A skosh, a dollop, and a plague!

•

WELL, it’s almost time for another meeting of the SOCCCD Board of Trustees. The show starts tomorrow night, at 6:30, I believe. (All board meetings are performed in the Health Sciences big top—at Saddleback College.)

ACCREDITATION:

The district is still wrestling with some pesky accrediting issues—a skosh of micromanagement, a plague of despair, a dollop of Goo, etc.—and so there’ll be an EXTRA-SPECIAL MEETING to discuss all that at 3:00 p.m. Allegedly, the governance groups will be allowed to participate in this discussion.

There’s a chance that Trustees Fuentes or Wagner will hint at conspiracy theories again, so you don’t want to miss that. Those two are zany, they're daffy!

THE REGULAR MEETING:

If you’d like a copy of the agenda for the regular meeting, just go to the District Website. Voila!

I perused the agenda, and nothing really jumps out at me. It’s always hard to predict what these people are going to do. Agendas don’t tell you much. Sometimes they freak out over flat nothing—like death-defying trips to the beaches of Spain. And sometimes they surprise you and get all magnanimous and sensitive.

They can even be nice.

Item 4.1 is “Approval of Exclusive Rights to Negotiate Agreement (ERNA) with Camelot Entertainment.” Maybe you know what this means. I don’t. Does it mean that the district is zeroing in on the Camelot deal?

Camelot, of course, is the investor group who proposed a super-duper studio complex to take up much of our ATEP acreage in Tustin. Some people worry that we’ll get fleeced by these guys. Could be.

Mathur seems to have taken over the ATEP project. He imagines, I think, that he can envision a success at ATEP so spectacular that his mug will eventually get blasted onto Mount Rushmore.

Item 5.3 is whether to “Approve the Saddleback College study abroad program: Spanish Language Studies in Guanajuato, Mexico in the summer of 2007 and the Educational Tour/Field Study Travel Contractor Agreement with the American Institute for Foreign Study for coordinating all travel agreements.”

Fuentes is the kind of guy who thinks that Mexico and Spain are basically the same place, since the natives speak the same language, more or less. So why not save a few pesos and head for Mexico? Usually, Don Wagner can be expected to warble a similar tune. So expect these guys to be all over this proposal. And why not?

Item 5.4 is an airing of the faculty union’s proposed contract.

Item 5.5 is whether to “Approve the district’s initial proposal for negotiations with the SOCCCD Faculty Association and set a public hearing on the proposal at the regularly scheduled May Board meeting.”

As I’m sure you’re aware, the district has lowballed the faculty bigtime with this proposal. I think the trustees want us to wear knickers and become Republicans. It’s pretty obnoxious. Plus they want us to teach more than two days a week and to swear off striking.

I’ve been teaching five days a week for years, so it’s no biggie to me if they make us show up now and again. I guess others feel differently.

5.7 is a contract with a private dick (Karen T. Meyers, Esq.). What’s that all about?

5.8 lists some Academic Personnel Actions, including a couple of “Additional Compensation”s—so maybe Raghu’s trying to pull another hidden raise scam. Hard to say.

There are two curious “discussion items”:

5.1: “A Board discussion item has been requested on the topics of the Cost of Employee Benefits and Staffing Levels.”

That doesn’t sound good.

5.2: “Faculty from both colleges will present information relative to the curriculum development process and procedures.”

Mathur’s been in a lather about this one for weeks. Don’t know why.

For some reason, he has insisted on introducing the presentation, which will be handled mostly by faculty, since it’s totally their gig. I think Raghu is trying to convince the board that he’s working well with faculty and, in fact, everything’s hunky-dory. Well, when it comes to curriculum development, things are hunky-dory—exactly because Raghu’s not around to mess ‘em up.

My prediction: he’ll stir up a hornets’ nest with this. You watch.

Yeah, but like the Reb says, my predictions aren’t worth spit. I mean, I was the guy who swore that Americans couldn’t possibly be stupid enough to reelect George W. Bush.

Li'l Sarah on the tire swing down by the oaks

5 minutes ago: Sunny Girl spots some deer

•

I took the snaps, though.

The transfer mission: we oughta be committed

•

SLEWAGE:

It's a community college "see me, feel me" extravaganza!

This morning’s New York Times offers a slew of articles (well, 3 of 'em) about community colleges under the title The Two-Year Attraction, where we learn that “Almost half of all college students go to a community college, making the two-year experience as much the norm as not.”

Like it or not, we (at the community colleges) are where it's at, and increasingly so!

