Unpopular Mathurian visitations

Recently, a friend called with a delicious, if minor, tale. Evidently, there is a club of classified retirees at Saddleback College. The organization has a president, and this president took it upon himself to invite Chancellor Raghu P. Mathur to the club's next meeting.

It is easy to imagine how that happened. Raghu loves nothing more than to play the visiting VIP.

According to my friend (who got her info, evidently, from a member of the club), when word of the President's Mathurian invitation got out, many members became upset and communicated among themselves (or to the president?) that they would not be attending any meeting featuring Mathur.

The story reminds me of the beginning of Raghu's Reign of Error. As you know, Raghu, a chemistry instructor, was appointed IVC's interim President in April of 1997. A month earlier, in response to President Larios' departure, the board had decided to have then-Chancellor Lombardi extend his duties to IVC. But Raghu and the old corrupt union engineered a change--one that proved to be illegal, or so said the OC Superior Court. (I was among the petitioners of that suit.)

One of the first things Raghu did as President was to insist on meeting with each of the Schools of IVC. Much of the faculty already viewed Mathur's appointment as illegitimate. After all, Raghu had had no full-time administrative experience. How was the fellow even remotely qualified? Further, he was by then a notorious character on campus, a fellow known for his connivery, dishonesty, and pathological self-importance--some would say, "narcissism."

Hell, even his colleague Glenn Roquemore, then a geology instructor in Raghu's school, recognized Raghu's viciousness. In the early months of 1997, Glenn was working with administrator Pam Deegan to have Mathur removed as chair of the School of Physical Sciences and Technologies, a quasi-administrative position that Raghu held onto by any means necessary.

Glenn, evidently, had his own administrative ambitions, and Mathur was standing (um, sitting) in the way.

So the impending Mathurian Visitation inspired much squirmage, uncertainty, and consternation.

By the time Raghu scheduled a meeting with Humanities & Languages, he had already visited other schools, and there were reports that, at these meetings, he had insisted on going around the room shaking hands with each and every instructor.


"Good Lord," we said. What could be worse than having to stand there shaking hands with this Philistine? --This indefatigable schemer who had been censured for lying and circumventing process by IVC's Instructional Council? --This unprincipled lout whose behavior--among other sins, he had violated a student's privacy by distributing her transcripts--led to a formal reprimand by President Larios? --This grasping brownnoser who, despite his greed (he was the King of excessive reassigned time/overload) and incompetence (you should have seen the mess he made of "Tech Prep"), manifested an inexplicable and inveterate conviction that he was the most talented and deserving hunk of administrative talent the world has ever seen?

Anyone who disagreed was prompty charged, by Raghu, with racism. (Go to end of That finger.)

Well, when the big day arrived, we all showed up and sat there listening to Mathur's insufferable speech about the new regime. Then, sure enough, he went around the room, shaking hands, slowly.

Some of us simply refused to shake his hand. He handled that well. But eventually he got to one of the more senior members of the school, Dale, a widely respected fellow who had himself once served as Interim President. When Raghu got to Dale, Dale reached out his hand and held Raghu's.

There was a pause. Time froze. What was going on?

Dale had decided to counter Raghu's idiotic and offensive "handshake" gambit with a gesture of his own. When Raghu extended his hand, Dale held it and would not let go of it. He looked Raghu straight in the eye.

I do believe that the Gooster panicked a bit. Raghu is the kind of guy who can dish it out all right, but he can't take it, that's for sure. He's a fat toad on his big mushroom, but as soon as you bump him, he freaks and scatters with zero grace and dignity, pissing and spitting in all directions.

Eventually, of course, he recovers; he then adds your name to his Enemies List. In permanent ink.

So Raghu panicked a bit. Dale looked him in the eye. He said something pleasant but meaningful, I forget what. Raghu squirmed, not knowing what to do. He eventually extricated himself and scurried away, attempting to get the unpleasantness behind him.

That was the last time he tried his handshake gimmick, at least with the School of H & L.

But Raghu's got a big bag of tricks. (He's also got a big bag of awards, which he used to pull out and explain at every opportunity.) For a time, Raghu had a "servant" campaign. He'd show up everywhere with a terry cloth towel draped over his arm. Upon it was written, "How may I serve you?" Just imagine.

Everyone snickered. Especially classified employees.

(No one is less servant-like than the lordly Raghu.)

