SOCCCD litigation watch

• Just after 5:00 p.m. today, Irvine Valley College faculty received an “information item” from the President of the Academic Senate:

Senators

:

The Senate has received a “Public Records Act” request from the SOCCC District lawyers, asking the IVC Faculty Senate to provide any and all public documents and/or records reflecting Senate discussion and actions pertaining to IVC Faculty Senate’s support of the Saddleback Faculty Senate’s resolution regarding prayer. 
Based on our legal obligations, the Senate has complied.

• Meanwhile, our pals at Save Our Southwestern College seem to think that things are heating up in their bordertown version of the “life among Neanderthals” saga:

Accreditation News: Town Hall Meeting Tonight

Late yesterday, Superintendent/President Raj K. Chopra issued a memo announcing that the college has received the much-anticipated report from the Accreditation Commission for Community and Junior Colleges.

The college has not yet publicly posted the accreditation report, but a "Town Hall" meeting has been scheduled to discuss the results. The meeting will be held at 5:00 p.m. today on the main campus in Room L238 N&S (across from the library).

In other news, the Governing Board took no action at its recent special meeting to evaluate Chopra. Meanwhile, an online survey (see previous post) has gone out to all faculty.

Stay tuned!

UPDATE:

Looks like the ACCJC spanked 'em good:

Southwestern College on Probation

Check out the Action Letter. Reminds me of some letters our colleges have received.

Pretty serious.

Rebel Girl's Poetry Corner: "Contained in this classroom/ is a microcosm of human existence

Rebel Girl understands that is is a tad bit early in the semester for this poem but dang. They're already going missing. Various ailments. Flat tires. Distant relatives at the airport.

So - the very popular "Did I Miss Anything" by Tom Wayman, from his book, The Astonishing Weight of the Dead. Buck up. Persevere.



Did I Miss Anything

Question frequently asked by
students after missing a class

Nothing. When we realized you weren't here
we sat with our hands folded on our desks
in silence, for the full two hours

Everything. I gave an exam worth
40 per cent of the grade for this term
and assigned some reading due today
on which I'm about to hand out a quiz
worth 50 per cent

Nothing. None of the content of this course
has value or meaning
Take as many days off as you like:
any activities we undertake as a class
I assure you will not matter either to you or me
and are without purpose

Everything. A few minutes after we began last time
a shaft of light descended and an angel
or other heavenly being appeared
and revealed to us what each woman or man must do
to attain divine wisdom in this life and
the hereafter
This is the last time the class will meet
before we disperse to bring this good news to all people
on earth

Nothing. When you are not present
how could something significant occur?

Everything. Contained in this classroom
is a microcosm of human existence
assembled for you to query and examine and ponder
This is not the only place such an opportunity has been
gathered

but it was one place

And you weren't here

*

Will the fix be in—again?

fix, n . . .2. Any arrangement by which laws, rules, or regulations are circumvented...‘his mob got a license (police permission) to hustle (steal) on the cannon (picking pockets) here. The fix is in solid.’ 1953 Big Heat He had come up through the ranks of a society that was founded on the fix. (The OED)

Late in June, Raghu P. Mathur will cease his remarkable tenure as chancellor of the South Orange County Community College District.

That’s exactly five months away.

That would seem to be enough time to search for his replacement.

Naturally, a search and hire should be honest, fair, and competent, maximizing the chances of finding the best possible leader for our district.

Not a Yes man. Someone who can guide the board when he/she needs to.

Further, an honest search could mark a new beginning for the district, now that the odious Mathur, who, along with Trustee John Williams* (himself the subject of embarrassing and disturbing stories of incompetence, cronyism, and other varieties of poor conduct in recent months), is the common thread running through the district’s decline in repute and morale, which started in December of 1996 and which arguably continues to this day.

