Classes yanked out of classrooms, stuck in temporaries

     Last night, I reported that, owing (evidently) to the poor condition of the temp building housing the Irvine Valley College Bookstore, the latter will be moved into building B100—where, of course, there are classrooms presently in use (by writing instructors, among others).
     A few minutes ago, I learned that instructors who use rooms B101 and B102 have been informed, via email, that, “effective Monday, August 27, your classes in B 101 and B 102 will not meet in these rooms. All Classes in B 101 will meet in CEC 5. All Classes in B 102 will meet in CEC 6.”
     CEC5 and 6 are inferior temporary buildings located just southwest of the Bookstore.
     The move is permanent: “These classes will meet in these rooms for the remainder of the semester.”
     CORRECTION: an earlier version of this post suggested that the decision to move these classes occurred without due consideration to instructors involved. I have been assured (by people directly involved) that the decision occurred because of an emergency and that an effort was made to take this action with the cooperation and assistance of the relevant dean and chairs. I will make an effort to gain clarity about the emergency.
     See UPDATE of subsequent post.

Spitzer spanks that rat bastard John Williams

Spitzer slaps down Williams’ ballot statement (OC Reg; Total Buzz)

     Challenged in court by crusading county Supervisor-elect Todd Spitzer, ex-Public Administrator John S. Williams caved in Thursday, agreeing to modify what Spitzer termed an “incredibly misleading” ballot statement and to pay Spitzer’s court costs…. (continued)

Excerpt of Judge Sanders' finding

Spitzer sues Williams, wins (No, John, you don't get to lie on your candidate's statement)

     Our old friend "Pen Pal" just sent this:

[OC Supervisor-elect Todd] Spitzer sued John Williams yesterday over his ballot statement, which stated [that] he (Williams) was praised by the [OC] Grand Jury. They had a hearing this morning at Central Court in Santa Ana. Spitzer won! [Williams] will have to remove the grand jury [claim]from the ballot statement! Oh, and pay court costs!  Too funny!  Apparently the press (OCR) just happened to be there, so there should be something online later today. 

     For background, read this or this.
     That Williams would claim to have been praised by the Grand Jury when, in truth, they slammed him illustrates his vicious character.
     As you know, the faculty union PAC, led by residual Old Guardsters (Channing, MacMillan, Miller-White, Woodward, et al.), recently voted to endorse the utterly disgraced Williams for the 7th area seat of the SOCCCD Board of Trustees.
     In early September, the union's Rep Council will meet to decide whether to accept the PAC's recommendation.

Pants afire

     I have advocated that the Rep Council refrain from endorsing anyone for this race and to let the chips fall where they may. A Rep Council decision to endorse Williams would surely divide and polarize faculty. To what end? We don't need Williams. We need to have nothing to do with the guy.
     Many of us remember the Old Guard era (roughly, the 1990s), when a secretive and corrupt group of faculty controlled the union. Stunningly, they chose to use homophobic fliers and to support a Holocaust denying trustee to secure a lucrative contract. It took years to wrest control of the union from that group.
     It was led by the same people who brought about the recent PAC recommendation. (See PAC.)
     Good grief.

Wednesday evening maundering

Is there any "there" there?

• Sources at Saddleback College tell me that the remodel of the “James B. Utt” Library has been allowed to cause tremendous and sustained disruption that is, for some, intolerable.

• We keep encountering murmurings—from many sources—about the IVC Foundation. Something’s afoot and amiss, but we don’t know what. You’ll recall that, last Spring, the student scholarship process was revealed to be fubar, though good work was then done to start to turn things around. Stay tuned.

• We hear that the crummy temp box that has housed the IVC bookstore is finally falling apart and that the store will be moved into B100—which, of course, has long housed classrooms.

• The mother of a student contacted me, hopping mad about expensive textbooks that her kid bought, mostly for math courses. Somehow, the kid had to drop those particular courses, but then the bookstore wouldn’t buy back the books. The instructors, I'm told, are selling very special (and expensive) editions that can only be used in their own classes. We’ve been hearing about this sort of thing—and worse—for years.