For a while, Raghu would go to meetings, forcing all in attendance to clap exactly once for everything and everybody that, in his mind, deserved clappage. (Some speculated that Raghu was offended that some persons received more clappage than others [i.e., than he]. The solution? Everyone gets just one.)

He actually gave this odd practice a name. He called it the "Orange County Clap," evidently unaware of the word's other meaning. (Raghu's infamous "clap" and "poinsettia" episodes)

Then there was the time Raghu promoted a list of allegedly morale-boosting activities, including this: each employee should draw a hand on a piece of paper. Using that "hand," he should then give himself "a pat on the back." (Raghu's wildfires of inanity)

"Surely," we said, "the fellow is joking!"

But no.

(At Mathur's last visitation of the School of H&L [last Fall], four faculty showed up.)

The goo thickens

Well, this morning, the Times (Registrar’s act deepens school furor) is playing catch-up re the wacky Capistrano school district story.

On Monday, the OC Reg reported that, according to Capistrano’s former spokesman, the district’s superintendent secured a list of parents who participated in an effort to recall district trustees. (For the Reg's update, see Parents protest recall lists. The Reg focuses on last night's board meeting.)

Following the Reg, the Times today reports that the Registrar's Office apparently broke the law in releasing the names.

But it gets better! According to this morning's Times, Capistrano's former PR guy also says that the Supe had an "informant" who had infiltrated the recall campaign!

Here are some excerpts:

An affluent south Orange County school district consumed by a drive to recall all its trustees was swept into deeper controversy this week when a county official admitted that the registrar of voters office had improperly let two school officials view the names of people who signed the recall petitions.

The names, which are confidential by state law, included parents and teachers in the Capistrano Unified School District, a sprawling and academically distinguished district stretching from San Clemente to Mission Viejo.
.....
Parents who organized the recall drive against the seven trustees said the registrar's action called into question the integrity of his office. They also have been incensed by allegations that school district officials kept lists of the names of parents who supported the recall.
…..
[P]arents said they were angered and astonished that the district reportedly kept a spreadsheet with the names of 150 people who backed the recall effort. Although the superintendent has denied any knowledge of the spreadsheet, the district's former spokesman said he saw it and was asked to keep it secret.
.....
Former district spokesman David Smollar, who resigned in late May, said Supt. James A. Fleming ordered him to withhold three versions of a spreadsheet list containing the names of parents, their e-mail addresses and the schools their children attend.

"I told him if anyone found out about the list, it would be an absolute embarrassment," Smollar said. "Fleming ordered me not to give it out [and] I complied. I didn't have a death wish to be fired."

He said he was also asked to block a public records request for a memo by the district security director on talks with an informant who had infiltrated the recall campaign. The superintendent "was more upset about releasing that than the spreadsheet list," Smollar said. "His mindset is to get all the background, all the ammo you can on people. He's a street fighter."
…..
Smollar said Fleming had asked him to go to the registrar's office in the first place, to "take notes of interest."

"Fleming took the sheet, smiled and placed it in his to-discuss-with-trustees box," Smollar said.
…..
"I quit because I didn't believe I was being told the truth as a spokesperson by the superintendent," he said. "I was tired of continual lies he told to me that I passed to the public."…. [Boldface added.]

Well, I don’t wanna beat a dead horse, but this sure does remind us here at Dissent of Raghu "Mr. Goo" Mathur, the Chancellor of the SOCCCD.

Especially the part about the PR guy quitting because his boss is a liar.

Perhaps some of you will recall this story:

9/25/98

IRVINE VALLEY SPOKESWOMAN QUITS

On the job a month, she says she was pressured to present a false view of the college.

By KIMBERLY KINDY
The Orange County Register

Irvine Valley College’s new spokeswoman has left after just one month, saying she was asked to present the public with a view of the embattled college that was tantamount to lying.

Bevin Zandvliet said she repeatedly asked college President Raghu Mathur for information about campus protests, lawsuits aimed at the administration, and controversy over the school’s accreditation, but she was rebuffed.

“I was told that there were some things I was not to focus on,” she said. “From my own research, old files and press clippings I got a picture of an administration that was doing some things that I don’t think I could represent without violating my own ethics.”
…..
“People are walking on eggshells around there [IVC],” she said. “He said he has an open-door policy and that he believes in communication, but I didn’t see it.”

No doubt Capistrano's supe will soon lose his job. But Raghu was rewarded for his multifaceted unethical conduct (keeping secret files on faculty critics, distributing a student's transcripts, sneaking into the Chancellor's back door and then lying about it, whatnot). Not only was he made Chancellor, he received valuable cash prizes, namely, a quarter million dollar salary.

