IVC doesn't seem to like its adjunct instructors

A shrine to speech/forensics, that gaudy bauble

I don't mean to be cynical, but sometimes it seems that college presidents are like politicians: they seem attracted more to the splashy and meretricious than to the restrained and substantial. Here we see this SHRINE to speech/forensics dominating the second floor of the Business Sciences & Tech Innovation Center (BSTIC), a building for a school that has few students. (Meanwhile, Humanities & Languages, a school that does half the instruction at the college, has no building at all. But I digress.)

It overwhelms the 2nd floor of BISTIC

Listen, I like these kids who go to our college. And so I'll refrain from offering my opinion of speech and forensics—and, in particular, of one of the guiding lights of speech/forensics at IVC.

Lots of prizes, eh? Yeah. Lots of travel and photo ops? Great. Color me seriously unimpressed.

Give me a reason to say more, G.

Make my day.

Oh good. Offices for adjuncts!

Now, until very recently, adjuncts—at least those on our end of campus—had a tiny office to themselves. It was up against the absurd Gensler Memorial duplicating cubicle in A200. The large window between these rooms was always open, rendering this office space nearly useless for student conferences.

Well, what with recent remodeling in A200, that office is gone. 

Luckily, a few years ago, a new building—BSTIC—was constructed (for a school with few students), and we were told that it would include office space for adjuncts! Whoopee!

OK. So, today, the Reb and I walked over to BSTIC. We examined the building directory (see above). Sure enough! The "adjunct faculty office," it said, is room 213. That was just a few feet away. We walked to the room.

It's been taken over by the speech and debate team. Natch.

We opened the door. It's a decent sized room. Nobody was home. Actually, I've walked by this room many times, but I've never seen anyone in it.

 But what about the adjuncts? Surely they've been given some a new space! We made inquiries. Adjuncts' new space, we were told, is room 2021 of BSTIC. So we walked over there.
There was a sign on the door:

OK. Here's the adjuncts' new office space.

Students aren't allowed in it. No exceptions.

Here's a clear view of the inside of 2021. Four computers, four chairs. A duplicating machine against the wall. A table.

Later, I spoke with an administrator. I said, "if students can't come in that room, in what sense is it office space for adjuncts?" The administrator did not disagree with our concerns.

I headed home. I took this pic from my car at the opening of Lambrose Canyon Road.

It's been a beautiful day.

The most unappreciated person in the history of humankind

     [See also: THE “HOWARD HILTON” , Sunday, September 30, 2001] 

     Here at Dissent, we like to be useful and informative, and what could be more useful and informative than info about the people we work with? So I’ve decided to do the occasional “profile” of an employee of the South Orange County Community College District.
     Now, as it happens, today, I came across the college website of a certain Saddleback College Econ instructor: Howard Gensler: Gensler website.
     Why not a profile of Howard?

     YES, HOWARD. Before Howard joined the faculty at Saddleback College in 2003, he was a dean here at IVC. We’ve written before about Dean Howard and his IVC legacy (see The “Howard Hilton”). I do believe that we wrote that piece while Howard was still our dean, and so we had to be, well, careful. But I do believe we managed to convey Howard's special specialness.
     By 2001, Howard had presented IVC President Raghu Mathur and two or three trustees with a scheme, hatched by Howard and a local nonagenarian, to create an $800 million private complex, complete with a lake and a Hilton Hotel, here at IVC. For some reason, the venture was being developed (or at least discussed) in secret, but I figured the world really needed to know about it, and so I made a couple of phone calls to reporters. The reporters made inquiries, and then they wrote about Howard’s scheme. For some reason, the whole “Howard Hilton” thing then unraveled. The city was pissed. The scheme was generally regarded as ridiculous, even idiotic. In the end, trustee Wagner, among others, did some serious backpedaling.
     And Howard? Let’s just say that lawyers were involved, and then, after a time, Howard showed up on the faculty at Saddleback College. How strange!
     So, today, I came across Gensler’s website for the college. Really, it’s like a profile all by itself!
     Now, obviously, Howard has a lot to offer, and he’s pretty generous with his offerings on his website. For instance, he explains his “education philosophy”:

I … believe that we should have fun in everything we do. [In class, w]e generally play a roll game rather than just take roll. I use humor liberally. The vast majority of students enjoy my sarcasm and wit….

