The DtB year in review, part 2: "Nothing says '9-11' like a helicopter landing on your campus"

      Here’s Part 2 of the DtB review of the year 2013. (Check out Part 1 here):

AUGUST.

• Saddleback College's "Mission, Vision, and Values":

     …In general, I would say that SC’s vision is essentially the same as one of those lurid “new and improved!” stickers slapped onto a cereal box. It’s bullshit for bullshitters….

• IVC’s vision, mission, and goals: nonsense on stilts:

     …At this point, I have a question: in what sense is the IVC "Mission" statement not a "Vision" statement? And vice versa? They both seem to set out the college's purpose, its task, what it hopes to achieve. In both cases, there's a focus on "student success."
     Is this some kind of word game? If so, why not call the "mission" the "potato" and the "vision" the "hairball"?…. I wanna play!

• Robert Lombardi:

     …During one terrible meeting in 1997(?), when trustee Frogue made groundless accusatory remarks about a colleague, I yelled at him, calling him a "coward." Lombardi didn't seem to mind. At the end of the meeting, as he shuffled through the crowd out the door, Lombardi looked at me and said, "I like your style," or something to that effect….

• "The little college in the orange groves":

     …Today, I came across a twenty-year-old LA Times article that reveals the relationship the college once had to its many orange trees….

• Dispatches from Greece: cicadas on steroids: those Greeks have a word for everything!

• The Chancellor's Opening Session: Poertner’s sobering address

• Pro IVC: moving the goal post, declaring victory?:

     …This year’s PRO IVC Goal was $350k (see top left on original webpage flyer).
     After the campaign was over, the Foundation/Administration crowed that they had exceeded their goal. Hooray!
      But wait! They only collected $204k. How then could they have exceeded their goal?
      Answer: they simply changed it, after the fact. See the more recent page (above) where the "goal" has somehow shrunk from $350k to $200k. No explanation is offered.
      But it gets worse. The $204k collected for 2012-13 was $25,000 less than the amount collected during the 2011-12 campaign ($229k)….

Babs Beno

• District press release re ATEP: Property Swap to Improve Development Potential in Tustin Legacy

• ACCJC gets spanked (Babs gets beno'ed): “The U.S. Department of Education has warned the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges [ACCJC] that it is out of compliance with several federal regulations and could face a possible sanction if the problems are not corrected within 12 months.”

• The Seven and their Afflictions:

     …Board members, it seems, are forever afflicted with a condition—let’s call it the “Smiley Suit & Title” Error (SSATE)*—in which powerful and multi-faceted indications of TROUBLE are immediately rendered no-account by a few apparently sincere assurances whispered by the likes of Glenn Roquemore† and Tod Burnett‡—those well-dressed and well-mannered, but manifestly OOTD (out of their depth) galoots….

Not sure they know IVC even exists

• "Overheard During FLEX Week" OR "The Manufacture of Consent":

     …Monday morning, IVC: the spectacle of someone who is not in the room being introduced to the room as the Shiny New Hire and being told to stand up and recognize the applause. Now, this happens all the time around here.
     The kicker this time: this someone was not only not in the room, but had never before been in the room–and, in fact, would never, ever be in the room. In reality, the person had weeks earlier declined the offer of employment for reasons that won't be revealed here (but let's just say they are embarrassingly numerous and highlight longstanding issues that were revealed in the recent district climate survey. Can't someone in HR or elsewhere tell new hires something about the salary scale and its steps? The contract? The workload? Is overload teaching optional or can a chair really compel faculty to teach overload? Good grief! Is no one in charge?)….

• Mr. Morley's assurances:

     As you know, IVC’s Scholarship Program has been under fire in recent years. I won’t go into all the details again.
     One unfortunate incident concerned a student, PT, who, way back in 2012, was selected to receive a Humanities and Languages scholarship, entitling him to $250. Soon thereafter, his name even appeared in the printed scholarship program (May, 2012) as a recipient.
     The problem seemed to concern subsequent stages of the process, for PT never received the money.
     Some of us complained, pointing to the Scholarship Program and the Foundation.
     The Foundation Director, Richard Morley, took exception to this. In June of 2013, he declared that it was the first he had heard about it. That was surprising to many of us. Several in the School of H&L had been plenty noisy about it for over a year.
     Morley claimed that he would take care of the problem (i.e., send the money) right away.
     Well, maybe he did and maybe he didn’t.
     Let’s review the facts….

• The odd bromidular emissions of community college “experts”:

     …As you know, officials and hired experts in the state community college system are paragons of scientific competence and integrity. It's well known. I mean, they’re all about data and evidence, man. Don’t you doubt it, cuz they throw those words around constantly.
     So if they do something, it's ipso facto scientific.
     And, as it turns out, the Experts just did a study that’s a lot like mine! The name of the study report is: What students say they need to succeed – Key themes from a study of student support.
     Let’s call it the “STN” study (for “say they need”). Check it out! It's official!....

