Sidewalk chalk art at Irvine Valley College

I do believe that this work was done under the direction of art instructor Julie Kirk, an internationally recognized street painter and professional artist.
Those in the know: pass on any information you'd care to share about this exhibit.

I overheard someone talking about "chalk art" this afternoon, and so, at about 7:00, after hanging out with friends over at Waters, I dropped by IVC to find it. Someone was still working there. I left them alone.
Naturally, I had the wrong lens, and so I couldn't take any wide shots. I did the best I could. Plus the light was fading fast.
* * * * *
The chalk art can be found at Irvine Valley College, just past the Student Services Building and in front of the PE gym.
Check it out. Don't know how long it will last.
This stuff is ephemeral. Very cool.

LATE NEWS:
Two probable swine flu cases found in Irvine

RANDOM SHOTS FROM MY CAR, ON THE WAY HOME:

Along Live Oak Canyon Road

Approaching Cook's Corner

Live Oak Canyon Road

Try not to run amok

SWINE FLU NEWS. Daffodil J. Altan over at the OC Weekly reports (here)—or maybe just opines—that those surgical masks that everybody’s dying for are useless.

My sister Annie told me that she was at Home Depot yesterday and some lady was literally running through the building crying that she could find no surgical masks! “There’s a pandemic!” she yelped, said sis. Annie claimed to be standing right there where they keep those mask that workers wear when they’re, like, blowin’ leaves around and disturbing the peace. For some reason Annie didn’t clue the lady in about that.

So, anyway, Daffodil reports that

After essentially quarantining a CSULB student who has received a "probable positive test" (um, is it or isn't it?) for piggy flu, health officials on the Long Beach campus handed out surgical face masks to students on campus who have "been paranoid," according to a Press Telegram report.

That’s pretty funny, I guess. But don’t be surprised if, one day soon, you open your door and see a scene from Invasion of the Body Snatchers. If people can vote for George W. Bush twice, they can run amok looking for useless leaf-blower masks.


FIRE. Did you notice the fire at the IVC library a few days ago? Yeah, right there at the “grand entrance hall,” about twenty-five feet up and to the right, a light bulb in one of those ritzy Art Deco fixtures caught fire. I’m told that the first sign of trouble was a smell of melting or burning plastic. Sensing trouble, students started running out of the building—just like Kevin McCarthy in, well, Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Then that light bulb caught fire. Flames, smoke, screaming.

I guess they (whoever “they” were) took care of it tout de suite. (Sorry, I meant “lickety-split.” What was I thinkin’?) All you can see now is some black soot up and around the fixture.

A friend said, “Hey, what if this happened on the weekend?” I said, “Yeah. The contractor must’ve bought some cheap econo-bulbs from China.”

“Yeah,” he said. We grunted unpleasantly.


ZODIAC. Did you hear about that OC woman who, yesterday, held a press conference—up in San Francisco—to declare that her father was the Zodiac Killer? It’s probably BS, but you can read all about it here.

DAVIES. The OC Reg’s Science Dude (Paul Davies) reports that

Paul Davies, a theoretical physicist widely known for helping explain the origins of the universe and for his eloquence in discussing the nature of science and religion to the public, will give the undergraduate commencement address at Chapman University in Orange on May 23.

SWINE 2. Inside Higher Ed reports this morning on cases of swine flu at college campuses, including a suspected case at San Diego State University.

Have a nice day. Try not to run amok.

Notes on last night's board meeting, part 2

Eventually, the trustees got to item 6.1, the faculty contract. The trustees made an effort to thank all parties, including members of the faculty negotiating team. Tom Fuentes suggested that the board “divide the question.” The problem with the new contract, he said, was specifically the “raises, some of them retroactive.” In “this economy,” he said, he couldn’t in good conscience support the raise, for he has an “obligation to taxpayers.” He harrumphed. In the end, the contract passed unanimously, except for the raises, which naturally lost Fuentes’ vote. The fellow sighed and then flicked a piece of raw meat into the camera. Splat! Item 6.2 was the renewal of printing and mailing class schedules for Fall 2009, and that was approved. This time, the bill was a mere $75K. Here’s what they approved, evidently:

