You the man

• Former Saddleback student returns as transgender, is told not to go into female restroom (Lariat)

     Natalie Smith was told by campus police that she would be arrested for using the woman's restroom in the girls locker room late January at the beginning of the semester.
     "We can't have men in the women's locker room," said Interim Chief of Police Christopher S.M. Wilkinson….

• Capistrano councilman wants 'In God We Trust' at City Hall (OC Reg)

     Councilman Derek Reeve is proposing that the City Council approve a resolution at Tuesday night's meeting that would display the message at City Hall, but he does not specify where....
. . .
     "I am actually offended by some obscure notion of political correctness that we are supposed to be ashamed of our country or treat God like a four-letter word.”….

• The 10 weirdest members of Congress (OC Weekly)

     By just about any measure, Congress is at its lowest point in history. Only 9 percent of the country has a favorable view of the 535 men and women who make up the bicameral body. One poll even revealed that they're less popular than cockroaches, traffic jams, and that ultimate barometer of public repulsion, Nickelback....

Kirk Gorrie: "So it goes."

"All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is. Take it moment by moment, and you will find that we are all, as I've said before, bugs in amber."

‑Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse 5

NEWS reached Rebel Girl yesterday that Kirk Gorrie, a longtime IVC adjunct instructor in English, had passed away. He'd been, as they say, struggling with cancer. 

Rebel Girl thinks that Kirk had taught at IVC almost as long as she has—though official reports say 10 years. That doesn't seem quite right.  

Still, however long it was, he was one of her colleagues who she admired and respected for his attitude in the classroom and out, a kind and warm spirit with a distinctive laugh she can still hear.

Kirk taught part time here and at Golden West, Santa Ana and other area colleges. He embodied that slogan: part-time teacher, full-time professional.  Like so many, Kirk, a fine instructor, should have got a full-time position, but that's another story for another time. Kirk certainly recognized the inequities in a system that relies on balancing budgets on the labor of part-time workers.

At IVC, he often taught Writing 2, the final comp class in the sequence and Rebel Girl never hesitated to recommend him to any student who asked because Kirk could teach them all, and teach them well. Not everyone can do that. Not Rebel Girl, for instance. She is not the best teacher for every student. 

Kirk was fond of Kurt Vonnegut, Joseph Heller and George Orwell, those big fellas from the last century whose spirits were shaped by what they'd seen during wartime and who came home to write about it. In their last conversation, Reb mentioned to Kirk that she always liked to know that somewhere on campus, every semester, Kirk Gorrie was teaching Kurt Vonnegut to a classroom of students, that this was right and good as as it should be, that it somehow made us more of a college.

Rebel Girl would see his students around campus with their paperbacks of Slaughterhouse 5—in the writing center, in the A-quad, hunched over on some cold concrete bench waiting for class to start, bent over the book, reading, reading, reading. 

     She'd ask them (she's like that): "Which class is that for?"

     She'd get the answer:  "Professor Gorrie's."  

     "How's it going?"

     "Good, real good."

     "How's the book?"

     "Great."

     And they'd go back to it.

"I have told my sons that they are not under any circumstances to take part in massacres, and that the news of massacres of enemies is not to fill them with satisfaction or glee.

"I have also told them not to work for companies which make massacre machinery, and to express contempt for people who think we need machinery like that."

             ‑Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse 5

Someone is going to have to step up and start teaching Vonnegut so that somewhere on campus, in some classroom, Kurt Vonnegut is being read and Kirk Gorrie is being remembered.

• • •

This poem of Ray Carver's is not perfect for the occasion (Carver was a recovering alcoholic—Kirk was not an alcoholic) but its spirit captures something one of Reb's wise colleagues reminded her of: "Kirk would say that he had 10 years after his first diagnosis, time to see his children grow up. He was grateful for that."