     I know I do!
     The site provides the syllabuses of his various courses, each of which contain the following:

COURSE CHANGES: I reserve the right to modify the course at any time, including the timing of tests, the due dates and contents of assignments, and coverage of material.

Gosh, what a whimsical fellow! No wonder students love him so!

Howard is a big Pat Benatar fan

     The site’s home page also includes a “biography”:

I earned five Bachelor’s degrees simultaneously from the UCI, in English, History, Philosophy, Political Science, and Economics, all with honors. … I gave the Honors Convocation Student Speech, which was published by the University. It was the second speech ever published by UCI. The first was Hazard Adams’ retirement speech. He was a founding faculty member and considered one of the most erudite professors ever to teach at UCI. I set the record for multiple majors at UCI. The record still stands….

—That’s one thing about Howard. He always finds ways to do very odd, seemingly pointless, things and then to find ways to make ‘em seem like impressive accomplishments! Howard and Hazard! Two erudite fellas. They're practically the same guy.
     Howard explains that his

first position was as instructor and academic administer at the Northrop University School of Law. I was soon promoted to Dean. … I was offered the position of Provost, but we were unable to agree on the scope of the position….

—This is a motif in the Life of Howard: over and over again, he’s about to achieve greatness, or at least a steady job, but no. He gets fired or something. It’s so unfair!
     For example, after his Northrop gig went south,

I soon got hired as an attorney/adviser at the national headquarters of the Internal Revenue Service…. … I was assigned the most difficult regulations project ever tackled by the IRS and completed the project in record time. The Associate Chief Counsel tried to hire me to work on a project to simplify the tax code, but he was blocked by the Commissioner of the IRS….

—Dang! Thwarted by the top tax dude! But our Howard was undaunted:

I returned to Southern California and completed a Masters and a Ph.D. in Economics at the UCI. … On graduation, I accepted a position at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology as a Business Law Instructor in the Department of Accounting in the School of Business. … [My partner and I] were invited to be the official translator for China’s tax laws, but the government was unable to agree to a publication cycle as fast as we could provide and insisted on total control of official and unofficial publication….

     Dang ditto!
     Howard is obviously very proud of being the savior, taxwise, of the world’s most populous country:

…If it was published in the 1990’s and it had to do with Chinese business laws, odds are Gensler did it.
. . .
…In other words, the Chinese were able to pay their taxes thanks to Yang and Gensler’s tax translation service. [My emphasis.]
. . .
Gensler was the undisputed authority on Chinese taxes, as well as a major player in Chinese business law and accounting law.

[I] published about 50 articles and nine books…. I was the world’s foremost authority on Chinese Tax laws during the mid- and late-1990’s….”

—Ah, but is he known for such things? Apparently not!
     But there were many other accomplishments:

I returned to Southern California once again and became Dean of Humanities, Fine Arts and Library Services at Irvine Valley College. I increased the library collection and circulation statistics. I revamped the main fine arts classroom building to improve the college’s small theatre operation. I convinced the administration to move the Theatre building project up to the top building priority at the college….

     Oddly, there are many here at IVC who offer a very different assessment of Howard’s impact on the library and on the building that contains the theater. Go figure!

     HOWARD THE UNLUCKY DUCK. Have you noticed? Howard is plainly the most unappreciated person in the history of humankind. He achieves stunning things—saving China, saving UCI, saving the IRS—and, instead of being hired or promoted, he’s sent packing.
     For instance, elsewhere, referring to himself in the third person, he describes his achievements during his brief employment with the Bank of America:

…Gensler not only prevailed in keeping B of A in [the] steel [industry], but Gensler’s findings and recommendations served as the basis for the lead article of the Bank’s Annual World Economic Report, which convinced the nation’s financial system to continue to support the American steel industry.

Gensler saved American steel for five more years….

