Anti-science adventures: Stein, Ahmanson, & Fuentes

.....As I’m sure you are aware, some right-wingers are atwitter over the release of Ben Stein’s anti-science movie, Expelled. Being a hilarious guy, Stein has done a tour of college campuses with his flick. It’s now in theaters, where it isn’t doing as well as Stein & the knuckle-draggers had hoped.
.....Here are excerpts from a review of the movie that appeared in Scientific American a week or so ago: Ben Stein's Expelled: No Integrity Displayed:

.....In the new science-bashing movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, Ben Stein and the rest of the filmmakers sincerely and seriously argue that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution paved the way for the Holocaust. By "seriously," I mean that Ben Stein acts grief-stricken and the director juxtaposes quotes from evolutionary biologists with archival newsreel clips from Hitler's Reich….
.....No one could have been more surprised than I when the producers called, unbidden, offering Scientific American's editors a private screening. Given that our magazine's positions on evolution and intelligent design (ID) creationism reflect those of the scientific mainstream (that is, evolution: good science; ID: not science), you have to wonder why they would bother. It's not as though anything in Expelled would have been likely to change our views. And they can't have been looking for a critique of the science in the movie, because there isn't much to speak of.
.....Rather, it seems a safe bet that the producers hope a whipping from us would be useful for publicity…..
.....Unfortunately, Expelled is a movie not quite harmless enough to be ignored. Shrugging off most of the film's attacks—all recycled from previous pro-ID works—would be easy, but its heavy-handed linkage of modern biology to the Holocaust demands a response for the sake of simple human decency.
…..
.....…Stein explains that he is speaking out because he has "lately noticed a dire trend" that threatens the state of our nation: the ascendance of godless, materialist, evolutionary science and an unwillingness among academics to consider more theistic alternatives. … He and Expelled charge that scientists, in their rejection of religious explanations, have become as intolerant as Nazis….
…..
.....I should note that Stein and Expelled rarely refer to "scientists" as I did—they call them Darwinists. Similarly, this review may have already used the word "evolution" about as often as the whole of Expelled does; in the movie, it is always Darwinism. The term is a curious throwback, because in modern biology almost no one relies solely on Darwin's original ideas—most researchers would call themselves neo-Darwinian if they bothered to make the historical connection at all because evolutionary science now encompasses concepts as diverse as symbiosis, kin selection and developmental genetics….
.....Expelled then trots out some of the people whom it claims have been persecuted by the Darwinist establishment. First among them is Richard Sternberg, former editor of the peer-reviewed Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington…. Sternberg tells Stein that he subsequently lost his editorship….
.....What most viewers of Expelled may not realize—because the film doesn't even hint at it—is that Sternberg's case is not quite what it sounds. Biologists criticized Sternberg's choice to publish [an ID] paper not only because it supported ID but also because Sternberg approved it by himself rather than sending it out for independent expert review. He didn't lose his editorship; he published the paper in what was already scheduled to be his last issue as editor. He didn't lose his job at the Smithsonian; his appointment there as an unpaid research associate had a limited term, and when it was over he was given a new one. His office move was scheduled before the paper ever appeared… And so on.
.....…The movie's one-sided version is either the result of shoddy investigation or deliberate propagandizing—neither of which reflects well on the other information in the film.
.....So it is with the rest of Expelled's parade of victims. Caroline Crocker, a biology teacher, was allegedly dismissed from her position at George Mason University after merely mentioning ID; the film somehow never reports exactly what she said or why anyone objected to it. Reporter Pamela Winnick was supposedly pilloried and fired after she wrote objectively about evolution and ID; we don't know exactly what she wrote but later we do hear her asserting with disgust that "Darwinism devalues human life." The film forgot to mention that Winnick is the author of the book A Jealous God: Science's Crusade Against Religion—a title that suggests her objectivity on the subject might be a bit tarnished.
.....The movie's unreliable reporting is even more obvious during the scene in which Stein interviews Bruce Chapman, the president of the Discovery Institute, the institutional heart of ID advocacy. Stein asks whether the Discovery Institute has supported the teaching of ID in science classes so avidly because it is trying to sneak religion back into public schools. Chapman says no and the film blithely takes him at his word. No mention is made of the notorious "Wedge" document, a leaked Discovery Institute manifesto that outlined a strategy of opposing evolution and turning the public against scientific materialism as the first step toward making society more politically conservative and theistic. Maybe Ben Stein didn't think it was relevant, but wouldn't an honest film have trusted its audience to judge for itself? [END]