Gravy
‑Raymond Carver

No other word will do. For that's what it was. Gravy.
Gravy, these past ten years.
Alive, sober, working, loving, and
being loved by a good woman. Eleven years
ago he was told he had six months to live
at the rate he was going. And he was going
nowhere but down. So he changed his ways
somehow. He quit drinking! And the rest?
After that it was all gravy, every minute
of it, up to and including when he was told about,
well, some things that were breaking down and
building up inside his head. "Don't weep for me,"
he said to his friends. "I'm a lucky man.
I've had ten years longer than I or anyone
expected. Pure gravy. And don't forget it."

*

We—and his students—were lucky to know Kirk Gorrie. 

So it goes. 

*

East LA College Chooses their Commencement Speaker: It's Gustavo!

This just in:

Gustavo to Give Commencement Speech at East 

Los Angeles College Graduation!

Gustavo writes all about it this morning (click title above for the whole enchilada, including a link to Arellano's LBCC commencement speech last year, and see below for an excerpt).

Regular readers of Dissent will know Rebel Girl has forwarded Gustavo Arellano and many other worthy candidates (local, smart, articulate, connected to education and O.C.) as nominees for the IVC Commencement Speaker gig for many years now.  

After last year's rather hurried, muffled consideration of candidates, Rebel Girl wishes she had recorded some of the rather dismissive and condescending comments made about certain candidates like Arellano—inappropriate, too, uh, political, not a good fit, etc. Coded language, of course. You know what they mean. You know who is appropriate, whose politics are acceptable, whose fit is just fine (Yes, and Rebel Girl knows what those wags will say about his East LA College invitation—and perhpas you do too: Well, of course they (e.g. East L.A.!  Mexicans!) want him and he is just fine for them. But not us. No.)

This morning's news comes after yesterday's dissemination of IVC Commencement Speaker Committee's list of new nominees—a hot discussion topic in the hallways. It's a very, very, very, very, very, very long list (over 30) and committee members have been directed to rank each candidate.  

Among the names: Tom Hanks, Condoleezza Rice, Bill Gates, Morgan Freeman, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Scott Lay, Hilary Rodham Clinton—and yes, Gustavo Arellano. 

Not so long ago, this committee used to meet and sort out the list of nominations that came in from across campus. Call it a feasibility sort. The committee knew, say, that it was unlikely that Steven Spielberg would come to speak at the little college in the orange groves even if we said pretty please, so to "rank" him and others like him (Pope John Paul, Dick Cheney, Beyonce, Seth McFarlane, etc.) was a waste of time and skewed the process. Better to focus energies on a list of more, uh, realistic candidates, people who were likely to say yes. As Rebel Girl recalls, that committee did its work well with a collegial spirit,  meeting a few times under able leadership and generating a list of finalists to forward to the president.  

No, Rebel Girl has declined to serve on that committee this year. She can take a hint. Like her nominees, she is perhaps inappropriate, too, uh, political, not a good fit. She wishes the committee good luck. 

And yeah, ask Tom Hanks. Go for it. Hanks is poised to make his Broadway debut in Nora Ephron's final play, "Lucky Guy." One of Rebel Girl's high school pals is in the cast (behind Hanks in the photo below, black tie).  She knows that they're in rehearsals right now (previews begin March 1!) and that the play is scheduled to run through June. So Rebel Girl advises that perhaps Hanks is just a little too busy to say yes. But you can ask. Why not. The play could be a big flop and close early. It's happened before. 

excerpt:

This will be the second year in a row I've [Gustavo Arellano] been invited to speak at a community college graduation (I did the deed last year at Long Beach City College), and it's a wonderful honor given I'm a product of the juco system, having graduated from Orange Coast College way back when.

*

Past commencement speaker wrangles:

• Plagiarism is a form of theft, Glenn (but all is well, really) - May 30 12
• "Too Political" - May 24 12
• That's some leadership, that leadership à la Roquemore – May 21 12
• News about Gustavo Arellano, who, again, won't be commencement speaker - May 1 12
• Evidently, the IVC Academic Senate cabinet won't agendize whether IVC should support Saddleback faculty's "shared governance" resolution - Apr 15 12
• Commencement speaker choices: the controversial and the unimaginative - Jun 12 10
• What about Gustavo Arellano? - Jan 18 08

