IVC: Waking up with a horse head in your classroom

Mute, menacing

     Last week, I heard from a colleague here at Irvine Valley College who told the following story: he was teaching, and he was in the middle of a difficult lecture when, all of a sudden, four young men entered his classroom, each of them immediately establishing himself in some part of the room. One of them—the one at the back of the room, I think—wore a mask. It was a horse mask.
     Naturally, my instructor friend was taken aback and more than a little annoyed. Clearly peeved, he asked these young men to identify themselves.
     In response, they said nothing. Absolutely nothing. They did nothing. At one point, one of them attempted to make a phone call.
     Many of us, I’m sure, would find in this circumstance a reason for concern. Alarm even. But the friend, a bold fellow, just got pissed and insisted that the young men leave. Eventually, they did. He escorted them out the door. He tried to pull off the one kid's horse mask. No luck—the kids trotted off.
     Wow.
     Later, it came to light that this “invasion of mute assholes” phenomenon has occurred elsewhere on campus. It is by no means an isolated incident. The phenomenon is, I've been told, the result of an assignment given to students in a Sociology course—something about violating social norms and then seeing what happens.

Liz Cipres: her usual level
of competence

     Usually, a friend tells me, this sort of assignment yields such undramatic adventures as staring at the wall in an elevator or just sitting on the floor. —But not entering classrooms with masks. Horse masks. And then refusing to answer. Refusing to leave. That's menacing.
     The instructor friend eventually came into contact with the head Sociology instructor on campus, who wrote him an email. I read it. I don’t know what my friend made of it, but it struck me as condescending. The gist of the email seemed to be, "we can't be blamed if some of our students don't follow our guidelines when completing this assignment." She listed these guidelines. They were clearly of the CYA variety—you know, "don't do it at the college," where, of course, a student's inappropriate behavior might produce ripples that come back to faculty.
     Such an email! I'd be pissed anew.
     Eventually, the matter came to the attention of Liz Cipres, Dean of Counseling Services, who took on the matter with her usual level of competence. Among other things, she suggested that instructors could lock their classroom doors.
     I'm not making this up. That's what she suggested.
     Has something like this happened in one of your classes?
     What is one to make of these disruptive Mute Asshole phenomena—and the assignments that inspire them? And what is one to make of the Sociology Dept's CYA and hand-washing moves?

* * *

     I've decided to be helpful. Based on extensive research, I’ve constructed a handy guide for students who wish to fulfill this assignment. What follows are cool and UNCOOL attempts. Let them be your guide:

FULFILLING THE ASSIGNMENT TO VIOLATE SOCIAL NORMS (BUT NOT AT THE COLLEGE WHERE I COULD GET MY SOCIOLOGY INSTRUCTOR IN TROUBLE):

• Entering Ralphs, then buying your Wheaties in the nude: cool

• Wearing a Scream mask, going to Grandma’s house, ringing the doorbell, and then, when she opens the door, screaming and making threatening gestures: uncool

• A guy (not in Scotland) showing up to church in a cute dress: cool

• A guy showing up to his pro-life, right-wing friend’s birthday party, then gifting said friend with that Beatles album that has the notorious “dead babies” cover: uncool

Etc.

Rick offers some Santorum

Santorum: Democrats Are 'Anti-Science' (Inside Higher Ed)

     Rick Santorum, enjoying a surge in support in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, on Monday said in a speech that he is not "anti-science," but that Democrats are, CBS News reported. Santorum has been criticized by many scientists for, among other things, suggesting that there is not a consensus that global climate change is real and is significant. Speaking in Ohio Monday, he said that the science of global warming is "political science," based on "phony studies." He elaborated: "When it comes to the management of the Earth, they are the anti-science ones. We are the ones who stand for science, and technology, and using the resources we have to be able to make sure that we have a quality of life in this country and [that we] maintain a good and stable environment."

