The pride of Trident U

[See 20+ comments below. See original post: Kiana and Glenn's nepotistic regime comes to a sudden end]

     This study found the overall quality of educational administration programs in the United States to be poor. The majority of programs range from inadequate to appalling, even at some of the country's leading universities. Collectively, school leadership programs are not successful on any of the nine quality criteria presented [in this report]. 

—From Educating School Leaders by Arthur Levine

     I'VE LEARNED a bit more about Chemistry Professor, Kiana Tabibzadeh, and her imminent transfer to Saddleback College—owing, evidently, to "nepotism" concerns.
     Tabibzadeh's husband is, of course, IVC President-for-Life Glenn Roquemore.
     Despite his corruption and incompetence, he's been IVC Prez for nearly 16 years.

* * *

     During this afternoon's meeting of the IVC Academic Senate, I asked about this matter. Here's what I learned:

• Evidently, at some point, "junior faculty" complained about a circumstance related to Tabibzadeh's role as Chair of the School of Physical Sciences and Technologies. I haven't learned any details, but it is likely that the complaints concerned Tabibzadeh's conduct and difficulties addressing that conduct in view of her relationship with the college president.
• [Tabibzadeh has long been notorious for her conduct as faculty and as chair and protection she enjoys (and routinely calls upon) as wife of the college president.
• [It is interesting to note that, prior to his ascendancy to administration in 1997 at the start of then-President Mathur's notorious regime (at IVC), Roquemore had been working with administrator Pam Deegan to address Mathur's misconduct as chair of the School.]
• Both faculty union (Faculty Association), and senate, officers were involved in this matter to some extent.
• These complaints ultimately led to involvement of the recently hired Vice Chancellor of Human Resources, Cindy Vyskocil.
• In the end, Tabibzadeh "volunteered" to transfer to Saddleback College.

* * *

     During the meeting, I read from the district's nepotism policy:

The District does not prohibit the employment of relatives (or domestic partners as defined by Family Code) in the same department, or division/school, with the exception that they shall not be assigned to a regular position within the same department, division/school, or site that has an immediate family member who is in a position to recommend or influence personnel decisions.

     Roquemore has been Vice President or President at IVC since January of 2000. Tabibzadeh has been a full-time instructor at IVC since 1997. (Roquemore was on her search committee. Reportedly, he was dating her at the time.) Assuming that the district's "nepotism" policy has not changed substantially, and given that Roquemore and Tabibzadeh's relationship goes back at least to 2000, it is clear that the college has been in violation of its nepotism policy since that time—i.e.,  for 18 years.
     WTF.
     And it appears that the violation is not merely technical. If long-time reports are accurate, Roquemore has been providing cover for Tabibzadeh's excesses and abuses for that entire period.
     People have lost jobs, y'know.

* * *

Dr. Wenling Li

     Tabibzadeh has a surprisingly high salary. How come?
     Part of the answer is her doctorate, earned in 2015. I did a little checking and found her dissertation (here). It is entitled "Student Academic Achievement in College Chemistry" (it's a degree in "education leadership," not chemistry), and it was conferred by Trident University International, a tiny, new (2007) for-profit located in beauteous Cypress, CA.
     Trident has no campus, since all of its instruction is online.
     Tabibzadeh's dissertation committee is curious. Included among its three members are Sanjay Gupta and Brent Monte, both Math instructors at IVC. The committee chair is Dr. Wenling Li, "Doctoral Studies Director" of Trident's College of Education.

* * *

     So what kind of place is Trident (TUI)?
     I found a report (2012) on Trident by the "Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions." It paints a dismal picture:

On T's dissertation committee

     TUI spent $1,118 per student on instruction in 2009, compared to $494 per student on marketing and $2,056 per student on profit. The amount that privately held companies examined by the committee spend on instruction ranges from $1,118 (TUI) to $6,389 per student per year. In contrast, public and non-profit schools generally spend a higher amount per student on instruction. Other California-based colleges spent, on a per student basis, $15,039 at the University of California-Irvine, and $35,920 at the University of Southern California.
. . .
     In 2011, WASC called on TUI to show cause why its accreditation should not be terminated on March 30, 2012. WASC's Show Cause Order resulted from its finding that TUI failed to meet standards regarding defining and achieving educational objectives. On February 24, 2012, the order to show cause was lifted, but TUI was placed on probation by the accreditor for making progress towards, but still not meeting, the accreditor's standards.

Gupta: on T's dissertation committee

     The Order followed a March 2010 warning letter, expressing concern about TUI's Capacity and Preparatory Review (CPR) report, a key report in WASC's accreditation review process. WASC acknowledged that "considerable effort had been undertaken by a large number of people in support of the University's CPR report." Even with that effort, however, WASC also noted that its review team "found the report difficult to follow and lacking in reflection and supportive evidence beyond assertions."
     WASC accepted TUI's report, but noted several standards that the school needed to address before the next stage of accreditation review, the Educational Effectiveness Review (EER). WASC also rescheduled the EER to allow more time to address the lacking standards. WASC cautioned that Trident should address those standards "with analysis of evidence rather than the conclusionary approach present in the CPR report [sic]."
     The EER was rescheduled for the spring of 2011. On February 24, 2012, WASC lifted the order to show cause and placed the school on probation.

      Ed.D degrees are worthless even when conferred by reputable institutions. How low do you rate 'em when they're conferred by a place like Trident?
      No matter. Kiana got her salary bump.

P.S.

     ● How is Trident U ranked? I checked U.S. News and World Report. There, Trident is "unranked." Why? Because the "School refused to fill out U.S. News statistical survey."
     U.S. News did, however, have Trident "selectivity" data: the Fall 2016 acceptance rate was 96%.
     Selectivity: "least selective."