• Making sense of the RG Group's curious report:

     …I’ve been thinking about yesterday’s post, which examined—and ridiculed—a recent report, by the RG Group, entitled What students say they need to succeed – Key themes from a study of student support.
     Evidently, it is being passed around as an important tool (data!) within the CC system for improving student success (completion, persistence, etc.)….

Wendy runs for Assembly

• South County 73rd AD Melee Attracts a Democrat: Prof. Wendy Gabriella, Esq. - The Energizer Bunny's First Hurrah

• August meeting of the SOCCCD Board of Trustees: "Golly, the climate is improving!":

…Chancellor Gary Poertner: change is coming. Expectation of improvement at state and federal level. Sentiment of most of the nation. Need to improve our competencies. Over the weekend: President's speech about improvement of higher education. Discussed high cost or higher ed. Noted that the increase in costs over 30 years (public colleges), 250%. Median family income had gone up only 16%. And so rising cost way out of balance. He also wants to develop metrics of college performance, etc. In Cal, we already have such things. Awarding credit based on competency, not seat time. Discussed barriers to innovation and competition. We'll hear more and more about these ideas. I strongly feel that our faculty and other employees need to be involved in shaping the coming change. We don't want to stand by, we want to participate….

• Some people don’t seem to like the look of IVC’s PAC

• 20 Cal CCs face Accred problems

• Glenn Roquemore: omnishambles:

     …Well, remarkably, about a year ago, President Roquemore fell into a sudden panic, having “discovered” that, according to projections, college expenses would soon exceed revenue! (They seem to have discovered the same situation down at Saddleback as well.)
     How can this situation have come as a surprise?, we all wondered. Don’t you people plan for the possible future? Don't you ask yourselves if we're prepared for stuff that might happen? What, you didn't know that expenses were creeping up but revenue was flat?
     Guess not.
     Next: it soon became clear that, despite an agreement Roquemore made with the Academic Senate that the college would hire 10 faculty that year (IVC decided to spread out hires over three years; meanwhile, Saddleback hired en masse), he gave every indication of preparing to unilaterally cancel all hires as a money-saving measure. (That's Omnishambolic moment #2, in case you're keeping count.)
     Naturally, faculty were angry. After all, there’s more going on at the college than hires; and, in any case, hiring faculty—just to replace those we've lost!—should be a priority! No?
     Plus what about the agreement?
     When senate leadership caught wind of Roquemore’s disposition to ixnay the ireshay, they immediately hit the alarm button; they did everything they could think of to derail the Heedless (and seemingly Headless) Rocky Express….

—and then, what happened next

Watch the skies everywhere. Keep looking. Keep watching the skies.

SEPTEMBER.

• The remarkable inferiority of education research

     …It’s pretty damned clear that, for the most part, education research is dreadful, a factoid long recognized but widely discussed especially in the last twenty or so years, as the issue of education reform has heated up, now enveloping higher education.
     What amazes me is that so many of my colleagues are unaware of education research's well-deserved reputation as dreck….

Adjuncts: will trustees listen?

• Dear faculty: FU:

     …On Friday, some of us* received an email, from the Office of the President, that informed us of “new processes for Campus Events.”†
     They are preposterously demanding….

• More Roquemorean OMNISHAMBLES:

     …Despite being buried in the middle of a 4-day weekend, Monday’s post concerning last Friday’s high-handed college announcement of an absurd new room request procedure (according to which, evidently, requests for “any activity” must be made 90 days in advance!) attracted a torrent of comments, many of them expressing frustration about much else beyond daft room usage directives…. 

• The Bugsy watch

• We get a map—and a helicopter? 9-11, IVC style:

     …"Nothing says '9-11' like a helicopter landing on your campus." So said an unnamed source.
     150 spaces of parking lot 5 will be reserved for today's 9-11 hoopla.
     Administration sent us this graphic. "See, there." Lot 5 is in front of the PAC, I think.
     Why is this event scheduled for prime time? Just who is in charge around here?....

• A civility policy—at a college?:

     …With the Accreds breathing down our necks, the Chancellor and at least one of our college presidents have been anxious to pass some sort of board policy regarding our embrace of “civility.” The problem, of course, is that such a policy could turn into a platform for disciplining faculty. Not good.
     That’s why the first draft of the proposed “civility policy” was nixed by, first, the IVC Academic Senate, and then the SC Academic Senate.
     It remains to be seen whether the new and improved draft will pass muster….