A century-old "History of Orange County": towns called Celery and Delhi and a women's club aiming for "sober, Christian citizenship"

 

Samuel Armor (1843-1933)

     I’ve been reading Civil War vet Samuel Armor’s marvelous History of Orange County, California, first published in 1911 and then revised in 1921. It is available online at the Cornell University Library.
     I've provided a few interesting selections—but I’m barely scraping the surface. The book is nearly 1700 pages long!
     Remember, all of this was written about a century ago. And it appears that much of it amounts to self-hagiography:

CHAPTER XIII: UNINCORPORATED TOWNS

     …Capistrano, the "Old Mission Town," is situated near the junction of San Juan Creek and Trabuco Creek….  The first location of the mission was several miles northeast of the present site, and at the foot of the mountain. The former location is still known as La Mission Viejo….
. . .
     [The town of] Celery is one of the stations and shipping points on the branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad running from Newport Beach to [the town of] Smeltzer [near Westminster]. [Edinger Ave. was previously called Smeltzer.]

["Smeltzer is situated in the heart of the celery district south of Westminster. The town was named after the late D. E. Smeltzer* of Kansas City, who discovered the adaptability of the peat lands, when drained, to the growth of celery. Smeltzer and Wintersburg, one mile further south, are busy places in the shipping season. These towns are on the Southern Pacific Railway from Newport Beach to Los Alamitos." HOOC, p. 87. Evidently, the celery business in OC peaked in 1911 and thereafter declined.]

     Corona del Mar is a small hamlet on the mesa east of the mouth of Newport Bay.
     [The town of] Delhi is a community center about two miles south of Santa Ana.*

[(1) “I grew up in Orange County, lived in area called 'Delhi' where there was Orange groves and Sugar Beets growing, right outside of El Toro Helicopter Marine Base.” (2) "When I was a kid Delhi was a very unique area of Santa Ana. Barrio? Yes. Other side of the tracks? Yes. Family oriented community? Yes. Genuine folks? Yes. Defacto segregation? It had its own school district, what's that tell you? An ethnic melting pot? It sure was." –Orange County Memories]

Holly Sugar, 1965

An immigrant named Joseph Koral built this home in Delhi, also called Gloryetta (or Glorietta)

     El Toro, twelve miles southeast of Santa Ana on the Santa Fe Railway, is the trading point of an extensive grain and grazing district. It is also the nearest railroad point to certain mining camps and bee ranches in the hills on the north and to Laguna Beach and Arch Beach on the south. [El Toro was renamed Lake Forest in 1991. The town had been known as El Toro since the 1880s.]
. . .
     Fairview [we've noted this town previously], seven miles southwest of Santa Ana, is located on the northwest part of the broad mesa lying between the ocean and the damp lands southwest of the county seat. A carline was projected in boom days to connect the town with Santa Ana, but there was not sufficient travel to justify its continuance….

Orange County (Los Alamitos) c. 1920

CHAPTER XIV: ORANGE COUNTY'S SCHOOLS
. . .

CHAPTER XVI: PLEASURE DRIVES AND RESORTS

     …Some time during the [eighteen-]seventies Rev. H. H. Messenger, a retired Episcopal clergyman, bought a tract of land on the mesa south of the present location of the town of El Modena [East Orange] and settled a small colony of members of that denomination on it. These people, having no water system provided and being without means with which to develop one, soon starved out and scattered to parts unknown.
     A few years later David Hewes came down from San Francisco, bought this land and set to work to improve it. One of the oracles in that vicinity warned him that nothing could be done with such land. Mr. Hewes answered that he could cover the tract with twenty dollar gold pieces, if he wanted to. "You'll have to do so, to make it worth anything," was the retort.
     Nevertheless, the Hewes orchards, consisting of about 525 acres, are now worth a million dollars and the Hewes Park is one of the show places of the county….
. . .

     About a quarter of a century ago a nine-hole golf course was laid out in the valley southeast of the El Modena grade. Among those interested in the sport, the following names have been recalled: James Irvine, Dr. J. P. Boyd, W. H. Burnham, R. H. Sanborn, James Fullerton and Henri F. Gardner. Golfing parties would be made up in the different communities from time to time as inclination prompted and the cares of business permitted until the inclination was overborne by the cares and the sport languished.
     Then in 1910 the club revived and increased its membership to about 100, drawing in such members as F. B. Browning, J. R. Porter, [et al.].
. . .