     ● A blast from the past: The Irvine Valley Chronicles, Feb. 6, 2013:

c. 2012 -Vacationing in Hawaii (?) with probie Scott

     Did you know that one of the current probies [Dan Scott] is a close personal friend of the college President? Gosh, I do hope everyone is on their best behavior. It will be interesting to learn who'll get tenure and who won't.
     —Well, maybe not "interesting."

Note: Scott did receive tenure

     ● In her dissertation, Tabibzadeh thanks "Dr. Mary Scott." This would seem to be the wife of IVC business instructor Dan Scott, who, along with Mary (Provost at Concordia U), vacationed with the Roquemores despite Dan's probationary status. (See photo above.)
     Golly.

     ● Dan Scott is a Doctor of Business Administration (DBS), evidently. And where'd he get that degree? U of Phoenix, natch. (The institution is "unranked," of course, by U.S. News & WR. Why? "School refused to fill out U.S. News statistical survey.") As you know, Roquemore, inexplicably, has a high regard of UoP. Selectivity? "Least selective."

Special relationship w/ Prez

     ● According to his LinkedIn page, Scott worked as an adjunct at Concordia U from 2004-2009. If he was married to Mary, Provost of Concordia (2006), at the time—BINGO! It's nepotism time once again.
     Evidently, Scott also worked for the ethically challenged ARAMARK corporation for 19 years.

* * *

. . .
Accreditation at Risk (Inside Higher Ed; July 15, 2011)
Agency threatens to terminate approval of online for-profit college in California, citing its failure to reveal problems with certifying that students met degree requirements.

     An online for-profit college in California [Trident] that serves mostly military service members is on the verge of losing its regional accreditation, for failing to ensure that students transferring in had fulfilled their general education requirements and, more importantly, for failing to tell the accreditor about the problem.
. . .
     That wasn't the biggest problem, though, at least in the eyes of officials at WASC. The accrediting agency had a team visit Trident in the spring, but no mention was made of the problem, Ralph S. Wolff, the agency's president, said in an interview Thursday. And in fact, "at no point did they disclose this" to us, Wolff said, noting that Western officials had learned about the issue "from a third party." The agency's Standard 1.9, he said, requires that institutions engage in "honest, open communication with WASC" and "inform WASC of material matters."
. . .
     It is not at all clear whether those promises will satisfy the Western agency, which like other accreditors is under significant scrutiny to prove that it is rigorously ensuring that students at its institutions are getting a meaningful education. The agency said its officials would conduct a special visit this fall to "evaluate Trident's progress in addressing the commission's concerns." But based on the commission's action in June, Western will terminate the institution's accreditation in March, Wolff said, "unless [it] can demonstrate to us that it has restored academic and operational integrity."

Summer 2011: controversy facing trident university international (Degree Info, Jun 2, 2012)

     …In March of this year the accreditation of Trident University International was placed on probationary status after the university succeeded in avoiding the revocation of its accreditation following receipt of a "Show Cause" letter in the Summer of 2011.…
     The management of Trident (TUI) changed after it became a for-profit institution in 2007 and over the course of the following two to three years a number of managerial staff were hired in anticipation of the university's expansion. When the transcripts and institutional integrity crisis hit TUI in the Spring and Summer of 2011 and WASC issued them the severe reprimand of a letter demanding it show cause why its accreditation should not be revoked, many of these staff worked extremely hard to analyze systems, reassure students, effect changes and generally pull the institution through the crisis. Nonetheless new registrations dropped by 40% and almost immediately after WASC transferred TUI to probationary status fifteen of those staff were fired, including the remaining VP of Marketing and the VP of Student Services.
     Then in late May of this year it was announced that staff were to work a four day week, faculty pay would be reduced and faculty jobs were being reassessed with the likelihood that the employment of a number would be terminated. In addition the way faculty time is credited on the doctoral program has been changed. As the amount of time faculty needed to spend with doctoral students was greater than that with undergraduates or masters students in the past if a faculty member was assigned to teach a doctoral student this would count as equivalent to five other students. This then was reduced to three other students and now in May it was announced that this distinction is to be abolished and teaching a doctoral student will be regarded as equivalent to teaching an undergraduate.
     This sends a clear signal to faculty about the value being placed on the university's doctoral program, one which anyway the for-profit management had regarded ambivalently. On the one hand they accepted that having a doctoral program reflected well on the university but on the other they felt that it was not cost effective unless it could be "scaled up" somehow. This was not achieved prior to the transcripts and integrity scandal and so now it looks as though the future of TUI's doctoral program might be in question. This may not be a surprise given that the university's new President has past experience at Argosy University….

Kiana and Glenn's nepotistic regime comes to a sudden end

[See 50+ comments below!]
[See follow-up: The pride of Trident U]

     Oh my. Word is that Kiana Tabibzadeh, IVC Chemistry instructor and wife of IVC Prez Glenn Roquemore, has been directed to decamp and move herself south to Saddleback College—starting in the Fall, I believe.
     The problem? NEPOTISM.
     As you know, the  board has periodically fretted over nepotism.

     I searched the DtB archives and came up with 33 posts that mention the word.

     ● One of the earliest references to nepotism pops up in my notes for the September 27 Board Meeting of October, 1999:

Sampson

     Eventually, the board moved on to "Academic Personnel Actions." [Trustee Nancy] Padberg noticed that, somewhere, a husband was about to be hired where his spouse was already working. Good Lord! [Trustee "Dot"] Fortune suggested that, as things stand, all sorts of unseemly things occur when part-timers are hired. She implied, falsely, that cronyism and nepotism were the rule and that the hiring of adjunct faculty follows no process. She declared that open positions ought to be "properly advertised." (They are.)

