I rite pretty goode, got a B

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ARE MANY COLLEGE STUDENTS unprepared for college? Well, don’t even get me started. I teach at a college in an affluent town known for its excellent public schools, but few of my students write at the college level.

They often seem to feel otherwise, however. I'll explain their weaknesses as writers, but students will often shoot back with, "But I got a B!"

I teach at a community college where just about anybody can enroll. (I understand they're awarding degrees to dogs now.) The State University system, however, only accepts students from the top third of High School graduates. Impressive. Surely, entering CSU students can write!

Well, no, many of them cannot write, and recent efforts to raise the proportion who can don’t seem to be working.

So explains a report in today’s San Jose Mercury: Unprepared freshmen pervade CSU system:

Nearly half of the first-time freshmen admitted to San Jose State University last fall were not prepared for college English and one-third were not prepared for college math, according to new data presented Tuesday during a meeting of the California State University Board of Trustees.

…On average, 45 percent of CSU freshmen needed a remedial course in English and 37 percent needed a course in math before progressing to college-level material. The report offers disappointing evidence that high school-based efforts to boost the college-readiness of California's young people are still falling short.

"The problem is not yet solved," concludes the report, presented by Gary W. Reichard, CSU's executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer.

The CSU trustees aimed to have 74 to 78 percent of incoming freshmen ready for college by fall 2004—and 90 percent ready by fall 2008.

This dream now seems unachievable, the report concludes, because the proportion of prepared students has stayed stable for four years.

"There is no realistic likelihood of achieving the trustees' 90 percent readiness goals in both subjects by fall 2008," the report concludes.

…The report found that 49.3 percent of SJSU students needed remedial English classes and 33.4 percent needed remedial math classes….

…CSU accepts all students who have scored in the top third of their high school class and have at least a B average.

But these students are not necessarily ready for CSU-caliber work, said Elizabeth Chavarin, 23, who took one semester of remedial math and English courses after graduation from San Jose's William C. Overfelt High School before going on to complete her bachelor's degree in public relations.

"You still need to prepare yourself for college-level material," she said. "Just because you pass the high school exit exam doesn't mean you're at college level.

…Students have 15 months to pass these remedial courses. If not, they can study at the community college level and then return to CSU.

For students who don't master the remedial material within two years, most quit higher education. Students sent back to community colleges rarely re-enter the CSUs, the report found….

Retrial or no? Plus Meese!

☛

WELL, YESTERDAY, the jury deadlocked on whether to convict highly connected accused child molester Jeffrey Nielsen.

I noticed the story on the LA Times/OC homepage late last night, just after midnight. It continued to be prominently displayed (on the Times' homepage) this morning.

I was on the OC Register’s homepage late last night too, and, surprisingly, the Reg had a report there as well. But I couldn’t find it there this morning. It moved somewhere else.

The conservative OC Reg has not really covered this story. Could it be because of the powerful Republicans who are embarrassed by it?

Well, I guess so!

Perhaps the most interesting reporting on the Nielsen non-verdict came today from OC Register columnist Frank Mickadeit, so I'll start with that. [UPDATE: See also Teeny bop panty drop, by R. Scott Moxley.]

1. The OC Register: Would like to know more about jury:

The three papers covering the trial were not told the jury was coming back to tell Judge Craig Robison it was having problems reaching a verdict and the judge might declare a mistrial. The Register and Times specifically asked the Superior Court and the D.A.'s Office to be informed when the jury came back. We provided cell numbers and made sure we were within 20 minutes' drive of the Newport Beach courthouse. But we didn't find out until more than a half hour after the mistrial was declared and jurors had already left.

…We do know the votes on the six counts were 4-8, 3-9, 7-5, 5-7, 2-10 and 2-10. Based on the way I was told they were reported by the foreman in open court, the first number is that of the "guilty" votes, the second the "not guilty" votes.

As I'm sure you're aware, the chief advisor to OC DA Tony Rackauckas is local GOP bigshot Michael Schroeder. Schroeder is among the Republicans who, one might guess, is embarrassed by the Nielsen story. (Schroeder wrote letters of recommendation for Nielsen.)