One of Howard's many publications

     American steel! Saved by Howard!
     According to Howard, his Econ dissertation was epoch-shatteringly clever. Alas, continuing a familiar pattern, none of the experts appreciated his work. Howard explains:

The nation had just spent over $600 million and well over ten years studying welfare in the Negative Income Tax Experiments…. The problem was, the experiments were temporary. Participants didn’t behave normally. They gamed the system. … Gensler used non-experimental data gathered from the Current Population Survey. Gensler’s results were of very high statistical precision and in the appropriate behavioral direction. However, the American economics establishment had just blown $600 million of the taxpayers’ money and wasn’t keen on publishing better work that had been done by a graduate student for free over one summer. Gensler ended up publishing much of his work in English academic journals.

     HOWARD "GUINNESS BOOK" GENSLER. As we’ve seen, Howard likes to focus on such unique achievements as getting the most degrees or earning those degrees faster than anyone. In the “bio” section of his site, he explains:

After Irvine, I went to UC Berkeley and completed a Juris Doctor…. It was an established 4-year joint program, but they kept telling us that no one ever actually completed it in four years. I don’t know about anybody else, but I finished in four years….

After some adventures in the working world, I decided to return to school to complete a Ph.D. in Economics. I returned to UCI. It generally took seven years to complete a Ph.D. in Economics. I finished in just over five years….

     DEFIANTLY INCORRECT. Another things about Howard: he’s no fan of “political correctness.” For instance, on the website, he explains

… [At the IRS], Gensler got a new Branch Chief (“Ann”). Ann turned out to be a man-hater, and did everything she could to make Gensler hate his job. She spent most of her time in her office with other female attorneys whining about men. Ann had made Branch Chief in just five years, which was probably a record. It was hard to see how all this sex discrimination from men that she complained about incessantly had hurt her career….

     Defiant fellow! Elsewhere, he explains that

I spent a great deal of my childhood at the beach bodysurfing and playing football. I was so dark I was the only minority at my high school….

     WATCH HOWARD MAKE FREE-THROWS, BACKWARDS. Perhaps my favorite part of Howard’s website is “Activities”:

…My favorite game is billiards. I play 8-ball. I often circulate throughout Orange County, challenging people to games at various bars....
. . .
Because I am out most nights until 2 am, I got the reputation for being a vampire. The joke stuck, and a buddy and I developed a website: Myvampire.net. It has everything you need to know about vampires.
. . .
I was at the going out of business auction at the Wax Museum in Buena Park and accidentally bought the Batman…. It sort of took over my life. Now I have Batman shirts and Batman belts and all of the Batman movies and the entire TV series on DVD. There’s even a three foot wide Batman symbol on the hood of my car….

     On the website, Howard actually provides videos of some of his activities and, um, skills:

• Howard does backward free-throws
• Howard does fancy pool shots
• Howard plays pool with himself

     I highly recommend these videos. It's like you're looking straight into Howard's soul.
     At the college, when you see Howard, tell ‘im, “Hey, vampire!”

John Williams: another dismal star in the Fuentesphere

O.C. official's failed bid to control TapouT founder's estate (Kimberly Edds, OC Reg)

Did O.C. official overreach to gain control of a million-dollar estate?
Orange County Public Administrator/Public Guardian John S. Williams moved quickly to take control of the estate of millionaire and co-founder of mixed martial arts clothier Charles "Mask" Lewis Jr. after he was killed in a car crash. More than a year later, an appellate court took the estate away, and gave it to the mother of Lewis' two young children.

     Edds’ article appeared in the online edition of the Reg on Friday. It appears again prominently in today's (Sunday) print edition.
     If you are interested in the Williams saga and haven’t read the article, you really should. It’s pretty damning.
     The article has attracted many comments online, including these:

DPGPRO

Please e-mail or call your district County Supervisor, who appoints John Williams as the Public Guardian, and ask that he be removed. He is elected to the Public Administrator job, which pays about $30,000 per year, and the Supervisors cannot remove him from that position. However, he is appointed to the Public Guardian job, which pays another $120,000+ per year. If they remove him from this job, he may get the hint and retire in disgrace.

