Rebel Girl asks: how and why has this been allowed to happen?

     INSPIRED by a recent comment on the blog ("Has hiring at IVC kept apace with growth?") and the general malaise about future hires at IVC (One hears 15, 12 and even the number 4 bandied about in the hallways), Rebel Girl devoted her Sunday morning to watching a recently released short documentary, Why We Need More Full-time English Faculty.

     Produced by the School of Humanities and Languages, filmed by avant-garde cinematographer Sonja Bangston (Check out those shadows! Shades of Indonesian shadow puppetry!) and starring the Department of English's own Professor Lewis Long (rodeo cowboy, Porsche enthusiast, Dickens scholar, union thug and master of the negotiating table), this short film offers a damning case study of how 15 years of systematic under-hiring in the face of the otherwise steady growth of the small college in the orange groves has affected one department. Some critics liken it to the Academy Award-winning documentaries Harlan County U.S.A. and Godzilla Eats the Accreditation Team. The ghost of IVC's Voice raves: "It's powerful, provocative, exciting and frightening—because it's real." 

     In a series of simple yet effective PowerPoint stills, Long presents a case rooted in history and statistics—in other words, reality and not, say, unannounced and inexplicable helicopter visitations, photo-opular security stipends, and nepotism most foul.

     THE BRUTE FACTS. Drawing from analysis of his own files as a former department chair, he notes the following: Since 1998 the number of our Composition sections offered has grown by 60% . The number of full-time faculty employed in 1998 was 11–in 2015, it is expected to be 12. —That's right: 12.

     Long could stop there—the contrast is enough. But he does not. He offers evidence of staffing percentages:

Above 42% of comp classes were taught by full-time faculty in 1998 but, in 2014, only  27% percent are.

     He explains why this is a problem: "If the college-wide goal is 55% percent FT-PT staffing ratio—[Well,] we have never been close, we are at half that."
     He adds a current statistic: this fall, 72 out of 102 comp sections will be staffed by part-time faculty—that's 71%. The cost, he claims, is demonstrated in the high turnover of part-time faculty, a lack of instructional consistency and so on.

     Obviously, the need for full-time faculty will grow as the college does and as the demand for sections of core curricula increase. Basic skills mandates increase demand for remedial courses, as well as co-reqs. State mandated co-reqs and pre-reqs will also increase demand for Writing 1 (college writing).

     An audience member asked Long how many hires would be needed to address the serious, systematic under-hiring in the department. Lewis, who can do sophisticated math in his head quickly answered: Six.

     How many are we anticipating hiring this year? At best: One.

     Scintillating stuff. Movie thrills. Special effects. Cinema vérité. And Long: a handsome fellow, rugged good-looks, a man who knows how to use Powerpoint. Audiences love it, critics rave, Netflix is interested in an original series, sort of a cross between two recent offerings: Arrested Faculty Development and House of Add Cards.

     But, alas, still only one full-time hire. Maybe.

Lewis Long: rodeo cowboy, Porsche enthusiast, Dickens scholar, union thug and master of the negotiating table

     L'HISTOIRE. It is worth noting that, at every opportunity during the last 21 years (the length, breadth, and width of Rebel Girl's own institutional memory), the Department of English has always seized the opportunity to hire full-time faculty–unlike certain other Departments and programs who have (for reasons best not discussed here) declined. So, in other words, we have grown as much as we were allowed to. And yet—well, the statistics tell the story. We have hired, not to grow, but to replace—barely. It must be said that the English Department has done well under difficult circumstances. Rebel Girl guesses that, this year, we've hired just about every available qualified part-time teacher in a three county radius!

     ONE OBVIOUS QUESTION is, of course, how and why has this been allowed to happen? Where's the leadership? Who is (or isn't) paying attention? How do the decisions we make and in this case, do not make, affect our students?  

     Yes, somewhere in the bowels of the Inside IVC film vault there exists a copy of Lewis delivering the information (clumsily paraphrased by Rebel Girl here), complete with pastel Powerpoint slides and fancy font styles sure to impress. Rebel Girl understands that a limited number of DVD copies will be made available of Members of the Academy, the SOCCCD Board of Trustees and the IVC Administration for their consideration. 

