This so-called city

     As you know, not everyone appreciates the City of Irvine’s intense Irvineness.
     Yesterday, NavelGazing’s Matt Coker quoted an assessment of this “planned” city by James Howard Kunstler, author of The Geography of Nowhere:

     This so-called "city" was once a ranch comprising hundreds of thousands of acres consolidated out of old Spanish land grants by one James Irvine…. The so-called city named after Mr. Irvine—and still largely controlled by a private real estate development company he founded—prides itself on being rationally planned. By this they mean that all the angles have been figured out for producing massive volumes of exquisitely-tuned suburban sprawl at a nice profit.

     One thing this demonstrates is that rational planning is not the same thing as intelligence because the end result on-the-ground is a nightmare of the most extreme car dependency in the nation, arguably even worse than Los Angeles. That it is also a nightmare of crushing uniformity, disconnection, boredom, and ennui probably matters less because the essence of the place's character is that it has no future. There is absolutely no way that the American people can continue their Happy Motoring frolic for another generation, yet the Irvine Company is still busy slapping together new monocultures of housing pods, strip malls, and all the other usual furnishings with the kind of stupid confidence of people intoxicated on Rotary Club bullshit—which is to say zeal minus consciousness. It is the same frame-of-mind that produces the famous Orange County right wing politics.

     Golly.

So long, Lou

     Troubled, brilliant, melancholy, perverse—Lou Reed was a complex man. His songs offered unflinching honesty about a world seen by a bright and humane man who, like John Lennon, seemed to endlessly struggle with his status as a rock-and-roll god. But, for me, none of that matters; what matters is that many of Reed’s songs hit just the right note of awareness, empathy and world-wearriness. Killer stuff.

     I often find myself saying that I don’t really have heroes. But that’s not quite right. Because of the amazing, handmade—and often sonically powerful—music of the early Velvets, Lou Reed will always be one of my heroes. –RB 

Lisa says that it’s alright
When she meets me alone at night
Lisa says that she has her fun
And she’ll do it with just about anyone

Lisa says, Lisa says
Lisa says, Lisa says

Lisa says that she’s on the run
Looking for a special one
Lisa says that every time she makes it straight
She knows her heart will break

Lisa says, Lisa says
Lisa says, Lisa says

Looking for a party, some action
Going to make it feel OK
But what do you find, when the time has come undone
Look at it run

Lisa says, Lisa says
Lisa says, woo, Lisa says
Lisa says, oh, Lisa says
Lisa says… 

Sunday morning 
and I'm falling

I've got a feeling I don't want to know

Early dawning, Sunday morning

It's all the streets you crossed, not so long ago

Watch out, the world's behind you

There's always someone around you who will call

It's nothing at all

her life was saved by rock 'n' roll

Jenny said, when she was just five years old
you know there's nothin' happening at all
Every time she put on the radio
there was nothin' goin' down at all
not at all

One fine mornin', she puts on a New York station
and she couldn't believe what she heard at all
She started dancin' to that fine-fine-fine-fine music
ooohhh, her life was saved by rock 'n' roll
hey baby, rock 'n' roll...

*

The agenda for Monday's meeting of the SOCCCD BOT (Administrators: "evaluation of performance")

     As is his custom, today, several days before the monthly meeting of the SOCCCD Board of Trustees, Chancellor Gary Poertner emailed the district community with a link to the meeting's agenda.

     Among closed session (5:00-6:00 p.m.) items is the following:

     I do hope the board is paying attention. Surely they've noticed that IVC is run by baboons. I'm thinking especially of one particularly baboonish baboon (pace baboons). His name is Glenn.

     Not sure about Saddleback College. Bonobos maybe.

     Naturally, some "discussion" items are listed (for the open session, starting at 6:00):

Testing of A200 now completed

Denizens (other than students) of IVC’s A200 building just received this email from VPI Craig Justice:

Subject: A200 Building Notification re Testing for Biological Exposure

. . .

The Director of Facilities and Maintenance has reported that testing of the entire A200 Building is now completed. The samples taken are now being analyzed. As soon as the test results are available, the report will be released.

--Craig Justice, Vice President for Instruction

SEE also Room A205: action finally taken "seven weeks after the problem was reported" (Oct. 9)

Foundation funds discrepancy

     At last Thursday’s Academic Senate (Rep Council) meeting, Senate officers muttered something about the IVC Foundation: “we still don’t know anything about our finances” there, said someone. The Ac. Sen. Prez noted that the situation has “raised eyebrows” high. Evidently, there is a discrepancy involving $60,000. An audit will get to the bottom of that. –Something about the Pro-IVC matching funds. They “can’t get the two sets of books to align.” In the past, the Senate Prez has discouraged theories involving the nefarious; rather, likely, mere nincompoopery is afoot.
     That’s an IVC motif.

International Students at IVC

     UPDATE: As a senator for IVC’s School of Humanities and Languages, I attended the recent Academic Senate (rep council) meeting, last Thursday. Among topics discussed: an (informal?) proposal, originating from college strategic planning committees, to “increase the capacity” of the international student program. I.e., do we want to enroll still more international students? The demand exists. It is likely that this expansion would enhance revenue. It would have other advantages. Hence the advocacy.
     At one point during the meeting, Davit Khachatryan, the college’s beleaguered Director of Fiscal Services [Davit and admin have not impressed anyone with their planning abilities or bookkeeping], offered an “overview of the current college fiscal status and projections for the next 3-5 years.”
     Evidently, expanding the program is among the college’s “planning assumptions”—a technical concept not to be confused with a decision to go forward with that expansion. (“No, no,” I was assured, “no such decision has yet been made.”)
     According to my notes, the number of international students (ISs) for 2012-13 is 664. Projected for 2013-14 is 730.

     If we expand IS (in the manner proposed), revenue for 2014-15 are projected at about $500,000. For 2015-16, it would be about $834,000. For 2016-17, it would be about $1,386,000, with a (IS) headcount of 972.
     The senators have discussed the expansion of IS during the last two meetings, and it did seem to me that there is considerable hesitation among them, or some of them, regarding this proposal. How would this affect our completion rates? What would happen to the program over time? Etc.
     I sense considerably less hesitation among top administration. [End of update]
          * * *
     As you may know, Irvine Valley College is contemplating expanding its International Students program. One obvious motive is financial.
     But is it really a good idea? For instance, it seems likely that we will come to depend on this revenue stream. Is that a good idea?
     A recent CHE article:

Diversity Aside, International Students Bring a Financial Incentive (Chronicle of Higher Education)

     As college campuses face financial uncertainty and tough enrollment seasons, it’s no secret that attracting more international students can yield benefits beyond the intangibles, like a more diverse student body.
. . .
     But once institutions start enrolling international students—regardless of their initial motivations—they come to depend on those foreign students as a revenue stream. Gannon University, a private institution in Pennsylvania where international students make up roughly 10 percent of the student population, enrolled 213 international students, up from 140 last year. “Had we not had international enrollments,” said William R. Edmondson, vice president for enrollment at the university, “we would not be in the financial position that we are in now.”