WHYCARE

Williams tried this with our family when my son unexpectedly passed away. With a good attorney and the fact that my son didn't have great wealth, we were able to keep him out of our personal affairs. My son should have had a will. So too should have Mr. Lewis. It is very irresponsible for someone with children not to. That being said, I hope, as others have stated, we all remember this at the polls next time. And anyone appointed or voted into the position Mr. Williams occupies, should at least be an attorney. Thank you Ms. Edds for exposing these crooks! Now let's punish them.

PAYSTAXES1

Next election anyone Mike Schroeder, Tony Rackauckas, Tome Fuentes, John Moorlach or the OC Republican Party tells you vote for I suggest you see the potential for massive corruption. These same people funded corrupt people and wanted you to vote for Mike Carona too and look what that got our county.

GERICAULT
John S. Williams, Mike Carona and Tony Raukacaus, and the entire OC Fair Board are what is systemically wrong with the OCGOP. ¶ Corruption and cronyism. This is what you get when you have a "safe" district. You can never vote the bums out. Time to change that (R) from your voter registration, unless you support these crooks.

OCSPIFF
I hope you are reading the comments, John S. Williams. You are an absolute scumbag that should be tried as a criminal and sent away to prison forever.

SPINOC
It sounds like an OC version of what happened in Bell, albeit with more intelligent and deceitful players involved in more complex issues. Just another bottom dweller siphoning funds from people that deserve it, for their own benefit. I think we need a do-over on the political structure in our country. There are way too many scum bags that have figured out they can go to the trough as often as they want with relative impunity. It makes me sick...

WHATEVERFOR
Hey Williams! Nice comb-over, you frig gin loser! I hope you rot in hell.

NICKLES99
I hope Ms. Larson sues Williams AND the county for the total value they screwed those kids out of! What a JOKE! If there is some dispute on who is the executor of an estate then there should be some sort of moratorium on liquidating the estate until the matter of who is the legal executor is officially sorted out.

CACITYGUY
One of the other clients in this story had a will and left everything to her daughter. Williams steps in and immediately asks the court to sell her house so he can get a big fat commission, even though she has $500,000.00 cash in the back (Williams stated this was not enough money to cover her expenses).

NITPICKER
Sounds like Williams went on a money grab. ¶ Please, remember this come Election Day.

KEVINBR100
It actually sounds more like a power and ego thing than a money grab. And it also sounds like he majorly messed up the estate. Maybe unprofessional hands could have done just as good, if not better.

NITPICKER
From the article: “Critics of the public administrator/public guardian system have suggested that such public officials have a vested conflict of interest – they need fees from large estates to help fund their office.” ¶ Again, sounds like a money grab to me.

KENCAL
Well done, Kimberly, for exposing more incompetence and corruption in county government. Throw the bum in jail and out of office.

YOURMOM
Ms. Larson needs to hire Ms. Gloria Allred and sue Mr. John S. Williams Orange County Public Administrator. This stinks of sexism, greed and corruption. This guy claims that Ms. Larson was not qualified to handle the estate and claimed that he was more qualified, but he ends up selling the estate for half of what it was actually worth? I'm no math genius but that doesn't sound like the actions of a qualified person. If he was so concerned about her qualifications, why not require that she seek counsel from an attorney or put the money in a trust for the children? ¶ I'm so sick of City and County "employees"/"elected" officials taking advantage of the trust and authority we place in them. Folks like to point fingers and say that certain people that live in certain areas are to blame for its decline or decay, but we all need to pay attention to what the people at the top that are in charge are doing….

Introducing the new South Orange County Community College District board of trustees!

Read our review of their Thursday night performance here

Glenn Beck’s Focus on CUNY Professor Brings Her Death Threats (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Williams looking worse and worse

     Jan 21 ~ In this morning's OC Reg, Kimberly Edds has a blockbuster article about John Williams and his notorious handling of the Lewis estate: TAPPING OUT: The battle for control of "Mask" Lewis' estate.
     Meanwhile, the feds are trying to round up Irvine Valley College "Hometown Hero" Mike Carona for his 5+ year stay in federal prison. No word yet whether special friend of SOCCCD, former OC Treasurer and fraudster Chriss Street, will give his pal Mike a ride to Colorado.

