IRVINE CHRONICLES: murder most sad

• Monica Quan, [Cal State Fullerton] Titans Basketball Coach, and Fiance Keith Lawrence Found Shot to Death [in Irvine] (NavelGazing)
• Engaged couple had bigger dreams (OC Reg)

IRVINE VALLEY CHRONICLES: a simple question

     FOR QUITE SOME TIME NOW, various friends and colleagues who have some connection to the IVC Foundation have been urging me to write about the organization and its "poor leadership." These friends have no problem with the idea of a foundation, student scholarships, and all the rest. Their issue concerns certain people in positions of authority regarding the Foundation. That crew is, they say, er, south of competent.
     I ask for specifics. In recent months, that query has always yielded a reference to the October "Veterans Angels Gala" (See flier above). That event came and went, followed by a series of emails from IVC President Glenn Roquemore's office, thanking everybody and broadcasting news of the event's epoch-shattering success.
     From the start, various people told me not to believe Glenn's announcements. They'd refer to them and then roll their eyes.
     Let's take a look at one of those emails. Here's the one we all received on Oct. 19, 2012, nearly a week after the event:

     (I wonder if Glenn really thinks "angel" is spelled "angle"?)

     There can be no doubt that, in the above communication, Glenn declares the event to be a success—something, anyway, about which everyone involved should be "proud." It "set a record in funds raised by a single ... event," he says.

     He even gives us a specific sum of money raised. The event raised $16,588.50, he says. 

     "What about that?" I ask my carping associates.

     Their answer: "if the event raised $16K for the veterans, why then haven't the veterans received it yet?"

     "They didn't get that sum?"

     "They ain't received one thin dime from it."

     —OK. So what about that? Is that true? If so, why is that?

     Inquiring minds wanna know.

     Could we have a little honesty for once, Glenn? We're tired of your endless BS and plastic smiles.

* * *

     Months ago, a friend told me that the college's new foundation director has driven away half a dozen or so members of the foundation board. According to a new arrangement, I'm told, new members are supposed to bring a certain substantial sum of cash with 'em. $10k, I think.

     Has that been happening?

     Last week, I made some inquiries. Yep, quite a few longstanding members of the board have gone and some are about to leave. Have new people come in to replace them? Have they plopped down that scratch?

     Nope.

     I see Glenn at board meetings, hanging around with Don R, Saddleback's current director, and Richard, the new director he's hired for IVC. That crowd puts on a good show. At the last meeting, they showed up once again claiming great success but arguing that they are held back by a lack of professional staff, and that takes real money. "You gotta spend money to make money," they say.

     They seem to make a good case for the strategy of adding staff. They've got lots of facts and figures and comparisons with other colleges and systems. Still, it all adds up to an added expense for the district, even if the promised results will actually materialize. 

     I watch the trustees. They're pretty tight lipped. I don't know what they're thinking.

     I sometimes wonder if Glenn and his new pal Richard are pulling a kind of bait and switch up there. I'm prepared to believe that the Saddleback operation is really rarin' to go, poised to pull in the big bucks. Not so sure about IVC. 

     I'm thinking that Glenn and Richard are standing real close to Don and Tod, clutching their sleeves, disappearing in their billowing regalia, heads poking out from the side—so that the trustees don't notice that, well, they're not Don and Tod. They're not even Little Don and Little Tod. 

     They're just Dumb and Dumber, taking a ride.

IRVINE VALLEY CHRONICLES: the donated table caper

Like this but with blue stone inlay

     Today, a former student of mine told me the following tale.

No there there

     Some time before the December break, a benefactor, through the IVC Foundation, donated a fine concrete table (with three bench/chairs) specifically for the Performing Arts Center and the students thereof. It was placed just outside the north entrance of the PAC and was routinely used by students, who seem to find that sort of seating more convenient (for laptops, etc.) than the nearby basic benches.

     All was well. Then, upon everyone’s return from the break, denizens of the PAC zone were horrified to find that the table had disappeared. Had it been stolen?

     Nope. Evidently, IVC’s Director of Facilities decided that he did not like the table there, and so, with evident and blatant unilateralism, he moved the darned thing to the crossing of that tree-lined pedestrian boulevard out beyond the PE complex. It’s near the soccer field. Way out there, a road to nowhere.

     I went to that location today and, sure enough, I found a handsome concrete table with three ornate concrete bench/chairs. The table and chairs are embellished with inlaid stones. Blue. Nice.

Rice, Ripston, Sobel

     I asked around and, sure enough, this table had recently been moved from the PAC by maintenance. I poked around some more and, as far as I can tell, Herr Direktor is known to do this sort of thing. He does what he likes, they say.

     There’s a handful of such people on campus. Roquemore let’s ‘em do like that. He either doesn’t care or he’s too dumb to notice. After ten years, does it even matter?

     IVC is a peculiar place. By and large, teaching is excellent and much of the remaining staff is excellent.

     But IVC’s top echelon, save our bumbling president, comprises mostly bullies. Bullies seem to thrive at IVC. You know who I mean.

     Or don’t you?

     Even some faculty have exploited Roquemore's bully tolerance policy. One sees them treating perceived underlings—classified employees, junior faculty, adjuncts—badly, amassing power or influence, feathering their nest, blackballing those who don’t fit into their relentless, self-aggrandizing machinations.

