operation has gone to?)
     Check out the pics above and below.

The Academic Senate crew hasn't had a chance to rearrange the deck chairs yet.

One of two offices in the CAFÉ space. I call this the "Captain's Quarters."

Another office in the space. I'm guessing this will be the office of the sommelier. 

     Yesterday, I asked LDA if the Senate had hired waitresses yet. She seemed to take that in good humor. Yuk, yuk, yuk.
     I also asked if some effort would be made to provide space for part-timers. As on previous occasions, LDA answered that the CAFÉ is for faculty, and part-time faculty are, of course, faculty. QED.
     Part-timers, are you reading this? I've got just one thing to say.
     OCCUPY. 
     Are you feelin' me?

     WHAT'S SMALL, DREARY, AND PACKED WITH VAST EMPTINESS? Also today I had occasion to visit IVC's Administration Building. Oddly, inside, it is a vast empty space surrounded by (mostly) enclosed offices.
     I don't get it. Is this vast empty space a dancehall or something? Is it a space reserved for those dang "Amazing Invention" kids? Maybe it's where Glenn plans to land the next time he jumps out of an airplane, dunno.

     COLD, METALLIC & INDECISIVE. Another interesting new feature of our campus is new signage. The new signs are everywhere, and I bet they're pricey.
     I haven't yet decided whether I like these signs. The style is a tad cold and even lurid. Encountering one of these signs is like finding a wedge of titanium in one's organic ramen.

     LANG'S HOBBY. Upon visiting the IVC Library, I noticed a display in the entrance area. Evidently, Trustee (and vicious backstabber) David Lang is a baseball fan, or maybe more specifically a fan of the old Negro Leagues. Check out these pics.

     It's a pretty cool collection, I guess, even if Lang is the worst kind of back-stabbing opportunist.

     GREAT LAWN. Here's another IVC construction project—something called the "Great Lawn." This looks pretty cool. I hope they're not payin' too much for it. My dad coulda done it for 'em cheap.

     ADMINISTRATIVE POSIES. I happened upon Dean of Academic Programs Kathleen Werle, who was holding a small planter of proto-flowers. —Something about some kind of Chinese or Vietnamese festival coming up. Not sure.
     These bulbs haven't sprouted yet. But it's always good to see people who are into posies and such and who are willing to spruce up the campus.

The former Media Resource Center (MRC) in BSTIC. No CAFÉ here 

Renaming Saddleback College's "Butt" Library

     I noticed that, on Monday, the Lariat posted an editorial: What should the new Library be named?
     Gosh, I’m surprised that college officials are even contemplating changing the library’s name, what with Tom Fuentes still among the living! (Fuentes knew and loved cold war right-winger James B. Utt, after whom the library was originally named.)
     The Lariat clearly seems to think that a name-change opportunity exists.
     It notes a serious problem with the existing name: “Currently the name is the James B. Utt library which has been given the nickname the ‘Butt Library.’”
     Ouch.
     The Lariat seems to embrace criteria for naming the library after a person: “A person should be memorialized with his or her name on a building only if they have contributed a lot to the campus, both in his or her terms of time and monetary patronage.”
     Both? Whatever.
     The Lariat has a sense of humor:

     One of the more popular ideas is to give the name a sense of learning and dedication.
     The Saddleback College Library of the Pursuit of Higher Dedication to the Continual Journey of Knowledge [SCLPHDCJK for short], is certainly not a practical name but the essence is to give it a cerebral quality that should be found at a college.

     Yes, a cerebral quality should indeed be found at a college.
     That’s funny, especially at Saddleback.
     Naturally, I wrote them my suggestions:

     …How about the “Bedtime for Bonzo” Library—in honor of Saint Ronald, who was on hand for the campus’s opening?
     “Bonzo” Library is more pithy. Also “Bedtime” Library (which gets a plus for fidelity to fact).
     Or just “Library.” That would be cool, pithy-wise.
     You can’t call it the “Gaucho” Library because, as you should know, the “Gaucho” moniker/mascot is controversial and, indeed, there’s some sort of committee working on its replacement.
     How about “Gabacho” Library? From “Gaucho” to “Gebacho” is cool, I think, in a meta kind of way.
     The original library’s design was changed when right-wing trustees got weirded out by the student anti-war protests occurring in Santa Barbara at the time. That’s why it had no windows: they wanted it to be a fortress against students!
     So how about “Bastion” Library? Or “Paranoid” Library? Or maybe the “Fear of Students” Library?
     For the sake of timeliness, I’d go with the “Soon-to-be-phased-out” Library or the “Increasingly Anachronistic” Library.
     Or you could go in the other direction. Call it “Books” Library. That would be fun, I think. There’s a nice right to that.
     One more: the “Non-ALA affiliated” Library. Or just the “Benighted” Library.

     Be sure to send the Lariat—and college decision-makers—your own thoughtful suggestions. It couldn’t possibly hurt.