Scenes from the Humanities & Languages end-of-semester party

Jeanne's place is in Tustin, and it's lovely, inside and out.

Limber Lou played with the dog. He was pretty smiley. Lou, I mean.

Bea w/ flan, I think.

Kate & Brenda sat on the porch, like Andy & Barney. I think I was Floyd.

Steve (& Jeanne). You'd never guess lookin' at him, but Steve's our "religion" guy. He's good.

Shel w/ shark cap. I see him maybe once a year, and he's always wearing that thing. (He always reminds me that I gave it to him.)

Lisa, observing me on the floor with my camera, seemed dubious. "Taking pictures up ladies dresses, eh?" said a nearby Red Emma. Nope, I was just down there talkin' with the dog.

Red qua Dick—and Fumiko qua Fumiko.

Frank grabbed my camera with a big show of annoyance. He took a snap of Jeanne 'n' me.

Karima, dean of H&L, among other things.

Lou was happy, playin' fetch with a drool ball. I hosed it off.

Jeanne reads to Lou. Somethin' about executing a servant girl for spillin' milk. You know: a children's book.

Jan & Jeff are happier than ever, I think. Somebody said that they're retiring. Could be.

Subdued

MY FRIENDS down south tell me that, at today’s special meeting of the District Leadership Council, Chancellor Mathur briefly held forth on his recent court experience, lecturing those in attendance.

Given his key role in the disastrous & embarrassing & disturbing Rodney Poindexter episode--which of course yielded his recent courtroom adventure--one might suppose that Mathur would take the opportunity to warn others against his many and egregious errors.

I'm told that he acknowledged no errors.

Then he asked for questions. There were none.

The meeting was over.

Maybe somebody told the fellow to take the high road and he thinks this is it.

More outstanding community college leaders

.
1. IN HOT WATER?

Inside Higher Ed directs us to a story (Ringle steps down from TMCC helm) about Philip Ringle, who is stepping down as president of Truckee Meadows Community College:

…Chancellor Jim Rogers said Ringle's departure has nothing to do with a sexual harassment complaint filed last year against him, the second such charge in two years made against him.

Karen Magstadt, Ringle's former executive assistant, filed a complaint that is pending before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, charging him with sexual harassment.

The complaint alleges that Ringle stalked her, following her to the ladies' restroom and waiting outside, following her to her car after work, asking her "inappropriate questions" and creating a hostile work environment.

…In 2006, a former employee was paid $10,000 to end a sexual harassment lawsuit against Ringle …[Anne-Louise] Bennett, 55, had sued Ringle in federal court in Reno, charging he had created a hostile work environment after she refused to accept his offers to have dinner with him and then join him in his hot tub while his wife was out of town….

See also: High Level Harassment?

2. A SPECIAL KIND OF FINANCIAL AID

IHE also directs us to a story about the director of financial aid at an Alabama community college: 14 more arrests in Bishop State investigation:

The director of Bishop State Community College's financial aid office was among 14 people charged with theft Tuesday in an ongoing fraud investigation at the Mobile school.

Financial aid director Charles Weymon Holloway, 59, was charged with first degree theft by deception along with his sister-in-law Jaqueline Williams, who is employed in the school's maintenance department. Also charged were the school's softball coach, baseball coach, barbering teacher, tailoring instructor and bookstore, cosmetology and admissions employees.

"We have now charged 27 people with felony theft since our investigations began last summer," District Attorney John Tyson Jr. said in a statement Tuesday. "The corruption in this office runs deep, and we are still investigating."

The college president, Yvonne Kennedy (pictured above), is also a legislator.

3. RAGHU MATHUR, POP IDOL?


Few are aware that, as a young man, now-Chancellor Raghu P. Mathur (of the South Orange County Community College District) tried out for Sri Lankan Idol, Sri Lanka's version of "American Idol." Mathur didn't get far, he says, owing to a bad case of 5 o'clock shadow, which he blames on the producers of the program. "I was prepared to do what was necessary to win," he now says. "But a core group of the show's producers were afraid of my awesome talent, and so they conspired to dull my razor blade. I'm certain of it."

Over the years, the alleged perpetrators have repeatedly demanded that Mathur produce the razor blade in question. He now says that the blade has "gone missing."