Orange County Historical Society, Modjeska Canyon, 1921

     "Modjeska's Home and Inn" is the business name of the idyllic retreat in the Santiago Canyon which belonged to Madame Modjeska for a number of years and to which she would return for relaxation and rest after finishing a season's engagements on the stage. The place was selected in the early days by J. E. Pleasants, when all the sites were unoccupied. He built a commodious house with wide porches, developed a water system and added such other improvements as would help to make a comfortable and tasteful home for himself and family.

     After Madame Modjeska bought the property, we visited the place over thirty years ago [i.e., before 1890] and were shown all about the premises by the housekeeper, in the absence of the owner. The house was elegantly furnished with antique furniture made of mahogany and other rare and costly woods; the floors were covered with rugs of intricate patterns and skins of wild beasts; and every nook and cranny was filled with expensive articles of vertu, curios, ornaments and various kinds of relics. On the walls and easels were paintings of noted actors and actresses, among which were some of Madame Modjeska in different poses in stage attire. About the grounds were some good-sized trees that suggested to the actress the "Forest of Arden," one of the scenes of Shakespeare's play, "As You Like It," as a romantic name for her sylvan retreat. The flowers, shrubbery and decorations were so placed as to add to the artistic effect of the landscape. Now, however, the large tract originally held under one ownership is being rapidly sold off in lots and acreage tracts which, of course, means more homes and more community interests, without impairing or lessening the grandeur of the mountain scenery.
. . .
     Besides Modjeska's Home and Inn, there are numerous houses and camping grounds in the different canyons throughout the mountains. Some of the houses are occupied all the time by families that live in the mountains for various reasons, and others are occupied only in vacation or when their owners wish to take an outing. The camping grounds are generally occupied by a few families or congenial friends in vacation time only, like Camptonville in the Santiago Canyon above Orange County Park [i.e., Irvine Park].

CHAPTER XIX: SUNDRY VOLUNTARY ORGANIZATIONS

[No mention of the Klan! On the other hand, there's the WCTU:]
. . .
Orange County W.C.T.U.
By Elizabeth H. Mills

     In writing the history of Orange County, all who read its history should know that the organized forces of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union—organized immediately after the organization of the County in 1889—though numerically small, have been a potent factor in the moral, spiritual and political uplift of the county. The education given by this organization has been progressive along all lines that tend to the betterment of the human race. It has spared neither sacrifice nor service to this end, and today not a county in our beloved state can show a better record. Splendid men have stood behind the brave women who have dared to blaze the way through indifference, criticism and intolerance that ever marks the path to victory. These kept the faith and waged the warfare that made it possible for Orange County, with its present eleven Unions and over five hundred members, to be an effective part in placing in our National Constitution the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Amendments. All honor to the W.C.T.U. women, and their helpers, of this County for their part in making the nation's present and future sober, Christian citizenship.

Anaheim 1924

CHAPTER XXIV: A CHAPTER OF TRAGEDIES

     [One might note that the 2nd edition of this history was written only one or two years before the KKK** first made a splash in OC. That effort was successfully defeated. Then,

In 1924, the Klan secretly managed to get four of its members elected to the five-member [Anaheim] Board of Trustees. Nine of the ten members of the police force were also Klansmen. The four Klan trustees served for nearly a year, until they were publicly exposed, and voted out in a recall election in which 95% of the population participated. —See Anaheim and also Anaheim police dept. history.]