The January board meeting: live and direct!

Rambunctious whippersnappers

     Jan 20 - [For a somewhat chirpy account of the meeting, read Tere's Board Meeting Highlights.]
     6:05 - Well, I'm here in the SOCCCD Ronnie Reagan Room, as usual, and the board is running late, as usual.
     Evidently, one or two student groups are excited about I-know-not-what. A student sitting behind me just caught my attention and then reached out his hand to me, announcing that he "reads the blog" as his eyes danced.

That dang basket

The tutoring referral protocol issue:
     Earlier today, I attended the Irvine Valley College Academic Senate meeting, and its agenda included the notorious "tutoring referral protocol" issue. Exactly two weeks ago, faculty learned that, henceforth, when they open up their class rosters (online) at the start of the semester, they thereby refer all students (on said roster) to the Learning Center for tutoring. If an instructor does not want to "do" that, then he or she must uncheck a pre-checked box appearing immediately underneath the roster.
     That's pretty hinky. I did some checking, and (as we reported nearly two weeks ago!) the scheme seems clearly to violate Title 5, which says that tutoring must be instigated by an instructor or counselor referral, based on some specific need identified in the student. According to this new protocol, however, faculty are "referring" students sight unseen (before the first day of class)!
     Evidently, the new protocol is designed to "streamline" the cumbersome/annoying process whereby a student is referred. And what could be slicker than automatic referrals for everybody? Yeah, but Title 5 specifically says that students may not refer themselves to counseling; and that seems to be what this scheme boils down to: students who seek tutoring are automatically "referred" by an instructor (if, that is, the instructor "decided" not to uncheck that box--or, more likely, never noticed that it was checked).
     As usual, Vice President of Instruction Craig Justice attended today's meeting, and, to my surprise, when the "protocol" issue came up, he stated clearly that, in his judgment, the new protocol is in violation of Title 5. (I guess he reads Dissent!)
     We've been told that the protocol was developed and approved at Saddleback College and that IVC was informally brought into the scheme at the last minute. This was an error, of course, for no approval process had occurred at IVC. Evidently, some sort of misunderstanding (and who knows what else) explains IVC's sudden "participation" in the protocol.
     This is a pretty big f*ck-up. It'll be interesting to see how it shakes out.

IVC Women's Golf champs

     7:07 - Suddenly, it's as silent as a tomb. Nancy hasn't received her cue yet from the camera guy. No, she's starting.
     Read out (closed session actions): (Nothing of importance.)
     Invocation: Nancy: a brief moment of silence for victims of the Arizona massacre. Then a prayer: "Our Father," etc. "Amen."
     Resolutions: IVC Women's Golf team.

Public comments:

     Four (Saddleback College) students came up to make a case for "two" student trustees—one per college (presently, there is only one student trustee). They did a pretty good job, made the obvious case. It won't fly, of course. 

     Tony Huntley: bio faculty. New science bldg. Discussed the latest leak in the building. Inside, it's too hot, or too cold, or leaking. Plus it's sinking into a hole or tarn or something. Must have a new building "at the front of the list," he said. (More on this later.)

Board reports:
     Bill Jay: welcomes new trustee Frank "Mike" Meldau.
     Frank M. Meldau: no report.
     Marcia Milchiker: welcome.
     T.J. Prendergast: welcome.
     Nancy Padberg: welcome.
     Tom Fuentes: presents his "bride," who is in the audience. She looked pretty normal, considering. Blah, blah, blah.
     Dave Lang: Congrats, good wishes, to Meldau. No further report.

Chancellor's report:
     Legislation for the new budget is beginning to unfold. Shaping up as: ranging from serious to extremely serious (depending on what happens, June election). If the June tax measure passes, which is unlikely, community colleges will be cut by $400 million. If it fails, things will be "more dire." $621 million cut? $900 million cut? (The latter—more than 14 percent.)
     It is unknown how all this will affect "basic aid" districts, such as our own.
     Grim.

