Let it Snow!

~
.....Rebel Girl doesn't have a camera on hand but from the vantage point of her living room window this morning she can see with her two aging eyes snow on the peaks surrounding Modjeska Canyon.
.....After the fire and the ash and the mud, snow on the burnt peaks is pretty darn beautiful.
.....She knows that if you take a look toward Saddleback Mountain today you too will see snow. Go ahead. Look.
.....And someone take a photo please. Send it on to Rebel Girl or Chunk (you know how to reach us) and we'll publish the best of the lot.

Harassment vs. Academic Freedom

From this morning’s Inside Higher Ed: Harassment vs. Academic Freedom, Round Two:

…Donald Hindley first learned through twin October 30 letters that he was deemed in violation of Brandeis University’s nondiscrimination policy for allegedly uttering “inappropriate and racially derogatory statements.” The provost, Marty Krauss, informed the professor of politics that a “monitor” would observe his classroom and that he would be required to attend “anti-discrimination training.” The administration’s sanctions were deemed unusual by veteran observers of academic freedom, such as the American Association of University Professors, and the allegations set off a furor among faculty members at the institution, named for the free-expression defender and Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis.

“Brandeis still refuses to let me or my lawyers know what I am supposed to have said or done that allegedly constituted racial harassment and/or discrimination,” Hindley said in an e-mail.

Last month, the provost rejected an appeal by the university’s Committee on Faculty Rights and Responsibilities, leading Hindley to seek counsel and outside backing to pressure the university directly. At issue is a fundamental dispute about which is more important: protecting academic freedom, or ensuring students’ willingness to come forward with allegations of harassment?

The monitoring of his class has stopped this semester, and Hindley has so far refused to participate in the mandated training sessions. According to statements he and others have made to campus newspapers, the allegations revolve around students’ interpretation of comments he made using the term “wetback,” a derogatory reference to Mexican immigrants. Hindley, who has taught at Brandeis for almost 50 years, said he was using the term in his Latin American politics course in the context of explaining how it had been used historically. The department chair, Steven L. Burg, has previously said that at least two students approached him separately about Hindley’s remarks.

A campus publication, The Brandeis Hoot, pseudonymously interviewed one of the students, who said Hindley had used phrases like “mi petite negrita” and “wetbacks.”

…The dispute first escalated when the Faculty Senate took up the issue in a November 8 emergency session, unanimously expressing that it was “seriously concerned about procedures.... The Human Resources policies stress the importance of resolving such issues in an ‘informal manner’ with ‘flexible’ solutions. Furthermore, the Provost’s letter to the professor includes reference to ‘termination’ as a possibility if the professor does not accept the suggested remedies. This violates section VIIC2a of the Faculty Handbook: ‘When considering suspension or dismissal, the Provost will first consult with the Faculty Senate Council.’ No such consultation occurred before this letter was delivered.”

Accepting Hindley’s appeal, the Committee on Faculty Rights and Responsibilities wrote to the provost on November 29, asking her to fully reverse her decision, citing threats to academic freedom, procedural irregularities and excessive punishments. For example, the committee said that the sanctions against Hindley should have been lifted under the appeals process; instead, a monitor was immediately sent to his classes after the decision.

The committee argues that the administration didn’t follow basic procedures as outlined in the Faculty Handbook and the nondiscrimination policy, such as allowing Hindley to choose a witness to be present throughout the process. Responding to the committee’s letter on December 10, the provost rejected its findings and referred to “errors, both factual and legal,” in the analysis. “I am committed to academic freedom for our faculty and students, but I am equally committed to the principle that we will not tolerate racially harassing speech,” Krauss wrote….

Rio Salado Puts Brakes on Proposed Sale:

The chancellor of the Maricopa County Community College District sent an e-mail message to its employees late Wednesday saying that the institution would not seriously consider a private investor’s offer to buy the online operations of Rio Salado College, its “college without walls.”

“I feel the need to set the record straight,” Rufus Glasper, chancellor of the Maricopa system, wrote in the e-mail…. “Rio Salado College is not for sale.”....

It never ends

In this morning's LA Times: Interim O.C. sheriff faces state probe:

The state attorney general is reviewing whether interim Orange County Sheriff Jack Anderson broke the law by appearing in uniform while trying to dissuade the San Clemente City Council from endorsing a former sheriff's lieutenant as a replacement for indicted Sheriff Michael S. Carona, who later resigned.

During a council meeting in November, shortly after Carona was indicted on corruption charges, Anderson, then an assistant sheriff, told the council members that Lt. Bill Hunt was not qualified to serve as Orange County sheriff.

Anderson has since announced his own desire to be the full-time sheriff. Hunt and several others also are considered candidates for the job….

In this morning’s Inside Higher Ed: Can an Investor Buy a Community College?:

…A private investor has offered to buy the online operations and students of Rio Salado College — a community college in Arizona where about half of the 60,000 students study only online — for at least $400 million, and officials at the Maricopa County Community College District, of which Rio Salado is a part, are considering the offer….

Nothing happened

.....I’m tempted simply to say that nothing happened at tonight’s meeting of the SOCCCD board of trustees.
.....The closed session started at 3:00 and was supposed to be over by 6:00, but the trustees didn’t emerge until 7:30 or so. I really don’t know what they were doing in there all that time. We all figured they were screamin’ at each other about something.
.....When the open session finally started, I was surprised by the board’s mood. We all expected the trustees to be horribly grumpy. Nope. They got down to business, and there was a minimum of snipery, although Nancy’s invocation seemed to have a bit of an edge to it.
.....I do believe that her invocation made a special mention of Carl Karcher—you know, the hamburger guy.
.....The board took its time with resolutions and presentation re Professors of the Year. The part-timers didn’t show, but the remaining honorees did. No doubt Tracy will have pictures. (See Tracy's highlights.)
.....There were no public comments.
.....Trustee reports were unremarkable.
.....McCullough, Roquemore, and Kopecky updated us on educational and facilities master plans. That was mildly interesting I suppose. Nothing new.
.....I shoulda brought my Whoopee cushion.
.....Marcia pulled lots of things from the consent calendar, though that didn’t seem to produce the usual grumbling. She wanted to see the landscaping planned for the IVC Performing Arts Center and ATEP. Sure, why not.
.....As per usual, Nancy P had lots of questions about any new expenditures that might be hinky. Also, she was peeved about the list of District Institutional Memberships. Some of her favorite trustee organizations weren’t on the list, but another organization—one she did not like—did appear on the list. What’s up with that?
.....At first, Mathur became defensive; then he lurched into dismissiveness. Don tried to move things along, but then Tom piped up to urge the tabling of the item. Why not wait for more info?, asked Tom. In the end, the trustees voted to table, with an almost imperceptibly testy Don offering the only dissenting vote.
.....VC Bob King needed to make a last-minute change to the academic personnel actions, which inspired Dave Lang to fret about Brown Act concerns—i.e., does this provide sufficient notice? King was ready. He explained that he had sought the advice of one Wendy Gabriella, and she was OK with it. “Well, as long as you’ve got her approval, we’re cool,” said Wagner, smiling.
.....Next came the classified personnel actions. Wagner immediately turned to Wendy and asked, “Any problem with this one?”
.....It was a goddam love fest.
.....The board couldn’t say enough wonderful things about the Saddleback College Veteran’s Memorial Project, which, evidently, has been spearheaded by Nancy Padberg.
.....Well, that was about it. I videotaped lots of it, but I don’t know why.
.....That Don Wagner should does run an efficient meeting. Golly.

Hookers, togetherness, board meeting

1. IN THE NEWS. In this morning’s Inside Higher Ed:

• A wave of books and reports about French undergraduates paying for higher education by working as prostitutes has led government officials to pledge more assistance for low-income students, The Guardian reported. One estimate — disputed by government officials — is that 40,000 students are working as prostitutes.

• Anderson University, an Indiana institution affiliated with the Church of God, held its first on-campus dance this weekend, the Associated Press reported. Trustees last year lifted a ban on dancing. James Edwards, the university’s president, commented to the AP on the fact that many of the hundreds who attended didn’t actually dance. ” I don’t know if there’s a lot of great dancing going on or a lot of great standing going on,” he said, “but there’s a lot of togetherness going on.”

2. BOARD MEETING. Meeting of the SOCCCD board of trustees tonight. For the agenda outline, go to January agenda

The closed session starts at 3:00. Among the items listed:

Conference with Real Property Negotiators (GC 54956.8)

1. Property – Lease of Portion of Advanced Technology and Education Park (ATEP) Property at 15445 Lansdowne Road, Tustin, CA - Agency Designated Representative – Dr. Raghu Mathur;

Negotiating Parties (1) Camelot Entertainment; (2) CSU-Fullerton; (3) Young Americans; and (4) Chapman University/University College.

Under Negotiation – Price and Terms of Payment

On the open agenda (6:00 p.m.):

4.1 Saddleback College, Irvine Valley College and ATEP: Educational and Facilities Master Plan Update
Information presented by Dr. Richard D. McCullough, President, Saddleback College, Dr. Glenn R. Roquemore, President, Irvine Valley College, and Dr. Robert Kopecky, Provost, ATEP.

5.14 SOCCCD: Revised Authorization for District Institutional Memberships 2007/2008
Approve memberships as presented.

6.1 ATEP: Submittal of Short Range Plan to the City of Tustin
Accept for Review and Study.

6.8 Saddleback College: Veteran’s Memorial Project
Approve the Veteran’s Memorial project.

Sorrow's springs are the same

The widow of my writing professor called last night from her home in Joshua Tree. She called this time last year and the year before. We've never met, but since her husband (though she would probably prefer another term) Richard Lee died, she calls. She refers to our holiday card and how pleased she is that she still receives it and asks about our family, our work, our writing. We talk about her late husband, which, I suppose is the reason she calls us. In some way, she is calling him.

Tonight we talked for half an hour. She has finished her memoir about Greenwich Village in the 40s and her time with Georgia O'Keefe and the deKoonings, Franz Kline, Joseph Heller, Joaquim Probst and others. Eventually, she met Dr. Lee (as I called him) there, when he was a student at NYU. They fell in love and moved out here when he got the position at Cal State in 1955. So, in 1981, when I wandered into his classroom clutching my overwritten poems, he had been teaching there for almost 40 years.

Here he is in the CSULB faculty parking lot. The photo was taken by David Barker and featured in Barker's book 12 Poets and Their Cars, published in 1972.

At the end of our conversation, she invited us to visit her and, since I've already thought about how beautiful the desert will be this spring with the rain and all, when I said yes, it didn't feel as if I were lying. It felt like the truth. I hope it is.

Dr. Richard Lee ran the poetry workshop I lingered in at Cal State Long Beach in the early 1980s. He had other, better students than I, including roots rocker and bluesman Dave Alvin. Another talented student was one Kyle Anne Bates who also published in IVC's literary journal, the Ear. (L.T. would remember her and her work, a poem about a UPS delivery person, I believe.)

Dr. Lee (I could never call him Richard) taught me how to read closely and widely and with joy. He loved Gerard Manley Hopkins, a poet who was unafraid of exclamation points and joy. Hopkins would have loved Joshua Tree.

This one is for Dr. Lee:

Spring and Fall - Gerard Manley Hopkins

Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By & by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you wíll weep & know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sorrow's springs are the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What héart héard of, ghóst guéssed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.

Somebody Got to Have Some Sense on this Highway

No school today.

I reminded my students last week of this fact. They knew. It's the first week of classes and they know exactly how many holidays to expect. They're counting down already.

It's the federal holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, I said. We didn't always have this holiday, I told them, aware of the fact that for most of them, born this semester circa late 1980s, the holiday always had been. Do something, I said. And then, feeling very old, I added, when I was your age we used to march down to the South African Embassy and sit in and shut it down. You don't have to do that anymore, I added. Some on them smiled. The rest looked a little alarmed. Now that was a great excuse for missing class, I went on. (I couldn't stop myself.) You just told your teacher that you were in jail. I smiled. Widely.

Today at our home, we will read Faith Ringgold's wonderful "My Dream of Martin Luther King" with our little guy and listen to King's speeches on the radio.

This morning's New York Times gave us this holiday offering: Sarah Vowell's "Radical Love Gets a Holiday."

Here's some choice excerpts but you can click on the title above for the whole text. Go ahead. Click.

...Because I am a culturally Christian atheist the same way my atheist Reform friends are culturally Jewish, I look forward to Martin Luther King’s Birthday — when the news momentarily replaces the rants of the faith-based spitfires with clips of what an actually Christlike Christian sounds like — with the kind of fondness with which my pal Ben looks back on the decent, affectionate ideal that was his summer camp.

I have become just another citizen whose only religion is the freedom of religion and as such I patrol the wall of separation between church and state like some jumpy East German guarding Checkpoint Charlie back before Ronald Reagan single-handedly tore it down.

Which is why I am relieved that journalists and voters keep asking Mike Huckabee, the Republican presidential candidate, what he meant 10 years ago when he told a meeting of his fellow Baptists, “I hope we answer the alarm clock and take this nation back for Christ.” That is a curiously unconstitutional opinion for someone seeking the job of defending the Constitution, not to mention historically inaccurate considering the mostly deist founders were about as spiritual as the original cast of “Hair.”

But I am also relieved when Mr. Huckabee occasionally blurts out some Sunday School sentiment about how he doesn’t think a poor child should have to sleep in a car. Of course, this whiff of Jesus makes some of his fellow Republicans turn on him as if he’s Michael Dukakis. Because they fear that trying to find the homeless homes translates into raising the taxes they must render unto Caesar.Whoever wins the presidential election this year will be a Christian. (Unless of course it’s that one guy who is a member of a Muslim sleeper cell. Just when you think the electoral process couldn’t get any more stupid....) So the rest of us might as well suck it up and see if we can pick the Christian who is, if incapable of loving his or her enemies, the one who seems least likely to drum up a bunch of extra, new enemies to hate.

In this age of a slower, grubbier mutually assured destruction, when no one’s typed the word “nonviolence” since the typewriter, it’s worth reading Dr. King’s quarrel with the cold war’s MAD ploy. In the “loving your enemies” text he tells a pretty little parable about how one night his brother A. D. drove him to Tennessee. Infuriated by all the other cars’ brights, A. D. vowed to crank his lights and blind the next driver passing by. Dr. King told him not to, that it would just get everybody killed. “Somebody got to have some sense on this highway,” he said.