..... The chief financial backer of the Discovery Institute is, of course, Orange County’s own Howard Ahmanson, Jr., a close (and filthy-rich) friend of trustee Tom Fuentes (both are on the Claremont Institute board of directors and Bible Study Group).
.....As we’ve reported previously, Ahmanson is a Christian Reconstructionist, i.e., someone who seeks to apply “the general principles of Old Testament and New Testament moral law and case laws in the appropriate family, church and/or civil government.” Christian Reconstructionists further believe “that God's kingdom began at the first coming of Jesus Christ, and will advance throughout history until it fills the whole earth through conversion to the Christian faith….”
.....(Ahmanson is a disciple of Rousas John Rushdoony, who wrote: "...Christianity and democracy are inevitably enemies....")
.....Fuentes is on the board of a right-wing publisher that puts out anti-evolution books such as Icons of Evolution: Science or Myth? See "Kill It or Grill It"—and other Fuentean titles.

Help me count these beans

.....I admit it. When it comes to fiscal matters, I’m pretty clueless.
.....Occasionally, I hear our union leaders carp about the huge pile of money the trustees are sitting on, thanks to our “Basic Aid” gravy train—apparently, the SOCCCD is nearly unique among cc districts with regard to funding. We’re rolling in dough, they say, and yet the colleges are kept on miserly budgets. And why no raises for faculty? And why are these trustees squirreling away so much of the taxpayers’ money? “It’s obscene,” they say.
.....I guess so. I’m trying to find somebody to explain all of this.
.....I try to follow the bouncing Basic Aid ball, but it isn’t easy. Every time somebody explains that funding model, they make it sound as though budget cuts in Sacramento don’t affect us, since we get our money from local property taxes, not as an allocation from state budget money earmarked for community colleges.
.....OK. I get it. Or do I?
.....A few days ago (April 14), we received state budget news from Tracy Daly. Evidently, the district has been sent an “update” written by Robert Blattner, which was attached to Tracy’s email. The upshot seems to be that April tax collections are “down.” The news is bad and will continue to be bad, budgetwise.
.....But wait! The SOCCCD is a Basic Aid district. That means we get most of our funding from local property tax, not from the state via money budgeted for community colleges. Isn’t that how it goes?
.....Maybe so. After laying out the grim April tax facts, Blattner presents what he takes to be an even more “solid” fact:

According to a just-made-public survey of County assessors…, statewide growth in local property tax revenue for the budget year is sharply below earlier projections. The survey, which included most of the state’s counties and all of its large ones, projects a 4.5 percent growth between current and budget years, compared to the 7 percent forecast by the Administration…. This news doesn’t affect school districts directly (except for Basic Aid districts, which receive their local property taxes instead of revenue limit funding).

.....Blattner is saying that the bad news about property taxes does directly affect us. OK, I get that.
.....In her email, Tracy quotes the Chancellor:

“At this point, the State budget shortfall is being projected at $22 Billion. It is anticipated that the budget will get worse as the State receives the tax filings by April 15 and homeowners increasingly request reappraisal of their property taxes due to the declining housing market.”

.....--OK, I get the “homeowner” part. We’re Basic Aid. But is there any reason why the budget Stinkeroo should affect us, beyond the property tax situation?
.....Tracy (Mathur?) goes on to say:

The Orange County Community Colleges Legislative Task Force is working to communicate to legislators our concern over proposed cuts to community colleges, and gathering support letters to present to the Governor. More information will be sent out on this campaign soon.

.....--Yeah, but we’ve gotta be the odd duck in that crowd, right? These other districts aren’t Basic Aid, and so they’ve got to worry about these cuts. Not us. We are Basic Aid. What we want isn’t quite what everybody else wants, right?
.....Help me out here.
.....Tracy finishes with:

Board Vice President John Williams and Chancellor Mathur will be in Sacramento tomorrow [i.e., on the 15th, last Tuesday] to join the Community College League of California in speaking with legislators about the budget.

