DISSENT the BLOG

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Sunday Not-So-Funny Funnies

Friday, September 4, 2015

Shooting at Sacramento City College Leaves One Dead and 2 Injured (New York Times)
A shooting on the grounds of Sacramento City College left one person dead, two others injured and the campus on lockdown Thursday night, the Sacramento Police Department said.
The shooting took place Thursday afternoon in a parking lot near a baseball field on the southern edge of campus, according to the police. The victim, who was not publicly identified, was pronounced dead at the scene. Another person was shot several times and was taken to a hospital, said Rick Brewer, a spokesman for Sacramento City College, and a third person sustained minor injuries….

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Report Urges New Accreditor for California’s Community Colleges (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Many lawmakers and others are calling for accreditors to get tougher with higher education and not let poor-performing colleges off the hook.
But a new report says the California community-college system needs a new, kinder, gentler accreditor. The system commissioned the report in the wake of a bruising legal battle over the accreditation of the City College of San Francisco.
The current accreditor for the system’s 113 colleges, the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, has been uncooperative, resistant to repeated calls for change and disrespectful of the governing structures and processes of its member institutions, says the report, which was released on Friday. In addition, the commission takes too many adverse actions against the colleges, the report says, noting that all but 37 of the institutions were under some level of sanction between 2005 and 2015.
. . .
Brice W. Harris, chancellor of the community college system, said in a statement that he agrees it is time to find a new accrediting agency for the colleges….

Sunday, August 30, 2015

Community college district's Saudi outreach draws fire (OC Reg)
The latest on this story.

Teddy, cat

Friday, August 28, 2015

SOCCCD is way below the state average (and below local districts) for percentage of full-time faculty. Oh my!

  Gosh, lately, faculty at IVC have again been carping about the low rate at which the college, led by Glenn Roquemore, hires full-time faculty. Some have recently noted, for instance, that Saddleback College seems to hire far more full-timers than does IVC, a discrepancy not accounted for by the two colleges’ differences in size. (This year, SC seems to be pursuing 16 hires while IVC seems to be pursuing 6.)
   What gives?
   Maybe it’s time for some comparisons to other colleges and districts.

   This morning, I had occasion to view the standings of local (i.e., OC) community colleges via the so-called STUDENT SUCCESS SCORECARD, a cluster of official metrics made available by the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office. At that site, one can select individual colleges and learn such factoids as a college’s “percentage of full-time faculty.” (Actually, these percentages seem to be for the entire district in question, not for individual colleges.)
   Below, I present the data for the state, taken as a whole, and for each of the Orange County community colleges (presented by district).
Statewide, the percentage of full-time faculty is about 56%, which matches the rate at the Coast Community College District and which is far exceeded at both the Rancho Santiago CCD and the NOCCCD.
   One district, however, seems to stand alone in this regard. It falls way below the statewide average. That would be the South Orange County Community College District.
   Oh my.

Statewide