The Beat Goes On

Doin' what it takes

FOR SOME REASON—plummeting real estate values?—the OC Register is reporting, yet again, that “Two OC cities make 'safest' list.” It asks: “Can you name them?”

Well, sure. According to the FBI, Mission Viejo is the safest city in the country.

Irvine gets the 14 spot and Lake Forest gets the 10. That's three cities, not two. The OC Reg never could count.

I teach in Irvine, and I can tell you it’s pretty darned safe in this silly town.

That’s cuz we play it safe.

For instance, a year or so ago, when a menacing sack of sand was found in one of the rooms in IVC’s A100 building, and it refused to respond to officer queries, they took no chances.

College officials called out the bomb squad. Yup, even one of those robots showed up and did some poking.

The sack of sand turned out to be a sack of sand.

I coulda told ‘em.

But, hey, if that's what it takes to make the 14 spot, I ain't carpin'.

See also
• The bomb scare
• Ill-advised bottle removal in Mission Viejo

Grateful: feast in honor of what was lost

~
Late Tuesday morning Rebel Girl will fulfill parental duties and report to her son's local elementary school for the Thanksgiving pageant and feast. She has already prepared a cornucopia stuffed with vegetables, fresh and marinated. It is organically festive.

The son has been reporting on preparations for days now. The kinders (as they're called) will wear "Indian headresses" fashioned from construction paper. They will stand in a line and sing. Days ago it was reported that the kinders would sing two songs. Then, her son reported that the teacher had "cancelled" one of the songs. He was disappointed because the remaining song was all about eating turkey and, well, Rebel Girl's family is pretty much vegetarian.

Mother and father counseled the son that singing about turkey eating is not the same as eating a turkey and there would be times when, being in the minority, he should probably get used to the majority's turkey eating ways. Just sing, Rebel Girl said, you like to sing. Not about turkey, the son insisted. He has a way of insisting, even at five, that is a powerful thing. Did you talk to the teacher about it, Rebel Girl queried. I certainly did, was the reply.

Then, on Monday, a development. The teacher "cancelled" the turkey song and replaced it with another. Why did the teacher cancel it? Rebel Girl asked. Her son reported that the teacher announced that, since she had learned that two students didn't eat turkey for Thanksgiving, she decided to change the class song.

What's the new song about? Rebel Girl asked. Being grateful, her son replied.

So, well, there you have it.

And now, be grateful for this, a poem, by Jane Kenyon:

Happiness

There's just no accounting for happiness,
or the way it turns up like a prodigal
who comes back to the dust at your feet
having squandered a fortune far away.

And how can you not forgive?
You make a feast in honor of what
was lost, and take from its place the finest
garment, which you saved for an occasion
you could not imagine, and you weep night and day
to know that you were not abandoned,
that happiness saved its most extreme form
for you alone.

No, happiness is the uncle you never
knew about, who flies a single-engine plane
onto the grassy landing strip, hitchhikes
into town, and inquires at every door
until he finds you asleep midafternoon.
as you so often are during the unmerciful
hours of your despair.

It comes to the monk in his cell.
It comes to the woman sweeping the street
with a birch broom, to the child
whose mother has passed out from drink.
It comes to the lover, to the dog chewing
a sock, to the pusher, to the basket maker,
and to the clerk stacking cans of carrots
in the night.

It even comes to the boulder
in the perpetual shade of pine barrens,
to rain falling on the open sea,
to the wineglass, weary of holding wine.

~
Rebel Girl's household is grateful for much this year. And happy for it as well. Hope you are too~~~

College Presidential Politics

THIS MORNING, Chancellor Raghu P. Mathur emailed members of the district community, noting that “Saddleback College President, Dr. Richard McCullough, has announced his retirement effective June 30, 2008.” He then refers to McCullough’s “distinguished career and service.”

He does not mention that he, Raghu, is the reason for McCullough’s departure.

Mathur adds that he has “instructed our District Human Resources Department to prepare to conduct a national search for the presidency of Saddleback College.”