.....But, again, among this delegation, we’re odd man out, right? Insofar as SOCCCD is concerned, we don’t care about no stinkin’ state budget, right?
.....I figure that, if this is confusing to me, it’s likely confusing to other folks too. So maybe some of you out there can enlighten the benighted—in plain English. I’d appreciate it.

13 STOPLOSS

.....☺ Sheesh! The students we get!
.....A quiet but interesting student friend has started a blog about his ARMY EXPERIENCES, especially as they concern Iraq and the war. He's a very good writer—there's something about him—and he seems to have a special perspective. See for yourself.
.....Give his blog a visit, will you?
.....It's called 13 STOPLOSS. (Luddites: click on the blue letters.)
.....Encourage him, if you're so inclined. Leave a comment on his blog.
.....According to Wikipedia, "Stop-loss, in the United States military, is the involuntary extension of a service member's active duty service under the enlistment contract in order to retain them beyond their initial end of term of service (ETS) date. It also applies to the ceasing of a permanent change of station (PCS) move for a member still in military service."

☺ On a lighter note, check out....

AN ENGINEER'S GUIDE TO CATS:


Thanks Myland & Kathie for sending it. It starts off kinda lame, but it gets funnier and funnier. Any cat person will love it. Normal persons, too.

☺ Exene Cervenka rules! You remember X, right?

☺ Ben Stein's "intelligent design" flick is getting sh*tty boxoffice. Nya.

☺ Have you read the Lariat's review of the IVC Performing Arts Center's first musical? Check it out: Performing Arts Center fails to impress with inaugural musical. It's panular.
.....They throw in a review of the building, too, just for good measure. Ouch.

☺ The OC Weekly's Gustavo Arellano comes through again, this time with: The KKK Took My County Away: Meet the Klansman Who Helped to Found Orange County. It's the amazing, and usually bowdlerized, story of early OC big cheese Henry William Head. An excerpt:

It’s not known if any other of Orange County’s pioneer Confederates—among them early county Treasurer Josiah Clay Joplin and John Alpheus Willson, who was a pallbearer at Robert E. Lee’s funeral before becoming an OC judge—ever joined the Klan, but circumstantial evidence places at least one other fairly prominent figure in the KKK. Victor Montgomery was one of Orange County’s first lawyers and the man who wrote the bill that eventually allowed Orange County to win independence from LA. He also happened to be a Nashville native who served as Forrest’s scout and fought in two battles alongside Head. In the 1890s, long after the War Between the States, Montgomery fretted to a friend that California was “becoming Yankeeized.”

You remember how the KKK dominated the Anaheim city council? Well, I'll save that for another day.

Don't know much about anything: directionless youth

.....In this weekend's New York Times (Growing Up for Dummies), Charles McGrath reviews three new books about the current generation of high school and college kids. A grim subject, mostly.
.....Some exerpts:

........Mark Bauerlein has a catchall term for all these young people, especially the ones now in high school: he labels them “the dumbest generation,” which is also what he calls his new book, subtitled “How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future.”
.....…[M]ost high school students, Mr. Bauerlein says, don’t really do a whole lot. They don’t read, they don’t go to museums or get involved in community life, they don’t do much homework.
.....And according to Mr. Bauerlein, they know next to nothing. … They’re six times more likely to be able to name the current American Idol than the speaker of the House of Representatives. On tests of competence in math and science, American high-schoolers do worse than students from countries that we used to think of as backward.
.....In fact, that’s the great paradox of the dumbest generation, Mr. Bauerlein says: never have American students had it so easy, and never have they achieved less. Material gains and intellectual performance seem almost inversely related….
.....As you read along, it all seems pretty convincing (if depressing), especially when he gets around to naming a culprit: the digital revolution, which he says has empowered students in certain ways while also eroding their attention spans and analytical abilities. Sounds about right. But then you pick up William Damon’s book, “The Path to Purpose: Helping Our Children Find Their Calling in Life.”
.....Mr. Damon, director of the Center on Adolescence at Stanford, says that students today are “working harder and learning a bit more, at least judging from the most recent test-score results.” (Not the ones Mr. Bauerlein has been reading.) But he also says that most of these students are drifting aimlessly, with no clue as to what they want to do or become in the future. The only thing they seem to know for sure is that they don’t want to run for public office….
.....Young people are now so purposeless, Mr. Damon says, so uncertain and fearful of commitment even when it comes to finding mates, that many of them may never marry, and they’re so hesitant about picking a career that they may wind up living at home forever….
.....According to Christine Hassler, author of “20 Something Manifesto: Quarter-Lifers Speak Out About Who They Are, What They Want and How to Get It,” they’re not just floundering, they’re often anxious and miserable, suffering from something like menu overload: there are just too many choices to make. The result is often a feeling of stasis and letdown that Ms. Hassler calls Expectation Hangover, a phrase she is so fond of she has trademarked it.
.....“20 Something Manifesto” is actually less a manifesto than a breathlessly optimistic self-help book designed to help its audience peel back the layers of their “identity onion” and sort out the poles of the “20s triangle”: “Who am I, what do I want, how do I get what I want?” She talks a lot about the need for the floundering to feel self-gratitude and spend “quality time” with themselves; for the lovelorn, she suggests palliative remedies, like sending yourself flowers and writing yourself a note of appreciation.
.....In fact, “20 Something Manifesto” is an almost perfect illustration of the kinds of things that both Mr. Bauerlein and Mr. Damon are worried about. It’s a book about purposelessness that’s written not just for dummies but for people who are practically comatose….
…..
.....It stands to reason … that parents must be part of the problem. Some of us have raised dummies and the disengaged not on purpose, surely, but perhaps because we listened to Mr. Rogers and told them too often that we liked them just the way they were.

Query (re accreditation)

.....As you know, each of our colleges has established a "focus group" (task force? committee? coffee klatch?) to tackle accreditation. .....I know that IVC's group had its second meeting this morning. Don't know about Saddleback College's group. .....Does anyone know how things are going on these committees? Any progress? Inquiring minds wanna know. .....Faculty who serve on IVC's committee have offered brief reports (of the first meeting) at a recent senate meeting. (These meetings are open to the public.) According to those folks, the right note of openness and frankness was struck right from the start. They praised the effort and the participants. .....On the other hand, it was reported that trustee Wagner discouraged the notion that "personnel changes" might occur to deal with our accreditation difficulties (fear, despair, hostility, etc.). .....The group considered models of "collegial consultation" that are used at such colleges as Chabot and College of the Canyons. .....Evidently, our district operates sans model. P.S.: .....Someone commented, writing that "Inquiring minds should contact their shared gov representatives on the committee." The writer in effect cautioned us to be "careful." .....Excellent advice. If information won't be brought to us, then we need to seek out the information ourselves. Luckily, we have knowledgeable people to contact. (Note that the Accred focus groups have lots of representation, including classified.) .....We at Dissent always try to be careful, which isn't always easy. We make mistakes, but we always try to acknowledge them asap. .....IT SEEMS TO ME THAT, in general, as far as district administration is concerned, the college and district communities should be left in the dark, even about events and processes of crucial importance to the colleges' futures, such as our accreditation project (or the development of ATEP, or the sudden removal of the students' flags in the Student Services Bldg. as a response to de facto threats of protests). Given these near "blackout" conditions, Dissent, which is after all a kind of newsletter, cannot simply remain mute about known factoids, especially when they are provided at venues that are open to the public. .....I should add that our Academic Senate leadership has consistently informed senators of events and processes, to the degree possible or permitted. Clearly, our senate values openness and "transparency." Senate leaders deserve praise. ..... And openness seems to characterize their dealings with college administration as well. That's great. .....Again, the information void to which I am referring largely concerns district—and to some extent, college—leadership. When decisions are made, we should be informed. When important processes are under way, we should be kept apprised of progress. .....I should mention that a meeting for the purpose of informing the IVC community of the Accred focus group's progress is scheduled for a week and a half from now. ..... But, by then, the process will be over a month old. Shouldn't we be apprised about so important a matter sooner and more regularly? .....And what on earth is happening with ATEP? And will we make it over the 50% line (for instructional expenditures) given the current "pause" in new faculty hiring? .....And what's with this exodus of college presidents, provosts, and Vice Chancellors? .....Inquiring minds wanna know! —CW, 4/19