It’s worth remembering the district’s spotty and sometimes dismal record of Presidential and Chancellor search/hires in the last dozen or so years. Here's part of the story:

• “Trustee calls for outside intervention,” Irvine World News, September 11, 1997
College district 'incapable of responsible self-government'

Decrying the process, "or lack thereof" by which Raghu Mathur was selected as the new president of Irvine Valley College Monday, community college Trustee David Lang of Irvine said Tuesday he is seeking the intervention of statewide community college Chancellor Thomas Nussbaum in the affairs of the South Orange County Community College District….
. . .
Lang said he is asking for outside intervention because the south county college board and the district seem "incapable of responsible self-government."
. . .
Irvine Valley faculty members said Tuesday they fear retaliation–harassment or even dismissal—by the board and Mathur for their lack of support during the selection of a replacement for Dan Larios, who left Irvine Valley College last spring to head Fresno City College in his hometown. ¶ Lang said he can understand their fears. ¶ But in an interview following Monday night's meeting of the college board, Trustee John Williams of Mission Viejo said he fully supports the process that was used by the board and the appointment of Mathur to the position. ¶ He said Mathur was "the top candidate for the job all the way through the hiring process."
. . .
"He was just the best person for the job," Williams said of Mathur.
. . .
Trustee Joan Hueter of Tustin said Wednesday that she is saddened by recent actions of the board. ¶ "I have worked with boards before that could disagree and still get along and move forward. This (board) is just unbelievable," Hueter said….

• “Bizarre beat goes on at college district,” editorial, Irvine World News, September 11, 1997

Four members of the South Orange County Community College Board of Trustees have made a mockery of shared governance and continue on their campaign of political revenge. ¶ …[Raghu] Mathur is now Irvine Valley's president. ¶ What's next? Look for reprisals against a select list of faculty members and administrators at Irvine Valley who have spoken out against the board majority. ¶ Such an exercise in raw political power, of course, would be repressive and wrong. That doesn't seem to bother the board majority, however….

• O.C. Chancellor Selection Called Best Choice, Sham, LA Times, February 2, 2002
Education: New Orange County college chief had earlier received two 'no-confidence' votes from faculty and was the fourth or fifth choice of a selection committee

…The appointment of Raghu P. Mathur, president of Irvine Valley College, by the conservative-controlled board of trustees had been widely expected. Many faculty members on Friday called the selection process a sham. ¶ Mathur, 53, was ranked fourth or fifth among the five candidates the selection committee forwarded to trustees, said Lee Haggerty, who, as president of the teachers union, sat on the panel…. ¶ "He was going to be their man from the beginning," Haggerty said.
. . .
The vote was 5-2, with David Lang and Marcia Milchiker voting against Mathur's appointment.
. . .
Mathur will be paid $170,000 to $180,000 a year, with details of his contract still to be negotiated, Wagner said. ¶ Mathur is expected to take over Monday.
. . .
Controversy has followed Mathur since the board voted 4-3 to appoint him interim president of Irvine Valley in April 1997, promoting him from chairman of the school of physical sciences. ¶ Five months later, a judge ruled that the board had violated the state open-meetings law in making the appointment. ¶ Faculty members said he lacked administrative experience and was too closely aligned with trustees. ¶ In 1998, 75% of faculty at Irvine Valley voted "no confidence" in him, and a year later, the faculty senate called for his removal. ¶ In 1999, 90% of the faculty said they had no confidence in Mathur.

In May of 2004, 93.5% of district faculty (77% participated) voted “no confidence” in Chancellor Mathur:

No-Confidence Vote Will Be 3rd for College Chief, LA Times, May 17, 2004
Huge Vote Against College Chief, LA Times, May 18

…Trustees appointed Mathur chancellor even though a hiring committee did not rank him among the top three candidates, according to Lee Haggerty, then union president, who sat on the panel. ¶ Teachers say Mathur and the elected board have taken away many of their powers to govern college life and added rules to control faculty.

--A year later, the board reconsidered renewing Mathur’s contract:

In the end, Mathur’s contract was renewed, with strong support from Raghu’s new friend, Dave Lang.

A colleague who is close to Lang later explained to me that Lang sought to run for OC Treasurer.

*Marcia Milchiker has been trustee during this period (she first joined the board in 1986), but she has generally opposed Mathur and his controversial actions and policies.