. . .
A Breach of the Law
By Linn L. Shaw

F. Torres

     The only case of mob violence in Santa Ana history….
     …William McKelvey, foreman of Madame Modjeska's famous ranch home in Santiago Canyon, was brutally murdered July 31, 1892, by this Mexican [namely, Francisco Torres], who was employed as a laborer under him. Torres fled, was captured at Mesa Grande a couple of weeks after the crime and, brought to this city, where he was held for the murder, without bail, and was confined in the old jail on Sycamore Street, between Second and Third. McKelvey had many friends in this city and the officers, fearing trouble, placed Robert Cogburn on guard at the jail. About one o'clock on the morning of August 20 there was an alarm at the jail door and a muffled demand to open it, which order Mr. Cogburn refused to obey. Immediately the door was battered in with a sledge and about thirty men, armed and masked, filed inside. Upon being refused the keys to the cell they forcibly took them from the guard, secured Torres and departed. Mr. Cogburn attempted to follow them, but, upon being invited to return to the jail at the point of what appeared to him a "horizontal telegraph pole,” returned to his duties without any further desire to associate with his determined and systematic visitors. There was evidently no time wasted with the captive, and he was strung up to the pole, where the body remained as a gruesome surprise to early risers the next morning. An attempt was made to locate the perpetrators of the lynching through the grand jury, but no indictments were issued and the affair was quietly dropped in official circles.
     [Torres was hanged at the northeast corner of Fourth and Sycamore streets.]

CHAPTER XXXI: THE BEE INDUSTRY
By J. E. Pleasants

     …Samuel Shrewsbury was the first man to bring bees into what is now Orange County. This was in 1869. He first kept them on the Montgomery ranch at Villa Park. In 1871 he moved them into the Santiago Canyon. Beekeeping as an industry has grown gradually until there are now about 10,000 colonies kept in Orange County. There are from 75 to 100 practical beekeepers who make it their chief business. The average yield of honey during a good year is about 200 tons. This year (1920) there will be over 300 tons. The cash income from honey and wax, at the present prices, is something over $100,000 annually.

CHAPTER XXXV: POPULATION AND VALUATIONS

*In Beasts of the field: a narrative history of California farmworkers, 1769-1913, Richard Steven Street describes an episode of anti-Chinese racism in the early 1890s. It started when Smeltzer and a pal tried to grow celery but couldn’t get local hands to do the work in the bogs. Thus Chinese workers were hired. When the celery harvests became lucrative, the non-Chinese workers wanted in, but the company would only hire the Chinese. Thus, local field hands held “indignation” meetings, expressing their intent to “wipe out the almond-eyed Mongols.” One night, they attacked a Chinese camp, setting it alight. After that, the company hired armed guards. See also Immigrant Lives in the OC and Beyond.

**(1) Announcing the 'Which OC Pioneers Were KKK Members?' Series! (2) Alexander P. Nelson Was the Klanbuster (Gustavo Arellano, OC Weekly)

*ADDENDUM:

Plaques for the pioneers: Santa Ana's Delhi neighborhood has ties that stretch back almost a century, and residents plan an honor.
(Editor's note: This story was first published June 1, 2001)

