The SOUTH ORANGE COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT —
"[The] blog he developed was something that made the district better." - Tim Jemal, SOCCCD BoT President, 7/24/23
Red County’s always-mediocre (and often dull) Matthew Cunningham just posted something about Tom Fuentes’ good pal Chriss Street, who, as you know, recently walked out of a courtroom with something new and special to add to his CV. (It Looks Like Chriss Street Won't Seek Re-Election)
Matt reports that he’s “hearing that OC Treasurer Chriss Street will announce today that he's decided against seeking re-election….”
As if that weren’t riveting enough, Matt opines: “Street exiting the race makes Huntington Beach City Treasurer Shari Freidenrich the heavy favorite – not only because she has Sup. John Moorlach's backing but primarily because she has the magic word 'treasurer' in her ballot title.”
I’m still hoping that Dave Lang’s name will pop up here. He's got the magic word "quisling" in his title, or at least in his reputation.
Wouldn’t it be great if he were to throw his beans into the ring? But there’s no sign of it. Dang!
Our readers have been reacting to some of the special comments that were solicited in IVC’s now famous “student satisfaction survey.”
The chronically clever Bohrstein has offered some interpretive advice. Some student remarks, he seems to say, are baffling or abstruse. These students, he writes, seem to be leaving out crucial context--elements without which no real sense can be made of their stunning verbiage.
Being the generous fellow that he is, he offers some plausible complements:
"It would be nice if more classes were offered in the summer," should have the following appended, "because I failed all of my classes this semester."
"I feel that the assessment test does not accurately evaluate.” [Addition:] “It said I was stupid.”
Why, yes, that does make things clear.
Bohrstein identifies his favorite comment, which, as it happens, is mine too:
Yes! I WAS VERY OFFENDED BY HEARING ABOUT THE VIEWING MATERIAL FOR HUMANITIES 73. THE TEAHCER SAID THAT PART OF THE STUDY WAS GONNA BE ON RAUNCHY RATED R DIRTY COMEDY FILMS, WHICH I FIND TO BE SEXUALY HARASSING ESPECIALLY IN A PUBLIC CLASS ROOM. SO I DECIDED NOT TO PETITION THAT CLASS. I HOPE THIS TYPE OF BEHAVIOR WILL BE RULED OUT OF ALL PUBLIC SCHOOLS. I ALSO BELEIVE THAT ITS WRONG TO CHARGE A STUDENT FOR NAPKINS, PLASTIC UTENSILS, AND CONDIMENTS JUST BECAUSE THE STUDENT DOESN'T BY LUNCH ON THAT GIVEN DAY. I TRIED TO TAKE A PLASTIC FORK AND SOME KETCHUP AND THE CASHIER WANTED TO CHARGE ME FIFTY SENSE. AND SHE SAID THAT THE UTENSILS AND NAPKINS WERE FOR CUSTOMERS ONLY. I FELT UPSET BECAUSE I JUST BOUGHT $10.00 WORTH OF FOOD AT THE CAFETERIA EARLIER THAT WEEK. UNTIL THEY CHANGE I WILL NEVER GO BACK TO THE CAFETERIA AGAIN. I WOULD APPRECIATE A RESPONSE FROM THIS. THANK YOU.
Bohrstein’s eagle eye spots something particularly good in this fine rant:
"Really? Fifty sense? That's like [a] super sixth sense, right?"
In this instance, BS casts no light, not for me. Nope. Whatever this woman was referring to, it was something that one can “charge.” One cannot really charge a sense—such as, say, vision or ESP or anal probe sensitivity.
I suspect that this woman’s (?) instructor (Hum 73 is “Film genre studies”) did not actually say that she would be showing “raunchy rated-R dirty comedy films.” On the other hand—hey, maybe I should sign up for this course. It sounds really good.
The woman was plainly incensed by being charged for that plastic fork and ketchup she took from the cafeteria on a day when she bought no food there (but where, days earlier, she had spent ten whole bucks).
She is a woman of action. She has already commenced boycotting the cafeteria. But that is not all. She demands an official response to her bitter complaint.
I wonder what it is like to be this woman? I have no idea. It’s a little like wondering what it’s like to be a bat.
Another among my favorites is this: “If indit ironic that IVC….”
The rest of the sentence is disappointingly conventional. (He/she actually goes on to make a good point.) It’s that stunningly original introductory phrase that caught my eye. Now, if I were to start that sentence, I might write something mundane, such as:
Isn’t it ironic that…
What kind of being are we dealing with here? What manner of creature could arrive at something as wonderful and prodigious as “If indit ironic”?
Good Lord! I’m still reeling!
There are, in fact, many good points made by students in the survey. We will no doubt note them and then assemble and launch the necessary "work groups" and "action teams."
But, in time, all of that will be forgotten. I do not think, however, that I will ever forget "If indit ironic."
Tom Fuentes’ pals are at it again. In this morning’s Red County blog, contributor OC Spock pulls a Joe McCarthy on Don Wagner, suggesting that Wagner is now supporting the faculty union. (Don Wagner—Orange County’s Anthony Adams?)
The evidence? Well, Wagner decided to “advocate” a new administrative position and support “the district’s Academic Senate President (read - facility [sic] union president).”