Several large bowels of pasta

Yesterday, the NYT’s “Schott’s Vocab” zeroed in on malapropisms. Having been raised in an immigrant family, I own a brain that is hard-wired with dozens of malapropistic configuroons. I think I even got some of ‘em through the umbiblical “chord,” though, really, that’s a mute point at this stench in time.

First, the malapropism upon which much of my parents’ fame rests:

“He died because of a blood cloth.”

Sometimes, I will look right at them and say, “There is no such thing as a ‘blood cloth.’ You mean a ‘blood clot.’”

Always, they look right back at me with immediate and utter incredulity.

Here are some examples offered by Schott’s readers:

HE'S VERY EGOTESTICLE

• Someone I know is a genius at this. She spoke of a woman who had her hair up in a buffoon; saw my new shoes and said, "My, aren't you the fashion plague"; and recently spoke of a man who is very egotesticle.

• my favorite poem is "allergy in a church graveyard".

• My aunt always said, "I can't have anymore children because I've had my utopian tubes tied.”

• My father, noting the first hint of fall in the air, sighed and said: "Soon it will be time to fart stars in the fireplace.” [This seems to be something of a Spoonerism.]

• A busy woman: "Sometimes I get so stressed out I have to go to my room and decompose for an hour."

YOU DRIVE MY NUTS!

• A co-worker's little son announced that "you drive my nuts!" My daughter once wrote that our cat Butter Boy jumped on Frenzy when she was "least expectant." My grandfather deliberately invented examples like astosbestos for asbestos and nutneg for nutmeg. Another relative admired the singing of Ethel Murmur and the talents of Shirley Dimple. This becomes a way of life. It's dangerous to be exposed to it when young! [God, this sounds like my upbringing. Pretty whackitudinal!]

• i cannot decide which music i like better, R&B or flip flop

• "lead us snots into temptation...."

• My grandmother was famous for her malaprops; when asked if she would like to take a flight in her friend's new airplane, she gasped "Absolutely not, I like it right here on Terra Cotta";

• At a restaurant: Clams on the half shelf and a cup of chino.

• ". . . government takeover and mandation of healthcare . . ." --Sarah Palin

• Here are selected favorites from my wife:
1. This is the tip of the ice cube.
2. Security in schools has been tighter since 7-11.
3. The right foot doesn't know what the left foot is doing.
4. The swine flu has reached the pandemonium stage.

LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TURTLE

• At work, our team had been working on a project that had been progressing at snail’s pace with no end remotely in sight. One day, we had a breakthrough, and one of my colleagues excitedly announced at our weekly meeting, “There’s light at the end of the turtle.”

• Our church secretary always refers to the annual report to the denomination as the Sadistical Report.

• A friend with a medical condition consulted a doctor at "Cedars Cyanide"

• "I am impressed by the enormity of the universe."

• I've been tracking these at work:
Someone who is frustrated: "I've been pulling my head out over this one!"
Working through a problem: "I'm just talking out loud here."
Suggesting something: "I don't mean to speak out of tongue, but..."
Rehashing: "I feel like I'm beating this with a dead horse."
Feeling a little disoriented: "At this point, we're running by the fly of our pants."
Is in a bad mood: "He's got a craw up his butt."

• "This is a bare-bones specification, let's flush out the details later".

• After a staff party at which pasta was served, we were reminded that several large bowels of pasta were left over in the refrigerator. None of us went near the fridge as a result.

A translation gone wrong, somehow.

HAD HIS KITCHEN FLOOR POLYURINATED

• A few years back my father, who is now nearing one hundred, proudly announced that he had recently had his kitchen floor polyurinated.

• The late Bruce King, governor of New Mexico for many years, was famous for having said of a legislative proposal that it would "open a whole box of Pandoras."

• One of my son's college roommates, an ROTC cadet, dropped out of the program just as the Iraq war was starting. "This is not a good time," he opined, "to be thinking about joining the Army corpse."

• "Be sure and put some of those neutrons on it." –While ordering a salad.

COULDA KNOCKED ME OVER WITH A FENDER

• "You could have knocked me over with a fender."