• Rebel Girl asks: how and why has this been allowed to happen?:

     …Produced by the School of Humanities and Languages, filmed by avant-garde cinematographer Sonja Bangston (Check out those shadows! Shades of Indonesian shadow puppetry!) and starring the Department of English's own Professor Lewis Long (rodeo cowboy, Porsche enthusiast, Dickens scholar, union thug and master of the negotiating table), this short film offers a damning case study of how 15 years of systematic under-hiring in the face of the otherwise steady growth of the small college in the orange groves has affected one department. Some critics liken it to the Academy Award-winning documentaries Harlan County U.S.A. and Godzilla Eats the Accreditation Team. The ghost of IVC's Voice raves: "It's powerful, provocative, exciting and frightening—because it's real."
     In a series of simple yet effective PowerPoint stills, Long presents a case rooted in history and statistics—in other words, reality and not, say, unannounced and inexplicable helicopter visitations, photo-opular security stipends, and nepotism most foul….

Are things clearer yet?

• This is your college on drugs: the Cal "Corporate College" event & parking snafu

• Update on Wendy Gabriella’s bid for AD 73: Opponent Bryson appears to be the last gasp of the Fuentes-generation local GOP. And she’s quite the wacko: she's scrapped textbooks in Capo because they don't match her knuckle-dragging view of the world….

• Power goes out in 39 minutes. Deal with it. - How things happen at IVC

• Amanda Ripley "The Smartest Kids in the World" - education abroad

• Today, at Bugsy’s gravesite

Merrifield

• Micael "Mike" Merrifield: RIP

• THE IRVINE VALLEY CHRONICLES: no ideas, just clichés & buzzwords:

     …Just in case there was any doubt that IVC is a royally F-ed up place, today, faculty received an email from the Academic Senate President, asking us, on behalf of the Strategic Planning Oversight and Budget Development Committee (everyone calls it "SPOBDC," pronounced spob-dick), to fill out a survey.
     The survey offers a list of familiar buzzwords and clichés that are supposed to express "values."
     Evidently, the all-important SPOBDCians assume that, once a community has chosen its fave “values” terms—from a list created by said spobdickians—it has ipso facto identified a college “values statement.”
     Really? Um, maybe they're aiming at superficiality and buzzitude. Yeah, that's gotta be it. Who, among the educated, would approach a values statement by picking buzzwords from a list?....

OCTOBER.

• The Mold Monster Returns? or "Faculty keep getting sick":

…If you were not teaching in that room or taking a class you may not have noticed the flier taped to the door that forbade entry under any circumstance. Pretty strong language. Rebel Girl, rebellious and foolhardy as always, tried the knob. The door swung open (of course!) and she entered….

• The MOLD saga continues: Roquemore and his merry SNAFUsters:

     …faculty who teach in IVC's A205 (the "Anthro" room) figure out that there’s a disturbing pattern among instructors who use the room: they’re suffering bronchitis and the like. (See The mold monster returns?) They alert the authorities, who blow them off as per usual, but then students who’ve apparently been sickened by A205—four of 'em—come out of the woodwork and that’s when things start jumpin’—in the way that things jump at IVC, namely:
     Administration have the HVAC system inspected, and it checks out A-OK. That means that the problem is specific to A205—likely the mold monster. This information isn’t sent to the faculty or students—it's the usual IVC communication zilchitude. But, somehow, the info does get to faculty….

• "The people called it Ragtime."

• We wonder where the moola went:

     IVC President Glenn Roquemore has made a big deal about getting $50,000 from Wells Fargo.
     DtB asks: where are these dollars? Where were they spent?
     Nobody seems to know. (Ask the Veterans.)

• Room A205: action finally taken "seven weeks after the problem was reported":

Gabriella: Of course, the larger question is: What procedures are in place at the college to address the situation when four faculty members teaching in the same classroom are diagnosed with upper respiratory illnesses? After I found out about the related upper respiratory illnesses of four faculty members whose only common denominator was teaching in A205 in the summer of 2013, I reported the situation to Vice President of Instruction Craig Justice during the first week of instruction, August 19, 2013. He subsequently indicated that testing was being done on the HVAC system. However, and most importantly, classes remained in A205 until Thursday, October 2, 2013. That means that our faculty and our students remained in a classroom contaminated with mold for seven weeks after the problem was reported. Additionally, even though the classroom was closed on October 2, 2013 and a sign with instructions "DO NOT ENTER" was placed on the door, Dean Karima Feldhus and I witnessed classes being held in A205 on October 2, 2013. Further, on October 2, 2013, when I showed up for my 12:30 class, the "DO NOT ENTER" sign was posted on the door, the door was unlocked, the lights were on, and my students were sitting in the classroom. What procedures and lines of communication need to be established to prevent this from happening in the future?

• Red Emma is one of the Best Americans!:

     …there he is, on pages 412-427 of the 2013 edition of The Best American Nonrequired Reading, edited by Dave Eggers with an introduction by Walter Mosley, among the likes of Jennifer Egan, Nick Hornby, Karen Russell and Lynda Barry….

• felinity

• International Students at IVC:

     …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?

• 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.

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

     I do hope the board is paying attention. Surely they've noticed that IVC is run by baboons.