See also Gila's CUSD ENEMIES LIST 7/10 blog on Orange Juice (CUSD Enemies List) for one insider's perspective. Check out the comments, too, though some seem to be coming from way out in left field.

MORE fun summer reading!

Wanna learn about Roy Bauer's dastardly "threats"?

Wanna know how the district's lawyer resorted to intimidation?

Can't remember who said, "You f*cking a**hole"?

Ever wonder whether beheading counts as "maiming"?

YOU'RE IN LUCK. I've added two transcripts to the archives, and, especially if you know the players and events of our district's sorry saga, then you'll definitely wanna read 'em!

It's a goshdarn stroll down memory lane! Sherry! Woody! Fear! Loathing! MAIMAGE!


Go ahead. Click on the two links below. Consider yourself threatened, or, at least, intimidated!

Go to:

1. Bauer's court victory; TRANSCRIPTS

--in which Judge Feess judges that, in an effort to stifle dissent and criticism, the district and chancellor stretched and twisted policies when it accused Dissent publisher Roy Bauer of "discriminating" against Raghu and "threatening" him with two-ton slabs of granite!

2. Lisa's deposition: a strategy of harassment; TRANSCRIPTS

--in which district lawyer Dave Larsen attempts to intimidate Dissent publisher Roy Bauer's office mate by asking her to reveal her politics and her memories of Clock Tower incidents and bearded men and postal goings and Christian-right political organizations!


NOTE: back in 1998, the above Dissent "downsizers" graphic (see) was cited by the district as evidence of Bauer's desire to do violence. I guess they figured that Bauer keeps a huge shotgun in his garage. Idjits.

The above "backdoor Gooster" graphic accompanied Dissent's report of Mathur's infamous enemies list. Obviously, our point was that Raghu wanted to hurt his enemies, but Raghu insisted that it was evidence that Bauer wanted to "maim" him. (Read especially Lisa's deposition.)

Fun summer reading

Mathur's Sept. 1999 deposition

While writing the blog below ("Let there be wooage," earlier this morning), I added something to the archive. It is a transcript of RAGHU MATHUR's famous deposition in connection with my First Amendment lawsuit.

The deposition, which features my attorney (Carol Sobel), the district's attorney (Dave Larsen), and, of course, Mathur, is very long, but I've added section headings, so you can skip around (see below).

Those who know or know of Chancellor Raghu P. Mathur will, I believe, be amused by his remarks.

Some highlights:

• Raghu explains that he keeps what amount to secret files on IVC faculty. According to the Ed Code, the district must maintain a single file per employee, the contents of which are to made clear to the employee. Mathur acknowledges that he keeps yet another file--the contents of which, evidently, are not disclosed.

• Raghu claims to have received about a dozen threats--letters, emails, voicemail--(as per usual, he plays the "race" card) stretching back to about 1990.

Under aggressive questioning, he acknowledges that he has no documentation of these alleged "threats." Evidently, he has chosen to keep nothing.

But Mathur is a notorious liar. More likely, he just made this all up.

• Raghu names four faculty who, he charges, have been hostile to him and to whom he attributes the "threats." Included among them: Kate Clark (who subsequently served as the State Academic Senate President), Bob Deegan, and Pam Deegan (both respected executive administrators now working in other community college districts).

Raghu's efforts to explain why he views these persons as threatening or how he knows that they are source of threats are often hilarious. He appears to be fond of wild non sequiturs.

• In the course of the deposition, it becomes clear that Mathur is in the habit of making groundless assumptions about his critics.

• At one point, Mathur describes a "threat" he received over the phone; it had, he says, a mysterious "altered" voice!

Mathur's Sept. 1999 deposition

Sections:

1. It begins
2. Renew my subscription to this offensive newsletter
3. Shoe fittage
4. The testimony was MAIM
5. Mathurian logic
6. He meant to do harm to my body
7. “Objective independent” thinking
8. Enemies list: a love story
9. The literary insights of the Three Stooges
10. The curious case of professor R
11. Evidence, please
12. Properly dealing with student complaints
13. The “whore” rumor
14. Mathur’s secret files
15. Raghu’s ever-changing “threats” story
16. Again with the non sequiturs
17. The “case” against Bob Deegan
18. The “case” against Kate Clark
19. Pam’s “hostility”
20. It’s racist if I say it is
21. The mysterious “altered” voice
22. Alleged anti-Asian email
23. My life is in danger
24. “Evidence,” Raghu style
25. Mathur’s inexplicable failure to document the alleged “threats”
26. Seven out of a thousands
27. Mathur violates the contract again
28. Tempers flare; Carol kicks butt

Let there be wooage!