Lewis Long asks for more. 

The good people of Harlan County ask for much, much more.

*

Selling a liberal-arts education

How to Get a Job With a Philosophy Degree (New York Times)
Excerpts:
     For years, most liberal-arts schools seemed to put career-services offices “somewhere just below parking” as a matter of administrative priority, in the words of Wake Forest’s president, Nathan Hatch. But increasingly, even elite, decidedly non-career-oriented schools are starting to promote their career services during the freshman year, in response to fears about the economy, an ongoing discussion about college accountability and, in no small part, the concerns of parents, many of whom want to ensure a return on their exorbitant investment.
. . .
     No other school has marketed its career center quite as successfully as Wake Forest (which, at No. 27, falls between the University of Virginia and Tufts on the U.S. News & World Report rankings but has struggled with name recognition nationally). In 2009, the university hired [Andy Chan, vice president in charge of the Office of Personal and Career Development], who was running Stanford Business School’s career center and had led a Silicon Valley start-up. Chan has made a name for himself as an oft-quoted expert on getting young people employed. He has given a TEDx talk on the subject of reinventing career services and hosted, at Wake Forest, a symposium that was attended by representatives from some 75 schools. His theme: If universities want to preserve the liberal arts, they have a responsibility to help those humanities majors know how to translate their studies into the work world.
. . .
     Colleges and universities have noted parents’ seemingly boundless concern for their children’s well-being and have shifted strategies in response. They have boosted parental involvement, or engagement, as it is known in the fund-raising industry. Schools have doubled the number of on-campus parent associations in roughly 10 years, according to the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, and parents, in turn, have given generously, even as college costs have hit new highs. Parent donations to higher education, from 2001 to 2010, increased by nearly 50 percent, according to a study published by the Council for Aid to Education.
. . .
     [Parent] Naumann was most enthusiastic about the school’s entrepreneurial program. Chan has raised money for a popular minor in entrepreneurship and social enterprise, which is open to liberal-arts majors. As Chan took notes on his iPad, Naumann talked about the qualities he thought were most essential for the school to cultivate in its students: fearlessness, communication, analytic skills and teamwork. Working well with others, he pointed out, was precisely the kind of skill that could not be learned online and one that brick-and-mortar liberal-arts schools could pride themselves on providing as they sought to stay relevant.
. . .
     Andrew Delbanco, a professor at Columbia, writes in his book, “College: What It Was, Is and Should Be,” that colleges should help students develop “a skeptical discontent with the present, informed by a sense of the past.” Can liberal-arts schools encourage students to question the status quo while simultaneously reminding them from their first days on campus to keep their employability in mind?
. . .
     Academics are expected to express reservations about the encroachment of career planning on intellectual development, but their doubts are not that different from those voiced by Brad Henderson, a 34-year-old partner at Boston Consulting Group, who is in charge of the firm’s Midwestern recruiting. Henderson, an alumnus of the University of Chicago, does not object to career programming in principle but worries that at some colleges, “this race to get jobs becomes more important than the actual ‘let’s educate our students,’ ” Henderson said. “It’s not uncommon to encounter a 20-year-old who has not benefited from the maturation you get from higher education, from true engagement in a classroom — it becomes more about taking classes as an extended way to build your résumé. You think you’re talking to a 20-year-old who should have bright ideas and enthusiasm, and they can’t get out of the mode of: ‘What are the words I’m supposed to use in this conversation?’ And you see that the risk has been taken out of résumés — that’s the part that’s most disheartening.”
     Some schools have expensive climbing walls; others have wellness centers worthy of five-star hotels. Wake Forest has Andy Chan. At orientation, he addressed the parents wearing a navy jacket and white shirt, roaming freely with a headset and using his hands for emphasis with the skill of a seasoned public speaker. “I believe, and many believe, that a liberal-arts education is the key to navigating the changes that come ahead,” said Chan, a former political-science major, reassuring parents who may recall fondly their years studying 18th-century art history or the Romantic poets but who still want results for the high cost of tuition….