• Lou Reed
• Lou Reed

• Board closed session actions:

     The board approved all remaining administrators listed on the agenda a renewal of a three-year contract….

     —including, alas, the College Presidents
     Good grief.

• Halloween at IVC:

     Why on Earth would President Glenn Roquemore lower the flag (‘cept when he replaces it every ten or fifteen years)? He doesn’t generally notice much of anything, let alone somebody famous’s death. The last time was when Lady Di croaked in that Paris tunnel. After sixteen years, he still grieves.
     Long story short, the Reb has heard that Glenn’s been bilious and melancholy all week. She’s deduced that Glenn is mourning the loss of Lou Reed, chief songwriter of the groundbreaking 60s band the “Velvet Underground"….

NOVEMBER.

• Dissent's weekly "Hallway Blather":

MORE MOLD!
COUNSELORS DESPERATE TO KEEP "FACULTY" DESIGNATION!
NOT MUCH ROOM FOR BOOKS AT THIS COLLEGE!
CONTINUED ROQUEMORIAN RACK & RUIN!

• Today's "mold" meeting: just cricket sh*t:

     I noted that, earlier today, I examined the wall at the end of the hall (at the southeast corner of A200), and I noticed an alarming degree of dilapidation. Further, I noted what appeared to be a significant amount of “termite feces” piled up at the bottom of the (interior side of the) wall.
     “That’s not termite feces; that’s cricket feces,” declared a certain instructor whose office is closest to the affected area. She immediately walked over and inspected the wall. She soon returned, declaring that it’s “cricket shit, not termite shit.” This yielded a brief discussion of the nature and evolution of termite turds, which, we were told, are “like sand, not flat.”
     “They turn black,” added John.

• Women's Studies at other local colleges/universities:

     Recently, I described the remarkable hostility with which faculty in the School of Guidance and Counseling recently responded to a proposal, by an instructor (a historian) in the School of Humanities and Languages, to develop a more comprehensive Women’s Studies (type) program, to be located in H&L….

• Dissent's weekly "Hallway Blather":

SADDLEBACK COLLEGE IN THE NIGHT!
DEAN TAGS INSTRUCTOR FOR CUTTING HIS CLASSES SHORT!
WHENCE INTERMINABLE ROQUEMORIAN SHITTITUDE?
WHY DO TRUSTEES ENFORCE PRESIDENTIAL MEDIOCRITY?

Anti-puppy, too

• Today’s Board Forum: big fuzzy balls:

     Earlier, from 12:30 to 2:00, the same crew (with Roquemore instead of Burnett) held a forum at IVC. Here and there, trustees alluded to that. Sounds like getting the IVC crowd to say something, anything, was like pulling teeth. Teeth got extracted lots easier under Bonzo’s Bigtop.
     Natch, the board did a prayer, which turned out to be a moment of silence for veterans and typhoon victims. That was followed by the Pledge. At that point, there were maybe 40 in the audience, though the number later swelled to 60 or so.
     Board Prez Nancy P welcomed everyone in her usual minimally friendly manner. When it comes to spending friendliness, the woman is thrifty. She enjoys these forums, she said. She then turned the whole shebang over to the Chancellor, Gary P.
. . .
     No, I’m not making this up. These are the alleged “barriers” to mutual respect, etc. Only administrators—with their ed degrees and enthusiasm for sheer uselessness—could come up with verbiage that inelegant and muddle-headed.
. . .
     Tim Jemal said something about hearing from a guy (connected to the SC Foundation?) who opined that he’d never heard of IVC until the dang place was mentioned by SC. What up with that? Why is IVC so “under the radar”? There were other references to IVC’s oblivion.
. . .
     Kathy Werle stood up to say something. I kept thinking: you must be so happy!
     That’s about when a series of big, fuzzy softballs were launched toward the board by that goofy SC crowd. Somebody got up to yammer about how she “loves the new progress.” (My notes just say: “rosy horseshit.")

• Women's Studies courses at IVC: a deeper look

• The Veterans Center FUBAR, Part 1 — or "Why do the Veterans hate the veterans' counselor?"*

 -- See entire  Veterans Center FUBAR series

The DtB year in review, part 1: an inveterate tolerance for sh*t

Mary Pickford c. 1926

     I figured I’d write a brief “2013 in review,” dissentwise, but, as I slogged through our posts starting in January of ’13, I found way too much to review.
     So here’s part 1.

JANUARY.

     • The year began with lots of talk in Sacramento, and by the Governor in particular, about needed changes in the state’s higher ed system, ‘cuz money’s tight, and ed costs keep going up. With regard to the state’s community college system, Brown focused on the need to increase graduation and transfer rates.
     • Meanwhile, those Rat Bastard higher ed “for profits”—U. of Phoenix, etc.—were true to form, getting smacked around by Accreditors for the usual misdeeds. Not that the latter were (or are) anything to write home about. (As I write, the ACCJC—and its leader, Babs Beno—are under considerable pressure and scrutiny over the ACCJC's decision to pull SF City College’s ticket. Old Babs ain’t lookin’ so good these days.)