This morning's OC Register (School district kept tabs on parents) includes a story about alleged Nixonian shenanigans by the superintendent of the Capistrano School District.

Did I say "Nixonian"? Sorry, I meant Mathurian.

Here are some excerpts:

School district kept tabs on parents

Capistrano Unified compiled list of recall proponents. Parents are upset – one calls it 'Nixonish' – and a trustee vows an inquiry.

By SAM MILLER and TONY SAAVEDRA

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO – The Capistrano Unified School District kept lists of 150 families who supported last year's board recall campaign, detailing such personal information as where their children went to school, according to documents obtained by The Orange County Register.

The district also received inside information on the effort to oust board members from an informant with access to the recall campaign, documents show.

Three spreadsheets list the names of parents, teachers and activists who were in contact with the recall campaign as well as the neighborhoods in which they live, the schools where they teach and their community affiliations. One couple is described in the spreadsheets as "NIMBY." Another woman is described as "outspoken."

David Smollar, the district's former chief of communications, said he saw copies of the spreadsheets stored in the office of Superintendent James Fleming, who he says directed him to keep them secret last spring despite a public-records request by recall supporters.

"He ordered me not to include those," said Smollar, who resigned in May. "He just said, 'I can't do it, it would be too embarrassing.' "

Fleming, in an interview, said he had not seen or heard of the lists.

"It doesn't sound familiar, like anything I know about at all," said Fleming, describing Smollar as a "disgruntled" ex-employee who "left not on the best of circumstances."

This brings back memories, boy. Like the time that then-IVC President Raghu Mathur was deposed (Mathur's deposition, September 28, 1999), compelling him to reveal that he kept a special secret file on yours truly in his office, in violation of district policies and the Ed Code. There is supposed to be one personnel file per employee, and it is kept at the district, where it is available for viewing.

But, as we all know by now, the rules don't apply to Raghu.

Or the time Mathur offered the newly-appointed President of IVC (Dan Larios: this was back in 1994) a list of faculty trouble-makers to keep tabs on. (Mathur's "enemies list")

Or the time (summer '97) Mathur assured IVC faculty that there would be no move to eliminate the college's "chair" model over the summer. In fact, as he was offering assurances, he had already instructed his VPI to begin work on designing the replacement "dean" model. The re-org, which followed the VPI's design exactly, occurred within weeks of the assurances.

Maybe we could encourage the Capistrano people to try to woo Mathur away from us! He seems to be their kinda guy.

Let there by wooage!

Tom and Raghu poop on our parade

Emily, our stringer in Laguna Woods, just sent me an account of Raghu & Tom’s participation in Lake Forest’s “Fourth of July” parade. I decided to pass it on to you.

Evidently, Emily and her partner, Percy, were visiting with their friends, Rheneas and James, who live in Lake Forest, when they realized that the parade was about to commence. So they hotfooted on over to a shady spot alongside Lake Forest Drive.

Here’s Emily’s account of what happened next.

First off, we had no idea that Raghu P. Mathur and Thomas A. Fuentes would be participating in this parade. We figured that summer would give us a break from those guys, but no.

Rheneas and James explained that the annual parade is known for exactly two things: huge gaps between discrete parade participants and an apparent utter lack of standards regarding who may participate. Hell, they even let kids on BigWheels roll down the road, making their stupid hollow plastic roar.

There were plenty of dads pulling radio flyer wagons that held kids decked out in patriotic outfits. Lots of red, white, and blue; lots of whistles and shit. One family got confused, I guess, and offered a Cap’n Crunch display, complete with red, white, and blue cereal nuggets, which were fired into the crowds with foot-long Bangsite carbide cannons and what looked like a makeshift “Piccolo Pete” bazooka. One of those Piccolo Pete’s went awry and flew into the artificial lake and caught a fireworks barge on fire. (Fire Works Display Goes Awry in Lake Forest.) That was probably the highlight.

Dump trucks, trash trucks, flat bed trucks, and fire trucks meaninglessly rolled by. I mean, except for the fire truck, we see this stuff all the time. But the crowds were friendly and waved and shouted and belched at ‘em as they paraded past.