     [Trustee John] Williams opined that the hire of this person should not be held up just because the board hasn't adopted an adequate nepotism policy. Fortune then painted a portrait of part-time hiring in the district according to which "only relatives" know that positions are open, and so they snap them up. [Chancellor Cedric] Sampson noted that the two employees in questions are part-timers, and that nepotism, as he understands it, concerns abuses of power by one employee in favor of another. No such power relationship is involved here, he said. Fortune, ignoring such twaddle, again bellowed that current practice is "improper." [Trustee "Dandy" Don] Wagner suggested that it is unfair to discuss these two people as though they've done something wrong. We have no reason at all to think that.

     As this went on, new Director of HR, Sabrina R, had been standing at the podium to answer questions. She had had her hand raised for some time, hoping to shed light on this matter. Noticing this, El Ced alerted Dot to Sabrina's raised hand, but Dot wasn't interested in hearing from someone who might actually know what she's talking about. El Ced then looked straight at Sabrina; he shrugged and then winked, as if to say, "What can I do? The woman's an idiot."

     ● The next mention of nepotism occurs on March of 2007. In my Board Meeting Report, I note the following:

     [Trustee Nancy] Padberg worried about the high cost of the Performing Arts Center at IVC. Nobody seemed to want to join her. She did a lot of solitary carping tonight.

     She fretted, too, about apparent "nepotism" among classified mother-daughter team organizers, whatever they are. People started yawning.

     ● Next, my board meeting report for Dec. 11, 2007 notes that "Trustee John Williams, junketeer extraordinaire, requested a detailed report on nepotism in the district. Don't know what that's about."

     ● The next anti-nepotistic bleat emerged from Trustee Fuentes (SEE) in January of 2010, inspired by a new Fuentean hatred of Roquemore and his allies:

     THE OL' NEPOTISM GAMBIT. I forgot to mention that, at Monday's board meeting, trustee Tom Fuentes requested a report on "nepotism" in the district. It's been a few years, he said, since the last report, so it's time for another one.

     A cynical person (it is impossible not to be cynical upon observing Mr. Fuentes for any period) might guess that something else explains the timing of this request. There are two opposing factions in the district (well, these are the two that I know about, and they're pretty obvious): Fuentes/Mathur, et al. v. Wagner/Roquemore/Gabriella, et al. Anyone who watched last month's board meeting knows that the tension between these factions has, in the last two months, reached its apogee. On that night, Mr. Wagner, the board president, engineered (well, he presided over) a stunning power shift. After it was complete, he remained President of the board; Padberg was vice president, and Milchiker was Clerk. Lang, Williams, and Fuentes were eating Wagner's dust. 

     Fuentes was furious. Later in the meeting, he flashed some anger, leaving a thick layer of sulphur on the walls.
. . .
     Well, it's hard to deny that any report on nepotism is going to make Glenn look bad. Glenn's wife is a member of the faculty who doesn't mind throwing her weight around here and there. And so Tom asked for a report. It's like losing a baseball game and then pouring sugar in the opponents' gas tanks....

     ● Well, Fuentes persisted. Next is my board meeting report of February 23, 2010:

... Tom Fuentes wanted a report on nepotism. In particular, he wanted to know how well the district board policy on nepotism is administered "to prevent nepotism." He said he was concerned to have "the cleanest operation possible." The report, he said, is especially important in view of our economic downturn.
.....Possibly he's right about all that. Dunno. Still, I feel compelled to observe that Tom Fuentes is Mr. Hypocritical Politician par excellence. I dunno about nepotism, but Tom has got to be the most cronyistic guy the world has ever seen....
. . .
.....Tom asked that the report be as "detailed" as possible.
.....Sensing that ugly politics were afoot, Don Wagner asked for clarification. What do you mean by "nepotism"?
. . .
.....Wagner asked, "Is the report looking for violations of the board policy?" Wagner noted that the presence of relatives among employees is one thing; nepotism is something else altogether.
.....Fuentes clearly wanted the "broadest" report possible. That is, he wanted to see lists of relatives.
.....It's the usual witchhunt. Why bother with a tiny list of possible cases in which employees acted to benefit relatives when one can assemble a much longer and more impressive list of, well, just relatives?
.....Wagner noted that the presence of relatives in the workplace is not in itself nepotism--not in any meaningful sense. He decided to illustrate his point with the name of a volunteer that appeared in a footnote somewhere--a Michael Telson, whom, he said, is the nephew of Saddleback VP of SS Lise Telson.
.....Telson was in the audience. She spoke. She has no such nephew, she intoned.
.....She looked seriously pissed. I got the sense that her anger was not only about this apparent misunderstanding, if that's what it was. Emotions were running high. Naturally, there were plenty of characters in the room who could be the ultimate source of her consternation.

      ● On March 6, 2010, someone left this comment on the blog:

Nepotism reigns with the [IVC] President. Do we have to hire all of your wife's relatives?

     So let's turn to THE WIFE.

