An anniversary of ruthlessness

A WEEK AGO, a friend reminded me of an anniversary. On July 16, exactly ten years had passed since the infamous "reorganization" of the district—an action that reduced the number of Saddleback College deans and eliminated Irvine Valley's "school chairs" system.

Arguably, the era of serious administrative instability started with that event. As you know, administrative instability has plagued the district ever since. (See Accreditation visit.)

In order to minimize scrutiny, the unprincipled 1997 "board majority," including John Williams, performed the "reorg"—sometimes called the "Big Sloppy"—in the middle of summer (July 16, 1997) and in closed session.

According to the courts, the action was illegal, for it violated the state's "open meetings" law. The reorg was not agendized (as such), thus failing to inform the public of the board's planned deliberations. Further, a reorganization is not a permitted closed session topic. It should be done in open session.

No matter. Once the illegality of the action was determined, the board simply repeated it in open session, this time properly agendized.

Observe that the "scrutiny minimization" ploy was used again in the last week! Discussion of Mathur's new contract occurred during a closed "special meeting" last Thursday. All that was left to do at Monday's meeting (on the 23rd) was to vote on it.

WHEN I BOUGHT my new car on Saturday, I traded in my old Honda, and that entailed removing all the crap that, over the last eight years, I had piled in its trunk. This morning, I sifted through that awful pile, now sitting outside my front door.

I came across this November 4, 1999 edition of the now-defunct Irvine Valley College Voice.

Talk about your ruthlessness! This particular issue told the story of how then-President Raghu Mathur sought to stifle dissent among faculty by targeting the most vulnerable among them, namely, an untenured faculty member, Dr. K.

Mathur's ugly realpolitik was so egregious that it inspired student protests (see above photo).

K had an unblemished record and and was by all accounts an excellent instructor. He was very popular with students. But he had occasionally expressed criticism of Mathur, as had dozens of other instructors.


Mathur decided to make an example of K. At the time, Mathur was laying the groundwork for a negative recommendation re K's tenure. K was accused of participating in the unauthorized dedication of a greenhouse (built and paid for by the bio faculty). I kid you not. In fact, K did not participate in that activity, exactly because he was untenured.

K had also allegedly provided spray paint to a student who sought to write on the side of an old car that was being used in the Honor Society's "Smash a Car" activity (part of IVC's Oktoberfest celebration). The plan was to spray over the name "Mathur," which a student had painted on the car but which then-VP of Student Services Armando Ruiz objected to. (Ruiz, one of Mathur's hand-picked administrative recruits, later retired and then gained infamy bilking taxpayers by exploiting a loophole in the pension laws. See Double-dipping.)

Well, in the end, thanks to a tremendous show of support for K, the trustees were persuaded to grant K's tenure, despite Mathur's recommendation. (See Hello Mr. Chips.)

Targeting people and then using ruthless means to eliminate them is still a favored Mathurian tactic. I'll have more to say about that in the coming months.

A turd wrapped in a board inside a building

Tonight’s meeting of the SOCCCD board of trustees was brief and perfunctory. It was seriously odd.

I sat there, trying to make sense of it. The dang thing was, like, a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

—Well, no, it was more like a turd wrapped in a board inside a building.

At about 6:45 (the meeting was set to start at 6:30), Chancellor Mathur wandered out, looking like a dog with his tail between his legs. Don’t know why.

Soon, Nancy Padberg appeared, and then everybody else showed up, except for Marcia Milchiker, who was absent owing to the recent death of her mother-in-law, Celia.

Nothing was reported from the closed session. Williams did the prayer and Fuentes did the Pledge. None of the trustees gave a report.

Like I said, grim and odd. Perfunctitudinal.

Chancellor Mathur reported that summer enrollments are up, and early indications for the Fall are good, too. Nobody seemed to care. Move on.

For some reason, item 4.8—the Study Abroad Program to Salamanca, Spain—was pulled from the agenda. Nancy Padberg pulled three items from the consent calendar, but that didn’t add up to much. She's a bit of a nitpicker.

The new Director of Facilities, Planning, and Purchasing (Brandye D'Lena) was introduced. She seemed pleased.