Meanwhile, Inside Higher Ed reports that

Faculty leaders at Texas A&M University at College Station are concerned that the university’s board has announced plans to consider candidates for president who were not among three finalists suggested by a search committee. The Bryan-College Station Eagle printed an exchange of letters between board and faculty leaders on the dispute. In his letter, Bill Jones, chair of the regents, said that the board alone had control over the search and that regents were prepared to accept “unfortunate consequences” related to their decision.

Gosh, that reminds me of an article I read ten years ago. Here it is:

Irvine World News, September 11, 1997
Trustee calls for outside intervention : College district 'incapable of responsible self-government' BY PEGGY GOETZ

Decrying the process, "or lack thereof" by which Raghu Mathur was selected as the new president of Irvine Valley College Monday, community college Trustee David Lang of Irvine said Tuesday he is seeking the intervention of statewide community college Chancellor Thomas Nussbaum in the affairs of the South Orange County Community College District.

"The process allowed for no meaningful input by campus shared governance groups or the community. The choice was not supported by the administration and was subjected to no level of institutional approval," asserted Lang, who was on the short end of a 4-3 vote by college trustees to appoint Mathur.

Lang said he is asking for outside intervention because the south county college board and the district seem "incapable of responsible self-government."

Lang said he also sent a letter to Orange County District Attorney Michael Capizzi asking him to investigate alleged violations of California's open meeting law and other actions by the board majority-Steven Frogue, Dorothy Fortune, Teddi Lorch and John Williams.

He would not elaborate on "other actions" and he did not make the letter public.

Lang said Tuesday he thinks the board and district leaders lack the ability to repair the serious lack of confidence and trust in the institution that has been created.

Irvine Valley faculty members said Tuesday they fear retaliation—harassment or even dismissal—by the board and Mathur for their lack of support during the selection of a replacement for Dan Larios, who left Irvine Valley College last spring to head Fresno City College in his hometown.

Lang said he can understand their fears.

But in an interview following Monday night's meeting of the college board, Trustee John Williams of Mission Viejo said he fully supports the process that was used by the board and the appointment of Mathur to the position.

He said Mathur was "the top candidate for the job all the way through the hiring process."

Of the process used for selection, Williams said the (majority of the) board had decided "to take control of the hiring process because the choice had become highly politicized." He said he wanted to be sure all candidates had "equal consideration and fair evaluation.

He said the board interviewed 18 candidates for the position. Initially, there were about 30 candidates for the Irvine Valley job, but many asked to be removed from consideration.

Williams said board members scored each interview in terms of "knowledge, skill and ability."

"He was just the best person for the job," Williams said of Mathur.

He added that at some point the board did consider the controversy created by Mathur's appointment as interim president, but had decided he was the most qualified on the basis of his interview and background.

He said the faculty and administrators who aren't happy with the board's decision all had a chance to exercise their rights.

They have a president now and they owe it to the students to support him. They have a job to do and they better do it," Williams said.

Trustee Joan Hueter of Tustin said Wednesday that she is saddened by recent actions of the board.

"I have worked with boards before that could disagree and still get along and move forward. This (board) is just unbelievable," Hueter said.

She said their is great concern now about a possible "brain drain" from the district because working conditions have grown so difficult.

"I'm afraid the best people are going to leave," she said.

She added that she isn't certain the present board members will ever be able to function effectively together.

Naturally, the hiring process that yielded "Chancellor Mathur" was similarly troubled. More on that later.

Holiday Shopping Ideas

The Rate Your Students blog has released its own calendar just in time for holiday shopping and those looming departmental Secret Santa duties. (Rebel Girl notes with pride that HER department dispensed with Secret Santas long ago, if they ever had them.) But you know what she means.

Still searching for something for that special someone? Well check out the RYS calendar by clicking here. All proceeds benefit the American Red Cross. (To view these pictures in a larger format and to better read the text, simply click on the pics!)

Of course, the Rate Your Students calendar is not for everyone. A bit too cynical for some office walls, no doubt. To better observe the cynicism on display, simply click on the pics!