     ● Here's an interesting item from October of 2010 (An administrator is fired. Over cake):

     Kiana is held in low esteem by some faculty at the college, in part owing to her reputation for unapologetically exploiting her, um, influence. Evidently, in other ways, too, she does not leave the best of impressions as a colleague and educator.
     Kiana Tabibzadeh, of course, is President Glenn Roquemore's wife.
     On Friday, someone said: "Don't wanna eat a Kiana cake." That sort of thing. Har har. There were maybe eight people in the room.
     Dean Schrader did not encourage the impromptu jocularity. Possibly, she joined in the laughter. She eventually said something to discourage it.
     In any case, it was a fleeting episode about cake--one that briefly tapped into a widely-shared scorn of an arrogant and, well, notorious colleague.
. . .
     The most commonly repeated story concerns Kiana's hiring a dozen or so years ago. Glenn was on the hiring committee. Some on the hiring committee were unimpressed by Kiana. Notoriously, Glenn championed her cause. She was hired.
     He was also dating her at the time. Or so I've been assured numerous times by persons claiming to be in the know.
     Today, I briefly spoke with a former IVC Affirmative Action officer. He told me that he had brought this episode up with then-Chancellor Lombardi, who said he'd deal with it. But, of course, nothing was done.
     I recall an incident seven or eight years ago in which it was learned that Kiana was engineering her selection as "Teacher of the Year." (I was an officer in the Senate at the time.) She had instructed her students to submit the required glowing letters. We couldn't believe it. That time, the scheme was undone, owing to forceful objections from the Academic Senate.
. . .
     An administrator told me this story: sometimes, evidently, Kiana will hole up in her office during her office hours and refuse to see students who are waiting to speak with her.
     One such time, her dean knocked on Kiana's door herself. There was no answer.
     Later in the day, the VPI (pre-Justice) visited that dean, explaining to her that, according to Kiana's husband (i.e., Roquemore), the dean's door-knocking had caused Kiana a "near nervous breakdown"!
     Evidently, efforts to have Kiana actually hold office hours were verboten, owing to Kiana's delicate nerves.
. . .
     More recently, Susan Cooper became the dean of this benighted zone of IVC instructors. She soon discovered the then-traditional abuses, including a series of manifestly hinky scheduling practices enforced by their beneficiary, Kiana Tabibzadeh. Cooper was determined to put a stop to that nonsense, but, to the degree that she pressed the matter, to that degree she experienced ferocious push-back from Glenn, who made her life miserable. In the end, she found it necessary to leave the college.
     Not long ago, I had lunch with a former IVC administrator. He or she or it informed me that Kiana's father has been working at IVC for years (admittedly, in some minor role as a test proctor or something similar)--this despite Mr. Fuentes' occasional noisy (albeit hypocritical) accusations of nepotism at the colleges.
     Some of us have complained about these abuses for many years. I recall arranging to meet with newly-elected trustee Don Wagner in late 1998. I had lunch with him at a restaurant across the street from the college. Among other things, I described some of the abuses mentioned above.
     Well, I guess he didn't believe me. Absolutely nothing was done about them. 

Hava a cuppa?

     ● On Oct. 30, 2010 (Recent comments paint a portrait), someone left this comment:

Anonymous said...
     When is Glenn going to retrieve his ***** from the jar on Kiana's desk and stop letting her run the show? I have looked through the window of the anatomy lab (wouldn't want to actually go in there!) and spotted what looked like a couple of spines hanging around. Perhaps the biologists would like to loan one to Glenn? (9:05 p.m.) 

Anonymous said...
     What is it with the chemistry department at IVC? (10:03 p.m.)
. . . 

Captain Obvious said... 

* Did the Friday meeting-and jocularity-occur as described in this post? 

* Did a secretary record the School meeting and then provide that recording to administration?
* Did Glenn's reaction to listening to the recording inspire his untimely action to have her removed from campus (and on the day in which the Chem complex was opened)? (Note: the post acknowledged that it had long ago been decided that her contract would not be renewed.)

* Has Kiana been (and is she) the sort who inappropriately and routinely uses her influence at this college?

* Has her husband essentially permitted this behavior (for years, and despite complaints)?

* Have scandalous improprieties been allowed by this and other administrations, despite efforts by some administrators to address the abuses?

-These and other questions strike me as valid. And clearly the most reasonable answers (given the evidence) of at least most, if not all, of these questions [are] disconcerting. (10:20 a.m.)

. . . 

agent provocateur said...
     People, just read the email memo that Glenn sent out -- it explains everything. He's doing his best to quell rumors and restore our sense of confidence. That's his job. He's even announced the interim dean so there are no worries at this critical time for all the schools involved. Geez, do you think he would fire someone without having a plan in place?! (9:25 a.m.) 

Anonymous said...
     Never, NEVER insult a woman's cake. 
(But I must say, pretty impressive cake baking skills from Kiana. I don't know how to bake one of those photo toppers...not that I want to eat a BLUE cake....) (9:33 a.m.) 

Anonymous said...
     9:25 - There has been no general e-mail sent out to quell the campus-wide rumors and restore his campus-wide reputation. Perhaps something was sent out only to the affected schools? If so, it shows a lack of understanding of the ripple effect of events. - 8:37 (10:19 a.m.)

