It’s beginning to look a lot like HELLMOUTH

--HERE IN Orange County, anyway. From the OC Register:

• Tustin middle school students suspended for repeated hugging: Parents and students protested outside of Hewes Middle School:

Eighth-grader Noah Stillman was suspended and stayed home from school Wednesday after hugging a girl on Tuesday….

A few parents and some students picketed in front of Hewes Middle School Wednesday morning for about an hour with signs that included “Honk for hugs,” “Hugging is not a crime” and “Stop the war on hugs.”

Students who continue to hug after at least one warning violate the state's education code for defiance of authority….

…Another student, Gianna Cammarota, 13, was suspended this month for repeated hugging according to her mother, Christy.

• Fire area threatened by slides and floods, report states:

People, property, water quality, wildlife and infrastructure once threatened by the flames of the Santiago fire are now at risk of floods and landslides caused by rain, according to a report released by the state Tuesday.

All areas near the 28,464-acre fire are at risk, but the risk is the greatest in Modjeska, Williams and the upper reaches of Silverado Canyon, according to the Burned Area Emergency Response report for the blaze. Sixty-eight locations were specifically identified in the report as being at risk of floods, landslides or falling debris….


…About 50 firefighters from the U.S. Forest Service continue to monitor the remnants of the fire 24-hours a day, said Jay Bertek, incident commander with the Forest Service. Authorities said the fire was intentionally set along Santiago Road Oct. 21.

…According to the state report, most of the land affected by the fire belongs to the Irvine Company, with 10,682 acres. Almost 6,000 acres burned were inside the Cleveland National forest and 3,834 acres are owned by small private owners. The County of Orange owns 3,446 acres of the burned area, and 4,507 acres are owned by the toll roads, the federal government or school and water districts.

…Homes near stream channels in Modjeska, Williams, Santiago and Silverado canyons face the prospect of floods, while homes below or on slopes are in danger of unstable soil. A total of 68 sites have been identified as being at risk of landslides, floods, rockslides and debris flow…

…The report also recommends that hydroseeding and mulching not be used to rehabilitate slopes because the strategy prevents natural plants from sprouting and does not help to stabilize the soil. Burned soil doesn't take long to show signs of regeneration, the report states.

Irvine Lake, a source of drinking water for Villa Park and some parts of Orange, should be monitored for debris and sediment flows when it rains, according to the report….

• Turkey bowling a tradition at Los Amigos High:

…[T]hose who think they have all the uses for that big bird down to an art form may have overlooked one option pre-Thanksgiving: turkey bowling.

…Students at Los Amigos High School enjoyed the tradition Wednesday as the school marked the final day of its annual Turkey Olympics, a three-day event that included eating contests on Monday and Tuesday.

…One student from each of the four classes and two teachers rolled a frozen turkey down a 20-foot-stretch of red carpet toward 10 2-liter soda bottles filled with sand at the other end….

• Now arrived: Toy Trains: Nixon Presidential Library hosts 250 toy trains in massive display

Read and master our hard-won faculty hiring policy

I called Sierra, who reports that the Sunny Bear is "eating like a horse," which is good.

Meanwhile, Tiger Ann and I are hangin' out together. She's a sweet kid. Kinda surly, though.

Early indications are that you-know-who is messing with the new round of faculty hiring.

Just remember: we fought hard for the full-time faculty hiring process that we now have. Study it. Learn it. Don't let these people violate it.

(To learn how that policy came about, read The Senate sues the district.)

(To access the policy, go to Board Policies. Go to 4011.1, a pdf file.)


OUR BATTLE OVER THE HIRING POLICY, THE SHORT VERSION:

2002. According to a statute, faculty hiring policies are to be “mutually” agreed upon by the district (i.e., the board) and the faculty (i.e., the academic senates). During the Summer of 2002, Chancellor Mathur established a committee, including no faculty, that developed a new hiring policy. The faculty were not even informed of this committee’s work. The product of the committee—a truly appalling and incompetent policy—was then adopted by the board. ("So sue us," said one trustee.)

Here’s what happened next:

Judge Clay Smith ruled that the district had indeed failed to include the faculty in the development of the faculty hiring policy, contrary to law. He thus ordered the district and senates to get together to develop a faculty hiring policy.

But, in the end, the district’s representatives and the senates’ representatives did not see eye to eye on major issues, and so the district unilaterally pushed through the version of the policy that it liked, and it pronounced that policy the product of the committee. That policy was almost as appalling as the one that was neutralized by Smith.

Surprisingly, despite the vociferous objections of the Academic Senates to the new policy, Judge Smith ruled that the policy was indeed the product of “mutual agreement.”

It was an absurd judgment.