Grossmont's work-to-contract action

.....Yesterday, after the senate meeting at Irvine Valley College, I overheard a reference to a “work-to-contract” (WTC) action at Grossmont College. That's in El Cajon (San Diego area).
.....Naturally, I was interested, for, here in the SOCCCD, the faculty union has called for a “work-to-contract” action, which entails faculty refraining from the large amount of extra-contractual work that is traditional for college faculty, but which is so often underappreciated or even unrecognized by college boards.
.....So, this morning, I did some Googling. I came up with this article from the March 29 issue of the San Diego Union-Tribune:

Dispute over pay roils two campuses

.....Labor unrest has escalated at Grossmont and Cuyamaca community colleges, where faculty members are protesting stalled salary negotiations by refusing to volunteer for activities at their campuses.
.....Since the United Faculty union called for the job action March 4, faculty members have stopped advising student clubs and serving on committees, including those dealing with accreditation. Some events have been postponed as a result, including Women's History Month presentations, which had been scheduled to begin Monday at Grossmont College.
.....“We hate to do anything like that,” United Faculty President Zoe Close said. “(But) it's a tool that is available to us to make a statement.”
.....The district's 1,300 full-and part-time faculty members haven't received a raise in two years, Close said.
.....The district filed an unfair-labor-practice complaint against United Faculty with the state March 14, claiming the job action is illegal and not in good faith because the two sides are trying to work out an agreement through the state's labor process.
.....“They're hurting their institutions and students by jeopardizing their accreditation,” said Omero Suarez, chancellor of the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District.
.....The labor dispute is heating up at a time when the district is dealing with other crucial issues.
.....The district is getting an unexpected, midyear budget cut of $1.3 million, part of an $84.4 million statewide loss for colleges because of a drop in property-tax revenue. Also, Suarez announced he will retire next summer with one year left on his contract, and the governing board wants to start looking for a new chancellor soon.
.....The district also is locked in a different contract dispute with administrators who formed a union two years ago. The 64-member Administrators Association consists of vice presidents, deans and supervisors, but the pay dispute concerns only supervisors.
.....“We wish we could wrap this up and move on to other issues,” said Jim Fenningham, president of the Administrators Association and a dean at Grossmont College. The association's members aren't participating in the faculty's work-to-the-contract job action, he said.
.....This isn't the first time faculty members have dropped out of their committees and advisory posts. In 2005, faculty members also refused to volunteer for assignments to protest a labor impasse. The issue was settled four months later.
.....The district and faculty union reached another stalemate last year while negotiating a salary agreement for 2006-07 and had been meeting with a state-appointed mediator.
.....On Feb. 29, the mediator declared that the two sides couldn't come to an agreement. They're now in the fact-finding phase of the state's labor dispute process.
.....In fact-finding, a three-member panel, including a state-appointed arbitrator, investigates each side's proposals and makes a nonbinding recommendation. The district can reject the panel's recommendation and impose its last offer. If the union doesn't agree with the district's offer, it can call for a strike.
.....The fact-finding process could take up to eight weeks to complete, said Roger Smith, spokesman for the state's Public Employment Relations Board. The administrators association is also in the fact-finding stage.
.....Close declined to discuss the faculty union's salary demands until the fact-finding process is completed. The district posted the last salary proposals on its Web site.
.....The United Faculty union is seeking a 5 percent salary increase for the district's 400 full-time faculty members and a 6 percent bump for 900 part-time faculty members for 2006-07. It's seeking a 3.5 percent increase for full-timers and a 4 percent increase for part-timers for 2007-08.
.....The district is proposing an increase of 4 percent for full-timers and 5.5 percent for part-timers for 2006-07, and 3 percent for full-timers and 3.5 percent for part-timers for 2007-08.