     ● Roquemore's curious account of the Schrader affair: "the gene pool" - NOVEMBER 4, 2010:

     1. THE SCHRADER AFFAIR. You'll recall that, at last week's board meeting, IVC President Glenn Roquemore was smacked around by Board President Don Wagner. As he walked to the podium to make a presentation regarding IVC's 25th Anniversary celebration, Wagner suddenly declared a break to allow everyone to go to the back of the room to get a piece of celebratory cake (donated, I think, by the IVC cafeteria). Glenn never did get to show his video.
     So he showed up today (at the Senate meeting) with that very video. He played it. It was pretty good, I guess. At one point, cheerleaders seemed to be screaming something about "big boobs." That seemed perfectly natural, though a little surprising. (A colleague behind me groaned.)
     Only later did I realize that they must have been referring to "big blue" (blue is among IVC's colors).
     Craig seemed to want Glenn to stick around for a Q and A. Oh really?
     People wanted light shed on the Dean Kathy Schrader situation. Roquemore was asked several questions about it. Glenn presented quite a yarn about the episode. You'll recall that Dean Schrader was called into Glenn's office about a problem: something objectionable that was said during an Oct. 22 meeting of the School of Biological Sciences (over which Schrader presided). Yes, Glenn's wife was mentioned during the meeting, he said, but "that was not the issue." He has always had an understanding with her (i.e., his wife), he said, that she would be treated just as any instructor is treated. --That sort of thing.
     He managed to say that with a straight face. It was remarkable.
     No, said Glenn, the problem wasn't a remark about Glenn's "spouse"; rather, it was a remark concerning classified employees: something about being at the "bottom of the gene pool."
     The bio faculty have consistently told me that, when it became clear that something about the School meeting had upset Roquemore, they could not think what happened that should cause offense. What could it possibly be? They told me that Schrader has never been the type to joke about people at their expense. If anything, she attempts to suppress such talk. So what was this about? The joke about Kiana?
     I spoke with some of my bio friends after the meeting, and they expressed skepticism regarding some of Glenn's account. They remained puzzled regarding the remark during the Oct. 22 meeting that caused offense. They were sure that Schrader had not made any remark at classified's expense.

● The professionals! (Just Gimme Some Truth) - NOVEMBER 15, 2010

     President Roquemore, who ascended to administrative ranks back in 1997 owing to his sudden willingness to work with the hated Raghu P. Mathur (until then, Roquemore had worked with administration to remove Mathur as chair of his School; the nakedly ambitious Mathur had used unscrupulous means to retain that position, one that the equally nakedly ambitious Roquemore desperately coveted), --as I was saying, President Roquemore called Schrader to his office a couple of weeks ago to call her on the carpet over her alleged unprofessionalism as evidenced by some of her instructors' banter, during a Biological Sciences meeting, regarding Mrs. Roquemore's planned cake-baking (or cake-buying) efforts for the opening of the new Chemistry buildings. (Kiana, Roquemore's wife, is an IVC chem instructor.)
     (I'm told that Schrader was very clear about the object of Roquemore's consternation in conversations she had with friends in the immediate aftermath of her untimely "firing.")
     PLAN B: No doubt after a session with "legal" (or HR) at the district, Roquemore developed a new sense of what occurred during his meeting with Schrader: no, he did not meet with Schrader about snarky faculty comments about Kiana's cake; it had nothing to do with that! (don't be silly! Glenn has always scrupulously treated his wife as just another instructor!*); it was, he said, about an alleged offensive remark made during the same meeting about classified employees: something about the shallow end of the gene pool. (Efforts to hear this comment on a tape recording of the meeting have yielded no evidence that classified employees were the target of the "gene pool" remark. Faculty who were at the meeting continue to scratch their heads over what about the meeting could be construed as evidence of Schrader's unprofessionalism--unless it's Glenn's notorious customary unprofessionalism and kneejerkery re Kiana.) 

     *I've spoken to some highly reliable people at IVC who swear that Glenn has--well, let's just say that they report numerous and amazing incidents of a kind that Glenn seems to say have never occurred! Some of these people are talkin'. And not just to me.

● Bio faculty proclaim: Roquemore's characterization "was absolutely wrong" - NOVEMBER 18, 2010

     At the time, Bio faculty who had attended the meeting in question could not imagine what Schrader had said or done that would earn the emnity of the President. That day, Schrader (reportedly) was under the impression that Roquemore was infuriated by the Kiana-cake-related remarks. But Bio faculty explained that Schrader's only participation in the "Kiana" jocularitude was her efforts to discourage such remarks.
     A week later, to everyone's surprise, Roquemore showed up at the Senate Meeting to say: what was problematic during the Bio School Meeting was not remarks re Kiana and her cake--indeed, he explained, he has always been terribly scrupulous to treat his wife as he would treat any other faculty. [Ha ha ha.] No, the problem concerned alleged objectionable remarks about classified employees: something about their being at the shallow end of the gene pool.
     Oh my!
     Immediately after Glenn's remarkable Senate performance, I spoke with Bio faculty. One instructor told me that he had made the comment about the gene pool, but that it was not directed at classified employees. Further, he could not think of anything Schrader had subsequently done or said that amounted to expressing or permitting objectionable remarks about classified employees. Later (he told me), when he listened to an audio tape of the meeting, he realized that his recollection had been accurate: Schrader had done nothing that could be construed as stating or condoning or allowing objectionable remarks about classified employees.
     So, today, that instructor, a member of the Rep Council, explained that President Roquemore's characterization of the School Meeting two weeks ago "was absolutely wrong." He explained that he had made the "gene pool" comment, not Schrader, and Schrader's subsequent comments were in no sense made at the expense of classified employees.
     He had not come alone. Another senior Bio instructor, who had also attended that fateful School Meeting, next explained that Schrader's comment--the one that, Glenn now claimed, was problematic--"had nothing to do with classified."
     Many faculty that I speak with at IVC are already under the impression that the President's odd Senate performance of two weeks ago was an after-the-fact attempt to rewrite history and thereby to shore up the miserable case that he (and VPI Craig Justice) had against Schrader.
     Stay tuned.