4. GRATUITOUS NIECE/NEPHEW PICS
(I.e., outstanding future students)

The Scantron inspiration

.
A manual Scantron multiple-choice reader

A "Transfer Celebration" was held at IVC today.

The RAGHU ROAD

Last week, in court, Chancellor Raghu P. Mathur prevailed against a woman who had accused him of discrimination. Post-victory, anyone else would perceive that two roads lay before them: the high road of magnanimity—and the low road of petty gloatery. They would understand that they really ought to take the high road, not the low road.

But not our Raghu.

Last Friday, he proclaimed his “exoneration.” I think I heard trumpets. Then, this week, he announced a Tuesday meeting of the district administrative leadership—apparently for the purpose of discussing his court victory.

Administrators scrambled to accommodate the fellow. Then, at the last minute, Raghu rescheduled the meeting for Friday afternoon, sending administrators into scramblage anew. —You know, just like always.


LET’S BE POSITIVE

It is conceivable, I suppose, that the meeting will be useful. Perhaps Raghu will advise administrators not to make the mistakes that he has made. Maybe he’ll offer advice gained through bitter experience.

“Whatever you do,” he’ll say, “don’t explain a decision not to hire, for some job, a more qualified person of color by saying ‘I didn’t want to be accused of reverse discrimination!’”

“That makes you look bad, evidently.”

“In fact,” he’ll add, “you might want to just go ahead and hire the more qualified candidate.”

“Prudence is but experience,” wrote Hobbes, “which time equally bestows upon all men.” —Something like that. Don’t have it right in front of me.


Raghu would continue: “And whatever you do, don’t hire an incompetent frigging lunatic. Not like I did. Sheesh. You can’t imagine the personal inconvenience I have suffered.”

"Listen up! I'm trying to help you here!"

In my imagination, Raghu would be a font of wisdom: “One more thing: before you hire an administrator, for God’s sake, contact their former employer first! See if the guy is, like, a totally embarrassing jackass from hell!”

Ah, yes. “And when, six months into his job, you discover that, at his previous job, the guy you hired—you know, the less qualified person—had exhibited disturbing behavior and had even cost a unit its accreditation, you might want to take seriously any complaints you get about the guy's behavior. Even complaints from people you don’t like!"

"Don’t do what WE did—you know, nothing, until finally Ted Weatherford shows up and knocks the guy on his ass and sirens fill the air and reporters buzz around and trustees ask questions and everything goes blooey!”

We do hope that, after the meeting on Friday, attendees will drop us a note, explaining what the darned meeting was all about.

Sorry about your Friday afternoon being messed up. That sucks.

THE STATE OF NATURE

Mathur’s court victory sent a clear message to female employees: here in the district, if you are menaced by your mentally ill boss, the district won’t do squat for you—unless Ted shows up to put a little English on the cue ball.

Hence, here at Irvine Valley College, baseball bats are proliferating. I’ve included snaps of a few of ‘em.


"WHICH NOVELS SHOULD I READ?"

Are you getting the same kind of absurd grief from students that I’m getting? I just got an email from a student (for my Philosophy 1 class) who now tells me that he’s been abroad for over a month. He just got back.

It's the first I've heard about his absence. Naturally, he missed a month of class, including several written exercises. That means that he's already got an F.

He writes: “Could you tell me if there are any novels I’m supposed to read, or anything?”

Novels?

“And when’s the final. Could you tell me about the final? I think I can make it for the final, but when is it?”

Tell us your STUDENT STORIES. We love 'em! (Students, and student stories.)

INSPIRATION FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS BUILDING?


At one point today, I was called from my office by some colleagues. "Bring your camera!" they shouted.

OK. They claimed that they had just figured out the architectural inspiration for the new Performing Arts Building. You know, it's that new thing with the special shapes and angles goin' on. Plus wacky colors.

They pointed to the goddam Scantron machine sitting right there in our so-called "faculty lounge."


Could be.