WHY, WE'RE POLYPEDAGOGICAL!

In John Merrow’s “Dream Catchers,” we learn that

Community colleges today do far more than offer a ladder to the final years [of college]. They train the people who repair your furnace, install your plumbing, take your pulse. They prepare retiring baby boomers for second or third careers, and provide opportunities for a growing number of college-age students turning away from the high cost and competition at universities. And charged with doing the heavy remedial lifting, community colleges are now as much 10th and 11th grade as 13th and 14th.

Merrow reports that “Two-year colleges receive less than 30 percent of state and local financing for higher education," and yet they enroll “nearly half of all undergraduates.”

CHEAP, TOO!

In “For Achievers, a New Destination,” Beth Frerking explains that

…as four-year universities have become more expensive, good students who want to save money are turning to community colleges to earn their core undergraduate credits. …[A]ccording to a report in October by the College Board, community colleges charge an annual average tuition of $2,272, compared with $5,836 at state universities and $22,218 at private institutions.

Many two-year colleges are now recruiting students who fit the traditional profile of baccalaureate undergraduates: 18- to 24-year-olds who have strong high school records and are moving directly into higher education full time.

…No longer wed primarily to a work force-training mission, these colleges consider it a major, if not predominant, goal to prepare students to transfer to four-year institutions.

WE OUGHTA BE COMMITTED!

Frerking’s next observation might be of particular interest to denizens of the SOCCCD:

…The two-year colleges most committed to funneling students into four-year colleges tend to have some or all of the following: learning communities (in which students attend classes with the same small cohort of classmates), honors programs (noted for curriculum that crosses disciplines, teachers who hold advanced degrees and smaller classes taken with similarly talented peers) and articulation agreements with four-year institutions in the state (typically synchronizing basic courses with a university’s requirements and guaranteeing admittance to transfer students who have kept their grades up).

These colleges focus on liberal arts and the sciences, responding to increasing demand for math and science teachers, health professionals and high-tech experts. The best community colleges also have what experts call “a culture of evidence,” meaning they extensively assess students’ academic performance and adjust teaching practices accordingly, says Kay M. McClenney, director of the annual Community College Survey of Student Engagement….

HOW ARE WE DOING?

ASSUMING that Frerking knows what she’s talking about—no doubt some will carp about some of her generalizations re “commitment”—we might consider how the SOCCCD’s colleges do relative to the standards that she mentions.

I’ve offered some observations below, but PLEASE WRITE US to tell us how you think Saddleback College, Irvine Valley College, and ATEP (which will open in the Fall) rate on the Frerking "commitment" meter.

Learning communities: NOPE [None that I’m aware of, unless rabbits count.]

Honors programs: YES & NO [unlike some of the programs that Frerking describes, by law (I believe), IVC’s Honors Program cannot be selective among students. That is, less-than-“talented” students can and do enroll in our Honors courses.]

Articulation agreements: YES

Focussing on liberal arts and the sciences:

Responding to increasing demand for math and science teachers, health professionals and high-tech experts:

Embracing a culture of evidence: [I know that some of my colleagues in English will have something to say about this.]

—CW

See also Tennis in a parking lot

OC: recent gatherings, demonstrations

•

See:

Speaking Out~ Lake Forest
OCC holds convocation ~ Costa Mesa
Students reflect on VA Tech shooting ~ Aliso Viejo
Chapman joins Virginia Tech in mourning ~ Orange

Some Chuckleheaded Hos

•

SHUT UP.

OUSD trustee Steve Rocco is in the news again. At Thursday’s meeting of the school board, trustees adopted a rule restricting what may be placed on the board meeting agenda—an effort to prevent Mr. Rocco from blathering about loony (and maybe sometimes non-loony?) conspiracy theories. According to the Reg,

Some parents say Rocco wastes time at meetings with his meandering speeches about his parents' medical issues and a concept he calls "the partnership," which he describes as a sinister group of politicians, business leaders and education officials who are taking over the county. (See Board muffles Rocco.)

According to today’s Times,

The [adoption of the rule] was prompted by a March meeting at which Rocco attempted to make a speech about what he calls "the partnership," a cabal of powerful individuals he says runs the county and has tried to assassinate him. (See Rocco speech prompts school board change.)

OK, that one’s loony.

YES, BUT WE BLAZED THIS TRAIL YEARS AGO.