Today's forum

     YESTERDAY, I heard tell of a “forum” to be held at the college this week. I took a quick look at my emails, and I couldn’t find announcements about any forum, at least not any sent recently.
     Then, this morning, at 8:09, I received an email from President Roquemore, explaining that this very day there would be an open forum from 1:00 p.m. until 2:30. (The forum will be repeated tomorrow morning, from 10:00-11:30 a.m.)
     OK. I guess they don’t want lots of people to show up to these things. What’s the point of announcing a forum on the day that it’s held? And the A100 lobby might be OK for B-Day celebrations, but it isn’t suited to forums, that’s for sure.
     And, as usual, the forums are scheduled during teaching prime time, when most of us teach. My teaching schedule conflicts with both forum times. As usual.
     Rebel Girl and I decided that we should attend as much of this thing as possible, and so our plan was to high-tail it over to the A100 “lobby” right after our 12:30 classes—which would be at about 1:45. It was a good plan. After all, the forum was scheduled for 90 minutes, and so, with any luck, we’d be able to attend half of the thing, despite missing the first 45 minutes.
     So, today, at the end of my Philosophy 2 class, I headed over to A100 and walked inside. I came upon the forum all right. It was like a wax figure exhibit. No, it was as if everyone had taken a sedative, the way they sat peacefully in their chairs, eyes drooping, and the way that Glenn or somebody murmured almost insensibly.
     I noticed that fewer than 40 chairs had been set up.
     After about ten minutes, Glenn commenced trying to end the program! “Well,” he said, “thanks for coming….”
     --Luckily, Kurt had a question. Something about the controversial topic of full-time faculty hiring this year. Originally, we were supposed to hire ten faculty, but then we got that weird news early in the Fall—something about how there was this pattern of revenue continuing to be flat and expenses gradually creeping up. For some reason, this trend, which evidently was clear for quite some time, produced a kind of emergency, and, in response, Glenn panicked and started talking like, well, there wouldn’t be any faculty hiring this year, that’s for sure.
     Maybe you’ve heard of this “shared governance” thing. Yeah. It’s like Glenn isn’t supposed to make unilateral decisions about important things. There’s supposed to be input and collaboration and such with “governance groups”—the faculty, the classified, students, those geese out on the lawn, et al. So, when it became clear that Glenn was backing off of the faculty hiring plan, right away, faculty leadership reared up with, “Hey, dude! Who are you to make this unilateral decision to toss faculty hiring before the fiscal emergency gods?”

     To make a long story short, Glenn backed off some, though, really, he seemed to be stalling for time. Obviously, if we waited long enough to decide on these hires, it would be too late to advertise and such, and so things would go Glenn’s way, the unilateral way.
     But, before that, it was decided that a new committee would be created in which various shared government reps would think really hard about raising revenue and lowering costs. The committee would issue a report and then decisions could be made—not unilaterally and in a panic, but carefully, thoughtfully, sharedly.
     Meanwhile, Glenn really dropped the ball, slowing the process whereby HR down at the district is told that we’re going to pursue some hires (something we can do even if, in the end, we decided to pull the plug on some of the hires). And so, to their horror, during the between-semester break, faculty leadership learned that Glenn had done absolutely nothing to let HR know that we might do some hiring. Thanks to the immediate outcry, the situation was addressed and so, belatedly, HR got the word about five possible hires. The upshot: if we pursue hiring, we’ll do so at a disadvantage relative to competing colleges, who, obviously, desire to scoop up the best instructors out there on the market. They’re advertising earlier than we are. They’ll be hiring before we do.
     Thanks, Glenn.
     Well, anyway, Kurt asked about the faculty hiring situation, and he got some mumbly-mouthed answer that clarified little or nothing. Later, a friend who had attended the entire forum opined that “these people aren’t really into the Q and A thing, are they?” They’re more into the “we’re here to tell you here’s the way it is” thing.
     Another friend said that, during the forum, he had asked about the possibility of expansion or improvement of services to deal with, well, crazy and dangerous students--a real problem here at IVC. He got some hemming and hawing, I guess. The person up there on the hot seat was desperately avoiding saying, “there’s no money for that,” I guess.
     Pretty soon, Glenn shut this forum thing down—just after 2:00. So much for that 90 minutes.
     Rebel Girl and I wandered over to the “refreshments” area—a plate of cookies plus two beverages: a hideously sweet, sticky, red punch plus icy lemon water (that's good). We talked with a certain faculty member whose job was recently saved from the machinations of dastardly people, owing mostly to the sheer incompetence and cluelessness of, well, Glenn & Co. As we talked, we noticed people wandering into the building late, hoping to join the forum. But they found us and the beverages and the plate of cookies and an empty “lobby” instead. We smiled.
     Rebel Girl just called and reminded me that, at some point, Glenn said something about how it’s OK if we hire late, cuz there are so many people out of work.
     Yeah. Good thinking. It's a good thing you're in charge.

