Armando Ruiz still at Coast

On Tuesday, “Jubal” of OC Blog posted: Lawsuit filed challenging Ballot Title of Coast Community College Board Candidates. According to the Jube, somebody doesn’t think that candidate Charlotte Pirch is entitled to list her profession as “College Professor/Attorney.”

Never mind about that. Today, “Archstone” wrote in to say that the “real issue” in the CCCD trustee race is boot fanatic and "Friend of Raghu" ARMANDO RUIZ:

Jubal, the real issue in the election of the Coast Community College District board is Trustee Armando Ruiz, the pension double dipper who is trying to win re-election. Ruiz's actions in 2004, retiring from his part-time post as a Trustee and a full time job as a Counselor at Irvine Valley College, simultaneously, enabled him to double his pension, from $54,000/year to over $100,000/year. The legal loophole that Ruiz used to do this has been closed, but Ruiz has continued to serve on the Board, collecting his monthly paycheck, and his pension, all at the cost of the Coast District taxpayer. Ruiz is currently trying to gain the endorsement of the Orange County Democratic party….

You’ll recall that when Raghu Mathur was President of IVC, he sought desperately for allies and finally resorted to importing one from Saddleback College: Ruiz. Pretty soon, Ruiz, despite his manifest sleazitude and stupitude, became an administrator. After a year or two, however, he descended into disgruntletude when he wasn't promoted to the VPI job. (Glenn got the nod.) He retired and then commenced his double-dipping.

I think it was at that point that Mathur concentrated on his hot new administrative prospect Rodney Poindexter, who was fired when it became clear that he was, um, unstable.

Scott Lay on California's difficult education challenges

On the 19th, President and CEO of Community College League of California, Scott Lay, explained the major challenges that California faces with regard to education, especially at the state's community college system. He spoke at the Irvine Valley College's new Performing Arts Center.

Among Lay's points: that community colleges need to lay less stress on growth and more on completing the education of the students they already have.

I highly recommend that you view this short video (edited down from over a half hour to less than ten minutes).

Scott refers to these reports (pdf files):

America’s Perfect Storm: three forces changing our nation’s future

Rules of the Game: How State Policy Creates Barriers to Degree Completion and Impedes Student Success in the California Community Colleges

Brought to you by DISSENT the BLOG.

The Chancellor's Opening Session (video, part 1) & today's senate meeting

The general assembly of the Irvine Valley College Academic Senate met today, mostly in order to update faculty on the Accreditation Progress Report (which was formally presented late yesterday afternoon).

The turnout was remarkable—every seat in the room was taken. I don't think I've ever seen a larger turnout for a senate meeting.

Unsurprisingly, the report, the product of many months' work, was very well received by faculty.

We were informed that the senate would soon be visiting with a "consultant" who, I guess, will help us with accreditation. —A fellow named Bill Vega, the former Chancellor of the Coast Community College District.

That seemed swell to everybody, but, to me, there's something hinkey about this whole "consultant" business. So I asked two questions: (1) Who chose Dr. Vega? (2) To whom will he report?

All of a sudden, everybody clammed up. Senate Prez Wendy Gabriella said, I think, that she didn't know who selected Vega. We turned to the Vice President of Instruction, Craig Justice. Craig was pretty vague, as I recall. I think he (and/or others) said that the destination of the report is somewhat nebulous at this point. It sounded like we were paying for it and that "we" would receive it. Not sure.

How very odd. I still wanted to know who had selected Vega. Another senior administrator then spoke up to say that she did know this much: that the ACCJC (the accreditation agency) had selected Vega.

Oh. So the ACCJC chose a consultant for us who will write a report and then hand it over to us. OK.

I don't get it.

As promised, here's some video from yesterday's "Chancellor's Opening Session." This is part 1. It starts with a rock band and ends with a performance on the piano by IVC's Daniel Luzko. I think you'll enjoy it.

Part 2 will present excerpts from Scott Lay's presentation, etc.

"Good morning," we said

I arrived for the Chancellor’s Opening Session about five minutes late, and I was pleased to find a nice little rock band—a motley assortment of district employees—offering a respectable version of Jimmy Eat World’s “The Middle,” an upbeat pop tune from 2001. Propitious!

Mathur’s address started off with a classic Mathurian moment, with the little fellow demanding a more forceful attempt at “good morning” from the audience. “Good morning,” we said.

IVC’s Daniel Luzko tickled the ivories for twelve minutes, and that seemed to be a hit.

Keynote speaker #1, Scott Lay of the CCLC, was excellent. He laid out various fascinating factoids and projections regarding the state budget. Keynote speaker #2, Diana Van Der Ploeg of Butte College, was also fine, presenting her college’s celebrated efforts at “sustainability.”

I’ll have some video of all of this later in the week.