At the March…meeting the Board instructed the colleges to investigate a more cost effective way to distribute the class schedules, perhaps totally through online. Both Colleges looked at the option to mail out a postcard and found that due to post office requirements…there would be little savings over continuing to mail the class schedules. IVC has determined that it could save approx. $32K by decreasing the number of Fall class schedules…from 314K to 30K (campus copies only) and printing a trifold mailer that will be sent to 284K residents…. The college will use the same approach for Spring 2010…. Saddleback College staff is planning to reduce the number of pages for the Fall schedules from 116 to 110 and will convert to an online schedule of classes in the Spring of 2010. In addition, SC will have some campus copies available for sale in its bookstore for a minimal cost of one or two dollars each. …Campuses are preparing to move toward totally online schedule of classes by Spring 2010….

This sounds pretty dicey to me. Is anyone paying attention to this? I sure hope so. I try to keep people informed, but sometimes I think I oughta just shut down and go home. Fuentes nastily intoned that item 6.2, a cost decrease, is “fitting,” given that the faculty contract represents a cost increase. Item 6.4 was the latest curriculum revisions at IVC. This, too, worried Mr. Fuentes, who asked that he be walked through the process. He seemed stunned to learn that about one thousand curriculum changes occur per year. His eyes grew large. How can this be? It was explained to the fellow. IVC Senate Prez Gabriella chimed in to clarify matters. Some of the changes are minor and technical, she said. But, yeah, we do lots of work in this department buster. Item 6.7 concerned board policy revisions, including BP4016, “Drug-free environment and drug prevention program.” Fuentes got excited. Wait-a-minute, he seemed to say. Don’t we now have a “zero tolerance” policy? For some reason, those in the room who attempted to explain our existing and proposed policies re drugs failed to employ the buzzword “zero tolerance,” and that fact caused in Fuentes palpable and noisy pain. “Zero tolerance, zero tolerance!” he shouted. Yeah, sure, zero tolerance, I guess, said everybody else. We don’t use that phrase, but that’s our policy I suppose. Fuentes suddenly stopped the show, asking if any colleague disagreed with zero tolerance on drugs? He scanned the panel ominously. Finally, some poor soul in the audience squawked, “um…just say no!” Actually, that just happened in my mind. What’s with all the red meat? I can only assume that, for some reason, the expected TV audience for this meeting is going to be big. Maybe there’s an AARP convention in town. Who knows. Item 6.8 was academic personnel actions, including a recommendation for a new administrative position: a Dean of Academic Programs, Student Learning, and Research. Glenn Roquemore explained that, with changes that have occurred in recent years, the burdens on the VPI have grown, yadda yadda. What this boils down to is that the Presidents of the colleges are supposed to be allowed to make their own decisions concerning where money should be spent in maintaining an effective administration, and Glenn really wants, and says he can afford, this new position. But, owing to “this new economy,” some trustees resisted the idea. Somebody failed to get their ducks in a row. Chancellor Mathur stated that he supported the proposal. Oddly, he even seemed to say that, if the position is approved and Glenn sends up a candidate, he’ll support that recommendation too! (I think I got that right.) Sounds like Raghu has been in the woodshed. No wonder he looked so glum and his fanny looked so red. Marcia used the “m” word (micromanagement). We oughta back off and let Glenn do this, she said. But, in the end, 5 of the seven trustees voted to table the item (Marcia and Don dissented). Fuentes used item 7.3 (“basic aid information”) to talk up his boy Chriss Street, OC’s corrupt Treasurer. Yadda yadda yadda.

Bye, you guys

Nothing of great importance occurred at tonight's meeting of the SOCCCD board of trustees. The faculty contract was formally approved—as expected—but not without a bit of the ol' ultra-conservatism from trustee Tom Fuentes, who divided the question so that he could vote down the faculty raise. But the contract—and the raise—passed anyway.

The President of IVC, Glenn Roquemore, has pursued adding another administrator—much needed, it turns out. The matter came up for approval tonight, and Glenn advocated strongly and clearly for the position. He even got the support of the Chancellor. Imagine that!

But some trustees were wary of this move. —It's this economy, doncha know? So, despite powerful arguments from anybody who knows anything and the support even of Mr Goo, the best these clowns could do was to table the matter. (Milchicker and Wagner voted against that, hoping to pass the recommendation.) The item will come up again next month.

Board Prez Don Wagner got all peevish and unpleasant when Karla W, inveterate foe of trustee prayers, sought to read comments from two people who could not attend.

Plus Don won an "ugly face" contest. See pic.

Student Trustee Hannah Lee said her goodbyes. The board gave her a plaque or something.

I'll really miss her routine references to the board as "you guys." I really will.

I'll have lots more tomorrow, I guess.

April board meeting: Notes, part 1

     I arrived at about 6:05, and the meeting had not yet started. Oddly, Trustees Dave Lang and Marcia Milchiker were sitting in their places over on the left, Trustee Bill Jay was in his chair way over to the right, and Chancellor Raghu Mathur was sitting alone and forlorn, somewhere in the middle. Somehow, the scene was grim, a partial and perverse Last Supper. Usually, the seven trustees emerge from their super secret buffet/lounge all at once, but not last night. After about ten minutes, Trustees Don Wagner, Tom Fuentes, and John Williams emerged very much in lockstep--like Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn in that restaurant scene in Bringing Up Baby--and took their seats. (I lost track of Trustee Nancy Padberg.)

    

     The real fun starts about 4 minutes in. More grimness. I really don’t know what it meant. Maybe these people were at each other’s throats during the closed session. Maybe nothin’. Dunno. Our trustees love to do “resolutions,” and there were lots of ‘em last night. A middle-aged lady got a Rez for picking up a bag with $3,000 in it (at Saddleback) and turning it in. It was money raised in some charity. I guess these trustees are the kind who'd take the money and run, so they were stunned that anybody'd return it. They didn't seem to know what to make of her. Well, the woman got all teary-eyed and introduced her kids. Looking at them, she wimpered something like, “This is how I feel about you kids when you do the right thing.” More tears. Wailing. During “public comments,” Karla Westphal offered her usual objections to trustee prayers. She then held up prepared statements from two faculty who could not attend the meeting, and Board Prez Don Wagner said something like, “If they wanna speak, they can show up.” Karla explained that at least one of these instructors teaches on Monday nights. Wagner sniffed and then let her read for a bit, but when she got to the second letter, he just shut her down and sent her packing. Karla stalked off. I think she was steamed. When will Don learn that his petty and hot-headed ways are counter-productive? Never, it seems. Well, let's face it. That he acts like such a punk kid is his charm. Trustee reports were unremarkable. I don’t recall a thing that Bill Jay said. Padberg literally said nothing. Fuentes yammered like he does about his boy Mathur’s leadership on some task force. There was a “breakfast” at IVC on April 17, and lots of Republican pols showed up for that. A food fight broke out, evidently.

     Williams announced that he has discovered that textbooks are expensive. Milchiker reported that she has seen yet another version of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”—this one at IVC. Didn’t she see this very play at Saddleback last month? Yup. Marcia seems to live in Wacky World. It was student Trustee Hannah Lee’s last night, and the board gave her some prizes for being pretty and causing no trouble, I think. Her replacement was in the audience, and she seemed to be the equal of Hannah in perkiness and cuddliness. Maybe she can think and speak, too, but that would appear to be unlikely. During his report, a subdued Chancellor Mathur said some obvious things about our “basic aid” gravy train being under threat. He seemed to be in a state of shock. Dunno why. Evidently, some education bills are likely to fail in the upcoming election, and that will make the budget situation even worse for education. Mathur quoted someone who said that “now is the time to clean up the barn.” Most just stared at him, uncomprehending. John Williams commenced yammering about textbook costs. I do believe he said that “we are moving to a virtual society.” I looked around. Nobody was laughing. Not even me.John has some ideas, he said. Instructors could scrape up stuff from the “public domain” and post that somewhere. Instant textbook. Free. Or, he said, we could get instructors together to write a textbook, which the district would own. Use that. Again, I looked around the room. Nothing. I saw a guy studying lint that he had found in his pocket. Next came a report about “Early College Program/K-12 Outreach.” There were three speakers, and they were brief. That's the way Don Wagner likes it. Marcia heard one of ‘em talking about Tiger Woods, and she was all over that. Somebody used the word “viral,” and Marcia didn’t understand that. She said she thought that “viral” things were “bad,” not “good.” She sported a quizzical expression. Suddenly, Tom Fuentes roared forth, “How about Home Schoolers!?” “From what I've seen,” he said, they are “excellent.” How odd to have a man who hates public education on the board of a community college district. IVC Prez Glenn Roquemore had spoken about some early college classes at local high schools, and that got Fuentes worried. How come these kids aren’t just taking online courses? he asked. Some are, said Glenn, but they’ve gotta get the principal’s permission. Yadda yadda. I stopped listening. Then: “Boundaries!” roared Fuentes. “We’ve got to keep boundaries!” He was referring to poaching done by some districts in other districts’ territories.