Nick Contopoulos, OCC Professor, Had Ali Syed Point Shotgun at Him and Lived to Tell About It (Navel Gazing)
U. of Phoenix Expects to Be Placed on Probation by Its Accreditor (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Things I learned today

They're all about leadership

     Things I learned today about last night’s reversal of Glenn & Co’s “no tenure” recommendation regarding Amy Grimm (Art History) and Susan Boettger (Keyboard):

• Some people in IVC’s music department are hopping mad. (I have direct knowledge of this.)
• Glenn & Co. utterly screwed the pooch. There are clear indications that one or some among them never read, um, certain files. They were caught with their pants down.
• The board was not particularly impressed by the show of support for the probies (especially Amy Grimm) by colleagues, students, et al.; they responded essentially to the two union officers’ assertions regarding failures of process.
• If such failures of process did indeed occur (as seems to be the case), Glenn & Co. have no one to blame but themselves. (But, given their natures, you can bet they’ll blame others.)
• At least one trustee explained today that the board found it difficult to go against the recommendation of the Chancellor and IVC President; but they felt compelled to do so by the evident failure, in these instances, to follow the defined process, including development of plans of remediation for alleged failings.

You got a lotta nerve
To say you are my friend
When I was down
You just stood there grinning
You got a lotta nerve
To say you got a helping hand to lend
You just want to be on
The side that’s winning
You say I let you down
You know it’s not like that
If you’re so hurt
Why then don’t you show it
You say you lost your faith
But that’s not where it’s at
You had no faith to lose
And you know it
I know the reason
That you talk behind my back
I used to be among the crowd
You’re in with
Do you take me for such a fool
To think I’d make contact
With the one who tries to hide
What he don’t know to begin with
You see me on the street
You always act surprised
You say, “How are you?” “Good luck”
But you don’t mean it
When you know as well as me
You’d rather see me paralyzed
Why don’t you just come out once
And scream it
No, I do not feel that good
When I see the heartbreaks you embrace
If I was a master thief
Perhaps I’d rob them
And now I know you’re dissatisfied
With your position and your place
Don’t you understand
It’s not my problem
I wish that for just one time
You could stand inside my shoes
And just for that one moment
I could be you
Yes, I wish that for just one time
You could stand inside my shoes
You’d know what a drag it is
To see you

Copyright © 1965 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1993 by Special Rider Music

Meeting of the SOCCCD BOT: part 2 (open session)

[UPDATE: it's confirmed. The board added the names of Grimm and Boettger to the list of faculty to be granted tenure (item 6.9).]

[See Tere's Board Meeting Highlights]

7:42 — Looks like the closed session is over. I spotted TJ Prendergast and maybe one other trustee lurking in the hallway. Saddleback's Burnett is zooming around the room. Peebles is out and about. Now trustee Jemal appears.

See post re earlier session: More than 30 come to speak in support of probies Grimm and Boettger

Craig Justice

7:49 — Nancy's out and about. Now Bill Jay. Now Marcia Milchiker, Dave Lang, Gary Poertner. They'll start soon, I think. Jim Wright just arrived.

7:52 -- Still waiting for our "read out to come from our attorneys," says Nancy. I suppose this means that they're running a decision past the attorneys. But what was the decision?