Schroeder's wife, Susan, is the DA's chief spokesperson.

2. The LA Times/OC: Mistrial in molestation case against former congressional aide: Jury can't decide on charges against Jeffrey Nielsen, who once worked for Dana Rohrabacher, may face another trial on the charges.

An Orange County jury deadlocked Monday on whether to convict a former congressional aide on charges he molested a 14-year-old boy he met in an Internet chat room, leading the judge to declare a mistrial.

Jurors had deliberated less than three days when they sent a note to Superior Court Judge Craig Robison just before noon Monday saying they could not reach a verdict on any of the six charges against Jeffrey Nielsen.

Paul S. Meyer, the attorney representing Nielsen, said he was "exceptionally disappointed" with the outcome.

"This case deserved a unanimous not-guilty verdict," Meyer said. "We understand that, generally, a majority to a large majority of the jurors agreed with that assessment."

Deputy Dist. Atty. Dan Hess said it was unfortunate the jury couldn't reach a verdict. He plans to retry the case, after a full review of the trial.

Both sides are due back in court April 6 for further discussions.

Nielsen, 36, was arrested three years ago at his Costa Mesa law office and charged with molesting the teenager, identified in court as John Doe because his identity has been shielded, on three occasions in the spring of 2003: twice at his Ladera Ranch condominium and once at the Westminster mobile home where the teen lived with his family.

The trial in Newport Beach's Harbor Court might not have gained intrigue if not for Nielsen's political connections. A USC-trained lawyer, he has worked for Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) and local GOP chairman Scott Baugh. Nielsen's father, Ben, is a former Fountain Valley mayor.

…While on the witness stand, Nielsen acknowledged that he had looked at computer photographs of men having sex with boys, but that he didn't consider it any more exciting than other gay pornography, and that those images were not on his mind when he met with Doe….

3. The OC Register: Hung jury in molestation case: New trial considered for Jeffrey Ray Nielsen, former aide to congressman, accused of lewd acts with teen.

A Superior Court jury deadlocked today after more than three days of deliberations on whether a former aide to an Orange County congressman molested a 14-year-old boy he met on a Web site for gay men.

The Orange County District Attorney's Office is considering seeking a new trial….

Defense attorney Paul S. Meyer, who argued that the boy was a liar who fantasized about having an affair with Nielsen, said he was disappointed with the hung jury.

…The case has drawn drew widespread attention because of Nielsen's connections to several Orange County Republican leaders.

He was once a legislative aide in Washington, D.C., to Rep. Dana Rohrbacher, and worked on an Assembly campaign of Scott Baugh, now the Republican Party chairman in Orange County.

In addition, Nielsen was given recommendations to University of Southern California law school by Republican activists Tom Fuentes and Michael Schroeder….

…Nielsen acknowledged when he testified last week that he chatted with the accuser on the gay Web site and later met him on three occasions. But he insisted they never had sex, exposed themselves, kissed, or touched each other sexually.

Instead, Nielsen said he counseled the teenager, who told him that he was troubled about deciding whether he should come out as gay. Nielsen said he felt empathy for the boy because he was facing the same dilemma.

MORE REPUBLICANS:

The district’s Tracy D has sent out one of her lovely “Updates”. This one mentions that

Former United States Attorney General Edwin Meese recently visited in Irvine. SOCCCD Trustees Donald P. Wagner and Thomas A. Fuentes and Chancellor Mathur greeted him at a dinner in his honor.

Early in his career, Meese served as Chief of Staff to California Governor Ronald Reagan.

Naturally, there's no mention of the fact that Mr. Meese is highly ethically tainted.

[Y]ou don't have many suspects who are innocent of a crime. That's contradictory. If a person is innocent of a crime, then he is not a suspect.

—Ed Meese

You gotta love that "plague of despair"

☞
THAT'S RIGHT. We've been up sh*t creek, sans paddle, since December of '96, when the original "Board Majority" took charge. The Accreditors call it our "plague of despair." Really, they do. (Plagues then and now.)