Don Rickner

     • THOSE ZANY FOUNDATIONS. The two colleges’ foundations popped over the horizon in January. The trustees clearly had some concerns about ‘em. For instance, toward the end of ’12, one trustee made a request:

     “I understand that there will be a separate report on the foundations in January. ... The one thing that strikes me when I review the financial information … is the level of support that the colleges provide to each of the foundations in the form of donated services and donated professional fees. For Saddleback it was like 53.4% of the unrestricted total support. For Irvine Valley College it was 92.76% of that figure. And I’m hopeful that in the reports that you’ll come back with, there may be some information that gives us a way to benchmark that against perhaps some of our other peers and community college foundations…."

     • Not sure those January reports clarified much on that score. The reports were more a plea for funding for more staff. "It takes money to make money," they said.
     • In January, we reminded folks of the miserable record of IVC’s scholarship program in recent years, what with compliance (with fed rules) issues, poorly designed application forms, the odd decision to dispense with letters of rec, gross errors, and so on.
     • HUELL HOWSER DIES. Like everyone else in California, we noted the passing of Huell Howser, who had participated in at least one foundation event—way back in 2006.

An excellent suggestion ignored
(Thanks, SS)

     • LASER FREAKIN' ROAD? Also in January, the college (IVC) solicited suggestions for naming the soon-to-be-constructed Barranca entrance to the college. In the email, the name “Laser” was suggested. We noted that, not long ago, the college had created a committee to find a replacement for the “laser” mascot—the assumption being that the mascot needed replacing. As usual, at IVC, the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.
     • THE CHEEK OF JEMAL. At January’s board meeting, newbie trustee Tim Jemal pisses off his colleagues by asking for some big reports on student mental health, certificate programs, and business partnerships. Why, the cheek of the man! But the Timster abides.
     • BULLY BLOCKING TENURE. We commenced tracking an apparently hinky effort by a disturbingly powerful instructor to block a colleague’s tenure. Soon, Glenn and Co. started circling the wagons. It all ended in a showdown—more about that later.
     We reminded readers of an effort, more than a dozen years earlier, to block a faculty’s tenure simply in order to intimidate faculty critics of then-IVC-President Raghu Mathur.

Cheeky fellow

     • SADDLEBACK COLLEGE OWNS THE COLOR RED? We noted absurd proscriptions in the paint scheme for the almost-completed Life Sciences Building at IVC. Faculty wanted splashes of red. But no. Red is Saddleback’s color, they were told. Really. Reason has no power at IVC.
     • Legislators—including our own “Dandy” Don Wagner—pursued legislation to train and arm school personnel. Natch.

FEBRUARY.

     • ROQUEMORE'S DUBIOUS CLAIMS. At the urging of some colleagues, we began asking questions about certain allegedly successful Foundation events and the funds they supposedly generated for “veterans.” How come the veterans haven’t seen that money? we asked. President Roquemore has never offered any explanation of this discrepancy. But that's his way. Glenn offers opaque bullshit and calls it transparency.

     • We noted the disturbing murder of Monica Quan and Keith Lawrence in an Irvine parking garage. That story soon mushroomed into one of the biggest in the state: the Christopher Dorner Manhunt.

     • ROQUEMORE AND BULLY HAUTE COUTURE. In early February, we reported recent tales of Roquemorian incompetence—and described his long history of supporting and protecting bullies. We tell the story of Roquemore’s panicky mishandling of the alleged fiscal emergency of the Fall and his apparent plan to deal with the “crisis” by unilaterally cancelling all new faculty hires. Luckily, the Academic Senate was on the case and, to a degree, thwarted Roquemore’s unilateralism.
     • TARGETED PROBIES. We connected Roquemore’s longstanding nurturing of a college “bully culture” with the recent “denying tenure” story. The latter grew big fast.

     • CONFLICT OF INTEREST. We noted that one of the probies that Roquemore was about to pass judgment upon is a close personal friend of his. At any rate, we had the photos of the two on holiday together in Hawaii (or some such place) with their families.
     • The “denying tenure” story continued. We wrote:

     Some of us wonder about the integrity of the (district) [tenure] process as it is being practiced here at Irvine Valley College. We worry about bullies throwing their weight around, pursuing personal agendas, driving others into submission or silence. Perhaps those and other failures of objectivity and fairness are afoot: helping friends, hurting enemies—that sort of thing.