● The Kiana file - OCTOBER 19, 2011

     Speaking of civility, I've heard for weeks now that Kiana Tabibzadeh (recommended mnemonic: "Ki-a-na-Boomz-de-ay"), IVC President Glenn Roqemore's chemistry instructor wife, is now the chair (co-chair?) of her school, Physical Sciences and Technology.
     Usually, such appointments are noted on the board agenda (doesn't the board have to approve them?). But I don't recall seeing her appointment. I'll take a closer look.
     As I've mentioned previously, Kiana has a reputation for abusing her circumstance--that her husband is the Prez of the college who is liable to be unhappy if Kiana is unhappy. Reliable sources tell us that she has been involved in some difficulties with her deans (over her schedule, cake, etc.), of which there have been several in recent years, some of whom ceased deaning amid a large din of Sturm und Drang.
     I've been told that, given this history, and given the obvious potential for conflicts of interest, the wise among us had recommended that Kiana not pursue the chair position.
     Let me know where in past agendas her appointment appeared, if ever.

● Tri-tip scandal rocks Irvine Valley College!? (What's the beef?) - JANUARY 12, 2012

Anonymous said...
     On Friday Glenn hosts a campus BBQ and 15 mins. into the event, runs out of food…
     -12:33 PM, January 07, 2012 

Anonymous said...
     There was poor planning regarding the Friday barbecue -- they should have been cooking the stuff BEFORE people showed up. That was part of the problem -- the quantity was, uh, a bigger problem. But I heard Kiana's cake was FAB.
     -5:45 PM, January 11, 2012 

Anonymous said...
     I'm curious: why does Glen close his email with that strange quotation by "Unknown" -- "Never confuse who you are with what you do." ????
     Certainly what one does (one's actions) is part of who one is (IS in that BIG sense), right? How could it not be so? (You're a philosopher Roy, please explain.)
     Does anyone know why this statement is near and dear to Glen's heart?
     6:10 PM, January 12, 2012

B. von Traven said...
     "Never confuse who you are with what you do."
     Prima facie, the remark is odd, for there exists a familiar bit of reputed wisdom very much to the contrary: that the only real measure of who you are is, well, what you do--as opposed to the conduct you endorse, which, obviously, can diverge dramatically from one's conduct--especially among Republicans. "You are what you do" may seem to be worth saying.
     Naturally, in a world in which people are often forced or compelled to "do things"--accept jobs or assignments--that they find disagreeable, it might be comforting to be told that that's not who you are, really. But that's a lot of context, and none of it is provided by the bare remark.
     Perhaps the remark is making a point about the way in which one makes a living. Among businessmen, lawyers, salesmen, advertisers, and various others whose profession invites suspicion that they lack a soul, it might be nice to be told that, at the end of the day, when one arrives home to reunite with one's jaccuzi or mistress, one can, at long last, really be oneself. Hmmmm.
     My guess is that Glenn scraped this saying from the bottom of a barrel found among the refuse of a business management course.
     All in all, I'd say Glenn's saying is rubbish.
     6:40 PM, January 12, 2012

Anonymous said...
     Yes, I too have noticed Glenn's odd bit of alleged wisdom. Naturally, it is paradoxical; it seems to be the opposite of anything a wise person might say. I think we have all grown accustomed to this. Speaking for myself, anyway, I fully expect Glenn to own a plaque, sitting on his desk, that says something like, "the only lasting riches are, not in family and friends, but in one's bank account." No doubt, next to his toilet, there sits a book of wisdom, starting with the profound, "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" (Star Trek) and ending with the pithy "beam me up, Scotty!"
     6:49 PM, January 12, 2012

Irvine Valley College professor Kiana Tabibzadeh hands out slime during a demonstration at
 the 25th annual Astounding Inventions competition at Irvine Valley College Saturday.

I always loved this band, especially back in the day.
Guitarist Ham hanged himself in 1975. Bassist Evans did that a few years later.
Sheesh.

Catching Up: Ms. Rodriguez goes to Washington & #MeToo

Rosa receives the news of her recognition - and balloons.  

The Dissenters have been overwhelmed lately with the stuff of life, some good, some downright tragic, but who hasn't?  But here's a feel good to share:

Rosa, everyone's favorite DACA student, one of 800,000 targeted for possible deportation by Trump and the 62,984,825 people who voted for him (Raise your hands Trump voters! Higher! Higher! We can''t see you!) was selected as the IVC Foundation Outstanding Student of the Year. Rosa will be honored along with others at a fancy dinner on March 10 FIVE days Trump's deadline on DACA. Gee, that should be exciting for all sorts of reasons.  Hope to see you there. Rosa's parents will be in attendance to see their daughter honored for her many achievements, including her courage representing the 700 DACA students enrolled in the SOCCCD.

Earlier in January, Rosa traveled to Washington D.C. where she met met Senator Kamala Harris, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi and other elected officials, including a pissed off Darrell Issa who told the Dreamers gathered in his office that he wanted to deport all of them and their parents too. He was having a very, very bad day and hours later announced his "retirement."

Ms. Rodriguez goes the Washington. 

Rosa, John Lennon and President Lincoln: a trio of dreamers.

Meanwhile we keep hearing thing, yes things, here and there, there and here. There's a new sheriff in town who likes to read history. Someone is finally interested in mysterious disappearances. Finally. The case of the rival cheerleaders in Las Vegas and who sent who what when and why. Did so and so really say THAT? How much room is left in that old closet?  Yes, # MeToo. We are trying to find time to follow them up and down and see what's what. Please be patient. And keep those cards and letters and emails coming. We're still here. You're still there. It's all good as the kids say. At least for now.

Here's Joan Baez singing Tom Waits on her forthcoming album.  Joan will be touring for the last time this year. Go.