     …For many people who grew up in Delhi, bonds to the neighborhood began to form almost a century ago. Some remember tales of relatives who settled there after fleeing the Mexican Revolution. Other families followed the railroad for jobs, moving in because it was one of the few places where Mexicans could buy land and plant lasting roots.
     Along with the immigrants who settled neighborhoods like Placita Santa Fe in Placentia and El Modena near Orange, the early residents of Delhi spawned a Latino community that now comprises nearly a third of Orange County's people.
     For the first time, the early settlers who built Delhi (pronounced DELL-high) are being honored. More than 100 names – from the Alcarazes to the Zaragozas – will be engraved on a plaque for display inside the new Delhi Community Center that's under construction. They were sugar-factory workers and laborers, grandmothers and grandfathers. Pioneers like the parents of Albert and Mary Esparza.
. . .
     Delhi is among a number of Mexican-American neighborhoods that formed in Orange County around the turn of the century and are still populated by the descendants of early founders….
     The 1920 census counted about 500 people living in Delhi. Adults listed their birthplaces as Mexico, and most of their children were born in California. They all spoke Spanish, and a number of families reported owning their own homes, free and clear. Just outside the streets of Delhi, the census tract records a majority of residents born in the Midwest or Europe.
. . .
     The Delhi of today resembles the old neighborhood. Small houses surround the elementary school, Our Lady of Guadalupe Church and the Delhi Community Center that is housed in World War II Quonset huts.
     A remnant of original residents still lives there, and many new Mexican immigrants have moved in.
. . .
     "This community has not been given the recognition and respect it deserves over the years,'' said Bob Silva, principal of Monroe Elementary School in Delhi.
     Delhi's history comes from the recollections of the people who grew up there. Although the neighborhood is one of the oldest in the city, it's not featured in any books on Santa Ana history. But stories of what brought people to the area have been passed through the generations.
     ``My great-grandparents, they came over here at the turn of the century,'' said Virginia Avila, 68, a Santa Ana resident who no longer lives in Delhi. ``They worked the railroad. They worked for food.
     ``The war was on in Mexico. They had to leave their business and everything. They always found a way of making a little bit of money.''
     Eventually, they bought land in Delhi and built a makeshift house, still occupied by Avila's great aunt.
     Avila remembers working the fields as a child and attending a segregated school in a neighborhood without paved streets or sidewalks.
     ``There's not that many left that can say how it really was,'' Avila said.
     Virginia Solis Godoy of Irvine remembers how the whole community helped bring a church to Delhi in 1927. The youngest of nine, Godoy had a close relationship with her mother, who stood 4 feet, 11 inches and commanded enough respect in the neighborhood to put a stop to squabbling in the neighborhood cantina, but also collected food for needy families.
. . .
     Daniel Peña, 79, was born in Anaheim but grew up in Delhi. He met his wife, Mary, in the neighborhood and for their fifth anniversary he built their first home in Delhi. Growing up, he remembers playing in the street with an old can and the thrill when his father would bring home a newspaper so all the kids in the neighborhood could read the funnies.
     ``It was rough,'' said Peña. ``Now we can say it's rough. Then we didn't know any better. We were segregated.''
     Peña, a retired supervisor for the Parks and Recreation Department, said that in the 1950s Delhi was still without sidewalks or paved roads. He went to City Hall and he was told to create an assessment district. So Peña knocked on doors with his petition and in 1958 residents approved raising their property taxes to improve the area.
     ``That's how come we have the sidewalks and the paved streets in Delhi,'' he said.
     The Peñas live in the Washington Square neighborhood of Santa Ana but still visit their old neighborhood regularly for family gatherings.
     ``We still party out there,'' said Mary Peña, 77. ``Now our grandkids enjoy it.''
Bishop Jaime Soto served for 13 years as a priest in Delhi, a neighborhood he describes as premodern because of its deep ties to custom, tradition and a connection to place often lost in a mobile world.
. . .
     Santa Ana resident Manuel Esqueda, 78, is compiling the list of the early settlers, including his parents. He also plans to collect photos and histories to create an exhibit to go along with the plaque.
     ``I want to tell the younger generation how we go here and let them know that things can be done,'' Esqueda said.

From an old railroad map: "New Delhi"

Red’s reading right rite (Red Emma)

     Red Emma’a (aka Andrew Tonkovich’s) latest:

Hey, Kids, Three Fun Books on Conservatives! (Navel Gazing)

Excerpt:

...In a section called "Tea Party Business Elites and the Manipulation of the Masses," DiMaggio helpfully reviews the sordid CV of one typical Galtesque con artist, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, a key Tea Party leader, and founder of Freedom Works. Armey simultaneously created himself a terrific new job as anti-big guv organizer (with a big salary) while moonlight[ing], incredibly, as lobbyist for TARP bailout dough. Corporate welfare, okay. Social welfare, not so much. Best of all is profiting personally, as bait-and-switch poster boy Ralph Reed of the Christian Coalition, who organized churchy anti-gambling tent meetings while hustling with Jack Abramoff for Indian casinos. None of this matters to Righties, who can always feel resentment at somebody, good Indians or bad Indians, in their march backwards.

One unnamed Saddleback College "athletic dept. employee" disciplined re Lapes scandal

     You’ll recall the athletics “kickback scheme” scandal that cropped up eight months ago in OC. It’s been hard to get much information about any findings of wrongdoing in this case, but here’s the latest (from yesterday’s OC Reg):