UNFAMILIAR with the three-ring Cirque de Dismay that is the South Orange County Community College District? You might want to read:

Trustee Fuentes' Spanish Adventure: yes, bigshot Republican Tom Fuentes stirs up a hornets' nest. Spain, he says, has "abandoned" our fighting men and women! Therefore, no Study Abroad trips to Spain! Shit hits fan.

IVC faculty prohibited from discussing the war: yes, it's true. April 2003. We're not making this up!

Trustee Frogue invites Holocaust deniers to campus: The board thinks that's just swell, and, despite warnings, gives Frogue the green light. The excrement really hit the fan that time! Overnight, Saddleback became the college that invites crackpots and lunatics (and maybe Nazis, too)!


Is Trustee Frogue a Holocaust denier?: apparently so. See the evidence.

Hangin' with bigwig Republicans while Nazis hide in bushes: local GOP consigliere Mike Schroeder embraces the Frogue recall. Everybody who's anybody was at this event—Loretta, Bob—and Nazis too!

Bauer's court victory: the district ruthlessly tries to shut down a faculty critic—but the federal court says "nope" plus "what were you people thinkin'?" Lots of bad press. What a board!

"Liberal busybodies!": Libertarian Don Wagner pulls the colleges out of the American Library Association! More bad press.


The Howard Hilton: one of the great harebrained schemes of all time. Wagner, Mathur, and Gensler hope to build a Hilton Hotel (w/ lake) at Irvine Valley College! The plan goes "poof" among never-ending whoops of ridiculosity.

The Board's unlikely secret allies!: in 1998, a faculty union finances the successful trustee bids of two conservative Republicans. (And those two are still here!) Only in South Orange County!

Check out the UFOs!: we witness a flying Fuentes; plus mold pie.

"Kill it & Grill it" and other FUENTEIAN titles: Tom Fuentes is into publishing—publishing anti-intellectual crap, that is.

The replacement Clock Tower adventure: a popular favorite. Chunk, Reb, and Red have some fun with news of the demolition of our beloved Clock Tower.

My cat Sunny evidently contemns that Tom Fuentes

☞
SUNNY lobbied to go outside this morning. I said, "OK, we're going out there, little girl, but we've gotta watch out for coyotes and stuff." She got all twitchy and then yammered. She never meows. It's always squalling, and howling, and yammering. No meows.

When I opened the door, the darned fool bolted toward freedom, running idiotically into the sunlight in all directions. That's Sunny all over. She's like a goddam caffeinated weasel.

It was an incredibly beautiful day. It was—it continues to be—the kind of day in which the air feels beautiful. I checked out Modjeska Peak before me. It shone in the sun. The day just sparkled.

Sunny's no fool (well, actually she's a total fool). Anyway, she, too, seemed to appreciate the super-fine weather. She checked out everything.

She ate some grass. She was mighty particular about the blades she ate. She rejected most of 'em. I don't get it.

She took a dirt bath. Check it out.


She found a sunny spot and planted her chin on the dirt. She kinda rested like that for a while.

After about twenty minutes, I called to her, and she ran indoors like a lunatic. Standard stuff.


I had some clippings over in the corner. One had a picture of Tom Fuentes on it. She started retching, like she does. I started to get a rag.

She puked all over Tom. I walked up to clean up her puke ball. (I always call 'em "puke balls.") I looked at the hideous thing, leaking through the paper, distorting Tom's image, stinkin' up my room.

"Well, you got that right, Sunny Girl," I said. "You sure got that right."

I scrunched the clip and the rag together and threw the entire mess, first, into a plastic bag, then into the trash barrel outside.

"You are one sweet cat, Sunny girl!", I shouted. Don't know if she heard me. I think she's deaf or something.

Spring Break Special: BEST OF Dissent's Comments

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YES, it's Spring Break. This means no board meetings, no bored students sitting on rooftops and, perhaps for Rebel Girl, no stressed-out surreal dreams inspired by her workplace.

In other words, no material.

We here at DISSENT have decided to commemorate Spring Break by reviewing our archives and retrieving and presenting the very best of the comments we have received since going online. Some fun. Really.

Readers may not realize that there is more to DISSENT than our nationally-recognized graphic style (University Diaries describes the blog as "a visual treat") and our witty reportage (professor zero declares, "I love them!"). Indeed, a click on the COMMENTS at the end of every post reveals the other dissenting voices out there.