     • Gosh, money must be growing on trees. In mid-February, we revealed a memo, sent to faculty from their dean, alerting them of the opportunity to “order name badges.” Really.
     Nobody cared.
     • BIOs SEE RED. The “Saddleback owns the color red” controversy continued:

     Bio faculty met again today with the usual district/college suspects, and they pressed for the rationale for prohibiting red in the new building. Once again, reference was made to Saddleback College's ownership of red. But they were also told that "every other user group" on campus has (in the past, I suppose) objected to the color red. (?)
     I was not aware of this. (Nobody is aware of this.)
     This bio crew is the only one who actually likes the color, Bio faculty were told.
     And so, today, Bio faculty were informed that, since "faculty" have expressed their wishes re color—they dislike red—that color must not be permitted in the new Life Sciences Building.
     —Yeah, but what if the actual occupants of the Life Sciences Building—namely, the Bio faculty—like red? What difference does it make that other faculty don't like it?
     Doesn't matter. Faculty have expressed their desire. End of story.

     • LASER LOSERS. At an Academic Senate meeting, reps learned that some committee had decided that the new Barranca entrance will be called “Laser Road”:

     "But wait a minute," I said. A few years ago, unhappiness with the IVC mascot—the goddam Laser—led to the formation of a committee charged with finding a replacement nickname/mascot. Besides, I said, the college used to own a laser, about which it used to make a big freakin' deal, but we sold the dang thing years ago. So our college is vehemently post-Laser.
     That "new mascot" committee seemed to fade away, but the problem—our laser mascotry—remains. Naming the new entrance "Laser Road" will, I said, cement the college’s misbegotten laserhood.
     Kathy S, the Academic Senate Prez, agreed that this road-naming move, if it stands, will yield laser permanence. Kathy then said she made precisely my point (about our efforts to de-laser) at the Deacons meeting. But, she reported, IVC's Director of Marketing—aka Glenn Roquemore's flack, Diane O—declared that the mascot change committee is dissolved and there's no chance we're gonna change our mascot.
     I said something like, "Um, who is Diane O to make that decision?" Pretty soon, several other members of the Rep Council piled on. David, our Recorder, normally a mute presence, made some dry remarks about the difficulty finding a suitable mascot for "a beam of coherent light." Just what would that be? he asked.
     Meanwhile, Steve noted that many among us are embarrassed by the Laser. The "word on the street," he said, is strictly negatory, laser-wise.

     • DtB recommends that the college replace the “laser” with the “zombies.”

     • THE ALI SYED STORY. It turns out that the latest rampaging OC killer is a Saddleback College student. His rampage is quite outstanding.
     • In view of the Ali Syed story—Saddleback College's rampaging murderer—we reminded readers that the district, or at least IVC, has a history of bungling the presence of potentially threatening students.
     • Re the “tenure denied/IVC bullies” story: just prior to the February board meeting, we reported as follows:

     …[T]he two fourth-year faculty probies in IVC’s School of Fine Arts up for tenure have reportedly received negative (i.e., terminal) recommendations by their Tenure Review Committees. In the case of at least one of these instances, a notorious faculty bully is involved, and some of us have grown concerned that an injustice is afoot. Glenn Roquemore’s history of accommodating bullies leaves us with little hope that pleas to look into possible problems in the process will yield anything.
     I noticed that the two probies in question are not on the list of fourth-year tenure-track faculty recommended for tenure … Expect litigation.

     • We noted the identity of the two probies who seem to be targeted for non-tenure. They seem to have received very positive attention in recent years.
     • ROQUEMORE'S DEFEAT. Wow. At the February board meeting, an enormous show of support for one or two of the above-mentioned probies appeared to move the board to reject Roquemore’s hinky recommendations for non-tenure. It’s a huge defeat for the Glennster, who imagines that he’ll be Chancellor some day.

     • GLENN'S LOUSY JUDGMENT. Notoriously, Glenn Roquemore holds all of the cards in the process whereby commencement speakers are chosen. Over the years, faculty have managed to get some interesting people sent up among speaker recommendations, but Glenn always choses the business types, the non-academics, the plagiarists, et al.
     Repeatedly among these interesting names was Gustavo Arellano, editor of the OC Weekly. Natch, Glenn always passed on Gustavo. But, as it turned out, UCLA chose Gustavo for commencement speaker. Meanwhile, Glenn went out of his way to choose an unimpressive guy who plagiarized part of his address.
     Gosh.
     Rebel Girl laid out some of the issues.

MARCH.

     • Rebel Girl offered some thoughts on the tragic passing of a well-regarded adjunct instructor.
     • Saddleback College opens its new library “and learning resources center.” The name “James B. Utt” begins to fade from memory.
     • FISCAL FOOL. We report on, among other things, Glenn Roquemore’s curious way with finances. Efforts to gain clarity about past budget decisions produce such answers as “don’t know.”
     • IVC invites the enemy—the for-profits—to set up tables at the college. Clueless as usual.