• "We cannot let terrorists and rogue nations hold this country hostile or hold our allies hostile." –George W. Bush

• Explaining lethal injection: "First, they give 'em a needle to seduce 'em; then they give the legal injection"

• Friend referring to his relationship with his wife, "...like two ships that go bump in the night."

• "Those kids were able to Flea-Bargain their way to a lesser punishment."

P.S.: My ex and I, having had more than our share of exposure to my nutty family, have always enjoyed, and have been inspired by, endless malapropoidal Bauerific incorrectitude. To this day, when I speak with her, she'll note the "flaw in the ointment" or how the night is as "dark as a bat."

And then we'll just laugh like hell.

Crony Boy to terrorize Nepotism Boy; Puritan Gal nixes PG-13 kids; Brown Boy spills beans; Spanky GOPs on the meeting

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.

Glenn Roquemore is Wagner’s boy. And Glenn wants to be the next Chancellor. That’s pretty obvious. Wagner will have to work to get his ducks in a row if he wants to land Glenn's butt in Mathur’s $1100 Buttmaster® chair.

If he wants that. Dunno. Just guessing.

Of course, a decent board would push forward with a Chancellor search that is open, honest, fair, and cautious. With Mathur’s exit, a manifestly honest search for an excellent chancellor would symbolize a sea change, the beginning of a new era for the district and its colleges. The board would look wise and good.

Do you suppose the trustees understand this? Do YOU understand this?

(Sometimes I feel like I'm wasting my time on this blog. Yeah.)

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. It doesn’t do any good. It’s just a mean and ugly thing to do.

Even if the team does deserve that nasty sucrose STP treatment.

PURITAN BROADCASTING COMPANY. I’ve been thinking about the fate of agenda item 6.1—at Monday night’s board meeting. The Chancellor recommended that (1) our two colleges’ TV stations broadcast only programs that satisfy the highly-restrictive PG standard (Saddleback’s Channel 39 has traditionally broadcast programs, including student projects, that satisfy the less-restrictive PG-13 standard). (2) He also recommended a review of membership of the Film Program Advisory Committee for the purpose of broadening representation.

Recommendation 2 wasn’t controversial. Recommendation 1 was. Trustees Lang, Milchiker and Williams opposed it. Nancy Padberg, who initiated a late-‘09 investigation of the Communications program owing to a documentary it broadcast called “88 Years in the Closet,” and Wagner supported it. Fuentes seemed to support it as well.

Jay expressed no view. But he usually votes with Milchiker.

Lang (and others, e.g., Saddleback Academic Senate Prez Bob Cosgrove) warned ominously of accreditation consequences, should item 6.1 pass. And so Padberg suggested “tabling” recommendation 1. Recommendation 2 passed, but the discussion ended with an understanding that Communications would self-impose the PG standard. Padberg made clear that she’d keep an eye on Channel 39 and its programming.

So, though the contentious part of 6.1 was tabled, essentially, Padberg got what she wanted. Lang suggested that the PG change smacked of “censorship,” and I’d have to agree.

As near as I can tell, the status quo is that Saddleback College’s Channel 39 and Irvine Valley College’s Channel 33 must now restrict broadcasts to PG productions. If they don’t there will be hell to pay. Fierce Padbergian hell. No one wants that.

This, I think, is very bad. According to some of the speakers on Monday night, the new broadcast restriction will diminish Saddleback’s celebrated program. Unfortunately, no one really elaborated on that point. I do wish they had.

I have suggested to IVC’s Academic Senate Cabinet that they consider agendizing discussion of the situation. (For all I know, Saddleback College's Academic Senate is already all over this. On Monday night, Bob certainly was.) We’ll see what happens.

REPUBLICANS BEFORE TRUSTEES. On Monday night, Board President Don Wagner mentioned two recent deaths. One was the passing of a local Republican—the husband of an OC fair board member—who died in December. Ron Young.

Perhaps I am mistaken, but Young seemed to have no connection to the district. He seemed to be, well, a Republican. And Wagner is a Republican. So there you go.