So sit back, relax and enjoy THIS WEEK in the BEST OF DISSENT's COMMENTS (some of which, we hope, were written by YOU). (First in a series.)

IT WAS late last year when this reader posted, at the very end of the blog post entitled: DISSENT'S VERY SHORT HISTORY OF THE DISTRICT'S TROUBLES (1996-2005).

The reader's comment appears below, verbatim.

Anonymous said...
"MATHUR AND THE DOOR KNOB"

My original opinion of this blog portraying the follies of “Mathur’s journey from IVC President to mighty District Chancellor" was negative at first. I thought this blog to be a gathering of disgruntled employee’s on a mission to get their “just desserts.” However, this all changed over a door knob conversation with a janitor at IVC.

I myself, a student at IVC that works and helps out with the adaptive P.E. program (handicap person’s Physical Therapy program), was taken [a]back when I had an unlikely conversation with a janitor and his bad experience with Mathur back in his day as President of IVC. Last week, while working with a student in a wheel chair, part of a handle broke off a piece of equipment. I flagged down a passing maintenance person in charge of delivering mail and other items around the campus. I asked him if he could tighten two screws in the handle, so we can get back to doing our exercises with the disabled.

Out of nowhere, the guy said it’s an easy five minute fix, but the last time he tried to fix a simple door knob (or similar item) for a teacher, the President of the school (Mathur) filed grievances against him for [violating] policy. In short, the guy was scared to simply tighten two screws because he almost got fired ... for helping someone out with a door knob. I had to make an official request and wait a long time for the “official correct” person to tighten two screws. When the official “Screw Tightener’s” of IVC showed up, they actually had to take the handle to a secret location ... (so far it has not come back to the gym).

[I was] truly amazed to the see the absolute fear this maintenance guy had on his face. You can tell he really wanted to help out these handicap students.

If you mention Mathur’s name to the people that emerge from the shadows at night (maintenance people), they really don’t care for him. ... [H]ow can a President running a whole college (or district) possibl[y] have the time to be picking constant fights with faculty members and staff over pointless battles. Common sense, if there is any out there, would want a leader that is truly concerned with the best outcome for his students, not creating skirmishes that achieve absolutely nothing.

December 10, 2006 2:52 PM

Nits better left unpicked, deals better made in the sunshine

☛
(The Holocaust denier resigned, only to be replaced by TOM FUENTES, hater of Spain, contemner of faculty, prayer of prayers.)

1. Consultation, Schmonsultation

As you know, faculty in the SOCCCD tend to complain about the administration & trustees’ failure to consult with them. And no wonder. Remember the faculty lawsuit, a couple of years ago, over the district's unilateral imposition of a new faculty hiring policy? The courts voided that policy. Tsk-tsk.

SOCCCD faculty tend to complain about board secrecy, too. Again, no wonder. A few years ago, owing to some faculty initiative, the courts ultimately ordered the SOCCCD board to cease its "persistent and defiant misconduct" secrecywise. (See sidebar.)

At the time, the district's lawyer was named "Covert." I kid you not.

But, hey, faculty get pesky about secrecy and failures of consultation everywhere, not just in the South OC. Take the profs at UC Berkeley (“Cal”)…

From yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle: BERKELEY
UC faculty critical of BP deal: Professors rail on lack of transparency, academic freedom, by Rick DelVecchio.

UC Berkeley's $500 million energy research deal with oil giant BP took a pounding at a faculty forum Thursday, with a host of speakers critical of the unprecedented partnership—some bitingly so.

The forum, sponsored by Cal's Academic Senate, was the first gathering of campus promoters, skeptics and curious onlookers since the deal was announced on Feb. 1.
The result was a spirited exchange that drew more than 250 people and shifted the focus of the energy deal from the scientific challenge and social mission of creating alternate fuel sources to what it means for the values and culture of the world's top public university.

The deal provides for $50 million a year in research spending…The money will fund a broad range of research aimed at creating new technologies for carbon-neutral liquid fuels, such as ethanol. The sponsors stressed Thursday that the research will include a parallel analysis of the environmental and socio-economic problems related to a major shift in fuel consumption patterns worldwide.