     • Fraudster and pal-o-Fuentes—and (thus) unwanted friend of the district—Chriss Street must pay a $7 million judgment. Chriss used to come around and explain the property tax situation to us.
     • DtB faces the miserable fact that the current board is likely the best board this district has ever had.
     • Cats, cats, cats!
     • Celebrating Amy Grimm
     • A brief meeting of the SOCCCD BOT in which Bill Jay declares his love of Kevin O’Connor and Tim Jemal gets all serious about business partnerships and such.
     • Jason Davis in the NYT. A student to remember. These days, he works for vets in Washington, D.C.
     • Duplicative administrators, natch

APRIL.

     • A sub-collegiate lecture at IVC. No wonder they poke fun at CCs.
     • THOSE WACKY TRABUCO HIKERS. The Missing wacked hikers in Trabuco Canyon story. It sure had legs, somehow. A field day for cynics.
     • Grading software?
     • The ever-popular Wacky Friday
     • MORE CATS! Cats in these mountains
     • THE STUDENT SUCCESS SCORECARD. Uh-oh, the Student Success Scorecard came today! We get a B-
     • DISMISSING CLASS EARLY IS UNCOOL. Rebel Girl blows the lid off of the nighttime Empty Classroom syndrome at IVC. (The issue would return in a big way in the Fall of 2013.) Glenn and Co. don't give a damn. Natch.
     • The student hour: our deeply fraudulent system
     • Delilah Snell

The Werlester

     • MORE IVC FOUNDATION BLUES. Another harangue re IVC’s Foundation and its director. Glenn's record of hires is really quite remarkable.
     • I'M SO OUTA HERE. Kathy Werle makes good her escape
     • TRUSTEES DISRESPECT ADJUNCTS. April BOT meet: adjunct complains about SOCCCD re “equal pay for equal work.” The board is remarkably defensive and testy. This will come back to haunt them.

MAY.

    •  IVC SCHOLARSHIP WORLD. We enter IVC’s wacky Scholarship World, and it isn’t pretty:

     A while back, the IVC Foundation—i.e., Executive Foundation Dir. Richard Morley—informed financial aid that the Foundation would be awarding six $1,000 scholarships, as they had in past years, from the “Learning Excellence” Scholarship.
     Oh good.
    The scholarship was posted on Stars and a number of students applied. A scholarship committee was formed to review and score all the applications. Students were chosen to receive the scholarships.
     Excellent!
     Um, one thing though: evidently, Herr Morley failed to confirm the funding for the scholarship, i.e., whether it would be renewed by the donor.
     Nope. (He made this mistake last year with a number of scholarships.)
     And so, after the selections were made and students chosen, go-to faculty Kurt Meyer and Kay Ryals were notified by Morley that the scholarships would not be awarded after all.
     There were sparks, gnashing of teeth—dark, dark mutterings.
     Before Mr. Morley came on board a couple of years ago, all the funding was confirmed before the scholarships were announced.
     No longer, evidently.

     • YET ANOTHER SCHOLARSHIP FUBAR. Another IVC scholarship fubar
    • An “atmosphere of fear” at OC agencies. OC shrugs, does nothing. It's Cretin-town, Jake.

Young Bugsy, my pal

     • Michael Shermer comes to IVC to do his skeptical shtick. It doesn't take.
     • I SEE THEM IN MY MIND. Colorful SOCCCD leadership - psychedelisized.
     • The Two types of seasoned instructor: my goofy graphics
     • TOD LOOKS FOR A NEW GIG. Saddleback College Prez Tod Burnett is lookin’ hard for a job elsewhere. We speculate that his job as SC Prez isn't secure--we can think of many reasons why--but what do we know?
     • May’s BOT meeting: what the adjunct said was correct—adjuncts have it bad; trustees, wise up! Also, ATEP land swap
     • Ray Manzarek is dead
     • TOD B LOOKIN' FOR GREENER PASTURES? Tod still looking for work
     • Glenn Roquemore at the Neanderthalic Pacifica Institute. Not good
     • TOD SEEKS AN "INSTITUTION OF EXCELLENCE." Burnett is looking for an institution of excellence. We can see his point
     • IVC Commencement pics

    • Pain: grading final exams - in goofy graphics
    • A typical Roquemorian bullshit email - Glenn Roquemore’s hinky moves re commencement: process schmocess

JUNE.