Discussion item: project planning
     Brandye D’Lena makes the presentation. It's very good, I think.
     ...Do we need to rethink our funding redistribution (for various projects)? The Saddleback science bldg.: built 37 years ago. Big problems. Will cost nearly $60 million to fix.
     Staff strongly recommends fixing this, putting it ahead of other projects. In Feb., we'll bring forward a proposal to go forward with Science bldg project. (I gather that we can wait for state money, but we've already waited for years, and nada. By moving forward, we forgo the state money.)
     Funding advantage: ATEP new market tax credit. (See below.)
     Stadium at Saddleback. Low on priority list, but that may change.
     Chancellor: Great report, Brandye. We're not asking that the board make any decisions tonight. Just info. But we need to get moving. As soon as we go forward with spending, we don't get state money. Will need to go to basic aid money. With the tax credit, we're close to the funding we need for the ATEP project. (50,000 sf building.)
     Board questions:... Lang: the problems with the Science Building are an embarrassment. Need to move forward. This is a wonderful time to be doing these projects (much less expensive in this economy, all agree). How do we expedite these projects? On the other hand, don't want to circumvent the existing process, which is very collaborative. Also, we've not spent enough on maintenance in past. Need to address that.
     (Lengthy discussion. Friendly, useful.)
     Fuentes: matching state funds less now? (yes, says Brandye). Can the Foundation get this money for the stadium? Burnett: unrealistic to expect Foundation to raise all the money.
     ATEP: anywhere near funding for first building? No. F: I would be interested in having another presentation. I do not support immediate development of ATEP. I think we're being forced into developing it when that is not appropriate. We should take care of IVC and SC. Yet in this presentation, we see ATEP as a large chunk of the big picture. How does this picture look if we set ATEP aside? If we just concentrate on our students and existing colleges? (He seems to be asking for a report.)
     Nancy: the priorities are developed in a process. As Lang emphasized. Lang: we need to respect people in the college community and their judgment of what is important. Weren't you being "glib" when you talked of replacing projects as you did? (Asking Brandye.) B: good point. Yes, it's not a simple thing. She explains the process.
     Poertner: no, don't need another report (as F seemed to request). We can answer the question now. How would it help to dump ATEP? You'd have $12 million. ATEP would have to be abandoned.

Tere Fluegeman, Outstanding Manager of the Year, district

Consent calendar: nothing pulled

7.7: New Market Tax Credit
     Moved ahead to 7.7: new market tax credit report. (Fuentes had expressed skepticism about this earlier.) A pilot program.
     Bugay: it would benefit district in the amount of $11.6 million (revised upward from 8 million). (The rest sounded like Greek to me.) SOCCCD sells land to a corporation that we own. Blah, blah, blah.
     Quizzical faces.
     (Nancy declares: no, can't do it. We won't own the property for 20 years.)
     Public Economics Inc. guy gets up (Dante Gumucio, the "consultant" on this deal). He explains the deal. Legality has been reviewed. It's kosher.  (Fuentes seems unhappy but disinclined to challenge.)
     Poertner: clarifies the deal a bit.
     Prendergast: I'm a little wary. Could this go very wrong? You say we might "double." But could we lose?
     Dante: blah, blah, blah. Seems to say reassuring things. (You know me and finances.)
     Lang: are there conditions on the money—what it can be spent on? "Vertical construction will begin 'soon'." That's the understanding upon closing.
     Fuentes: we've asked: why don't we sell the damned thing (ATEP)? We've always been told: you can't sell the ATEP property. The Navy and Tustin won't allow it. How do we overcome that?
     Dante: yes, there are prohibitions re transfer. But this transfer (from the district to itself) is permitted.
     F: we would need to know whether this is legal in the eyes of the Navy and the City of Tustin before going forward. Also: we take pride in having no debt. We campaign on that. If we go forward with this, can we still say we have no debt?
     Dante: the "loan" that the district would make to itself would continue to appear on the district's books as a loan--from 7 to 15 years. But the loan would have been in effect prepaid the day of closing. A technical situation. F: in truth, we can't say we have no debt. D: district would have debt to itself.
     Fuentes: who are these people we're getting in bed with? I want an opportunity to investigate who these people are. Dante: One investor has expressed willingness to do this,  represented by broker. Would rather not be divulged. A commercial bank. It acquired another commercial bank (on sweet terms). They have an excessive profit picture; looking for tax benefits. The other party: community development entity. Talking to 2 right now. Would be premature to divulge their names. Extremely reputable entities. We can make their names available to you. Then you can do your "due diligence."
     Jay: wants to see flowchart of all this stuff. D: we have one (not with him). J: we need to have one. It would really help.