The meeting put top university officials, including Chancellor Robert Birgeneau, on the defensive as critics said the administration has jeopardized faculty trust by failing to adequately explain the implications of the complex deal for academic freedom and for the university's image.

Anthropology Professor Paul Rabinow cited the 1998-2003 research deal between Swiss biotech firm Novartis and Cal's Department of Plant and Microbial Biology. That deal, which provided for $5 million a year from 1998 to 2003, was intended to develop genetically engineered foods. It sparked campus protests and was criticized at the time by faculty members who felt it was implemented without collegial debate.

"The way the university handled it was completely, recklessly stupid," Rabinow said.
The same mistakes are being repeated with the BP deal, he said.

"It should have been transparent, there should have been consultation," he said. "This is silly. You should have given us more time to debate this."

Art history Professor Tim Clark voiced deep misgivings about the lack of discussion on the conflicts that may occur in a research agreement between a public university and private corporation.

"The tension between one imperative and the other ought to be explicit in whatever deal the university strikes," he said. "The deal ought to be open to inspection."

Faculty governance should have a place of power in the arrangement, he said….


2. Nits better left unpicked

Lately, the state's community college system has been getting some seriously bad press. The system oughta hire a good PR firm, if you ask me. They wouldn't have to lie or hire Tiger Woods or anything! Just wave the facts under people's noses, is all.

From yesterday’s Sacramento Bee:
Nitpicking community colleges, by Dan Walters.

California's highways are congested and crumbling, its prisons are overcrowded and close to being taken over by a federal judge, its elementary and high schools do only a mediocre job of educating students, and its parks and other public facilities are in ill repair.

Does anything work very well in California anymore? Yes. Its three systems of public higher education still provide high-quality and relatively low-cost instruction—not perfectly, certainly, but more efficiently and effectively than most other big public programs.

The state's 109 community colleges are an especially praiseworthy institution, providing both college level classes and technical, job-related training at very low cost to students—their fees are the lowest in the country—and to taxpayers.

…[W]hile community colleges are educating the equivalent of 1.2 million students for $6 billion, a much-troubled prison system is spending $8 billion-plus a year on 170,000 inmates, seven times as much per capita. …K-12 schools have six times as many students as community colleges, but cost us 10 times as much.

Walters goes on to ask: “Given these positive facts about our community colleges, why do so many folks want to beat up on them?” It’s a case, writes Walters, of blaming the system “for circumstances that are beyond their reasonable control.”

Check it out.

The boys of Spring Break

☛

WELL, for the two benighted colleges of the South Orange County Community College District, it's SPRING BREAK. That's when things get especially wacky.

I shall provide two very recent examples.

I. The stupid kid on the roof

My day was done, and I started walking out to the parking lot. It was quiet at Irvine Valley College.

Then something caught my eye. A small crowd of students were looking up at the roof of building A400—the one that reeks of formaldehyde. There was some kid up there. He was sitting, doing nothing.


I asked: "What's that guy doing up on the roof?"

"We don't know."

"Well, did anybody ask him?"

"Um— No."

I came closer.


"Hey, kid. How come you're up on that roof."

"I dunno. I'm just up here."

I stared at him. I took a couple of snaps.


"Kid, maybe you should get down off the goddam roof now."

Long pause. "Yeah."

He got up. He walked to the north end of the building and then, somehow, he shinnied down (I wasn't watching). The same small crowd of students followed his progress.

When the kid finally returned to earth, he ran and whooped and hollered like an asshole.

The crowd cheered.


II. Love that Bob!

This morning's post about the ATEP meeting ("A pitcher, no catchers") inspired lots of peevish commentary, but it also got lots of hits, especially for a Friday, which tends to be sleepy, at least for us.

Why all the hits? I dunno, but, in the past, whenever I've included photos of "Park Ranger" Bob Kopecky of ATEP, our numbers have shot up. I guess the guy's dreamy or something.

OK, ladies. —More Bob!



This one's from a couple of months ago. That's Tere F, ATEP's Director of Public Information & Marketing, to the right.