At least 1 coach disciplined in spending accounts scheme

     At least four athletic coaches from two Orange County school districts have been disciplined or are awaiting possible discipline in a sweeping investigation into the personal spending accounts of public employees who did business with a now-defunct Laguna Hills sports equipment company.
     An athletic employee at Mission Viejo's Saddleback College is confirmed to have been disciplined for improperly doing business with Lapes Athletic Team Sales, while three other coaches – all of them current and former head football coaches in the Capistrano Unified School District – remain on paid leave from their teaching and coaching duties.
. . .
     The South Orange County Community College District said in a statement that it has disciplined an "athletic department employee" at Saddleback College who did not follow "proper purchasing procedures" in doing business with Lapes.
     "Though it was determined that the employee did not receive any personal gain, he is going through disciplinary action for his failure to follow purchasing procedures and policies," district spokeswoman Tere Fluegeman said in an email.
     Fluegeman said two Saddleback College employees were investigated – a coach and the employee who was disciplined. No wrongdoing was found on the part of the coach, she added. The district said it could not release their names or the written findings of the investigation, citing the confidentiality of personnel matters….

Background:

• Coach kickback scheme touches Saddleback College? (May 2011)
• More Slush (May 2011)
• The “slush fund” story lives (June 2011)
• Things are heating up (July 2011)

“Employees were not even allowed to speak to each other”

One of Fuentes' boys

“The acting Public Administrator brought in to run [John Williams’] office in his place, Lucille Lyon, said in a recent court declaration that she is turning around ‘what was essentially a hostile work environment.’ Under Williams, she wrote, employees were not even allowed to speak to each other.”

'Detectives' for the dead: They solve mysteries left behind (OC Reg, 2/13/12)

IVC's student Dissenters: Where are they now?

Delilah at center; Deb at right; circa 1998

     PAST IS PRESENT. Things got pretty crazy at Irvine Valley College and the SOCCCD in the late nineties, what with Brown Act lawsuits, accreditation spankage, State Chancellor’s Office fiscal warnings, Holocaust-denying trustees, and numerous 1st Amendment battles.

Delilah and friend

     STUDENTS. Some student leaders really stand out in my memory of that era, including Deb Burbridge and Delilah Snell, who organized student protests against the Mathur regime (see photo above) and, as a consequence of Mathur and the Board’s crushing authoritarian response, signed on to 1st Amendment lawsuits guided by the redoubtable Carol Sobel and Wendy Gabriella.
     I'm here to tell you that these former students have gone on to big—or, at any rate, good—things. Wonderful things.
     These days, Deb is a full-timer at Long Beach City College, a Professor of Life Science. By all accounts, she’s a blazing success. I've heard about her prowess in the classroom for years.
     And Delilah? Well, you can see her visage in yesterday’s OC Register:

Protesting harsh consequences to
speech enabling instructor, late 1999

Road Less Traveled moves to downtown Santa Ana

     For years now, Delilah has been a ubiquitous local leader of—well, I’m not sure I grasp the category. But her name comes up a lot with regard to all things green and sustainable. She’s into cooking and organics and DIY and crafts. (Recently, my sister has developed an enthusiasm for home-made, green household products, and she has managed to fall into Delilah's orbit. Seems like everybody does eventually!)
     And that, I suppose, is what her store Road Less Traveled is all about. It's moved to a bigger and better location; hence, the news story. Check it out (and see pic below).
     DISSENTERS. One of the best accounts of Deb and Delilah’s early “dissentular” efforts appeared in The Nation—in an article co-written by yet another standout among IVC students of that era, the stunningly energetic Sanaz Mozafarian:

Sanaz off Broadway (2004)

     Last year students, local residents and members of the Jewish and gay communities joined the faculty and staff efforts to challenge the board. In a rare show of Orange County activism, students Delilah Snell and Diep Burbridge gathered nearly 100 of their colleagues for a series of campus demonstrations, the first in the college’s near-twenty-year history. They denounced the hiring of [Raghu] Mathur, demanded the recall of [trustee Steve] Frogue and called attention to the possible loss of the college’s accreditation. The rallies attracted major media coverage. In response, the board, Mathur and their cronies claimed the students were “misled” by a handful of “disgruntled employees” and “leftist” faculty. Even freedom of speech took a nosedive. Snell and Burbridge were initially told to give twenty-four-hour notice before each demonstration and to submit to college officials for review everything they would be passing out. After meetings with the president in which they were accused of “misleading” others and hostile encounters with board supporters, the students were at first permitted one hour a week to hold their demonstrations. Soon it was reduced to thirty minutes.