7:55 -- Clerk reads actions taken in closed session: on a 6-1 vote (Jay voting No) Affirm (?) rejection of tenure, 2 at SC, 2 at IVC [I've scrambled to get clarification. Three very reliable sorts in the room heard Marcia's readout this way: the two IVC probies were granted tenure but the two SC probies [for whom tenure was not recommended] were not granted tenure. Speakers earlier addressed only the IVC probies: Amy Grimm and Susan Boettger. So it appears that the jobs of Grimm and Boettger were saved.]

UPDATE (March 4): Here's what Milchiker actually said: “On a six to one vote, with trustee Jay casting the negative vote, the board voted to affirm the district’s recommendation to nonreelect two faculty members at Saddleback College and to reject the recommendation to nonreelect two faculty members at Irvine Valley College.”

7-0 vote, classified employee's appeal re discrimination.
7-0 denied request paid leave for police officer
7-0 3 month paid leave.
7-0 approve termination of employment of a faculty member.

A resolution read regarding IVC women's golf team. Evidently, they're the best in the country or something. (I was off talking with colleagues; sorry.)

2nd resolution: "Leadership innovation award." [I was busy during this.]

Pulling 5.11, moving 6.1 forward.

Board reports:

Bill Jay: Congrats to Lasers golf team. Marvelous. All we do as trustees is figure out ways to spend money. Note item 6.6: IVC management reorganization. Budgetary savings of $117k. They deserve recognition.
Tim Jemal: pretty active month. I completed the tour of SC and IVC. Thanks for the hospitality. Saw learning environments. Etc. We're seeing legislation re using community colleges as engine for increased....economic growth.  "There is a skill gap in this country." Our colleges will get ahead of legislation in this regard....
Marcia Milchiker: echos what Jemal just said. I'm excited too....The importance of community colleges. Meeting with legislators.
TJ Prendergast: attended invention convention. Congrats to Saddleback for "recovering the cup" (President's cup, I think.). Blah, blah, blah. My daughter's taking Early College at Beckman. She dragged him to music concert, but he enjoyed it.
Nancy Padberg: various committee meetings she attended. Presidents cup in memory of "my husband." Scholarship in his name. (Applause.)
James Wright: workshops on how to be effective trustees, etc. Gosh, Jim, your voice tends to trail off into nothingness. I think his voice has a sleep-inducing effect. Am I dreaming?
Lang: passes

Chancellor Poertner: reports tonight: 4.1 report, student success. Improving ed of basic skills students. 2nd, mental health services at our colleges. Third item: 6.1 concerns lease-lease back strategies for construction.

President Roquemore: President's award recipients. We give our awards during Fall inservice, so wanted to mention recipients. Goes through IVC awards. Craig Justice, Dennis Gordon, Bruce Hagan, Matt W/Ilkner E-W, Roopa Mathur;  Melody Harper. (Does this in lieu of report.)

President Burnett: blah, blah, blah. Men's basketball, undefeated. Etc. Accreds accepted our follow-up report. Refers to "recent tragedy" concerning one of our part-time students. Jemal's request for report on mental health services very timely.

Board requests for reports: Jim Wright requests progress of veterans services. There's been a lot done since last year, so a report would be nice. Unanimous support.

Advancing 6.1. Resolution. Lease lease-back contracts. Brandye D'Lena comes forward to explain, discuss. But first VC Deb Fitzsimmons will explain (I became distracted by conversation with someone).

Brandye comes up to give "overview of lease-leaseback construction delivery method." I'll be tuning out for this. (Pretty dry.)

Any questions? ... Unanimous approval.

Consent Calendar: nothing else pulled. 5.11 already pulled. Unanimous.

Discussion items:

Student success task force, blah, blah, blah. Kathy Schmeidler, Kathy Werle, Summer Serpas, Donna R. Here we are being cooperative and collaborative, says KS. SS discusses accelerated writing project. Presents data suggesting success of pilot program. Then DR: fast track to success. (These people speak well.) She discusses the problem of "allied health" and lack of basic skills. Got the allied health and basic math/English people together. They created a textbook. Sounds good. Pilot program. KW: discusses basic skills funding. She thrilled all by discussing "butts in seats." Blah, blah, blah. It all sounds good to me. Questions? Jemal: experiential element, where taking place? A: here on campus. DR discussed blood taken from fake arms.