Mathur sought to take his lemons and make lemonade. He actually had each new district or college employee (about 50 of 'em) march up to the stage, one by one. After a half hour or so, most of the audience was up there, leaving just me, my video camera, and Howard Dachslager in the seats. (The “lemons” aren’t the employees but rather the absurdity of hiring 38 faculty within the space of a couple of months. Many of these new employees, including administrators and managers, seemed excellent.)

The union luncheon was festive and unremarkable. Naturally, the gymnasium has the acoustics of the Grand Canyon. Hence, for an hour and a half, we endured indecipherable noise. I think somebody said something about a contract.

At 4:00, the IVC Accreditation “focus group” made yet another “all college” presentation, and it was excellent. The discussion with the sparse but passionate audience was excellent, I thought. (I joined in too.)

Again, I’ll have video ASAP.


One thing is clear: though all acknowledge the excellence of the focus group’s lengthy draft (the product of seven months’ effort), there can be no doubt that, in the minds of many denizens of IVC, the cause of our “climate of despair” (which, admittedly, has improved) is none other than Raghu P. Mathur, a fact that informs virtually every page of the document and that generates some of its best elements, but which, understandably is nowhere to be found stated within it.

I do think that, accreditation-wise, as was stated and seconded during the meeting, the report is likely to "save our ass."

Jimmy Eat World:



In this morning’s Inside Higher Ed, an article (Tolerant Faculty, Intolerant Students) discusses the results of a large survey done within the Georgia University System.

Excerpt:

The results suggest that there may well be a problem with lack of tolerance of political views of others. But according to students (the supposed victims of intolerant professors, according to those who say there is no intellectual diversity), the problem isn’t professors, but fellow students. Only 47 percent of students reported that they believed other students were tolerant of the political views of all students, as opposed to just those whose views they supported (and of that 47 percent, only 17 percent said this was true to a great degree). About 21 percent of students feel that other students aren’t tolerant of the political views of others while the remainder are somewhat in the middle.

Tom Fuentes and the accreditation crisis at the South Orange County Community College District

Today, at Red County/OC Blog, contributor tylerh will be posting about the accreditation of our two colleges. He has graciously offered to include a link to this post, which offers the "faculty perspective" on this matter.

No doubt tylerh has opined that the South Orange County Community College District’s colleges will likely be reaccredited (early in 2009).

He is probably right.

But why has the question arisen in the first place? It has arisen because, back in January, the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) sent letters to the two colleges of the district—Saddleback and Irvine Valley)—advising them that if they did not finally resolve long-standing difficulties, they would lose their accreditation.

Back in 2004, the accreditors dinged the colleges essentially for trustee micromanagement and a “plague of despair”—the latter largely engendered by the authoritarian, repellent, and incompetent “leadership” of the conservative Board Majority’s man, Chancellor Raghu P. Mathur.

Back in 2004, instead of canning Mathur and ceasing their micromanagement, the board gave Mathur a new contract and a generous salary (he makes about $300,000), and it continued to throw its weight around inappropriately—for instance, imposing incompetent and irregular elements in follow-up reports to the ACCJC.

During all of these years of accreditation difficulty, the most consistently defiant trustee has been Tom Fuentes, the former chair of the OC GOP, who is now up for reelection in November. He has displayed open contempt for the accreditors, even declaring, during board meetings, that, contrary to the ACCJC, it is not trustee micromanagement but rather the “macromanagement” of “others” that burdens our colleges. The others, of course, are the faculty, whom he routinely demonizes.

Unfortunately for Mr. Fuentes and the district, circumstances have changed on the accreditation front, for, not long ago, the Department of Education, in the course of pursuing its peculiar reforms, took ACCJC/WASC to task for its failure to enforce standards.

Thus it was that, in January, the colleges were informed that “institutions out of compliance with standards…are expected to correct deficiencies within a two-year period or the Commission must take action to terminate accreditation. …[T]he college has lapsed significantly beyond the … two-year rule and needs to ensure that these recommendations are completed resolved at the time of the October 2008 report.”

This has placed the colleges in a difficult situation, for how, after these many years of “hostility, cynicism, despair, and fear,” are the colleges supposed to emerge with the requisite chirpiness, idealism, and hope? Mathur is still the Chancellor, depressing morale and causing an alarming administrative turnover. The board remains defiantly behind their man, despite his manifest incompetence and unpopularity. (In December, it was revealed that, for many years, Mathur had allowed the district to drift toward noncompliance with the 50% law, a situation that recently forced the district to engage in a hasty and disruptive faculty hiring initiative.)

The conservative readership of OC Blog will no doubt be receptive to Fuentes’ efforts to blame the situation on a recalcitrant and "overpaid" faculty that refuses to be led by Mathur and that pursues only power. But I do hope that they will listen to Board President (and Fuentes ally) Don Wagner, who, for five months now, has been working with faculty (and others) to address our accreditation difficulties and draft the accreditation report on behalf of Irvine Valley College. Since he’s begun to work closely with faculty, he has expressed only praise and admiration for their excellence and hard work. I do hope that you will ask him whether the problem with the district is its faculty.