Sanaz in a film (2005)

     Now the students, represented by the ACLU, are suing Mathur and the board for violating their First Amendment rights. According to the lawsuit, filed this past summer, the demonstrations were relocated from the center of campus to an isolated area where students were told to keep their noise level down. When the limits were questioned, students were told it was not in the “best interest of the college” to hold a longer protest in a more visible part of campus, given the “political climate.”
     The board’s actions are astonishing, but what is even more astonishing is that at a small commuter college, in a largely Republican district where most people never learn the names of public officials, these students cared enough to challenge injustice and are fighting to secure future students’ rights. So much for apathy. (THE NATION, 10/5/98 “What do students want?”)

Sanaz c. 2000

Dafna Kory

     It appears that, after the above article was published, Sanaz continued her journalistic career for a while (she seems to have interned for The Nation and the Village Voice and worked for the Independent Media Center) and then, I think, she briefly went into acting. (Not sure it's the same SM, but it sure looks like her. Same name, same face.)
     Don't know what she’s up to these days, but she seems capable of anything. (Possibly, she's gone into finance or investments.)
     We do get some terrific students here at Irvine Valley College.

     P.S.: DAFNA KORY. I just heard from Rebel Girl. She reminded me of a few other “dissentular” students from the late 90s/early 2000s, including Dafna Kory, who, I’m told, has hit the big time in the world of DIY jams (the kind you put on toast). She’s also an impressive independent filmmaker. Read about her jamology here: Jam Maker Dafna Kory Turns Hobby Into Thriving Business (Civil Eats)

D. Kenneth Brown

     KEN BROWN. Mid-to-late-80s IVC student Ken Brown eventually got his MA (at Claremont) and PhD (at UCI) and taught philosophy for us by about 2000, and he did a great job. At a meeting of the School of Humanities and Languages, however, knowing the risk and with nothing to gain, he dared to openly object to one of the absurd and unprofessional actions taken by of our then-Dean. As a consequence, said dean ceased giving Ken teaching assignments. (I was plenty steamed at the time.) In my book, that makes Ken an honorary "Dissenter."

Pourya Khademi

     A few years later, Ken landed a plum job at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. I couldn't be prouder. (See him lecture: Virtual Persons. I've posted the video below.)
     POURYA KHADEMI. Yet another student Dissenter is the estimable Pourya Khademi, a wonderful professional musician, among other things. (I believe that he graduated from Cal in 2010.) Pourya played an important role in the successful SOCCCD 1st Amendment lawsuits of the early 2000s. Check out his wonderful playing in the video below.

Jason Davis

     JASON DAVIS. I'm not sure that recent IVC student Jason Davis is a "Dissenter," but he certainly provided this blog with lots of great pics and info over the years (including a flow of stuff from his two years at UCI). And he's definitely got a dissentular personality--or worse! He's working on a collection of writings (from his blogs) about his Iraq experiences. In the meantime, he's got a real job working for Automative.com both as a writer and photographer. I have high hopes for the scarily multi-talented Jason.
     There are others, for sure, but I'll tell you about 'em some other day.

Diep (Deb) Burbridge in bio mode

Delilah Snell

• Students Defy Protest Policy (LA Times, 1999)
• Students sue community college district for putting restrictions on campus speech (SPLC, 2000)
• Suit Aims at Rights of Speech (LA Times, 2002)
• District Is Muzzling Free Speech, Judge Rules (LA Times, 2002)
• McNair Scholars Program Will Showcase Student
Research Projects at Summer Symposium (PolyCentric, 2002)
• Meet & Eat: Delilah Snell, Certified Master Food Preserver in Southern California (Serious Eats)
• Delilah Snell Is a Patchwork Kind of Gal (OC Weekly)
• Project Small (Blog)
• The Imperialists (Sanaz Mozafarian, The Village Voice, 2000)
• What do students want? (Sanaz Mozafarian, et al., The Nation, 1998)
• Sanaz Mozafarian in New York on 9-11 (DtB, 2006)

Pourya Khademi

D. Kenneth Brown

Delilah's The Road Less Traveled