There was a squad of surly motorcyclists from Cook’s Corner, which is interesting, since Cook’s Corner isn’t in Lake Forest. Inexplicably, the Bellflower Marching Band (you'd think there would be a closer parade for those kids to march in) squalled through. There was a champeen baton twirler, scads of scout troops and sports teams, and even the El Toro High Home Coming King and Queen (oddly, that car held but two little girls in the back seat while the driver yelled out that the two sovereigns had failed to materialize).


There were mariachis (luckily, the Minutemen were a no-show), car clubs, and even dignitaries, including the mayor, the city council, John Campbell, Dick Ackerman, Chuck Devore, Tom Wilson and a token Democrat in a PT Cruiser with a bag over her head.

That crowd merged with “Lisa Haley & the Zydekats,” “Dow Jones & his Industrials” (boy, that brought back memories), and a solitary Benjamin Franklin Plumbing truck that, for all we know, was headed to a job.

The theme: “America on Wheels."

“Anything Goes” was more like it. But we were having fun.

Not having a program (Rheneas said they existed, but no one has ever actually seen one), I was caught up in the spirit of waving to and clapping for anyone and everyone who wandered by—cuz, without that, the parade is just stupid. Well, it would be stupider.

There was an endless parade of largely unexplained convertibles, and since I never know who is in them, I tried to make a point of reading the signage (if any) on the sides of the car doors.

Participant #76 was a fancy silver convertible that sported four arms thrashing akimbo and a sign announcing, "Your Community Colleges.” Underneath that it said "Saddleback College and Irvine Valley College.”

“Hey, that’s us!” I shouted.

But then, to my horror, I read “Tom Fuentes,” and my blood ran cold. My eyes quickly scanned upward and, sure enough, there sat Raghu and Tom, as cozy as pee in an iPod.

They were in short sleeve shirts, baseball caps, and shorts or casual pants. Can you imagine? Can you frickin’ imagine? Blecccch!

I was mortified, for I had by then whooped and hollered at that car for a good five seconds. The suddenness with which I ceased my whoopage was so noticeable that a pall of silence fell upon the immediate crowd, and then, apparently through some causal mechanism not unlike “the wave,” stunned silence rolled through the entire audience along Lake Forest Drive. For all I know, it just kept going until it hit the ocean, thereupon causing a tsunami of wonderment and fear that shall smash into Japan any moment now.

So mortified was I that I averted my gaze and stared for several moments at the grass beneath my feet. Later I wished I had followed the car to get a better description.

I just wasn't prepared.

I remember this: there was a pooper scooper squad that came close behind.

That seemed appropriate.

That’s the best I can do. Hope it’s good enough.

SOCCCD Choppers

1. The SOCCCD "Trusteemobile"

See below. This "chopper" is actually a trike, and it is indeed impressive. We love the whitewalls.

Question: why does it seat only four? Aren't there seven trustees (and that's not even counting the student trustee)?

We detect a hidden agenda.

Perhaps we'll see this vehicle at Lake Forest's annual "Fourth of July Parade." But who'll be riding, and who'll be "kicked to the curb"?


2. The Saddleback "Chryspper"

See below. This proposed vehicle sports a front end that is a chopper with extreme rake. The back end, of course, is a Chrysler 300.

This design concept seems particularly whimsical--and wasteful. What are they gonna do with the front end of the 300?! We do not approve.


3. The Irvine Valley College "Tightwad"

See below. This particular model is absurdly underpowered with a 450 watt electric motor! On the other hand, it does have geared drive, which helps. A little. And you don't have to worry about leaky petcocks.

We're not sure if it's called the "Tightwad" because this is all that the owner can afford--or because the owner is too cheap to pay for something decent. We suspect it's the latter.


4. The BOT "Retrograde 90"

See below. This, of course, is simply a 1964 Honda 90 with super-long rigid forks. It's supposed to go "backward" and "forward" simultaneously.

Guess so. The big problem here is that the damn thing can't be ridden, not with that saddle.

As Paul Teutul, Sr. would say, anybody who'd build a bike like this is obviously a "jackass." A "numbnuts" even.


5. Tom's "Captain America"

Ruthless, elegant, deceptive, stealthy. Just like Tom.

Naturally, Tom's ride is a hardtail, and it purrs. The deep Satanic blue, low profile, and killer rake make this one our favorite.