There was a tag-team PowerPoint presentation about Energy Conservation Measures and Sustainability. The first guy told us all about swimming pool covers, nighttime water chilling, sunlight reflecting roofs, and “cogeneration.” He used the word “utilize” maybe twenty times.

Somebody else got up to talk about hazardous waste, fluorescent tubes, and solar energy. Then the gkkworks boys got up there and blathered about the wonders of sustainability. It’s “the right thing to do,” they said.

One of ‘em, a tall, blond guy, had this low, gentle voice, and I do believe he put everybody to sleep. I almost expected somebody to say something about it—"Could you stop being so goddam dull?"—but they never did. People are sort of polite, even when they’re peevish.

Eventually, Park Ranger Kopecky got up and injected some energy into the proceedings. He said something about how, sustainabilitywise, or energywise, or some other-goddam-wise, ATEP is “state of the art,” unlike these “antiquated sister colleges.” That got a laugh.

It was weird to laugh among so much peevitude. After the laugh, everybody’s face returned to its rictus of resentment, or whatever it was.

At the end of the presentation, Fuentes stoically led everybody—the audience was tiny—in meager applause. So perfunctory was this applause that it sounded like "fuck you fuck you fuck you...."

The Police Officers Association “master agreement” was approved. Two cops in blue stood in the back and stared.

THE TURD: MATHUR'S NEW CONTRACT

Soon, the trustees got to the Chancellor’s new contract. It’s a sweet deal, boy, and it goes to 2011. Only Padberg spoke to it, though she only commented on “ambiguities” in the language and some typos.

In the end, with Milchiker absent, the contract was approved 4 to 2, with Jay and Padberg casting the dissenting votes. Mr. Wagner voted right along with Williams, Fuentes, and Dave “the quisling” Lang. Wagner looked pretty sheepish. He tried not to, but it was no use. Even the Lord was pissed at 'im.

It all went down very quickly, easily. Bada bing, bada boom. I just don’t know what to tell you.

The police chiefs got up and yammered about “emergency preparedness” for a while, but my heart wasn’t in it. I didn’t hear anything they said. I guess we're prepared, or something.

Mr. Fuentes finally received his nasty little report that lists employees with “earnings over $90,000,” but we heard no details and he had nothing to say about it. Maybe the facts weren't to his liking.

The reports from the presidents and governance groups were unremarkable. The Faculty Association’s Ken W reported that contract negotiations are “proceeding in a reasonable manner.” He hoped that the two sides would reach agreement within a couple of months.

That was about it. Everybody grimly stalked out of the building to sleep or get drunk or watch “The Closer.”

Me, I got in my Chrysler 300, cranked up the Pixies' "Where is My Mind?", and cruised into the cool, black night.

See also Tracy's Board Meeting Highlights

CONTRACT EXCERPTS:

1. Chancellor. Dr. Mathur is hereby employed for a period of time commencing on July 1, 2007, and ending on June 30, 2011, as the District’s Chancellor. Dr. Mathur shall also serve at no extra compensation in the role of the District’s chief executive officer and secretary to the Board of Trustees. The position of Chancellor is hereby designated as an educational administrative position as defined in Education Code Section 87002(b).

2. General Terms and Conditions of Employment. This Agreement supersedes and replaces all prior agreements and understandings of the parties in connection herewith, including, but without limitation, the agreement between the parties covering the period July 1, 2005 through June 30, 2008, and any amendments to that agreement. This Agreement is subject to all applicable laws of the State of California, the rules and regulations of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, and the rules, regulations, policies, and procedures of the District, all of which shall be made a material part of the terms and conditions of this Agreement as if set forth in full. This agreement shall prevail over any conflicting District rules, regulations, policies or procedures.
.....
4. Salary. The base salary for the 2007-2008 college year shall be $237,261. The base salary shall be paid in 12 equal monthly installments with proration for a period of less than a full year of service. For each year of this Agreement, including the 2007-2008 college year, the base salary provided in this Agreement shall be increased by the State Budget Act’s funded percentage COLA for community college districts without further action by the Board of Trustees. Dr. Mathur will receive this increase to base salary at the same time that other academic administrator’s receive a salary increase at least equal to the COLA described above. If, during any year of this Agreement, academic administrators receive an increase that is greater than or less than the COLA described above, Dr. Mathur shall receive the same percentage increase to his base salary. Any adjustment in salary during the term of this Agreement shall not be interpreted as a new agreement or operate as an extension or renewal of this Agreement.
.....