As the above article indicates, Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District Chancellor Omero Suarez plans to step down before his contract expires. According to another recent Union-Tribune article (Chancellor stepping down),

.....…[I]n 2006, [Suarez’s] reputation suffered when he admitted deleting the buyout clause in his contract without board approval. Suarez was not disciplined but his relationship with board members has not been the same since, board president Bill Garrett said.
…..
.....Suarez had a well-documented falling out with faculty leaders at Grossmont College in recent years. He said they were unhappy that their campus did not get more construction dollars and took their frustrations out on him.
.....In 2005, Suarez was the target of a no-confidence vote by the Grossmont College Academic Senate over funding and other issues. The senate questioned the data that was used to allocate funding for the two campuses….

Dissent has noticed Suarez before. See What's with these community college trustees?.

ALSO:

• I came across a seemingly helpful bulletin (See) put out by the Santa Monica College Faculty Association in 2006. It attempts to explain work-to-contract. It mentions Foothill DeAnza's then-recent and successful WTC.

• For an example of a recent (year-old) ACCJC (Accreditation) report that takes note of the effects of a work-to-contract action see Hartnell College Evaluation Report.

• Check out the Mission College Academic Senate website. Under "documents," read in particular the senate's "behavioral objectives." Ours is not the only faculty treated and thought of badly by trustees.

A new feature! Rebel Girl's book club!

.....Below is an excerpt from the first chapter of Richard Russo's "Straight Man," a novel in the tradition of academic satires. In this scene, the narrator, the chair of the department of English, is speaking with one of his colleagues, Teddy.
.....It's a hilarious, anarchic book that Rebel Girl invariably re-reads at least once a year just to recalibrate herself.
.....Perfect for this season of WTC.

.....I know what's coming. For the last few months rumors have been running rampant about an impending purge at the university, one that would reach into the tenured ranks. If such a thing were to happen, virtually everyone in the English department would be vulnerable to dismissal. The news is reportedly being broken to department chairs individually in their year-end conferences with the campus executive officer. According to which rumors you listen to, the chairs are being either asked or required to draw up lists of faculty in their departments who might be considered expendable. Seniority is reportedly not a criterion.
....."All right," I tell Teddy. "Give it to me. Who have you been talking to now?"
....."Arnie Drenker over in Psychology."
....."And you believe Arnie Drenker?" I ask. "He's certifiable."
....."He swears he was ordered to make a list."
.....When I don't immediately respond to this, he takes his eyes off the road for a microsecond to look over at me. My right nostril, which has now swollen to the point where I can see it clearly in my peripheral vision, throbs under his scrutiny. "Why do you refuse to take the situation seriously?"
....."Because it's April, Teddy," I explain. This is an old discussion. April is the month of heightened paranoia for academics, not that their normal paranoia is insufficient to ruin a perfectly fine day in any season. But April is always the worst. Whatever dirt will be done to us is always planned in April, then executed over the summer, when we are dispersed. September is always too late to remedy the reduced merit raises, the slashed travel fund, the doubled price of the parking sticker that allows us to park in the Modern Languages lot. Rumors about severe budget cuts that will affect faculty have been rampant every April for the past five years, although this year's have been particularly persistent and virulent. Still, the fact is that every year the legislature has threatened deep cuts in higher education. And every year a high-powered education task force is sent to the capitol to lobby the legislature for increased spending. Every year accusations are leveled, editorials written. Every year the threatened budget cuts are implemented, then at the last fiscal moment money is found and the budget-most of it-restored. And every year I conclude what William of Occam (that first, great modern William, a William for his time and ours, all the William we will ever need, who gave to us his magnificent razor by which to gauge simple truth, who was exiled and relinquished his life that our academic sins might be forgiven) would have concluded-that there will be no faculty purge this year, just as there was none last year, just as there will be none next year. What there will probably be next year is more belt tightening, more denied sabbaticals, an extension of the hiring freeze, a reduced photocopy budget. What there will certainly be next year is another April, and another round of rumors.
.....Teddy steals another quick glance at me. "Do you have any idea what your colleagues are saying?"
....."No," I say, then, "yes. I mean, I know my colleagues, so I can imagine what they're saying."
....."They're saying your dismissing the rumors is pretty suspicious. They're wondering if you've made up a list."