Rebel Girl's Poetry Corner: The Weight of the World is Love

~
LAST WEEK, a long week filled with one thing and another, but mostly filled with the weight of death, the sudden death of my son's "Baja grandpa," Rebel Girl walked into the Humanities Center and saw a student reading Allen Ginsberg's Howl, the small black and white City Lights edition. She wasn't reading it, the student told me, because it was assigned. She was reading it because she always wanted to. She was deep into it too, past "Howl," past "Footnote for Howl," beyond "A Supermarket in California" and "Sunflower Sutra" and "America."

And so, for that student and for my friend, dead now, heart attack underwater while doing what he did best and often: helping others, and for the rest of us, one of Allen Ginsberg's earlier poems from the back of the book, a sweet thing, maybe too sweet, but hey.

Song

The weight of the world
is love.
Under the burden
of solitude,
under the burden
of dissatisfaction

the weight,
the weight we carry
is love.

Who can deny?
In dreams
it touches
the body,
in thought
constructs
a miracle,
in imagination
anguishes
till born
in human—

looks out of the heart
burning with purity—
for the burden of life
is love,

but we carry the weight
wearily,
and so must rest
in the arms of love
at last,
must rest in the arms
of love.

No rest
without love,
no sleep
without dreams
of love—
be mad or chill
obsessed with angels
or machines,
the final wish
is love
—cannot be bitter,
cannot deny,
cannot withhold
if denied:

the weight is too heavy

—must give
for no return
as thought
is given
in solitude
in all the excellence
of its excess.
The warm bodies
shine together
in the darkness,
the hand moves
to the center
of the flesh,
the skin trembles
in happiness
and the soul comes
joyful to the eye—

yes, yes,
that's what
I wanted,
I always wanted,
I always wanted,
to return
to the body
where I was born.

Was a Sunny day

.
K & L

Was a sunny day
Not a cloud was in the sky
Not a negative word was heard
From the people passing by
'Twas a sunny day
All the birdies in the trees
And the radio's singing songs
All the favorite melodies

—Paul Simon

LAST NIGHT, Jan and I hosted a party in honor of Ken, a student in my Intro to Philosophy class during my first semester at Irvine Valley College—many years ago.

Now, Ken has a doctorate in philosophy and, recently, he was offered a tenure-track position in the philosophy department of a state university on the Central California coast.

Oh, what a lucky man!


A good time was had by all. Even the normally shy Sunny Girl came out to visit—with the lovely Laurie, who, in fact, is mom to Sunny's two kittens, who are now 16 years old and living the good life, with Laurie, in Laguna Niguel.

After several hours, we moved inside, and proceeded to watch rare videos of the Ramones, Patti Smith, Elivis Costello, and Jonathan Richman. Jan drank Glenlivet (I never touch the stuff), then Laphroaig. This inspired him to demand that I play The Modern Lovers. I obliged the fellow, blasting forth Roadrunner (1972), to the delight of all:

Alright!
I'm in love with modern moonlight
128 when it's dark outside
I'm in love with Massachusetts
I'm in love with the radio on
It helps me from being alone late at night
It helps me from being lonely late at night
I don't feel so bad now in the car
Don't feel so alone, got the radio on
Like the roadrunner
That's right!

TODAY, Sunny and I spent some time outside, enjoying the sunshine and the spectacular view. I sat in my SUN chair. Sunny hunted bugs and ate grass. We listened to the Modern Lovers' Jonathan Richman.

Do yourself a favor and check out this loony video, set to a wacky Richman tune.

It'll make you smile, I promise!

And, oh: Sunny says "Hey!"

Coarse FUR & Mathur's inventiveness

MAN, I wish I could find me a better crew of critics and opponents. The "Friends uv Raghu" (F.U.R.) are an embarrassment. If they don't come up with better stuff soon, I'll have to write my own anti-Dissent comments.

Have you been reading the comments to our blog? There's been lots of support, but lots of FUR, too.

Evidently, FUR imagine that I, Chunk, instigated Cely's suit, or that Carol Sobel did.

No. Cely had been victimized (does anyone really doubt that?), and she needed an attorney. At some point, she approached Carol. Carol did not approach her.

I have never been involved in this case in any way.

My connection to this case amounts to this: I was aware of it. I attended 4 of the 6 days of the trial. I attended and reported on the trial because I support Cely (qua victim of workplace violence, qua victim of Mathur), because Carol is a friend of mine (she was my attorney), and because reporting on this trial made sense for Dissent.