Bugsy

Immediately after meds: peevish

     Visited Bugsy tonight, and he seemed to be doing well. He still doesn't have much of an appetite—he eats only small amounts—but, otherwise, he seems happy.
     P.S. (Sunday morning): The little guy is having a good morning. When I left him, he was looking out the bedroom window, enjoying the morning air, hoping to spot foxes and such. Saw him eat, too. Not bad, little man! He took his meds like a champ, too. (Check out my modification of a favorite James Thurber illustration. That's Bugs all right.)
     P.P.S. (Sunday night): He's looking pretty good, eating more. Not very energetic, but curious. Moves around a lot. Long live the Bugster!
     PPPS (Tuesday morning): the boy has been looking and acting healthier. His appetite is good. Doesn't seem terribly bothered by his chemo (chewable pills, every other day). So far so good.

Milestone

Separating from its owner at a rate of 11 miles per second

     Glenn Roquemore’s brain has left the solar system, boldly going where no cerebrum has gone before.
     Thirty-six years after it rocketed away from Earth, the peanut-oil-powered gray matter has escaped the sun's influence and is now cruising 11 1/2 billion miles away in interstellar space, or the vast, cold emptiness between the stars, "much like the void between Roquemore's ears," NASA said Thursday.
     And just in case it encounters intelligent life out there, it is epoxied to a gold-plated, 1970s-era phonograph record of “Muskrat Love.”
     Never before has a human brain left the solar system as it is commonly understood.
     "We made it," said an ecstatic Ed Stone, the mission's chief scientist, who waited decades for this moment. "We fucking made it."
     NASA celebrated by playing the "Star Trek" theme at a news conference in Washington. Then "Muskrat Love."
     Repeated efforts to reach Roquemore, longtime president of Irvine Valley College, were unsuccessful.
     According to a spokeperson for the college, "Dr. Roquemore is busy running the college, which isn't easy, as you can well imagine."

Voyager 1 leaves solar system – video (The Guardian)

Bugsy update:

     The little’s guy’s been home from the hospital since Wednesday night. Thursday morning, he didn’t look that great, though he was certainly happy to be home. By late Thursday, he seemed to be doing much better, acting pretty much like his usual self.
     Today, Friday, we (Annie and I) brought him again to the vet to check his blood, etc. He was a real trooper. He didn’t complain. His red blood cell count was up to 25 (from 20), moving in the right direction. (35-45 is normal.)
     He does have feline leukemia, we learned, and the situation is pretty serious, for, not only is his red blood cell count low, but so is his white blood cell count.
     Long story short, his chances seem to be about 50/50 of surviving this “episode.” If he does survive, he’ll get by for a while on meds, and remission is possible. We’ve got our fingers crossed.
     So, for now, he’s receiving chemo and various other medicines. (He's very vulnerable to infections right now.) He definitely doesn’t like taking his medicine—giving it to 'im is a bit of a nightmare—but he’s happy to be home, living with my folks, who fuss over him endlessly.
     He’s a very loveable little guy, our Bugsy Boy.
     P.S.: heard from the vet tonight. Today's blood test showed that Bugsy's "platelet count" is up, which is good. Still low, but, again, moving in the right direction.
     P.P.S.: Just got back from this morning's medicine giving, and, thanks to Annie, it was a bit less traumatic (she used to do that sort of thing for a living). The Bugster looked good. Mighty feisty.

A civility policy—at a college?

     With the Accreds breathing down our necks, the Chancellor and at least one of our college presidents have been anxious to pass some sort of board policy regarding our embrace of “civility.” The problem, of course, is that such a policy could turn into a platform for disciplining faculty. Not good.
     That’s why the first draft of the proposed “civility policy” was nixed by, first, the IVC Academic Senate, and then the SC Academic Senate.
     It remains to be seen whether the new and improved draft will pass muster.
     In the meantime, there’s this:

Requiring Civility (Inside Higher Ed)

Excerpts:

…The university [or Oregon] statement mentions civility twice in a section on faculty responsibilities, including that faculty are responsible for treating "students, staff, colleagues and the public fairly and civilly in discharging his or her duties and in accordance with this agreement." Civility clauses have long been of concern to advocates for professors. While it's hard to find people who are anti-civility, many academics note that requiring civility can become a tool for punishing those professors who speak out against their bosses or who push unpopular positions.
. . .
     Bill Harbaugh, professor of economics and moderator of the "UO Matters" blog, which is frequently critical of university policy, said decoupling academic freedom from free speech left room for administrators to punish those faculty – like him – who say things administrators don't like. He also objected to the idea that administrators would be the ones deciding what qualifies as "civil."
     The university has previously publicly accused Harbaugh of including “consistently anti-university” statements on his blog.
     “The university is place of higher learning,” warranting explicit protections of free speech, Harbaugh said. “The new policy takes out all the pro-free speech stuff and instead includes many restrictive rules about how faculty can be engaged in free speech. It’s aimed in part at limiting the critical faculty right to criticize the administration outside of [the formal university setting].”
     Michael Mauer, an AAUP senior labor adviser involved in contract negotiations, said the university’s counterproposal gutted union language that protects faculty free speech, in light of Garcetti.
     “It limits that to whatever the courts currently say is protected by the First Amendment, and we think it should be broader than that,” Mauer said, particularly as the counterproposal also rejects some union language guaranteeing faculty members the right to engage in criticism of institutional policy.
     And while there’s nothing wrong with an “aspirational” mention of civility, he said, including it as a “faculty responsibility” opens the door to potential disciplinary action for words that should be accepted within the "scope of vigorous debate."….

California Corporate College is coming!

     This (entitled "Logistics for California Corporate College Training") just in from DO of the IVC President's Office:

Dear Colleagues,  

     We wanted to share with you this important information: The upcoming event for the California Corporate College will be held from 7:30 am to 5:00 pm on September 17 [next Tuesday]. This is a new group of attendees and changes have been implemented to reduce the impact to the college, especially to parking and the cafeteria.  Below is the logistics update:  

➢  PARKING: On Tuesday, September 17, 2013, IVC will host a training session provided by the California Corporate College in the Performing Arts Center. Approximately 300 attendees are expected. Attendees will be directed to park in Parking Lot 8 and walk to the PAC. Please plan your day at IVC accordingly to ensure you can find a space. Staff Parking is also generally available in Parking Lot 9. 

➢  CAFETERIA: This is a new group of participants. They will  purchase a box lunch and eat in and near PAC for lunch (11:50-1:00). It is expected that there will be minimal impact on cafeteria and coffee carts. However, be advised that attendees may visit the cafeteria or the cart. Please share this information and to let your staff and students know of the impact on parking and (possibly) food services to help us minimize the impact of this event.

     We at Dissent are doing our part to disseminate information as directed. We are happy that there is indeed information to disseminate and assume that this is the same group that descended upon campus unannounced to the hoi-polloi a week ago. (300 parking spaces!) 

     What is California Corporate College,* you might ask?

     The frighteningly surreal image above (Pink Floyd album cover reject, no doubt) can be found at their website along with this descriptor:

California Corporate College - A new road to prosperity

     Community by community, California employers have been partnering with California's Community Colleges in building their workforce talent for generations. California corporations, governmental agencies, associations and non-profits can find no better workforce development partner than their local community college.

     But what if your organization has workforce development needs that reach beyond your local community? What if your employees in Sacramento, Fresno, Los Angeles and San Diego need training in Hazardous Materials Handling or Spanish as a Second Language?

     There's something about the juxtaposition of Hazardous Materials Handling with Spanish as a Second Language that makes La Rebel Girl exclaim Muy Toxico! 

     *Learn more about California Corporate College here. "The California Corporate College ... provides a single point of contact for businesses, governmental agencies, associations, and organizations to access training and workforce preparation services throughout California. It is created as a cooperative venture of all of California’s Community Colleges."

P.S.:

     I poked around and found a page of the IVC Master Calendar (for 8/30/13 to 9/29/13).
     It includes two events for the “California Corporate College”: one on Wednesday, September 4 (i.e., last week) in the PAC Lobby (from 8:30 a.m. to 4:29 p.m.) and one on Tuesday, September 17 (i.e., next week) again in the PAC Lobby (again from 8:30 – 4:29).

     So last week's parking fiasco was indeed caused by the CCC event.