Next report: mental health services. Linda Fontanilla speaks for IVC. She refers to her colleagues. Mentions 33 discipline cases. Three years ago, saw maybe one student per semester. Now all the time. Describes one student with mental health issues. Hygiene problems, disruption, snoring, etc. She was apprised of available facilities/services, but she rejected them. Intelligent but delusional. Another case: a young man who wasn't getting his financial aid on time. He became loud and aggressive. Called the police on him. Learned that he suffers being bipolar.

Chris H, IVC nurse, speaks. Been at IVC since 1985. Reviews history at IVC. A huge range of cases. We were dealing with mental health issues in 1979, but demand has increased. Demand for health services doubled from 2003-2012. Students were at first referred to "community resources." We did crisis counseling. Now, we have part-time psychologist. There's a year round waiting list. Lots of community resource referrals still. I started out as a psychiatric nurse. There are such limited resources in the community [OC]; it is appalling. Really bad in Orange County; was bad back in 1985, still is. Notes various things that have been done recently; preventative actions, etc. Funding? It is through $18 Health Fee. That's it. Chris does a great job, heavy on cynicism about lack of funding, lack of services in the County.

Liz Cipres, dean of counseling services. Discipline officer. We've seen 33 students through 2012. Various cases. Threats, etc.

Robert Melendez: Protocol of the health center. Etc.

Chris comes back to discuss protocol. There are many ways students come to us. They are interviewed by a nurse. We need to know if they are in immediate danger, are an immediate threat. We put them on the list for therapist. We are not dealing with schizophrenics, bipolar, referring them--we do not abandon them. Referrals. Follow-ups. 51-50 call: identified someone who is an immediate danger to selves, or to others. We had five during a recent semester. Amazing. You involve the police. Etc.

Next: Saddleback College. Blah, blah, blah. We have a wonderful collaboration between those working in this area. Counselors, et al. Blah, blah, blah. Presents "measures to identify, assist and educate employees working with at-risk students." 7 points. Online, self-paced program called "Kognito 'at-risk' gate keeper training." (Sounds like BS.) Evidently, the speaker went through this program. He seemed pleased as punch. There's one of these programs for faculty, for faculty and staff working with veterans, etc. We've had 52 people go through the (something) training. Etc. We're looking to expand that.

A faculty guide developed two years ago. How to respond to students who are distressed or threatening. We've handed these out to faculty at inservice, etc. We try to get info out there. (This guy's emphasis was on training faculty and staff.)

Turned over to Jeannie Harris-C. We have ten mental health beds in the County of Orange. Ten. (Echoes what Chris H said.) We shouldn't be surprised by what is happening at the college. Lots of students come with problems, baggage. We need to find ways to identify and help these students. Kognito is wonderful. We have two clinical psychologists. 5 registered nurses. All working part-time. Every slot that I have is filled. Cases: student misconduct. Discipline issues. Meetings with therapists on biweekly basis. Individual consultations with faculty members. Referrals from faculty happen every day. 51-50. One of our students was a "cutter." They can't feel pain, so they cut themselves. We were able to talk with student, put her on 51-50. Took her to a hospital. Held for five days. Was very gravely ill. This has a happy ending. Her medications were adjusted and changed. We'll be monitoring her. So we try to identify these students and try to refer them to something that will work. Lots of drug and alcohol use on this campus. About half of the cases involve substance abuse of some kind. Blah, blah, blah. Notes a web page available to faculty. Brochures given out. Anxiety, suicide. Occurences have become more routine. We try to address everything.

Jemal: dealing with these problems, very challenging. I'll hold in abeyance many questions that I have. So we have two different systems--one for IVC, another for SC? Woman explain the number of faculty who have completed "modules."

Jemal: a very good report. Good structure in place. --So Jemal has opted to be positive.

6.6. IVC Reorganization. Will hire new dean of online, etc. Significant savings overall....

That's it for me. I can stand no more. 9:41.