How so? I knew that, whatever the trial's outcome (which was always in doubt, for discrimination suits, I was told, are notoriously difficult to win), testimony would permit highlighting the truth about Mathur.

Example: on the stand, Mathur acknowledged that the documentation for his mysterious "4th reference check" (on Poindexter)--the other three provided no substantial grounds for hiring P--has been lost (or, anyway, has not been produced by the district). How very convenient for Raghu.

That reminds me of Mathur's 1998 accusation that some IVC faculty were sending him "hate mail" and hate messages--perhaps a half dozen instances. That was mighty convenient, too (Mathur had just suffered a vote of "no confidence").


MATHURIAN CLAIMS, MATHURIAN DOCUMENTATION:

During a subsequent depo (see below), he was asked if he kept any of the mail. No, he said. He was asked if he kept any of the emails. No, he said. He was asked if he kept any of the alleged voicemail. No, he said. He "kept" nothing. Absolutely nothing. He had zero documentation to support his stunning and obnoxious claim.

And now, again, he has no documentation for the crucial claim (to defending the wisdom of his chosing Poindexter) that there was one reference who had "very positive" things to say about Poindexter, the man he hired despite his manifest lack of qualifications.

One needs to ask: how likely is it that this crucial required documentation was lost? Of all the "ref check" forms filed at the district, why is this one lost?

Mathur deposed: Sept. 28, 1999

During the May 21, 1998, board meeting, Mathur, stung by a recent 74% faculty vote of no confidence, lashed out at an alleged faculty cabal who were, he said, “at the very core” of the vote against him. In the course of his rantings, three instuctors were named, including Bauer. Remarkably, without offering a shred of evidence, he asserted that “People in this core in the past have sent me mail threats saying, ‘Go back to your country.’ These threats have come from some of these people, I am confident of it. When I went to the Sheriff’s Department and exposed it, all of a sudden those mail threats stopped.” He ended his remarks with a rhetorical flourish, describing how he had arrived on “American shores some 31 years ago with eight dollars in my pocket [and]…a dream.”]

The attorney asking the questions is Carol Sobel. Mathur’s attorney, David Larsen, was provided by the district.

Q Did you ever make any statements to the effect that you had received e-mail you perceived to be threats against you?

A Yes.

Q When did you make those statements?

A I made a statement to that effect at a board meeting….

Q What did you tell the board about the e-mail you received?

A That I have received threats. I don’t recall exactly what I said, but something to the effect that I have received threats from a small group of faculty staff members, and that’s essentially what I said.

Q How many threats did you receive?

A I believe I have received about three or four.

Q Were they all received close in time to each other?

A Over a period of time. I don’t know if I would characterize [it as] close together.

Q Over what period of time were they received?

A About six months or so.

Q Did you print them out?

A Some were already imprinted. I received them in the form of letters, and I remember one was a voice mail.

Q So it is not correct then that you received e-mail threats; is that correct?

A I may have received them, but I don’t recall right now.

Q You don’t recall if you received any e-mail threats?

A I’m thinking. I believe I have received one or two….

Q Now, let’s talk about the first threat you recall receiving. Was that voicemail, letter, or e-mail?

A That was a letter.

Q Do you have that letter today?

A I had turned the letters over to the sheriff’s department….

Q Is there some document you can consult to find out the name of the individual at the OC Sheriff’s Department you consulted with?

A I did try, but I think maybe—yeah. I can try.

Q Well, you said it’s somebody you work[ed] with [at the Sheriff’s Dept.]. In what capacity did you work with the person?

A Whatever his official capacity was. I don’t remember. But I went to file a complaint, reported it to the receptionist. She brought one of the inspectors and I told the story and he wanted copies of those [letters] turned over. And he advised me to talk it up in the college, which I did. And this was after two or three such letters I have received, and in the time being, it stopped. The threats had stopped.

Q Where did you go to report this?

A Laguna Hills Sheriff’s Department….

Q Do you recall when it was that you went to the…Sheriff’s Department?…

A I believe it was sometime in 1990.

Q Did you receive these in 1990?

A Yes.

Q Was there some reason why you waited nine years to raise this with the board?

