Wednesday, September 18, 2019

WTF

Speculation still swirls over CTA chief’s firing
Capitol Weekly
     California’s education world is abuzz with speculation about three recent developments, little of which has to do with schools.
     1. What led to the abrupt summer firing of Joe Nuñez as executive director of the 325,000-member California Teachers Association, one of the biggest and most powerful labor groups in California?
     2. Who will the board of directors appoint as Nuñez’s permanent successor?
     3. What caused the California Faculty Association, (CFA) with 19,000 members, to “disaffiliate” from the teachers association in July?....

Sunday, August 25, 2019

...Killing of Retired Administrator (at CFU); Hong Kong students

Fullerton Employee Arrested in Killing of Retired Administrator
Inside Higher Ed

Police have arrested a California State University at Fullerton employee in the stabbing death of a retired Fullerton administrator, CNN reported. Steven Shek Keung Chan, who retired in 2017 but had recently returned to work at the university as a consultant, was found dead in his car in a parking lot at Fullerton Monday. Officers arrested Chuyen Vo, an employee in the extended education office in which Chan formerly worked. Charges are to be filed today, when a motive might be clearer.
(See also 51-year-old co-worker arrested in fatal stabbing of retired Cal State Fullerton administrator (OC Reg))

Hong Kong Students Call for 2-Week Class Boycott
Inside Higher Ed

Student leaders at 10 Hong Kong universities have called for their fellow students to skip classes for the first two weeks of the fall term in response to mass protests that started this summer, the Associated Press reported. The student leaders said they would escalate their action if their demands are not met by Hong Kong's Beijing-backed chief executive by Sept. 13....

Dr. Jen Gunter Wants to Protect Your Vagina From Gwyneth Paltrow
Mother Jones

...As an OB-GYN with nearly three decades of experience, Gunter knows from crotches. And today she is angry about how certain products—“vaginal offenders”—are pitched at women. “Since the beginning of time, women have been told that they are dirty,” she says. “They want us to be ‘pure,’ they want us to be ‘clean.’ These words have been weaponized.” And shaky assertions made by natural health products serve only to misdirect women, Gunter argues in her new book, The Vagina Bible: The Vulva and the Vagina—Separating the Myth From the Medicine, a sassy manual of anatomy and self-care tips. If a topical product claims it can regulate pH, she writes, “I always wonder: What other false claims are they making?”...

Sunday, August 18, 2019

South County Homeless Lawsuit


     As you may know, Dissent’s (or at least my) attorney is Santa Monica’s Carol Sobel, who has in recent decades gained a considerable reputation as a "civil rights" attorney.
     Since our battles with the district twenty years ago, she has become a prominent advocate for the homeless in LA and OC.
     Here is a series of articles, most by Nick Gerda, concerning her recent battles on behalf of the homeless in Orange County.
     The latest news isn't good, I'm afraid:

Carol Sobel
South County Homeless Lawsuit is Almost Completely Dismissed
Voice of OC
August 15, 2019

Homeless Settlement Limits South County Anti-Camping Enforcement
Voice of OC
July 23, 2019

Judge Declines Emergency Block of San Clemente’s Anti-Camping Law

Voice of OC
July 9, 2019

Judge Carter Removed From South OC Homelessness Case
Voice of OC
June 14, 2019

San Clemente to Move its Homeless Population to a City Lot
Voice of OC
May 23, 2019

Five South Orange County Cities Sued for Lack of Homeless Shelters
Voice of OC
March 2, 2019

Anaheim Clears Homeless Camp at Maxwell Park, Offers People Shelter Beds
Voice of OC
Dec 21, 2018

Homelessness Legal Settlements Approved with Anaheim, Orange and Tustin
Voice of OC
Nov 6, 2018

Homeless Shelters to Open in Santa Ana and Anaheim by End of December, Cities Say
Voice of OC
Sept 7, 2018

Judge Demands Progress on Homeless Shelters By September 7
Voice of OC
August 3, 2018