As you know, former trustee Joan Hueter—whom Wagner replaced in 1998—died last week. She is remembered by all as an unfailingly decent person. (See recent video.)

Near the start of Monday’s meeting, Don declared that it would be adjourned "in honor of" both Young and Hueter. (See video.)

Young might have been a great guy. But that dedication doesn’t make any sense to me.

WILLIAMS: BEAN SPILLAGE. As you know, John Williams is not the brightest bulb on the tree. Leave it to John to foul up “the spin” that the district is trying to put on Mathur’s terminatitude.

In his silly email, Mathur explained the situation: he had spoken with his family and they all decided that he should move on to further “professional challenges.” That is, he resigned. Voluntarily.

Wagner denied that Mathur was fired. (See.)
But in Tuesday's Register article, Brown Boy states: “…You work for an elected board and you need a majority of those board members to vote to keep you. In this case, the majority of the board felt they wanted to have a change, so they voted to.”

You mean the board voted Mathur gone? But then what's all this stuff about voluntary resignation?

(At his day job, Williams processes unclaimed corpses and their money.)

Did you notice? Evidently, Mathur lost retreat rights too!

They really want him gone.

From The conservative board majority

Blast from the Past: "Not-So-Secret Service" (Rebel Girl)

As we count down the months, weeks, days, minutes seconds to the departure of Raghu Mathur, we at Dissent will recall some of the highlights of his tenure.

After all, you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone, right?

Today, a reprint of former IVC adjunct instructor Andrew Tonkovich's Open Letter to Raghu Mathur, first published in the OC Weekly on December 30, 1999 under the title, "Not-So-Secret Service." The wire service picked up the story and while driving home from her holiday sojourn in Mexico, Rebel Girl and Red Emma were delighted to hear all about it on KNX 1070.

A little background: Mathur, at that time, was president of IVC. He requested -and was granted - an unprecendented security stipend to protect himself from faculty and staff. Mathur singled out Professor Kate Clark, accusing her of disguising her voice and leaving racist threats on his answering machine. (You can't make this stuff up.)

Dear President Mathur:

I note that the South Orange County Community College District board of trustees recently awarded you a $200 monthly "security stipend." I am sure that, like me, all Irvine Valley College (IVC) faculty, students and staff will sleep better knowing efforts have been made to address the menace to your personal safety caused by threatening phone calls and e-mail (undocumented); political attacks on you in [the faculty-run] Dissent, the Los Angeles Times, The Orange County Register, OC Metro, OC Weekly, and [the student-run] Voice newspapers (constitutionally protected); and letters mailed to you via the U.S. Post Office (also, oddly, unavailable).

I am writing to offer my services as a security consultant. As your security stipend is equivalent to a full two weeks' pay for my own work as a part-time instructor, you'll understand that I'm eager to start work immediately.

As your presidential security consultant, I am prepared to:

• Escort you to and from your car and the administration building every morning and evening.

• Maintain secret files on high-profile personnel (we'll call it an Enemies List), including—but not limited to—academic-senate president Peter Morrison, philosophy instructor Roy Bauer and anthropology instructor Wendy Phillips.

• Put English instructor Kate Clark under immediate 24-hour surveillance.

• Taste your meals to check for poison.

• Maintain a physical-security cordon in front of your office window.

• Enforce the IVC clap.

• Proofread your memos and letters for punctuation and spelling errors, cliches, factual errors, and ad hominem attacks.

—I hope you'll contact me immediately for an interview, or at least file this letter.

-Andrew Tonkovich

From The conservative board majority

Video of Monday's board meeting

1. A brief announcement about recent losses (Joan Hueter)

2. 1:50 Marcia reads out board actions in closed session (Mathur is canned)

3. Students, et al., come to defend Saddleback College's Communications/Film program and Channel 39's practice of broadcasting student projects à la PG-13. Nancy wants PG.

4. 7:20 Trustee Lang sees censorship. Nancy is miffed.

5. I oughta get flex credit.

I'm told that this whole sorry chapter started when Nancy encountered a documentary, produced through SC Communications, entitled, "88 Years in the Closet." You know: lesbians. (Good God!) See the trailer below: