The faculty contract issue, 1997-8

 

     Re the “faculty contract” issue:
     As you know, Old Guard critics of the recently proposed faculty contract objected to adjustments that benefited all but the highest paid faculty. They seemed to view that as unfair. (See What's their beef?)
     I found a computer file of old newspaper articles (etc.) and came across several from 1997-8 that concerned the faculty contract. They reveal that, at the time, critics of the Old Guard's then-proposed contract emphasized that contract's concentration of benefit on senior full-time faculty to the detriment of junior faculty:

• South O.C. College District Salaries Are State's Highest Los Angeles Times, September 15, 1997

     According to figures published in June by the Sacramento-based Community College Assn., the South Orange County district is truly No. 1. As one professor put it, "We're the Nebraska Cornhuskers of community college salaries.". . .
     Kate Clark, a professor of English at Irvine Valley College, lists her salary at more than $70,000 a year, which she finds "embarrassing." More and more, Clark said, district salaries are also a story of have-nots helping to sustain the haves.
     "It's not a healthy circumstance when you have people on the upper end making disproportionately high salaries, compared to those on the lower end, who in my view are increasingly underpaid," she said.
     For those on the high end, [Wendy] Phillips said, district salaries are comparable even to those at UC Irvine, which as part of the elite UC system pays the best of any Orange County college.. . .
     In terms of salaries as a whole, [Bill] Hewitt said the highest go to professors with 30 or more years experience, constituting, in his opinion, about a quarter of the faculty or even less.. . .
     Phillips said the board is enthusiastically supported by the district's faculty labor union, which bankrolled the past campaigns of the current board majority—Frogue, Williams, Teddi Lorch and Dorothy Fortune.
     In return, the board has consistently voted pay raises that account for the district's No. 1 ranking.
     "Our union is incredibly strong," said Phillips, who makes $65,000 a year, "and they've consistently negotiated one of the best salary and benefit packages in the state. But it's come through buying board members, and now they're in each other's pockets."
     Irvine Valley philosophy professor Roy Bauer, who makes about $50,000 a year, said the union and the board share "a quid pro quo" relationship.
     "The union gives them the money to get reelected and they vote pay raises in return," Bauer said. "In recent years, the board has cut things to the bone and now talks of more cuts to come, but have they touched faculty salaries? Of course not, and they won't."
     While those in the top quarter are making $80,000 to $100,000 a year, those on the lower end are being paid much less, Bauer said, resulting in what he called an average salary districtwide that falls somewhere between $60,000 and $65,000 a year.
     Figures released late Friday by the district support Bauer's claim. Taking all salaries as a whole, the average for the 1996-97 school year was $60,969 at Irvine Valley and $69,097 at Saddleback. But average salaries for "academic administrators" who also teach were considerably higher: $91,966 at Irvine Valley and $91,664 at Saddleback.
     High salaries among the top one-quarter of the faculty have necessitated the hiring of hundreds of part-timers, with that group now making up about half the district payroll, according to Bauer and various faculty senate members on both campuses.
     "It's the union's strategy of rewarding those on the high end that's led to the wave of part-timers," Phillips said….

• Los Angeles Times Letters to the Times
March 8, 1998

Dorothy Fortune's Bankrupt Views [Times' title]

     I am a mathematics professor at Irvine Valley College who is very concerned about the proposed faculty contract.
     In a district full of faculty members who earn at the top end of the pay scale, administrative positions have recently been cut under the guise of financial necessity.
     In what smacks of payback, we are offering even more to certain faculty whose base salary is easily in excess of $80,000. Beyond that, more salary is earned for choosing to teach the two sections of summer school.
     The base salary is for 10 months of teaching 15 hours of class per week and attending one committee hour per week. Many of these faculty then choose to teach large lecture classes in excess of 45 students and also overload (beyond 15 hours per week) to greatly augment their salaries to be well in excess of $100,000 per 10 months—in some cases, in excess of $120,000. It is my contention that this faculty greed is at the expense of the students.
     A look at the new contract proposal shows the balance of the increased pay at the top end of the salary scale. The benefits to new hires have been reduced.
     Newly hired faculty members will be able to transfer in only five years of teaching experience, not the current 11 years. How do we attract the best and the brightest if we don't allow their experience to count? This new contract is irresponsible on many levels and certainly greedy. 

NANCY EVANS
Irvine

• Orange County Register
April 1, 1998

College teachers OK new contract
EDUCATION: Some say the raises put South Orange County Community College District in jeopardy.

By KIMBERLY KINDY

     …Under the new contract, pay raises will not begin until July 1. They will include an annual $2,500 stipend for 75 professors who have doctorates.
     It also would allow additional raises for 23 longtime professors who are reaching the top of the salary schedule, and commit the district to dividing all the money it receives for professors' annual cost-of-living increases as long as the district has 3 percent of its budget in reserve. That is 2 percent lower than the state chancellor's office requires for the district to be removed from the watch list.
     It also would allow professors who are teaching more than 15 hours a week to bank their time over 2 1/2 years and then take a paid sabbatical in lieu of overtime pay. About 66 percent of the faculty would qualify….

* * *

     Please note that I have provided a link to the entire Times article. No link to the Reg article is available (as far as I know).
     As always, do feel free to provide enlightening comments re context, etc.

Cause I need something to forget,

What got me in this mess

Feeling less and less

My judgment is not clear

I do things that I fear,

I would never do

Absurdity and opacity

     • EARLY COLLEGE. I'm told that, recently, the IVC Academic Senate was “honored” for its support of the Early College program.
     Absurd!
     In truth, the Early College program has never been popular with the AS (i.e., with faculty). Faculty were irked from the start—when it was rammed down their throats by administration, despite faculty concerns and objections, all of which have proved prescient. Faculty have attempted to determine whether the program is as fraught with difficulty as some participants have claimed, and thus far all of its findings have supported the voices of concern and alarm.
     Essentially, administration has ignored faculty concerns and, inexplicably, it seems determined to pursue the EC program despite its failings, its expense, and its lack of support among faculty.

     • ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION PARK. What’s up with ATEP? In fact, for quite some time now the two colleges of the SOCCCD have been seriously at odds over the development of this facility. Why is this “debate” still in the shadows? Why are we still in the dark concerning the future and fate of ATEP?

—BvT

snafu, phr., adj., and n.

Used acronymically … as an expression conveying the common soldier's laconic acceptance of the disorder of war and the ineptitude of his superiors.
. . .
1946 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. Mar. 419 “Interestingly, the expression ‘snafu’, derived from this, ‘Situation normal, all f---ed up’, is coming into general civilian use.”

—From the OED

BEDTIME READING: the OLD GUARD, fifteen years ago: Adventures in Advertising: The real purpose behind gay-baiting at Saddleback College

Atheists in Orange County

• Atheist message adorns billboard near 55 (OC Reg, 8/18)
• Some take offense at atheist message on billboard (OC Reg, 8/19)
• Backyard Skeptics

     I dunno. I too want my fellow citizens to be more rational, reasonable. But I prefer an approach that teaches reasoning per se rather than one that “teaches” the alleged fruit or consequences of reason.* If people were taught to respect reason, avoid fallacy, refrain from thinking and behavior that makes sheep- and mob-like phenomena possible—well, if such were the case, I’d be in a pretty damned good community, or at least a far better one.** I wonder sometimes if these organizations (Backyard Skeptics, etc.) aren’t willing to skip that step. That makes me wonder if, in the end, they’re much better than the irrationalists they seek to convert.
     It’s like “teaching” democracy, I suppose. I wouldn’t want to impose democracy on a nondemocratic society.*** We need to ask first, what sort of person would be happy in a democratic society? For what sort of people is democratic government the best type? —BvT

NOTES(?!):

   *In my view, an embrace of rationality and reasonableness would inevitably weaken the hold most religions have on people. But it is impossible to be certain about such things.
   **I’m certainly open to the possibility (not the probability!) that a robust embrace of rationality and reasonableness may leave available modes of belief that are religious or at least quasi-religious. Some will be mystified by that position. They will insist that religious belief by its very nature is irrational—insofar as it entails such things as faith, a believing without evidence. They may be right. Being a conservative fellow, I’m not in a hurry to embrace a final conclusion about that. Certainty is usually evidence of folly.
   ***Of course, one might impose democracy as a way of getting people to be the sort who would enjoy democracy. Tricky business, that.

Highly recommended:

• Unemployment is rising – or is that statistical noise? (Ben Goldacre, the Guardian)

• The genius who lives downstairs – extract (The Guardian)

Aged three, Simon Phillips Norton had an IQ of 178. By five, he could rattle off his 91 times table. At Cambridge, he was the greatest maths prodigy they had ever seen. So what happened to his career? Alexander Masters on a story that doesn't add up

Pinocchios for Perry

     The Washington Post’s fact check guy, Glenn Kessler, has given Texas Gov. Rick Perry “four Pinocchios” in response to the Republican's recent remarks about global warming.
     I especially enjoyed Kessler’s take on Perry's charge that lots of scientists have been “manipulating data”:

     Despite our repeated requests, neither [of Perry’s spokesmen] provided any evidence to back up Perry’s claim that “a substantial number of scientists … have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects” — perhaps because that particular scandal appears to be a figment of Perry’s imagination.
     Perry appears to be referring to hundreds of e-mails that were stolen from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in Britain and then disseminated on the Internet in 2009. One e-mail made references to adding a “trick” in the data, leading climate change skeptics to claim the data was manipulated.
     But, although Perry claimed the scientists “were found to be manipulating this data,” five investigations have since been conducted into the allegations — and each one exonerated the half-dozen or so scientists involved.
     So, in contrast to Perry’s statement, there have not been a “substantial number” of scientists who manipulated data. Instead, there were a handful — who were falsely accused.

     Concludes Kessler:

     Perry’s statement suggests that, on the climate change issue, the governor is willfully ignoring the facts and making false accusations based on little evidence. He has every right to be a skeptic ... but that does not give him carte blanche to simply make things up.

     Recently, SOCCCD trustee Tom Fuentes met with Perry. Evidently, Perry passed Tom's "first lady" test: "One of the gauges I have is to get to know the political wives. That tells you a lot," said Tom.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Court: Teacher can't be sued over anti-Christian remarks (OC Reg)

A federal appeals court on Friday tossed out a lower court's ruling that Capistrano Valley High School teacher James Corbett violated a student's constitutional rights by making comments disparaging to religion, saying Corbett could not have known he might be breaking the law….

Update on one-time Fuentes/GOP golden boy Jeffrey Ray Nielsen

Both gay and anti-gay

     This morning, OC Weekly’s R. Scott Moxley updates his story about one-time GOP golden boy—and sexual predator—Jeffrey Ray Nielsen: Ex-Rohrabacher Aide Can't Stay Clean Even After Prison:

     There was a time in Orange County when Jeffrey Ray Nielsen, the son of a Fountain Valley Republican mayor, seemed destined for a lofty perch. Nielsen got into USC Law School based, in part, on the personal recommendation of Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, the man who'd repeatedly take him to the nation's capital as a trusted aide. ... Before his downfall, the self-styled Christian conservative—a junior Rush Limbaugh in training—liked to berate liberals and gays for destroying the nation.
     The ironic Nielsen collapse began in the 1990s when he used his connections to win an internship inside the Orange County District Attorney's office. Police caught him urinating in public during a date….
     We may never be able to reconcile how Nielsen, who hobnobbed with Orange County's most powerful political leaders like Tom Fuentes and Scott Baugh, breathlessly targeted 7th, 8th and 9th grade boys for romance and sex while simultaneously quoting Biblical passages and hailing Ronald Reagan.
     After his 2003 arrest for the lewd, determined pursuit of a troubled Westminster High School student, Nielsen told friends that his political connections would help him quietly make the case against him go away. I made sure that didn't happen…. [My research] lead me to another victim, who as a 7th grader found himself used for two years as a sexual object by Nielsen, who'd been prowling a church youth group while working for Rohrabacher.
     In March 2008, Nielsen—then a Ladera Ranch resident who attempted to claim he was the victim of a liberal media plot run from the Weekly offices—dropped the pretense of innocence, pleaded guilty and earned himself a 36-month stint in a California prison….
     In Dec. 2009, we reported that Nielsen had been released from prison and was living in Laguna Beach.
. . .
…We've learned that in April 2010—just four month after his prison departure, Nielsen got drunk in Laguna Beach, crashed his car into a parked car and found himself under arrest again, according to court records.
. . .
     [Superior Court Judge Robert] Gannon sentenced Nielsen to serve 90 days in jail, attend another alcohol diversion program and live under probation supervision for three years.
     Worse for Nielsen, Gannon…decided in December 2010 to also send him back to prison for four more months.
     He's now free again and we're wondering what's next for the man who turns 41 years old next month.