The only person I know who regularly conflates the senate with the union is--Tom Fuentes. He's incorrigible.
Mr. Spock doesn’t even mention Wagner’s recent piece in the OC Register in which he responds to the notion that his allegiances have shifted. (See Reader Rebuttal)
I finally had a chance to skim through the recently completed report on the Irvine Valley College Student Satisfaction Survey, taken from April 16 to May 19, 2009.
The report briefly explains the survey’s “Methodology”:
Administered during the spring semester from April 16 to May 19, using an on‐line survey methodology, the 2009 Student Satisfaction Survey was sent to all non‐emeritus students via an e‐mail invitation. In addition, a link to the survey was placed on the college’s website. Students were provided an incentive to participate with the possibility of receiving a $150 gift certificate to the college bookstore. By the end of the field date, 1,073 IVC students participated in the survey. On average, the survey took a little over 17 minutes to complete.
I didn’t have the time to read the report carefully, but I did get the impression that students were satisfied with the college. On this post, I’ve included just a few of the report’s factoids (in graphic form).
To read the report, go to the IVC website; click on “information for faculty and staff.” Then click on the “intranet (help)” link. (You will likely be asked for your password.) Then choose the link for “research and planning.” The link for the report will appear at the bottom of the page (it is a pdf file).
As always, the written comments (in this case, by students) are most interesting. To see them--all of them!--click on the link below:
Be prepared. Most of the writing is appallingly bad. And many of these students have no reservations about naming names—of liked or disliked instructors (and other employees).
Looks like the “visa fraud/student imposter” story has been picked up here and there. Local TV (see above) was all over it yesterday and it became an AP story. It was mentioned today in the Washington Post (Tuesday news: CA college student for hire) and it was even mentioned on NPR.
A longtime Saddleback College professor died Monday morning in a house fire in Belmont Heights. ¶ Alan Lugena, 73, who taught 11 different art classes – many of them watercolor and drawing – for the college's Community Education Department, died around 2:30 a.m.
Josh Johnson, spokesman for the Long Beach Fire Department, told the Long Beach Press Telegram that the home had "pack-rat conditions" with pathways through the clutter. ¶ It took firefighters about 20 minutes to put out the fire that had engulfed the home on the corner of East Fifth Street and Grand Avenue.
A neighbor told the Press Telegram that Lugena and his roommate Patricia Babbitt, who also died in the fire, would build fires on cold nights, though an official cause has not yet been determined. ¶ Jennie McCue, spokeswoman for the college, remembered Lugena for being "very beloved by his students who took his classes."
"He was known as a very kind person who loved teaching his craft," she said.
THERE'S BEEN QUITE A BUZZ on campus this afternoon over an OC Register article about a visa fraud scheme involving a 46-year-old Laguna Niguel man who, for eight years, provided a service: taking exams at local colleges, including Irvine Valley College and Saddleback College, for students from Middle Eastern countries.
Evidently, Eamon Daniel Higgins provided this service for 119 students. He got between $1,000 and $1,500 per exam.
. . .
According to prosecutors, the scheme began in January 2002 and ended in December when agents served a search warrant to Higgins' home. Agents said they seized 60 California driver's licenses featuring the names of foreign students and photographs of Higgins or his associates who prosecutors said were hired to take the exams.
. . .
Immigration officials said Higgins was a legitimate tutor at one point. They say what likely motivated him to get in the visa fraud business was money.
"Apparently his services were pretty well-known in these student circles," [Debra] Parker [acting deputy special agent in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigations in Los Angeles] said….
On Monday, agents arrested [six] men on suspicion of obtaining a visa through knowingly fraudulent means….
. . .
All were enrolled at Irvine Valley College, according to a federal complaint filed in federal court against the suspects.
. . .
Immigration officials said the defendant and others he recruited posed as foreign students, gaining access to testing centers at colleges and universities throughout Southern California such as Irvine Valley and Saddleback colleges, prosecutors alleged in court documents.
They gained access with fraudulent California driver's licenses, officials said. In return, Higgins charged at least $1,000 each for English placement exams, math and English tests. The price went up if he or the others attended classes on behalf of a student.
. . .
For the last eight years, prosecutors said Higgins aided students by taking or directing his associates to take math and English proficiency exams to sociology and marketing classes.
. . .
In Orange County, prosecutors said Higgins took a sociology class at Irvine Valley College on behalf of a United Arab Emirates national who had entered the country on a student visa.
In another case, Parker said, Higgins hired a blond woman who they said posed as a Middle Eastern man to take an exam.
Higgins' suspected associates had not been arrested as of Monday afternoon.
Parker said that other than getting to stay in the country, it's unclear whether the students had more nefarious reasons.
. . .
A foreign student temporarily granted admission to the U.S. on a student F-1 visa is allowed to stay in the country as long as he or she is enrolled as a full-time student in an educational program, attending classes at least 18 hours a week. Any failure to comply could lead the student to lose his visa, according to immigration law….
Though immigration agents said they don’t believe that any of the students had links to terrorism, Parker said Monday the agency was still investigating. “It definitely highlights some of the vulnerability, the way these people were able to go and compromise the integrity of the immigration system,” Parker said.
Red Emma passed this along: a flier I see they've used Jason's wonderful photo