Trustee Meldau's basket o' fruit

Five minute break imposed with great ruthlessness by Prez Nancy.

General Action Items:
     . . .
     6.5: Board Policy Revisions. Approved.
     6.6: Board Policy Revisions (accept for review and study)
     6.7: Poertner: we adopt non-resident tuition fees each year. We try to be competitive. No issues.
     6.8: Sabbatical recommendations. Poertner describes process. Approved.
     6.9: no changes. Approved.
     6.10: two changes. b4, b6 removed. Approved.

Information items:
     ...Boom, boom, boom....
     7.4: explain to new trustees how this works. An opportunity to request information. (Board request for reports)
     7.6: Fuentes: report on employees earning over $100K. Happy that report is now here, for public record. On website. Referred to "generosity" of the taxpayer. When I first brought this up, it was postponed. We discussed a policy for bringing this information back to us regularly. Is that ready? Bugay: yes, have draft of policy. [The report is available online. Click on "agenda" for Jan. meeting as you open district website. Look for item 7.6, way in the back. No names are given, just descriptions: "Philosophy instructor"--that sort of thing.]

Written reports, etc.
     Senate reports. Lisa Davis Allen invited Dr. Meldau to Rep Council meeting. Mentions IVC lecture series.
     Roquemore introduces new dean. "Astounding Inventions" coming up. Whoopee.
     Burnett: yabba-dabba-doo.
     Bugay: Human Resources going paperless. Very painful for them.
     Etc.

Jerilyn Chuman, Outstanding Administrator of the Year, SC

     End: 9:33

Equity for part-time community college faculty?

Yee bill seeks equity for part-time community-college faculty (San Jose Mercury)

     A bill introduced Wednesday in the Legislature seeks compensation equity for part-time community college teachers statewide who have the same credentials and work experience as their full-time counterparts. ¶ The legislation by state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, would require college districts to create a salary and service-credit, or pension, schedule for part-time faculty that mirrors the one for full-time instructors....

Documenting Adjuncts' Pay Gap (Inside Higher Ed)

     If part-time faculty members assembled the equivalent course duties of a full-time job at a Pennsylvania community college, they still would earn only about $25,000 a year -- below state levels at which a family of four would be eligible for public assistance. ¶ That is one of the conclusions of a report being issued today by the Keystone Research Center, a think tank in Pennsylvania that studies issues of interest to education and labor groups, among others. The report documents not only pay levels but also the distribution of teaching duties among adjuncts and those on the tenure track at the state's community colleges and state-supported four-year institutions....

Pay Gap Grows Between Permanent and Nonpermanent Faculty in Pa. (Chronicle of Higher Education)

     A report released by the Keystone Research Center today highlights the growing divide between the compensation and benefits provided to permanent faculty members and those for nonpermanent faculty members....

Ariz. Governor Wants to Cut Community College Funds by 50% (Insider Higher Ed)

     Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, this week proposed budget cuts for higher education that stand out even in a year of deep budget cuts. For community colleges, she wants to cut state funding in half, Capitol Media Services reported. For four-year universities, she wants to cut state support by 20 percent. The governor's budget director told the news service that "inefficiencies" in higher education can be eliminated so that the four-year institutions don't have to raise tuition. As for community colleges, the governor is hoping that they can bring in more funds from local support and tuition.