   

     Kumquats! There was a report concerning “opportunity for growth.” If we wanted to, said Gary P, we could grow 15%, but that would mean offering more courses, and it would be costly and deplete our Basic Aid bucks. We don’t receive any money from the state for growth, since, unlike everybody else, we’re on Basic Aid. Gary noted that the board, in its infinite wisdom, has decided not to pursue public bonds. That’s good, he seemed to say, ‘cause, owing to Basic Aid, we actually spend more per student than other districts do. I studied Fuentes’ face for tics or twitches. I studied the horizon for storm clouds. Gary said that the colleges want direction from the board concerning how to deal with this tension between building and maintaining good facilities (on the one hand) and offering more courses (on the other). The trustees started discussing the ongoing threats to our Basic Aid funding, which, up to now, has made us filthy freakin' rich. “Maybe we should circle the wagons,” said Fuentes, chewing on a hayseed. I’m not real sharp on fiscal issues, but I gather that the state might get out its six-shooters and plug our Basic Aid with led. Then they might pull a switcheroo on us and throw our local property tax money on a stagecoach for Sacramento. So our little SOCCCD posse was figuring out ways to thwart these varmints and head 'em off at the pass. I fell into a coma. Then Fuentes started yammering about how, maybe, we could have a summit of OC community college districts, and they could divvy-up online instruction. That is, Coast could do math, NOCCCD could do, say, underwater basket-weaving, and SOCCCD could do, like, writing and chemistry. “There’s no need for duplication,” declared Mr. Fuentes.He was staunch. Lang chimed in largely in agreement with Fuentes’ points about varmints and such. He noted that we’re about to spend shitloads of money on ATEP, and we gotta worry about that. And if we expand courses, what if we hit hard times? Can we sustain the level we’ve expanded to? It was right about then that Bill Jay woke up and started reminiscing about the old days, when, if a student in our area bolted for OCC, we’d have to send money up there for ‘im! I do believe that Nancy Padberg then rolled her eyes as though she were hearing the infernal bleatings of a dying mule. …to be continued.

Carona sunset?

IT COULD BE 5 TO 6 YEARS IN PRISON, $125,000 FINE FOR CARONA

Over at the OC Weekly website, Matt Coker reports that

R. Scott Moxley, reporting from the Santa Ana courthouse during an afternoon break, says the judge and lawyers for the defense and prosecution in Mike Carona's sentencing hearing on a felony corruption count, are talking about 63 to 78 months behind bars and a $125,000 fine for the man once dubbed "America's Sheriff."….

UPDATE:

• MAYBE THIS WILL WIPE SMUG LOOK OFF CARONA'S FACE: 5.5 YEARS, $125,000 FINE, THE SHAME OF AN ENTIRE COUNTY
• Carona gets 66 months in prison, $125,000 fine

Tonight's board meeting

The closed session commences at 5:00 p.m. and the open session is set to start at 6:00. (At Saddleback College: the Ronald Reagan room.)

The discussion items for tonight are (1) “Saddleback College and IVC and ATEP: Early College Program/K-12 Outreach” and (2) “Effect of Enrollment Growth on Basic Aid Funds.”

Mr. Sprite, Saturday night

The first general action item is “Faculty Association Academic Employee Master Agreement,” aka the faculty contract.

Oddly, given the discussion at last month’s meeting, another item offered for approval is “Award Printing of Class Schedules.”

It seems likely that, in the end, we will cease mailing out class schedules to all residents, opting to send small, cheap postcard reminders instead. (I’m just guessing, based on the buzz since the last board meeting.)

Pictured: the Tige, last night.