"I believe Lee Harvey Oswald worked for the ADL," Frogue said in a half-whisper during a recent interview on the Foothill High campus. Asked to repeat his assertion, Frogue said, "That's right.... I believe the ADL was behind it." —From the LA Times, 11/25/96

Long-time observers of our own district will recall similar efforts, a dozen years ago, to silence then-trustee Steve Frogue, a fellow who unashamedly used his position to speechify about the Anti-Defamation League and its alleged conspiracies.

Frogue’s behavior attracted the attention of local media. The Irvine World News was moved to ask: “What’s your point, Steve?”:

It's unclear what Saddleback Community College board member Steven Frogue is attempting to accomplish.

At recent board meetings, Mr. Frogue has been indulging in repetitious, lengthy, and at times antagonistic monologues about such disparate things as the Anti-defamation League of B'nai B'rith and faculty senate elections at Irvine Valley College.

At its Feb. 27 meeting, Mr. Frogue took up about 45 minutes of the board's time on these matters.

…During board meetings in January and February, Mr. Frogue has made some startling remarks about what the Jewish organization is doing these days. Another board member, Marcia Milchiker, a former ADL leader in Orange County, told Mr. Frogue he is misinformed about the organization. But he persists. And he has continued to harp on the Irvine Valley academic senate's election procedures, even though an attorney for the Saddleback board has said that the board has little or no control over how the senate conducts its business.

Not unexpectedly, the academic senate has asked the board to order Mr. Frogue to stop interfering in its affairs. The ADL has asked for an apology from the board.

What's puzzling about all of this is what these apparently tangential matters have to do with running the Saddleback Community College District? Mr. Frogue has offered only vague generalities in explanation.

...Judicious use of his gavel by board President John Williams would help keep things in focus. (3/2/95)

Unfortunately, Frogue’s pal Williams was none too judicious with that gavel, which he sometimes used to pound on trustee Harriett Walther’s head.

Eventually, Frogue organized a “Warren Commission” seminar, at Saddleback College, inviting four conspiracy nuts, some associated with an anti-Semitic organization that denies the Holocaust. Naturally, Williams' gavel was silent then, too.

The shit really hit the fan that time. Frogue eventually resigned in the summer of 2000.

FROGUE, THEN FUENTES.

“We’ve gotten rid of a crude Neanderthal but replaced him with a slick one,” said Irvine Valley College Professor Roy Bauer, who has successfully sued the district over free-speech issues. —OC Register, 7/13/00

These days, former chair of the OC Republican Party, Tom Fuentes, has taken over where Frogue left off (Fuentes replaced Frogue as Trustee for the Lake Forest area in 2000). Occasionally, he hints at conspiracies afoot in the Accreditation process. (Our colleges have struggled with Accreditation issues, in part because of the persistent “micromanagement” of the trustees.)

At a recent forum, Fuentes implied that the Accreditors get “all their information” from the faculty, a group that Fuentes contemns and despises, and so I asked him to spell out this alleged conspiracy. He declined to do so. (Like Mr. Frogue, Mr. Fuentes just naturally assumes that others are as dishonest and wily and cynical as he is. That’s only true when he’s hanging out with his Republican Mafia friends—or the Orange Diocese.)


FUENTES & THE OLD OUSD BOARD MAJORITY.

Incidentally, years ago, Fuentes, along with some of his “Republican Mafia” pals, orchestrated the election and scandalous/embarrassing reign of a Board Majority on the Orange Unified School District school board. (See Fuentes: some background.) That BM was almost as embarrassing as the SOCCCD BM of 1996-1998, and that’s saying something!

The OUSD BM was eventually ousted in a successful voter recall. Even those loveable rednecks in Orange (I used to live there, so I know) knew enough to get rid of the faculty-hating extremists that Fuentes and his gang supplied.

On the other hand, they did elect Mr. Rocco.

FOND MEMORIES.

Yeah, around 1990, I lived in a wonderful two-story "Victorian" near downtown Orange. It was built in 1903 and it looked it.

One time, as I was watering my lawn, some guy drove by and stopped to talk to me. We talked about the neighborhood.

“Years ago,” he said, “this neighborhood was in bad shape. It was pretty run down. Lots of weirdos, lots of drugs and stuff. Lots of crime.”

“Was that the early 60s?” I asked.

“Yeah, about then. It looks great around here now, but, back then, your house was a whorehouse.”

“A whorehouse?”

“Yeah, a whorehouse.”

In the end

●

RECENTLY, we posted (on our sidebar—at right) a story about a UCLA study that concludes that diets don't work. Well, no. It concludes, not just that they don't work, but that, typically, they cause dieters to gain weight in the end.

Well, not necessarily in the end. You know what I mean.