Saturday, August 17, 2019

Sources of "Guided Pathways" skepticism

Guided Pathways: “What Is So Bad About Getting Folks Through College Quickly So They Can Join the Workforce?”
The AFT Guild
     …Many faculty and professional staff are worried about this concept because they have seen these sorts of initiatives used elsewhere to gut a variety of academic programs that are deemed “inessential” or that don’t lead students quickly enough to a career. The example of the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point is illustrative of this:
• UW-Stevens Point faces a deficit of $4.5 million over two years because of declining enrollment and lower tuition revenues. It proposes adding or expanding 16 programs in areas with high-demand career paths as a way to maintain and increase enrollment. 
• To fund this future investment, resources would be shifted from programs with lower enrollment, primarily in the traditional humanities and social sciences. Although some majors are proposed to be eliminated, courses would continue to be taught in these fields, and minors or certificates will be offered.
     As a result of this way of thinking, the University was reorganized in such a way that 13 majors including English, History, Philosophy, Political Science, Geography, Geoscience, and a number of languages were eliminated because these programs were not seen as contributing to the financial bottom line of the university. Aquaculture, Fire Science, and English for Teacher Certification (instead of English), on the other hand, made the grade as they shunt students straight through college and into narrowly conceived career paths….

Friday, August 16, 2019

Ethnic Studies Brouhaha


Push for Ethnic Studies in Schools Faces a Dilemma: Whose Stories to Tell
California’s newly proposed model ethnic studies curriculum has led to bitter debate in recent weeks.
NYT
…The 2016 law that led to the California course materials, which will be optional for schools to use, did not precisely define ethnic studies, leaving much of the work to a committee of teachers and professors appointed by a state curriculum board. Members of that committee said they had taken their cues from the way ethnic studies is taught at the college level, where the discipline has traditionally encompassed the study of four groups: African-Americans, Latinos, Native Americans and Asian-Americans.
    The draft falls short, said Assemblyman Jose Medina, a Democrat and former ethnic studies teacher. He has introduced a bill to make ethnic studies a graduation requirement but said he now supported slowing down the process, in part to make the materials more inclusive….. (continue reading)

Tuesday, August 13, 2019

What a Difference a Year Makes...



It's all Pride rainbows. Some will tell you that the administrators so present at today's event did not attend IVC's first ever Pride in 2018 when this photo was taken. Yes, that's Rebel Girl in green on the left, with the big chip on her shoulder. 

LAST year during August FLEXweek, IVC denizens who showed up to the President's Welcome were treated to information about the dangers of texting while driving and advised how they too could sign up for the services offered by the Automobile Club of America, aka Triple A, a favorite organization of Rebel Girl who still can't change a tire on her own but not what she, or many others expected from FLEX week.  You can read all about last year here: Flex Week Follies.

This year was a very different story.



Gone was the usual  triumphal braggadocio. In its place, the college president offered personal testimony about how he understood his place of privilege and shared his own story of encountering diversity and that of his wife. This was followed by two noted equity in education activists - The Campaign for College Opportunity's Audrey Dow and USC's  Dr. Shaun Harper -  who notably did not ask us to sign up for Triple A insurance plans but instead challenged us to do better. They were great. Unsparing. Direct. Pie charts. Data.  They called out institutional racism and the white supremacy and the failure of our educational leader to address it.  It's not enough to hang well-intentioned banners, Mr. President. Funny too.



Some say this is Glenn's doing.

Many claim it is the influence of the new chancellor.

After all, so many of us have seen what Glenn's priorities have been for nearly two decades.  Equity assessment that looks at how institutions perpetuate racism and sexism instead of combat it have never ranked this high before.  For example, just take a look at the college website page for DACA students which continues to languish. We are beginning to lose a generation of students here who are too afraid to enroll at community college once they graduate high school, so worried are they that doing so will risk themselves, their families.

So what has changed?  And why?  You tell us.

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...