*

Aping Orcas

The Sinking of the Shooting Star: the amazing FBI files

     I became interested in the "Shooting Star" story because of Tom Fuentes, a legendarily wily and nasty operator in OC Republican politics—at least until 2005, when he was forced to step down as OC GOP chair, a position he held for about twenty years, owing to pressure from the Rich Guys contingent of the OC Party, who sought to shed the county of its knuckle-dragging image. In their view, Fuentes wasn't helping.
     And, of course, during the last dozen years of his life, starting in the summer of 2000, he was a trustee of the SOCCCD board here in South County. I knew a little about him before that. But, starting that summer, he brought a deep dark realpolitik to the good ol' SOCCCD. It was like Satan decided to come live in the neighborhood.
     He was pretty complicated. In his youth in the late 50s and early 60s, he worshipped Richard Nixon, and not because of Dick's love of puppies. Fuentes especially admired Nixon's no-holds-barred approach to the opposition, which was already evident in his run against Helen Gahagan Douglas in 1950.

     While Fuentes led the OC GOP to ever greater heights of staunchitude, he proudly served as the head PR flak for the OC Catholic Diocese—during the years when pedophile priests, and not their victims, were routinely protected by the church hierarchy.
     What's up with that? asks Gustavo Arellano.
     Despite his right-wing politics, Tom remained in good standing with Catholic officials—until 1988, when his political tactics became too visibly Nixonian: he hired uniformed "guards" to stand outside of polling places to intimidate Latino voters. Catholic officials took a dim view of that. It smacked of racism. Tom lost his Diocese gig. There was litigation; the party paid a huge settlement.
     Once in a while, Tom would get outed like that for the bastard he was.
     Fuentes was a self-loathing Chicano—and a self-loathing gay man to boot. Self-hatred plus the other-directed kind seemed to be at his core.
     He hated women. With Fuentes in charge, only seriously old school gals could find a place on Team GOP,  baking cookies or something.
     Essentially, he made his living as a lobbyist for a series of firms. He'd wine and dine local politicians to make them agreeable to doing business with his GOP business cronies. He made a fortune doing that. But that kind of work is a kind of sausage-making. It's best kept buried in the incessant OC noise.
     One time, the spotlight caught him providing perks for members of a water board. It was all very embarrassing. He even had to quit the company he worked for. But, generally speaking, Fuentes made his expensive sausages quietly, behind the scenes, connecting his pals with thick veins of public money.
     Sorry about the mixed metaphors.
     Despite his notorious piety, he plainly loved being wealthy and spent every spare hour at his beloved Balboa Bay Club, drinking, smoking cigars, ordering around the help, and doing who-knows-what with promising young Republican man-boys.

     The "Shooting Star" tragedy occurred in 1974, when Fuentes was about twenty-five years old. It  took the lives of Fuentes' bosses: OC Supervisor Ron Caspers, who had just won reelection and for whom Fuentes served as chief aide, and Fred Harber, the old timer of the bunch, and the apparent brain behind a kind or OC "shadow government" that controlled OC politics, starting around 1970 or so or maybe earlier. Caspers wanted to celebrate his victory by flying some of his pals down to La Paz (just north of the tip of Baja, Cabo), and then via charter to Cabo San Lucas, where they boarded Harber's power yacht, the Shooting Star. From there, they would sail up the coast toward California, fishing and enjoying the scenery.
     Fuentes was among the gang that flew down to La Paz and then Cabo, but, oddly, he did not join the cruise, owing to some alleged complaint or illness. He left a large icebox filled, he said, with decadent goodies for his boss, Caspers. Who knows what was in that box.
     It is not entirely clear just who was on the boat as it sailed from Cabo. Some among this group bailed at ports along the way back to California.
     Eventually, the yacht got pretty far up the Baja coast to Turtle Bay, where Harber decided to stop for fuel, provisions, etc. For some reason, at that point, the group seemed to be in a big hurry to get back to California. Their apparent route took them through some rough waters, which, later, puzzled investigators. Rough seas did develop there; the boat was forced to issue a Mayday. The Shooting Star and all hands were never heard from again. No bodies were every recovered, despite a massive search. Only small fragments of the boat were found.

     The story, once filled out, is pretty odd and hinky. Many of you already know most of it. Caspers and Harber were then involved in shaking down contractors and developers—laying' down the old "pay to play," something that Harber had been caught (or nearly caught) doing years earlier as city manager of Cypress. Back then (1966), Harber had agreed to testify in exchange for immunity, but the case had to be abandoned when Harber's apparent co-conspirator, City Councilman Job Denni, died in a plane crash. Harber and Denni's scheme involved receipt of $2,000 a month from a developer—the same arrangement that, according to Jordan, Harber and Caspers offered to him eight years later. (See Harber and Caspers attempt to bribe a developer, but then they die instead.)
     Back to 1974: One such "mark," Richard Jordan, decided to fight back, contacting the OC DA, Cecil Hicks, a Republican enemy of Caspers and his unsavory (mostly Democratic) crowd, including Harber and the infamous "Dick and Doc," i.e., land developer Dick O'Neil and mysterious political operator (and medical doctor) Louis Cella. Not long after the Shooting Star disaster, Dick and Doc's run as Big Political Donors ran afoul of the law—Cella, it turns out, was engaging in massive fraud at hospitals—which eventually landed Cella in prison. Within a few years, several other major OC politicians joined him there. The corruption was pretty thick.
     Fuentes managed to sail through it all, unscathed, though he was widely reputed to have been "Caspers' bagman." When Caspers died, Tom hoped to be appointed as his replacement, but when that fell through he decided to quit politics and become a priest. His seminary time lasted about a year. Soon, he was back wining and dining rich people for the good ol' OC GOP. And he became rich.
     Naturally, the Shooting Star disaster was a terrible tragedy for the 10 people on board and their families. This group included three young men from the Klein family of Utah. (One of the Klein boys was an administrative assistant for a member of the OC Board of Supes.) Clearly, this peculiar tragedy devastated the Klein family and left lots of unanswered questions. Too few in OC seemed interested in finding the answers.
     There was a huge effort to recover survivors, find bodies, and so on, funded by Cella. For a while, it was run by—you guessed it—the dark souled Mr. Fuentes. These efforts produced virtually nothing. The tragedy was mostly blamed on bad weather and poor decisions. But many observers clearly saw the whole episode as very strange. Perhaps suspicious. But, it seemed, all the evidence had sunk to the bottom of the ocean. People moved on.