In the end, owing to the hard work and dedication of such groups, the colleges will likely avoid accreditation disaster. But if they do so, it will be despite Mr. Tom Fuentes.

In the Area 6 trustee race, Fuentes is running against Bob Bliss, a retired Saddleback College professor. Like Fuentes, Bliss is a conservative. But, unlike Fuentes, he will not place our beloved colleges in jeopardy.

For a more detailed account of our accreditation predicament and how we came to it, please see Tom Fuentes and SOCCCD's accreditation crisis.

Summer news

Denizens of the South Orange County Community College District (SOCCCD), be sure to check out our list of "summer news" stories in the sidebar at right! =>

Catch up on what you've missed!

• FUENTES takes credit for high transfer rates!
• Saddleback College finally gets its ACCRED sh*t together!
• Vice Chancellors hired!
• TRACY DALY wants to take over the entire district!
• (OK, I just wanted to say that. Not true.)
• District to be guided by MOOD RINGS!
• (That one's virtually true)

Et cetera!

If you get the chance, read my post today on OC Blue Philosopher: Try to believe that a monkey is a pumpkin. It's about the rationality of believing in God, sort of.

An excerpt:

Isn’t God liable to get ticked off if you show up believing in Him, not because He reveals Himself in His fine and wondrous workmanship and love, but because, well, you believe in insurance? Imagine finally meeting Him and saying, "Oh, great! It was a real leap believing in you, dude—I mean, c'mon!—but like I always say, you gotta consider all contingencies! Ha ha ha!"

The seriously wacky world of California community colleges

     As you know, things can get mighty wacky at community colleges. There’s no limit, it seems, to the wackiness, especially when it comes to top administration and trustees. For instance, who’d o’ thunk we’d ever see a board (like the SOCCCD board until July 2000) that included a Holocaust denier, or one that appointed a guy Chancellor even though said guy had sued the district (once again: the SOCCCD board)? (See the OC Register, "Teacher's view of Holocaust stirs furor,” 4/4/95 and LA Times, 9/13/00: "Irvine Valley President Sues College District," 9/13/00.) Or one in which a trustee had secret meetings with administrators to make secret deals about hiring and firing quid pro quos (that would be the SOCCCD of ’97)? Click on article below for details.

       On Friday, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported (3 college trustees boycott over Sandoval agenda item) that three trustees of the Southwestern cc district “boycotted” a board meeting last Wednesday to prevent its being held—in order to prevent discussion of an item to extend a Southwestern College vice president’s job for a month or two. 

     It’s a tangled tale. Greg Sandoval, the VP, resigned not long ago after someone claimed he’d sexually harassed them. Then he tried to unresign, but the district’s Supe, Raj Chopra, wouldn’t have it. Then, when Chopra left town, Southwestern board president Dave Agosto hastily snuck a new item onto the board’s agenda for August’s meeting. The item was for an action that would have extended Sandoval’s administrative employment to January. 

     Why? ‘Cause, that way, Sandoval would be old enough, while still employed, to receive lifetime medical benefits! So three of the trustees put the kibosh on the meeting, thus deep-sixing Agosto’s agenda gambit. 

     Maybe that was the right thing to do. Dunno. 

     The Trib quotes Chopra as saying, “In my 35 years as an administrator, I have not seen one time an agenda item changed the way (this) did.” He oughta hang around the old SOCCCD. Raghu Mathur became an administrator when a similar maneuver was employed (back in '97). That one was illegal, as it turned out. 

     This Southwestern story doesn’t end here. In fact, it starts to get seriously convoluted at this point, ‘cause Sandoval is on the board of another district that does business with Southwestern, and it turns out that it was somebody on that other board, who benefited from the relationship, who urged Agosto to…. 

     Well, you know. 

     Have I mentioned that SOCCCD’s chancellor, Raghu P. Mathur, has been the subject of three votes of "no confidence" in the past ten years? —that, for the last one, 93.5% of full-time faculty indicated that they had “no confidence” in his leadership? Yeah, so the board gave him a raise.

     Now, we're on the accreditation chopping block, in part because of the "plague of despair" engendered by the ruthless and wily Mathur. 

     Will this board fire his ass? No, Mathur's ass is safe. The ass of SOCCCD's two colleges? Not so much.

Voting "no confidence" in Chancellor Mathur, 2004

    Red Emma (aka Andrew Tonkovich) reminds us that "Today at noon on KPFK 90.7 FM in Los Angeles/ 98.7 FM in Santa Barbara my very special guest is one of our most read, most translated, most celebrated authors, the novelist/essayist/poet/screenwriter Paul Auster, who community radio listeners will also know from his work hosting NPR’s National Story Project."