2005. The Academic Senates appealed. By summer 2005, the appellate justices unanimously acted to overturn and vacate Smith’s absurd judgment. The board tried one or two last ditch efforts to have the court reconsider, but to no avail. The academic senates had won, and that was that.

The senates had prevailed, period. That meant that the only valid policy was the one developed at the end of 1993 (that one was mutually agreed to). It was a good one from the faculty’s perspective.

The appellate justices urged the parties to work out their differences, and so, in the Fall of 2005, district representatives (namely, Mathur, the instigator of the original unilaterally imposed policy, and Lang, now the board president) and Academic Senate reps (namely, the two senate Presidents and the union president) mutually developed a policy that both sides could agree on. That work was completed by late October, 2005. This mutually ageed to policy is a vast improvement.

The policy was adopted by the board in December of 2005.

Traveling up the 5, then through GarlicVille

IT'S BECOME NECESSARY to visit my sister Fannie again. She's got renal issues, among others.

Traveling up the 5 can be mighty boring. Plus I was in a hurry. No time to stop to take pics. Gotta keep rolling.

Not far past Tejon Pass, I did notice some place called "Pumpkin Patch," or something like that. It was off to the east. Didn't go there. Was tempted, though.

There was quite a bit of traffic for a Tuesday. We're closing in on Thanksgiving Day, of course, and I suppose lots of people wanted to leave early to avoid traffic.

Fannie and I are vegetarians. so I had a Tofurkey with me. Fannie's a good cook, and she manages to create wonderful dishes, even if she's working with something like Tofurkey.

I took a few pics while driving--and I do mean while driving. I think that's illegal. If it isn't, it oughta be.

It was getting dark as I drove west toward GarlicVille. Took some pics there.

Didn't smell no garlic.

When I got to Pacifica, Fannie had made all kinds of food. There were "twice-fried french fries"--evidently, something Martha Stewart dreamt up. Go figure. There was some kinda soup, too, which was terrific. I called it "Carrot McSpuds."

Plus she had made Sweet Potato Pie! She tends to have "potato" themed activities and enterprises. She says that they're in memory of her beloved dog, "Potata."

Tiger Ann says "hey."

The Beat Goes On

Doin' what it takes

FOR SOME REASON—plummeting real estate values?—the OC Register is reporting, yet again, that “Two OC cities make 'safest' list.” It asks: “Can you name them?”

Well, sure. According to the FBI, Mission Viejo is the safest city in the country.

Irvine gets the 14 spot and Lake Forest gets the 10. That's three cities, not two. The OC Reg never could count.

I teach in Irvine, and I can tell you it’s pretty darned safe in this silly town.

That’s cuz we play it safe.

For instance, a year or so ago, when a menacing sack of sand was found in one of the rooms in IVC’s A100 building, and it refused to respond to officer queries, they took no chances.

College officials called out the bomb squad. Yup, even one of those robots showed up and did some poking.

The sack of sand turned out to be a sack of sand.

I coulda told ‘em.

But, hey, if that's what it takes to make the 14 spot, I ain't carpin'.

See also
• The bomb scare
• Ill-advised bottle removal in Mission Viejo

Grateful: feast in honor of what was lost

~
Late Tuesday morning Rebel Girl will fulfill parental duties and report to her son's local elementary school for the Thanksgiving pageant and feast. She has already prepared a cornucopia stuffed with vegetables, fresh and marinated. It is organically festive.

The son has been reporting on preparations for days now. The kinders (as they're called) will wear "Indian headresses" fashioned from construction paper. They will stand in a line and sing. Days ago it was reported that the kinders would sing two songs. Then, her son reported that the teacher had "cancelled" one of the songs. He was disappointed because the remaining song was all about eating turkey and, well, Rebel Girl's family is pretty much vegetarian.

Mother and father counseled the son that singing about turkey eating is not the same as eating a turkey and there would be times when, being in the minority, he should probably get used to the majority's turkey eating ways. Just sing, Rebel Girl said, you like to sing. Not about turkey, the son insisted. He has a way of insisting, even at five, that is a powerful thing. Did you talk to the teacher about it, Rebel Girl queried. I certainly did, was the reply.

Then, on Monday, a development. The teacher "cancelled" the turkey song and replaced it with another. Why did the teacher cancel it? Rebel Girl asked. Her son reported that the teacher announced that, since she had learned that two students didn't eat turkey for Thanksgiving, she decided to change the class song.

What's the new song about? Rebel Girl asked. Being grateful, her son replied.

So, well, there you have it.

And now, be grateful for this, a poem, by Jane Kenyon:

Happiness

There's just no accounting for happiness,
or the way it turns up like a prodigal
who comes back to the dust at your feet
having squandered a fortune far away.