There are new indications that "sexual abstinence" programs don't work in the end either, although, in this case, I coulda told you that. I mean, DUH.

From Bob Park’s What’s New, 4/20/07:

SEX EDUCATION: ABSTINENCE MAKES THE HEART GROW FONDER. Students who participated in sexual abstinence programs were just as likely to have sex as those who did not, according to a study ordered by Congress. Nor did they have fewer sex partners, or wait longer to become sexually active.

The report, released late last Friday, comes just after the abrupt resignation of Dr. Eric Keroack, an anti-birth control zealot, appointed by Bush just four months ago to head the Office of Population Affairs of the Department of Health and Human Services. A non-board-certified gynecologist/obstetrician who operates six Christian anti-abortion centers in Massachusetts, Keroack had been notified of a state investigation into his private practice.

A rainy day in the OC.:

"Troubled" Students: Civil Rights and Campus Safety

~
Flags at half-staff at IVC

Rebel Girl notes the invitation that landed moments ago (8:21 AM!) in her virtual mailbox:

President Roquemore would like you to know that today's regularly scheduled bi-monthly Thursday President's Forum will be devoted to a discussion on campus safety. You are invited to join the President and Interim Police Chief Jim Pyle as follows:

Thursday, April 19
1:00 - 2:00 p.m.
Room A126

All are welcome.

She herself will not be able to attend the Forum due to her teaching schedule, but she is glad that folks on campus will be discussing this issue—and she hopes the discussion will continue in a manner that will allow fuller participation.

Indeed, inspired by this week's tragic events in Virginia as well as a series of events this academic year at our own campus, she and a colleague hope to propose a FLEX week session not just devoted to campus safety, but also district policy and civil rights.

Among the questions Rebel Girl would like answered are these:

What exactly should an instructor do when encountering an obviously "troubled" student? (In the past, R.G. has been counseled to show the student in question a copy of the IVC Student Code of Conduct. She must admit that the most troubled students don't seem impressed by this list of behaviors. Of course not, she thinks, they are "troubled" and showing them a list isn't really addressing the problem.)

Is there any way for instructors to be informed of these "troubled" students before they enter our classrooms? (She thinks not but wants to know for sure, nonetheless.)

When, if ever, does protecting the rights of the "troubled" student begin to impact the rights of students, faculty and staff?

—And so many others questions…but it's Thursday and Rebel Girl's plate remains full.

For more, check out these sources:

In Dr. Helen's blog (she is a forensic psychologist), she writes:

What I am amazed by is that in many school shootings, especially in universities, school authorities and others were told that there were problems or in some cases, the eventual killer had already made threats but no one did anything. The schools deny any responsibility at all in most of these cases, although, sometimes, they end up being sued for it. But what is money when people's lives are at stake? It's often the case that when the killer finally lashes out, the people who knew him aren't surprised—they'd been predicting something like this for weeks or months, but no action was taken.

In my opinion, if we have mentally unstable students who have made threats, have behavioral problems, etc. in universities and schools who do not hold themselves or the student accountable for their behavior, there is no other alternative than to extend the civil right to concealed carry to the potential innocent staff and students who may encounter the wrath of such a person. If universities and schools won't take responsibility—and they won't—then someone has to."

—and in today's New York Times, in the essay, "The Killer in the Lecture Hall", Barbara Oakley, professor of engineering at Oakland University, recalls her own run-in with a "troubled" student and the university's reaction, concluding:

"In other words, most of the broad social “lessons” we are being told we must learn from the Virginia Tech shootings have little to do with what allowed the horrors to occur. This is about evil, and about how our universities are able to deal with it as a literary subject but not as a fact of life. Can administrators and deans really continue to leave professors and other college personnel to deal with deeply disturbed students on their own, with only pencils in their defense?"

—and in The Chronicle of Higher Ed, Gary Pavela, an expert on "troubled" students, answers questions, including this one:

Q. In your view of the events in Blacksburg, what else do you see?

A. Looking at everything I’ve read in press accounts so far, this student was a very strange loner who had dark thoughts. So what can you do? You can try and make contact with the student, and I applaud the professor at Virginia Tech who apparently tried to do that. But the bottom line is that I don’t think there is anything close enough to what the federal law would require to have removed the student.

And, of course, let us know what you think, what you have experienced. Have you ever been frightened by a student? Felt threatened? Has a student ever threatened another student? What happened? Posting a comment is easy—and anonymous, if you wish.

Yesterday, in class, Rebel Girl noted that the half-mast flag, usually lowered in honor of dead leaders, was instead lowered in recognition of people just like us.