     It sure is a shame.

     (More to come.)

SEE Tenure Time

More Neanderthalic noise: Why, that Cave Man is our very own Don Wagner!

Here we come ... walkin' down the street ...

     This story caught our attention today:

GOP legislators propose California school districts arm teachers (LA Times)

     According to the Times,

     A group of Republican state lawmakers Wednesday proposed allowing school districts to spend education funds to train teachers, administrators and janitors in gun use. … [T]he lawmakers said arming school personnel would help protect campuses against violent intruders.
     "The idea is to create essentially an invisible line of defense around our kids," said Assemblyman and "tea party" adherent Tim Donnelly of San Bernardino….
. . .
     "With all due respect to my Republican colleagues, that [bill] is just absolutely ludicrous," [Democratic Sen. Leland] Yee said. "I don't know of any educator who would be interested in packing a gun into a school."
. . .
     "The goal of school safety is not to see who can win a gunfight … It is to prevent shootings in the first place and keep guns out of schools" [said Sen. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance)].
     Donnelly … was once fined more than $2,200 for taking a loaded gun to Ontario International Airport….

     Among supporters of the bill are Republicans Diane Harkey of Dana Point and—you guessed it!—Don "Boom Boom" Wagner of Irvine.

     On a still lighter note, one of our colleagues offered the following suggestion for the name of the soon-to-be-built Barranca entrance to IVC: "Dissent the Road."
     That one cracked me up.

SEE ALSO Derek Reeve wants to arm teachers Dec 19, 2012

Neanderthalic noises

Another Liberal Arts Critic (Inside Higher Ed)
…McCrory’s comments on higher education echo statements made by a number of Republican governors – including those in Texas, Florida and Wisconsin – who have questioned the value of liberal arts instruction and humanities degrees at public colleges and universities. Those criticisms have started to coalesce into a potential Republican agenda on higher education, emphasizing reduced state funding, low tuition prices, vocational training, performance funding for faculty members, state funding tied to job placement in “high demand” fields and taking on flagship institutions….

Fight over shared governance in CA

Shared Governance Feud in California Continues (Inside Higher Ed)
     The new chancellor of California's community colleges, Brice W. Harris, has written in opposition to a legal challenge to the system's shared governance structure. California Competes, a nonprofit group led by Robert Shireman, says local academic senates have illegal veto power over board actions, which contributes to a "tangled bureaucracy." Harris, however, said the shared governance regulations are lawful and good public policy. And while he said the group's intentions are well-meaning, they are "seriously flawed." [End]

     The legal challenge at one point (p. 5) refers to “Irvine Valley College Academic Senate v. Board of Trustees of the South Orange County Community College Dist.” That successful suit focused on a statute, which is cited by the challenge to illustrate the intention of legislators in the case of AB1725: “If the Legislature had intended to limit the District Board’s power to those issues on which it could secure mutual agreement from the academic senate, it would have said so explicitly as it did in another provision of AB 1725. Education Code Section 87360 states that 'hiring criteria, policies, and procedures for new faculty members shall be developed and agreed upon jointly by representatives of the governing board, and the academic senate, and approved by the governing board.' (Cal. Ed. Code §87360).” Chancellor Mathur and the board violated that statute when they unilaterally established a new faculty hiring policy, leaving the academic senates out of the process. See “How rude are you!”: the senates sue the district. See also Boom! —RB

SOCCCD CHRONICLES: Saddleback College claims that particular part of the color spectrum

IVC's PAC: Saddleback north?

     As you know, among the construction projects at Irvine Valley College is the new biology building, which, after the inevitable snafu (problems with bankrupt contractors, as I recall), got back on track and is well on its way to completion, I guess.
     Recently, a colleague dropped by to explain the latest absurdity concerning the project. There’s very little color in the building, he said, and what color there is is some kind of red.
     But there’s a problem. Those red accents must be replaced, it seems.
     Why?
     Said the friend: “evidently Saddleback College claims that particular part of the color spectrum.”
     “Huh?”
     “Red is Saddleback’s color. We’re blue.”
     “Yeah, like those goddam balloons they put up all the time,” said another colleague.
     "You're kidding!" I said. "We can't use any red?"
     “Nope. No red allowed.”

PAC: there were so many options

     There was silence.
     “Evidently, black is OK, too. They’re gonna go with black. Beige and black.”
     After a second or two, another colleague mentioned the curious factoid that our celebrated Performing Arts Center (PAC) is colored red, more or less. It looks like a big, rusty collision of geometric shapes.
     “Yeah,” said the friend, “but that’s because the building was supposed to be brick, but they fucked up and the project ran out of money, and so they went with the usual cheapy stucco and painted it ‘brick’—i.e., a particularly ugly shade of red chosen by Glenn [Roquemore, IVC’s Prez].”
     "I heard that he chose that color 'cuz the paint happened to be on sale," I said.
     We stared into space.

Note: I am not suggesting that Saddleback College has somehow interceded to prevent the use of red in the building. My assumption was that some district or college official imposed some sort of district rule or understanding to the effect that red is for Saddleback, blue is for IVC. C'mon.

From IVC Facebook page