Dispatch #6

Roll Call

I SLICED UP Ezra Pound this morning, one of the Cantos, then I stapled him to Allen Ginsberg, an excerpt from his Kaddish. Ruth Stone was on his other side, followed by Muriel Rukeyser talking about Oedipus and what he couldn’t see. Then George Oppen and Gwendolyn Brooks and finally Stanley Kunitz, recalling at sixty-four how his mother slapped him when he retrieved, from the attic, the portrait of his father, a man she never forgave for committing suicide when she was pregnant with their son, the one who grew up to write poems.


The Portrait

My mother never forgave my father
for killing himself,
especially at such an awkward time
and in a public park,
that spring
when I was waiting to be born.
She locked his name
in her deepest cabinet
and would not let him out,
though I could hear him thumping.
When I came down from the attic
with the pastel portrait in my hand
of a long-lipped stranger
with a brave moustache
and deep brown level eyes,
she ripped it into shreds
without a single word
and slapped me hard.
In my sixty-fourth year
I can feel my cheek
still burning.

—Stanley Kunitz

A walking carnival ride

WORKING ON these old photographs tends to produce in me mixed emotions, but there's no denying that it can get me down. Too much loss. So, fortunately, yesterday, I attended a very nice family get-together, and it made me conscious of present circumstances about which I can be very glad.

More specifically, I'm happy to be a part of the lives of my niece and nephew. They're like pups or kittens, full of energy, full of fun. They seem to think that I'm a walking carnival ride, Mr. Toad's wild Uncle.

1. Most of these photos are "details" from much larger photographs taken by my father more than thirty-five years ago. At the time of this shot, Fanny and I were in High School, and my little brother, at right, had just turned six. We're somewhere in the Sierra Nevada.

2. The second photo reveals how close I was to my littlest brother back then. We used to sing to Beatles records together—Help was a favorite. Nowadays, such affection as is revealed in the photo is never seen between us, although it is manifest and abundant between me and his two wonderful kids. I call 'em weasels.

Sometimes, when I'm singing or playing with young Adam, age three, I'm conscious that I had precisely the same relationship with my little brother, their "papa," a long time ago. I'm determined not to allow the relationship to become less close. But who knows.

3. Here we are near El Morro. Like my hair? Salt water does that.

4. This shot includes Fanny's fiancé, Davey-Doo, an engineer, at left. He was very successful in his field. Made big bucks up in Silicon Valley.

A few years ago, he flew his super-duper stunt aircraft straight into the ground. Fanny tells me that his body was never found. She says things like that, and then, for a split second, she awaits a reaction. She'll deny it.

People are complex.

5/6. My new car. Not really new, but new for me. I get a car every ten or twenty years.

This one looks damned good, if you ask me. The design team for the Chrysler 300 was led by a Haitian/Canadian named Ralph Gilles (pronounced "Jeel").

Way to go, RG.

I gave Adam and Sarah a ride in the thing yesterday, and, in the back seat, they squealed and rocked to the music: Iggy Pop's "The Passenger" and The Damned's "New Rose."

I think Sarah's gonna become a dancer, like her mom. She was doing The Monkey back there, that little weasel.

Dispatch #5

•
TOMORROW the poets. Today lots of paper and a little worry. We know now how it all comes together in the end somehow.

No more water to boil after all. The bear still prowls Apache Court.

another poem:

The Snakeskin by Brenda Hillman

—And the world bent into the wide,
the field of beige and mild forevers
but the snake wanted something else;

I found its skin of stretchy diamonds
and picked it up, so I could keep
one of the two selves. The skin had eyes and the eyes

had skin, all papery before and afterward,
a little cellophane with dirt
around the rim—that’s good;

there had been time for it to be one thing
before the world behind the world
called the snake, and the snake went —

Board meeting Monday

I'M TOLD that, yesterday, the SOCCCD Board of Trustees held a special meeting. I'm also told that the meeting concerned the evaluation of the Chancellor.

My sources tell me that the board has renewed, or is contemplating renewing, Mathur's contract and granting him valuable cash prizes to boot. (See added agenda item below.)

The agenda outline for Monday's meeting is now available online. Check it out. Or not.

Among "general action items" listed on the outline are:

5.4 SOCCCD: Academic Personnel Actions

Approve New Personnel Appointments;
Academic Temporary Part-Time/Substitute Staff;
Additional Compensation: General Fund;
Additional Compensation: Categorical/Non-General Fund;
Administrator Contract Extension Correction;
Leave of Absence; Resignation/Retirement/Conclusion of Employment.

—You'll recall that, immediately prior to last month's meeting, Chancellor Mathur pulled the item concerning approval of Saddleback College faculty stipends. (This occurred without the trustees' knowledge. See Mathurian Shenanigans: Plan C.) This meant that, owing to "questions" that the chancellor suddenly developed just prior to the meeting, affected faculty would not be paid but would instead be compelled to await approval of payment at the July meeting.

Naturally, those instructors became hopping mad. Near as I can tell, they're still hopping mad.


5.2 SOCCCD: Board Policy Revision:

[Accept, for review and study?:]

BP 100: The South Orange County Community College District,
BP 101: Mission,
BP 102: Functions of the Governing Board,
BP 103: Board Membership,
BP 104: Student Member of the Board of Trustees,
BP 105: Organization of the Governing Board,
BP 106: Board Elections,
BP 107: Board Policy and Administrative Regulation,
BP 108: Vacancies of the Board,
BP 109: Board Education,
BP 112: Duties and Responsibilities of the Board of Trustees,
BP 120: Regular Meetings of the Board,
BP 122: Closed Sessions,
BP 124: Special and Emergency Meetings,
BP 126: Quorum and Voting,
BP 128: Agendas,
BP 130: Public Participation at Board Meetings,
BP 132: Speakers,
BP 134: Decorum,
BP 136: Minutes,
BP 138: Recording,
BP 146: Chancellor Succession,
BP 148: Evaluation of the Chancellor,
BP 152: Presentation of Initial Collective Bargaining Proposals,
BP 154: Conflict of Interest,
BP 158: Political Activity,
BP 160: Personal Use of Public Resources,
BP 162: Communications Among Board Members,
BP 164: Board Member Compensation,
BP 166: Health Benefits,
BP 168: Board Member Travel,
BP 172: Board Self Evaluation

P.S. (8:00 p.m.):

At some point today, the following item was added to the posted agenda outline:

5.6 SOCCCD: Chancellor's Contract

Approve contract of employment for Chancellor.

Sick ‘n' tired of subscientific boobulescent ignoramitude

GET A FRIGGIN’ CLUE. Leaving aside those pesky subatomic particles, nature is regular, which is why even NASA scientists manage to aim those expensive rockets and hit their mark over and over again. I mean, rocks, fireballs, and gravitational tugs are pretty damned consistent.

From a scientific point of view, you don’t get to say that things go like this over here, but they go like that over there. The laws of physics don’t morph or stutter or adjust for POV.

Same goes for medical and health phenomena: you don’t get to say, “well, maybe urine therapy doesn’t work for you guys (skeptics), but it definitely works for us guys (true imbibers).” Such talk emerges from the dark (and crowded) cave of subscientific boobulescent ignoramitude (SBI).

I don’t care who’s got it, whether it’s Bill “ET” Richardson or Mike “Nope to Darwin” Huckabee. I’m sick and tired of SBI.

I’ve been telling my students for years that, contrary to popular opinion, taking vitamin C doesn’t prevent or cure colds. I mean, if it did, then that would be the pattern that researchers would find when they give people dollops of vitamin C. But that’s not the pattern they find, OK? That pattern is: take it, don’t take. Coldwise, it’s pretty much a wash.

Case closed.

Yesterday’s Guardian Unlimited (Cold comfort: vitamin C myth exposed) makes the point yet again, only with an even bigger mountain of evidence:

Daily doses of vitamin C do little to protect people from the common cold, scientists revealed today….In a survey of scientific studies spanning more than two decades and including more than 11,000 people, those who took 200mg of vitamin C daily had almost as many colds as those who took no supplements. The vitamin also failed to have a substantial effect on the length and severity of a person's cold.

The supposed cold-combating powers of vitamin C have been hailed since its discovery in the 1930s. …[T]he Nobel laureate Linus Pauling encouraged people to take 1,000mg of the vitamin daily to ward off colds….

However, the latest survey, compiled results from 30 different studies around the world, concluded that only people who were exposed to exceptionally high levels of stress, such as marathon runners, skiers and soldiers on sub-arctic exercises, had fewer colds as a result of taking the vitamin. Among these, a daily supplement of vitamin C reduced the chances of catching a cold by half.

…The review appears in the latest issue of the Cochrane Library, an international organisation that is widely regarded as the most prestigious medical research evaluating authority.

—Like I said, nature is regular. And so, if you give vitamin C to one group and withhold it from another, and, coldwise, no difference emerges, then you’ve gotta wonder about all this Vitamin C malarkey. And if there are shitloads of studies, and they all converge on the same negative finding, then maintaining a belief in the efficacy of Vitamin C (re colds) is no better than believing in ghosts or auras or Iraqi WMD.

“Oh, you silly man! Don’t you understand that truth is an illusion? Truly!”

Oh yeah? Here’s a truth. Rocks are hard. Smash a big one into your iMac and watch what happens.

“Well, really, anything is possible!”

Good. Got that rock yet? Start smashin’ and see what this wacky universe comes up with!

The Guardian article goes on to say:

A separate study recently warned that people who took regular supplements of vitamins A, E and beta-carotene in the hope of living a fitter, longer life were instead at risk of dying younger…[The] study, published by the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that during 47 trials involving more than 180,000 people, those who took the supplements were at greater risk of dying than those who did not.

UH-OH: SLOPPY LEFTIST SCHOLAR A SYMBOL OF ACADEMIC FREEDOM. This morning’s Inside Higher Ed reports that “The University of Colorado Board of Regents will hold a special meeting July 24 to consider a proposal to fire Ward Churchill, the controversial ethnic studies professor who has been found by faculty committees and the president of the university system to have committed research misconduct.”

Evidently, Churchill has vowed to litigate to keep his job, should he be fired.

That hackneyed Voltaire quotation goes here, I guess (even though Voltaire never actually said it).

MONEY MAKES THE U GO ROUND? This morning’s LA Times (UC regents seek compromise) reports on the U of California’s struggles regarding tobacco research money:

Members of the UC Board of Regents, unable to agree on a proposal to ban tobacco industry money for research, said Wednesday that they would seek a compromise to maintain the university's integrity while protecting academic freedom….

The board is divided between regents who oppose the acceptance of any tobacco funds because of the industry's history of manipulating research and members who believe the university should trust the faculty to decide what grants to accept.

…U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler ruled in [a] case last year that the major American tobacco companies conspired for decades to deceive the public and had manipulated research to make it appear that scientists disagreed on the effects of second-hand smoke. One study she cited was conducted by UCLA researcher James Enstrom.

[Former U.S. Justice Department attorney Sharon] Eubanks urged the regents to ban tobacco funding…"Why would the University of California permit university researchers to accept money from a group of racketeers who intentionally mislead the public?" she asked. More than 20 other universities across the country have banned the acceptance of tobacco research funds. Eubanks predicted that, as a result, the industry will pump increasing amounts of money into UC.

…But most of the board members were not persuaded. Some expressed concern that prohibiting faculty members from accepting funds from one industry could lead to bans on grants from other industries.

Several regents also argued that the board should respect the recommendation of UC's Academic Senate, which voted earlier this year in favor of allowing continued tobacco industry funding of research….

A QUOTATION FOR YOU:

[The] Heisenberg Principle … is applied to very small particles and forces. The parapsychologists borrow … [it], and taking it out of context,... suggest that paranormal demonstrations are best performed when not being too closely observed. Professor John G. Taylor of Kings College, London … named this the "shyness effect,” meaning that wonders preferred to happen when out of sight.

As a magician, I also prefer not to be observed, and the miracles I can produce under that circumstance are prodigious.

—James Randi