And how can you not forgive?
You make a feast in honor of what
was lost, and take from its place the finest
garment, which you saved for an occasion
you could not imagine, and you weep night and day
to know that you were not abandoned,
that happiness saved its most extreme form
for you alone.

No, happiness is the uncle you never
knew about, who flies a single-engine plane
onto the grassy landing strip, hitchhikes
into town, and inquires at every door
until he finds you asleep midafternoon.
as you so often are during the unmerciful
hours of your despair.

It comes to the monk in his cell.
It comes to the woman sweeping the street
with a birch broom, to the child
whose mother has passed out from drink.
It comes to the lover, to the dog chewing
a sock, to the pusher, to the basket maker,
and to the clerk stacking cans of carrots
in the night.

It even comes to the boulder
in the perpetual shade of pine barrens,
to rain falling on the open sea,
to the wineglass, weary of holding wine.

~
Rebel Girl's household is grateful for much this year. And happy for it as well. Hope you are too~~~

College Presidential Politics

THIS MORNING, Chancellor Raghu P. Mathur emailed members of the district community, noting that “Saddleback College President, Dr. Richard McCullough, has announced his retirement effective June 30, 2008.” He then refers to McCullough’s “distinguished career and service.”

He does not mention that he, Raghu, is the reason for McCullough’s departure.

Mathur adds that he has “instructed our District Human Resources Department to prepare to conduct a national search for the presidency of Saddleback College.”

Meanwhile, Inside Higher Ed reports that

Faculty leaders at Texas A&M University at College Station are concerned that the university’s board has announced plans to consider candidates for president who were not among three finalists suggested by a search committee. The Bryan-College Station Eagle printed an exchange of letters between board and faculty leaders on the dispute. In his letter, Bill Jones, chair of the regents, said that the board alone had control over the search and that regents were prepared to accept “unfortunate consequences” related to their decision.

Gosh, that reminds me of an article I read ten years ago. Here it is:

Irvine World News, September 11, 1997
Trustee calls for outside intervention : College district 'incapable of responsible self-government' BY PEGGY GOETZ

Decrying the process, "or lack thereof" by which Raghu Mathur was selected as the new president of Irvine Valley College Monday, community college Trustee David Lang of Irvine said Tuesday he is seeking the intervention of statewide community college Chancellor Thomas Nussbaum in the affairs of the South Orange County Community College District.

"The process allowed for no meaningful input by campus shared governance groups or the community. The choice was not supported by the administration and was subjected to no level of institutional approval," asserted Lang, who was on the short end of a 4-3 vote by college trustees to appoint Mathur.

Lang said he is asking for outside intervention because the south county college board and the district seem "incapable of responsible self-government."

Lang said he also sent a letter to Orange County District Attorney Michael Capizzi asking him to investigate alleged violations of California's open meeting law and other actions by the board majority-Steven Frogue, Dorothy Fortune, Teddi Lorch and John Williams.

He would not elaborate on "other actions" and he did not make the letter public.

Lang said Tuesday he thinks the board and district leaders lack the ability to repair the serious lack of confidence and trust in the institution that has been created.

Irvine Valley faculty members said Tuesday they fear retaliation—harassment or even dismissal—by the board and Mathur for their lack of support during the selection of a replacement for Dan Larios, who left Irvine Valley College last spring to head Fresno City College in his hometown.

Lang said he can understand their fears.

But in an interview following Monday night's meeting of the college board, Trustee John Williams of Mission Viejo said he fully supports the process that was used by the board and the appointment of Mathur to the position.

He said Mathur was "the top candidate for the job all the way through the hiring process."

Of the process used for selection, Williams said the (majority of the) board had decided "to take control of the hiring process because the choice had become highly politicized." He said he wanted to be sure all candidates had "equal consideration and fair evaluation.

He said the board interviewed 18 candidates for the position. Initially, there were about 30 candidates for the Irvine Valley job, but many asked to be removed from consideration.

Williams said board members scored each interview in terms of "knowledge, skill and ability."

"He was just the best person for the job," Williams said of Mathur.

He added that at some point the board did consider the controversy created by Mathur's appointment as interim president, but had decided he was the most qualified on the basis of his interview and background.

He said the faculty and administrators who aren't happy with the board's decision all had a chance to exercise their rights.

They have a president now and they owe it to the students to support him. They have a job to do and they better do it," Williams said.

Trustee Joan Hueter of Tustin said Wednesday that she is saddened by recent actions of the board.

"I have worked with boards before that could disagree and still get along and move forward. This (board) is just unbelievable," Hueter said.

She said their is great concern now about a possible "brain drain" from the district because working conditions have grown so difficult.

"I'm afraid the best people are going to leave," she said.

She added that she isn't certain the present board members will ever be able to function effectively together.

Naturally, the hiring process that yielded "Chancellor Mathur" was similarly troubled. More on that later.