• It’s a little thing, really. Denizens of IVC’s Bldg. A200 are wondering why both the building printer and photocopy machine were allowed to be so fouled up during the crucial first two days of the semester (things seemed better today)—a period in which, obviously, many important documents (APCs, rosters, syllabuses) must be printed or duplicated.
     As usual, there is no sense that anyone has heard the complaints, recognized their gravity, and issued reassurances. The people with power at IVC lack people skills bigtime. They leave us all hanging, wondering why things go the way they do. We're forever in the dark. Things just happen.

     Here at IVC, at the top, there's a permanent leadership vacuum. Both the college President (who, you'll recall, got his start owing to a compact with the odious Raghu P. Mathur) and the VPI are, in different ways, utter non-leaders. The Prez seems never to have a freakin’ clue. (Chronic cluelessness seems to define him for most of us.) The Vice Prez, meanwhile, runs the college, and he rules through fear. Mouths are shut tight. People are unhappy. Especially classified.
     Meanwhile, the IVC Academic Senate is a new entity, with mostly new leadership, after a three-year period of largely dismal leadership from a president who had curious values (the CAFÉ—the Center for the Advancement of Faculty Excellence—was repeatedly hobbled by weird spasms of elitism, and it sits essentially unused; despite substantial faculty concerns, the scandalous Early College Program was allowed to proceed, robbing resources from our students; the Senate actually went to bat for Prez Roquemore over his turf war re ATEP, that amorphous money pit par excellence) and who obviously proceeded with her longstanding administrative ambitions firmly in mind. Good grief.
     Will the new Academic Senate step up? Think so. We’ll see.

• And then there's the faculty union. If the Faculty Association chooses to endorse that über-creep John Williams—evidently on the meager grounds that Williams will likely support the contract—then I would love for someone to explain to me the difference between this FA and the nasty old FA that got all homophobic and Frogue-loving in order to protect "life as we know it" back in 1996.
     To quote an infamous Alabamian, there ain't a dime's worth of difference.
     If.

DtB’s “curious moments in SOCCCD history,” part 2: the specter of "school slaughter"

Mr. Knoblockhead

     1. During the September 24, 2007 meeting of the SOCCCD board of trustees, San Clemente City Councilman Steve Knoblock addressed the trustees concerning the specter of school violence with its “burgeoning body count." The Republican politico ridiculed the nation’s feeble efforts in addressing violent outbreaks (he mentioned reliance on "sensitivity training," among other things).

     Knoblock's recommendation: reject the “strategy of duck and cover” in favor of a strategy of “self defense."
     Said he,

Tod Burnett's personal arsenal

"We may see less school slaughter if students are trained and encouraged to protect themselves. On hand in every classroom and on every school campus there are innumerable books, chairs, backpacks, laptop computers, shoes, etc., that can be used at a moment’s notice as defensive projectile weapons against armed assassins…."

     Afterward, trustee Tom Fuentes, former chair of the local Republican Party, noted that Mr. Knoblock is an “esteemed” member of the community (i.e., he's a Republican).
     You can view Knoblock’s comment here: streaming video.
     Jump to section 2.5 (public comments).
     And, no, I'm not making any of this up.

2. “Stop living in an ivory castle!” –Trustee John Williams, chastising trustee Dave Lang concerning the latter’s opposition to arming campus cops, September 14, 1998

Williams: seeking "a new level of honesty" about himself • Cal State Goes Online, Slowly (Inside Higher Ed) • An Academic Ghostwriter, the 'Shadow Scholar,' Comes Clean (Chronicle of Higher Education) • Rick Warren cancels Obama-Romney forum at Saddleback Church (OC Reg) • Fullerton PD 'Culture of Complacency' Led to Beating Death (Voice of OC) • Williams comes out, no longer a “closet moron”: and he feels “really swell” about it (USA Heute)

DtB's "curious moments in SOCCCD history," part 1

The well-known "Williamsian" flow chart. 

John has his priorities. Cake is, like, #1

The usual suspects basking in the glow of their hero, Mike Carona.

These days, the Mikester resides in federal prison. 

Check out the detail of this pic.

(Click on graphic to enlarge it.)

Proximity to Nancy sometimes brought out the worst in Tom

Like Nietzsche said, sometimes it gazes back at you

I sympathize, Nancy, I really do

Nope. Don't sympathize.

All pics from the "DtB collection"