A It’s because the threats were becoming more violent in nature in terms of references to dropping granite or in terms of attacks on me, on my implications of attacks on my body and so forth. I felt that I had to convey my concerns to the board.

Q Between 1990 and the time Professor Bauer started publishing the Dissent and ‘Vine, which I believe was sometime in late ’97, how many letters did you receive conveying threats to you?

A As I indicated, three to four letters I received, and I did report at the time also to the chancellor of the district.

Q I understand that. You indicated, if I understood your prior testimony—and if I’m incorrect, correct me—that you had received three or four letters at the time you went to the OC Sheriff’s Department, which now turns out to be in 1990?

MR. LARSEN: What do you mean “now” turns out to be 1990? Probably always been.

MS. SOBEL: The witness testified that he went to the board a year ago. The e-mail threats have now become several letters and voice mail and perhaps one or two e-mails, and the letters were all in 1990, so I’m just trying to make sure that I have this chronology accurate.

MR. LARSEN: Your questions and tone of voice are argumentative. That’s all. Go ahead.

MS. SOBEL: I appreciate it, but you can imagine my surprise that these [incidents] turned out to be eight years earlier.

Q In between the letter that you received that caused you to go to the…Sheriff’s Department and the time you spoke to the board, how many letters did you receive conveying threats to you?

A All together including e-mail, voice mail, written letters—

Q I’m just asking for the letters right now, Mr. Mathur.

A It was all together about half a dozen.

Q When were the other three or two received by you? Were they after you went to the sheriff’s department?

A Yes.

Q When was that?

A Some were received in the last couple of years.

Q When you say the last couple of years, Mr. Mathur, can you be more specific? We are only talking about two or three letters here, so were they received in 1990 after you went to the sheriff’s department, or were they received in 1995?

A Well, some [were] received in the 1990 time frame. Some have been received in the last—two or three have also been received in the last couple [of] years.

Q Do you have copies of any of the letters? We are now up to about six or seven…..

A I will have to look into my files and find out if I do or don’t.

Q Did you turn over the subsequent letters to the OC Sheriff’s Department as well?

A This time, I didn’t because—

MR. LARSEN: Well, you answered the question.

Q Why didn’t you go back to the OC Sheriff’s Department, if you received more letters?

A Because of my experience from the first time. What they advised me was to talk it up, and that’s what I’ve done, and that’s why I chose to talk about it at the public board meeting.

Q Had you received the letters just prior to the time you spoke at the public board meeting?

A It’s possible. But I can’t give an exact time frame.

Q Were any of the letters signed?

A They were unsigned.

Q What do you recall was the content of the first letter you received?

A “Go back to your country where you came from.”

Q And that was one of the letters in 1990, correct?

A No. This is one of the letters I receive now.

Q Is that the first letter you recall receiving?

A In the recent times, yes.

Q Was the letter handwritten or typed?

A It was typed.

Q Was it typed in just a regular type face or words cut out of a magazine and pasted on paper?

A No. Typed.

Q Was there anything about the letter that was distinctive that suggested to you what the source might have been?

A No. Seemed it was written by someone from within the college.

Q Why did it seem like it was written by someone from within the college?

A Because this is where Bauer was publishing newsletters and creating a hostile work environment.

Q When do you recall receiving this letter?

A Before I made those comments at the public board meeting.

Q But you don’t know when?

A I can’t give you the exact time….

Q Did you look at it to see where it was mailed from?

A Yes.

Q What did it say?

A Santa Ana.

Q And did you keep the envelope?

A I may have. Like I said, I don’t know whether I saved the letters or not, based on my experience with the previous situation.

Q Did you inform anybody at the time you received the letter that you had received it?

A Informed my family.

Q Did you receive the letter at home or at work?

A At home….

Q Who did you show the letter to in your family?

A Showed it to my wife….

Q Now, other than saying “Go back to your country where you came from,” what else did the letter say?

A I don’t recall. That was the statement that stands out in my mind.

Q How long was the letter?

A About half a page.

Q And you don’t recall anything else said in the letter?

A No.

Q Other than the fact that Professor Bauer was publishing his newsletter, do you have any other basis on which you form the conclusion this came from somebody within the Irvine Valley College campus?

A No, I don’t.

For the entire depo, go to Mathur’s deposition