     NOT LONG AGO, a Ms. S*****—a younger and internet-savvy member of the family that lost the Klein brothers in the tragedy—requested information concerning the "Sinking of the Shooting Star" from the FBI via the Freedom of Information Act. On November 14, 2017, she received the information with a cover page that explained needed "exemptions" (i.e., deletions), and the relevant FOIA "statute headings." The relevant part of that cover page is here:

The relevant sections (of FOIA) are here:

     I received the documents from Ms. S, but they were in files that included pages that sometimes did not seem to match. I made an effort to put them in some kind of order. I fill in some of the blanks where I can. Here they are: pages 4, 5, and 6 are especially interesting.

This page doesn't make much sense to me, given what follows.

I think that the redacted name is Frank Vessels, Jr.,
owner of the Los Alamitos Racetrack. Vessels shot himself in the
head with a shot gun six months later (probably unrelated).
Nobody's quite sure why he did that. His wife was standing just
a few feet away.

Again, I think the redacted name is Frank Vessels, Jr.
This was Caspers' second boating tragedy. Back in the mid-50s a boating
 accident involving his yacht killed his then-wife. See 1954: 
"Shooting Star" was Caspers' second boating tragedy. The first was also a doozy

The "land developer" was Richard Jordan. His tale was finally reported in 
May of 1978 (See). The telephone call was likely from Caspers' assistant, Tom Fuentes, 
who was (in 1978) reported to have spoken with Jordan, eventually informing him that Shirley
Grindle, an "honest government" advocate and planning commissioner, was asking questions 
about Jordan's project. Fuentes then arranged for Jordan's meeting with Spendlove, Caspers' hand-picked
 planning commissioner. 
Spendlove died in a plane crash (taking his whole family, including four kids) in Utah in September
 of 1975, a year after having been fired by Caspers' successor, Tom Riley.

More of the Jordan story. The planning commissioner mentioned above ("her") is Shirley Grindle,
widely known for her crusades for clean and open government. She was appointed by
OC Supervisor Ralph Clark in 1973 and she remained on the Commission until 1977. (See OAC.)
The meeting taken on May 6th or 
7th is taken by developer Jordan. The amount of cash Harber and Caspers demanded from Jordan
—$2K a month—was the same amount demanded in the scheme Harber and Denni pursued back in 1966.
 (See note above.) 
The person declining the Mexican trip was the developer, Jordan.
WHO was interviewed on May 9th of 1978? Golly!
And who did the interviewing?
I have found a reference to an officer/agent ("special agent"?) of the FBI named Stanley J. Fullerton
 (here; p. II-109). And so Fullerton represents the FBI in the interview. What's SA? I suspect it abbreviates
Special Agent.
The OC DA who went after Cella was the celebrated Cecil Hicks.
I have no idea who this Marine Major is. I'll do some digging.

Curious investors: Camelot card club, Anaheim (c. 1977)

I have found news reports concerning the Camelot "card club" in Anaheim c. 1976-7. The owner, Joseph G. London,
ran afoul of city regulations. Some local officials seemed to feel that the club was detrimental to citizens' welfare. A "James Grover" (aka "Jimmy 'Bad Boy' Williams") of Las Vegas had ties to the club; evidently, he was an ex-convict with underworld connections, which worried Anaheim officials when London attempted to expand the business in the city. (The
Register's 9-12-77 article about Camelot is amazing.)

Someone overheard a conversation by ? in which "covering...tracks" was discussed—in connection
with the sinking of the Shooting Star. Relative to tracks-covering, this Marine, is (?) a local gambler in debt to this "card club."
The next bit of verbiage (on page 5) refers to participants of the conversation "wanting CASPERS 'taken out'"

CELLA wants Caspers taken out? Over knowledge of a hinky funding source?
Who is the BAGMAN? I know that Larry Clark worked for Schmitt (OC Board of Supers 1975-78)—
but it seems unlikely that he would be a bagman for anyone.
I'm gonna have to work on this, see if I can identify the names.
Two hookers on the Shooting Star! WTF!

OCDAO — that's likely the OC District Attorney's Office.
Could the redacted mystery man be Lyle Overby? Overby served as
a Supervisor's executive aide at the time, I believe. He was on the Shooting Star on
that fateful (not fatalistic) trip—but bailed at some point at Cabo San Lucas. (See My correspondence 
with passenger Lyle Overby.) 
Overby later became a successful OC lobbyist. (He is a Republican.)
LARRY SCHMITT was an OC Supervisor from 75-78 or so. He was a part of
Harber's "shadow government." Larry Clark, who wrote a fine piece about the 
Shooting Star tragedy, told me that he was Schmitt's executive aide—and he was told
that his job was to "keep him [Larry] out of jail." Clark was the one who told me that Overby
was the passenger who bailed on the trip perhaps at Cabo.

Let me know what you make of all this. 

I've got more documents that I haven't sifted through yet.

I'll get back atcha. —RB