     • BIGOT. When Nancy Padberg agreed that we must “take back our Christian country”
     • The district’s history page
     • Burnett and Cabrillo College
     • No nod for Tod
     • ROQUEMORE'S "PROCESS." More on Roquemore’s Commencement speaker selection “process”; mighty hinky. Trustees, you listening? Ever?
     • The Scholarship Program “debriefing”, Part 1
     • The Scholarship Program “debriefing”, Part 2: how come a committee labors to produce recommendations, and then the recommendations are ignored? Richard is one thin-skinned dude:

     I…presented six points re the scholarship process that, in truth, had been composed by a (rebellious) colleague of mine who is very familiar with the issues surrounding the scholarship program at IVC….:

• Poor outreach. 300 application out of 15,000 students….
• Application process. Applicants need to be advised about submitting FULL applications (letters, statements etc.) and the failure to do so weakens their chances of gaining a scholarship.
• Some applications that I read had alarming facts – e.g., GPAs were noted but units earned were Zero(?!). Or the number of units earned was [inexplicably] large – in one case, very large (over 500).
• Concerned about distribution of awards. Is the old policy of limiting the number and/or amount of awards in order to increase the number of recipients still in place?….
• Why are the awards that are won by individual students not listed next to their names in the program? This absence fuels a sense of a lack of accountability.…
• The timing of the application and decision-making process. This is related to outreach and publicity. Is it possible to begin the application process late in the year (November?) and close in February, thus allowing for a longer period to apply? Is it possible to begin the decision-making process earlier, shortly after the application deadline?

     • Shots fired at Santa Monica College
     • Roy’s family - tales of the world's only nonverbal human family. Arf.
     • The Age of Stupid:

     • OC'S ZANY PAST. Right wing paranoia and foolishness, 1970: in those days, right-wingers worried about kids burning banks, even at UCI. A UCI/SOCCCD connection
     • Hysterical homophobic demagoguery: Don’s pal John Eastman of Chapman U; ridiculous
     • ONCE AGAIN, a reminder of DtB’s generous policy re opposing views: "everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it"
     • Flucht Kinder: Bauer family tales (the collapse of Germany)
     • Saddleback Memories
     • Another Bauer family story: “lots of cloud” - More yarns about the nonverbals of Trabuco Canyon
     • JACKASS FREE. The June SOCCCD BOT board meeting: the board is jackass free, more or less (so why don't they listen?)
     • The First Years of Saddleback College: we hear about a terrific sabbatical project—artifacts coming soon
     • RIPPING YARNS 1. Ripping yarns from 2001's Making History: the first years of Saddleback College - Really. Ripping.
     • MORE RIPPING YARNS: from Making History: the first years of Saddleback College - I pity the fool who doesn't read this amazing shit.
     • IVC Then and Now: IVC’s Pinterest page, old photos. Mighty cool.
     • PRAYER. Contra SOCCCD prayer: it's all about who's appointed to those "commencement" committees!: one way in which the shitty shenanigans of the old right-wing “Board Majority” continue. The bad faith bears.

     • Gumby College:

Evidently, among the names suggested for Irvine Valley College back in the spring of 1985 were "Gumby College" and "El Torito College."

JULY.

     • FRISCO CITY COLLEGE. Accred bombshell: San Francisco City College gets its ticket pulled—or no?
     • Teddy the cat - rescued—and lovable, as it turns out

     • On the Saddleback College history website. Impressive. Filmed interviews.
     • Coast campuses receive accred warnings: ouch
     • THE SUICIDE ARSONIST STORY. The odd and mysterious Saddleback College fire victim story breaks
     • More on the odd Saddleback College student/arson story
     • COAST TO COAST ACCRED SPANKAGE. The Coast CCD colleges get spanked by the Accreds; about Babs Beno
     • Arson/fire update
     • My niece has artistic talent, it seems
     • Campus fire a suicide
     • OC Weekly:

     A Rancho Santiago Community College District (RSCCD) administrator of a federal assistance program for migrant farm workers initially claimed she was innocent of cheating students out of their grant money but has signed a guilty plea.

     • ANOTHER HINKY ADMINISTRATIVE HIRE. July SOCCCD Board Meet: Trustees give themselves a raise; colleges’ student success “score cards” discussed & ‘splained; IVC hires yet another administrator with a troubled background (they get ‘em at Cuesta)
     • CLIMATE SURVEY: THE WEATHER IS DICEY. District climate survey results:

     I only glanced through the report, but it did seem to me that people had lots to say about an unhealthy rivalry between the two colleges—and some discreditable tensions between the two college presidents. Also, as usual, there were lots of complaints about communication and the quality and conduct of top administration at IVC. It amazes me that the P and VP at IVC still have their jobs.

     • "Verbatim responses" in the SOCCCD "climate" survey: oh my
     • DISTRICTULAR POPPYCOCK. Districtular poppycock: our “vision” and our “mission” and our tolerance of twaddle

Young Theodore, this afternoon

Took 'im to the vet recently; they fell in love with 'im, just like always, everywhere.

My mom visits fairly often just to have a few minutes with this little guy.

My sister, Annie, too.

And my cleaning lady.

He's a sweet kid, he is.

S.F. City College's accreditation in judge's hands (Pleasanton Weekly)

     Enrollment drops by 30%; students 'leaving in droves'

     As you know, I'm a big Alex Chilton/Big Star fan.

     Just saw "Nothing Can Hurt Me," the documentary about the late lamented band.

     Pretty terrific. Here's the trailer.