Quantum U of Chiropractic? — No red flag here!*

    On thing for sure, Irvine Valley College isn’t the kind of workplace where worrisome events and actions are explained. Administration isn't into "transparency" here. Quite the opposite. Things are left unexplained; some things are 'splained with 'splanations that seem distinctly “south of true”; and, in this 'splanatory vacuum, people run around campus with strikingly differing takes on what’s going on. It's a hell of a way to build community.
    Back in October of 2010, the campus was abuzz over the apparent “firing” of Kathleen Schraeder, the dean of Mathematics, Science and Engineering. Now, Schraeder wasn’t perfect—her particular eccentricity involved a lack of tact—but many of us were impressed that the best and the brightest among that motley crew of math/science faculty seemed to respect her and to be loyal to her.
    Then, suddenly, word spread that Schraeder was fired over some less-than-flattering comment she made, at a Bio School meeting, about the President’s wife’s cake. No doubt there was more to it than that, but some of the President’s public remarks about the incident were contradicted by faculty (who were present for the offending remark). In the end, nobody seemed sure just what happened to precipitate Schraeder’s exodus, and there was much whispering that the Prez and his VPI totally mucked up Schraeder’s firing to boot.
     As usual, people were left in the dark; suspicions and skepticism prevailed. There are numerous versions of the “de-Schraeder” story. They're all pretty wacky.
    In December (of 2010), it was announced that Bill Kelly, former SOCCCD Vice Chancellor, would temporarily fill in as dean. Kelly had served as Dean of IVC’s School of Math and Science from July 2004 to 2007, so he seemed to be a good choice.

* * *

    Well, Schraeder’s permanent replacement has now been hired. According to the “feature story” of Irvine Valley College's house organ, “the President’s Open Door,”

…Dr. Lianna Zhao [is] the new dean of Mathematics, Science and Engineering. Dr. Zhao has over 20 years of full-time post-secondary teaching experience, 14 of them in the California Community College system….

    I’ve already heard good things about Zhao, and one reliable friend assures me that she’s good. Still, I was taken aback by what I learned of her background in Roquemore’s chirpy “open door” story:

Dr. Zhao began teaching at Capital Institute of Medicine in Beijing, China, where she served as a full-time assistant professor from January 1983 to September 1985.

    I looked into “Capital Institute,” and nothing negative seems to pop up (it looks positive). But then there’s this:

In the US, she first worked as a part-time teaching and research assistant with assignments in biology and zoology at Northeast Louisiana University in Monroe, Louisiana, from 1985 to 1988. [This is also where she got her MS.] She continued her teaching career as a full-time faculty member for Quantum University School of Chiropractic in Pico Rivera, teaching human anatomy, physiology, and nutrition from 1994 to 1997. From 1997 to 2003 she was a full-time professor teaching biology, chemistry, human anatomy, and physiology at Imperial Valley College near El Centro.

    NLU ain’t impressive, that’s for sure. (I looked it up.) And, let’s face it, Zhao's Imperial Valley College gig is nothing to write home about. I think they’re so hard up down there that they no longer require hires to speak any known language.
     But the real doozy here is the in-between institution: Quantum University School of Chiropractic [QUSC] (in freakin’ Pico Rivera).
     I couldn’t make up a worse sounding school.
     “Quantum” is a word that has come to signify “pseudoscience”—when, that is, it is appealed to outside the setting of atomic physics. And “chiropractic”? Don’t even get me started.
    "Well," you say. "Don’t be unfair. Maybe this Quantum University is all right after all."
    Nope.
    I did a little looking and it turns out that QUSC is part of (and may well be identical to) something called Quantum-Veritas International University Systems (QVIUS). You can read all about the dismal history of QUSC/QVIUS here:

History of (1) The University of Pasadena, (2) Pasadena College of Chiropractic, (3) Southern California College of Chiropractic, (4) Quantum University

    The upshot: Quantum U is one of a series of half-assed alternative medicine institutions (first in Pasadena, later in Pico Rivera) guided by “vitalists”—practitioners on the seriously flaky end of the alternative medicine spectrum. –You know, the end populated by homeopaths and believers in mysterious, unverifiable, impercetible occult forces and entities.
    Not only that, but the damn place seems never to have enjoyed accreditation, at least not during Zhao's stay. Earlier, it had secured quasi-accreditation—with the flakier of the two Chiro camps (just imagine!), which promptly went kaput, leading to nonaccreditation, unseemly scrambles, closures, toga parties, and whatnot.
    I think the place regrouped in an apartment above somebody’s garage.
    OK, so our Ms. Zhao got one of her degrees at one of the lesser Louisiana institutions (yeah, Louisiana, where education is priority 12); then she taught for four years at a flakoid chiropractic/vitalistic college that got its ticket pulled; then she taught for a while amongst the cactus and rattlesnakes of El Centro.
    She may be great anyway. I guess it’s possible. But I haven’t seen worse paper on a hire since Howard Gensler, former administrator of obscure (and troubled) "Northrop U." (Gensler was Raghu Mathur's curious choice to serve as IVC Dean of the School of Humanities and Languages; he flamed out amid the "Howard Hilton" fiasco; now, he's a tenured load at Saddleback.)
    One more thing: starting in 2004, Zhao quit teaching and went into administration at Imperial. She became a chair. Then in 2010 she became a dean. And now she’s at IVC.
    I do wish her the best of luck.
    Who knows.

*Tea Partiers, this is irony. I'm saying that this should have been a red flag. Got it?

Opening sessions: quality not quantity

"A spade is a spade, and it is worse than useless to say that it is something else."

—Trollope, 1859

     I MISSED yesterday’s “Chancellor's opening session.” Luckily, Tere Fluegeman has posted highlights of the dang thing, which occurred in beauteous Saddleback College. (Evidently, video of the session is also available.)
     Something in Tere’s notes caught my eye:

     Chancellor Gary Poertner announced that the Chancellor's Opening Session will occur just once per year, at the beginning of fall term, to better support flex week activities. He encouraged attendance and said he will strive to keep the session informative from a district-wide perspective so that it will be worthwhile investment of time.

     Wow. Gary is streamlining. Hope he tosses out that bust of RR too.
     A reliable friend wrote me to say that

     You've missed a good [opening session]. The Chancellor's [part] was quite good. Your name was called. You received a service pin! 20 years! [Well, no. 25 years.] That's a long time. 
     Gary's address covered mostly Accreditation. It was informative, to the point…. The other speakers were also succinct….

     And the Faculty Association (union) luncheon?

     The luncheon was interesting to say the least.

     So I gather.
     According to Tere, Board Prez Nancy Padberg had accreditation on her mind. And Chancellor Gary Poertner? He offered “an overview of district-wide efforts toward resolving accreditation issues and working more collaboratively and constructively. 'Accreditation warnings are a great motivator for getting this done,' he said."
     Some people got up there to urge everyone to “view communication as a ‘shared responsibility,’ requiring both sender and receiver to take an interest in staying informed."
     So it looks like Gary's streamlining efforts have left some balderdash, 'cause that there's enough to puke a dog off a gut wagon.
     I do wish people would just call a spade a spade.

IN THE NEWS:

Eric Patton out as San Clemente football coach (OCVarsity.com)

     Veteran San Clemente football coach Eric Patton has been replaced by interim coach and Tritons athletic director Jon Hamro fewer than three weeks before the start of the season, the school announced Tuesday.
     Patton has been a key focus of an investigation into a sports equipment and apparel company's alleged kickbacks to Orange County coaches.
. . .
     Patton has been part of an investigation into the financial records of coaches throughout Orange County and Southern California* who had business dealings with the now-defunct Lapes Athletic Team Sales (LAPES) of Laguna Hills. Several Orange County coaches, including other high-profile football coaches, allegedly were part of a long-standing slush fund operation….

*Including Saddleback College coaches