For those of you still looking for the perfect 2008 calendar, well, we at DISSENT do plan to produce a limited run of our own DISSENT-the-blog 2008 calendar, with proceeds benefiting the local fire relief fund.

Get your orders in early! Last year we sold out!

Living in the Age of Stupidity (caption contest)

• THE MEMORY OF WATER MOLECULES. On Friday, Ben Goldacre of The Guardian wrote about the widespread embrace of the alternative medicine homeopathy (A kind of magic?) despite clear evidence that homeopathy doesn’t work.

Oldacre is attempting—to use one of my dad’s favorite phrases—to shovel shit against the tide. He may as well rail against dirt or stupidity or George Bush. Still, I like ‘im.

An excerpt:

Homeopathic remedies are made by taking an ingredient, such as arsenic, and diluting it down so far that there is not a single molecule left in the dose that you get. The ingredients are selected on the basis of like cures like, so that a substance that causes sweating at normal doses, for example, would be used to treat sweating. ¶ …The typical [homeopathic] dilution is called "30C": this means that the original substance has been diluted by 1 drop in 100, 30 times. … ¶ To phrase that in the Society of Homeopaths' terms, we should say: "30C contains less than one part per million million million million million million million million million million of the original substance." ¶ At a homeopathic dilution of 100C, which they sell routinely, and which homeopaths claim is even more powerful than 30C, the treating substance is diluted by more than the total number of atoms in the universe. ¶ …How can an almost infinitely dilute solution cure anything? Most homeopaths claim that water has "a memory"…. ¶ Many homeopaths also claim they can transmit homeopathic remedies over the internet, in CDs, down the telephone, through a computer, or in a piece of music. Peter Chappell, whose work will feature at a conference organised by the Society of Homeopaths next month, makes dramatic claims about his ability to solve the Aids epidemic using his own homeopathic pills called "PC Aids", and his specially encoded music. "Right now," he says, "Aids in Africa could be significantly ameliorated by a simple tune played on the radio."

• HIDING DSCOVR. Meanwhile, also on Friday (Nov. 16), Bob Park reported that

[Global] Warming is caused by atmospheric contaminants that change the energy balance with the sun. Last week an "elite" group talked about sending up vast amounts of other contaminants to make it go the other way. Yes, they really did. Before we do that, maybe we should launch DSCOVR to measure the energy balance. Built and paid for, the Bush administration is hiding it in a Greenbelt, MD warehouse. [See White House Denies Inquiries about DSCOVR Cancellation.]

• LIAR, LIAR PANTS AFIRE. This morning, the AP reported that

California fire officials [just] released their first detailed account of the highly criticized aerial assault at the start of the wildfires that destroyed more than 2,000 homes in Southern California last month. ¶ The documents attempt to answer charges by federal lawmakers, military officials and others that the state did not effectively marshal all its available air resources as the series of blazes began roaring out of control. In particular, an earlier Associated Press investigation revealed that military helicopters sat grounded for days, in part because of a shortage of state fire "spotters" who were required to be onboard. ¶ The documents obtained under the California Public Records Act ... reveal a more detailed and at times different version of events than previously provided by the state's top fire and emergency officials. ¶ For example, state fire officials last month said high winds had grounded virtually all aircraft in the first two days after the flames broke out. Therefore, they reasoned, it would not have mattered whether additional state fire spotters had been available to ride in the military choppers. ¶ The documents, however, show that although pilots were hampered by strong winds, a dozen air tankers and five state helicopters flew more than 70 hours in firefighting missions on Oct. 21, the first full day of the firestorm. ¶ They also reveal that number was a fraction of the tankers and helicopters available in the state that day. ¶ Twenty-eight of 52 aircraft the state was tracking for firefighting efforts remained grounded, and high winds were not listed as the reason. Rather, state officials had not requested them or they were being kept in other parts of the state in case fires broke out there….

NO DOUBT you’ve noticed that, at some point, each age or period is given a name or a characterization—the “Jazz Age,” the “McCarthy Era,” the “‘Me’ Decade,” and so on.

I have no doubt that future generations, if any such should exist, will refer to ours as the “Age of Stupidity.”

• For more stupidity, see Italy's "Black Cat Day" Aims To Halt Killings:

Saturday is "black cat day," in Italy, an initiative by an animal rights group to try to stop the killing of thousands of the cats by superstitious citizens convinced they bring bad luck. ¶ Black cats have a bad name in many countries, but nowhere more so than Italy, where a papal edict in the middle ages declared they were instruments of the devil. Black cats were thrown into the fires to join witches burned at the stake. ¶ The Italian Association for the Defense of Animals and the Environment (AIDAA) estimates 60,000 were killed last year, to ward off bad luck but also for use in satanic rites and in cosmetics laboratories where black fur gives the best results….

• A CAPTION CONTEST TO IGNORE. OK, we've tried this before, and it never seems to work, but, as you might gather, I'm an optimist, always lookin' on the friggin' Bright Side. So let us know what you come up with. Or not.

That's some catch, that Catch-Rag'a'ghu

I’VE BEEN MEANING to mention that, at Tuesday’s meeting of the SOCCCD board of trustees (see "We'll find a way"), Trustee Nancy Padberg pressed for information and explanations regarding oddly increasing district—as opposed to Saddleback and Irvine Valley college—expenditures.

This, of course, is the heart of the matter re our “50% Law” fiasco. Chancellor Mathur and company spend taxpayer dollars like a drunken Bush Republican.

Near as I can tell, the “50% Law”—which requires that at least half of expenditures go to instruction—is a good thing, not a bad thing. It motivates districts to expend resources on teaching, not administration. As Bill Jay explained on Tuesday, without that motivation, too many boards hire new administrators instead of creating new instruction. (The 50% Law was enacted in 1961.)

In our present circumstances, of course, we are compelled to take measures that, when seen in isolation, seem flat unfortunate, such as this hasty mass hiring of faculty. But these measures are now embraced or contemplated, not because of the law, but because of Mathur’s mismanagement, his failure to be mindful of the rules.

—In this case: good rules.

Nor should we blame our predicament on ATEP. As far as I’m concerned, ATEP is a good idea, but we’ve got to pursue it prudently. Naturally, Chancellor Raghu P. Mathur, Finger Pointer Extraordinaire, blames our predicament on the allegedly incoherent or contradictory demands of the state. (Tuesday night, Vice Chancellor Gary Poertner seemed to blame our predicament on the state’s unfunded mandates.) But if that were the problem, why aren’t all districts in our predicament? Very few are.

That business about “one turd” of districts or colleges having problems with the 50% Law is at best an exaggeration. It is, in truth, a deliberate distortion by dishonest people who are plainly engaging in CYA. (See Look at the data!)

On Tuesday night, Jay and Padberg wisely pressed to receive some numbers. For as long as we approach our “50%” difficulty simply in terms of “helps and hurts” (see Beth M’s absurd helpful household hints, which seemed to emphasize “reassigned time” while deemphasizing ATEP), we are left with the impression that reassigned time is as significant as ATEP in accounting for our numerator/denominator blues. Nothing could be further from the truth.

No, we need to see the hard numbers that attach to these factors.

Evidently, district personnel are at work providing the numbers. Will the factoids they ultimately provide reflect Mathurian manipulation? Will they be shared with the rest of the district community? We’ll see.

Early indications are that Mathur’s HUGE & HASTY HIRING ORDER (HHHO) is already chaotic and confused.



I suppose that, by now, you’ve heard about the announcement of resignation by Saddleback College’s President, Rich McCullough. McCullough is saying that he’s keeping a promise to retire. What’s really going on here is that McCullough insisted on being the President of his college, and that was unacceptable to Mathur.

Who will replace McCullough? My money’s on that special someone who is willing to accept Mathurian Micromanagement:

“OK, but there’s a catch. You get to be President, but only if you’re willing not to be President. That’s the catch. Got it?”

“Oh sure. That’s some catch, that Catch-Rag'a'ghu.”

"It's the best there is,” said the Gooster, smiling.