Old poets’ report: in front of Sproul Hall

Photo: adapted from The Daily Californian

Poet-Bashing Police (New York Times; Nov. 19)

By ROBERT HASS

Former U.S. poet laureate

…Earlier that day a colleague had written to say that the campus police had moved in to take down the Occupy tents and that students had been “beaten viciously.” I didn’t believe it. In broad daylight? And without provocation? So when we heard that the police had returned, my wife, Brenda Hillman, and I hurried to the campus. I wanted to see what was going to happen and how the police behaved, and how the students behaved. If there was trouble, we wanted to be there to do what we could to protect the students.
. . .
…The billy clubs were about the size of a boy’s Little League baseball bat. My wife was speaking to the young deputies about the importance of nonviolence and explaining why they should be at home reading to their children, when one of the deputies reached out, shoved my wife in the chest and knocked her down.
. . .
My wife bounced nimbly to her feet. I tripped and almost fell over her trying to help her up, and at that moment the deputies in the cordon surged forward and, using their clubs as battering rams, began to hammer at the bodies of the line of students. It was stunning to see. They swung hard into their chests and bellies. Particularly shocking to me — it must be a generational reaction — was that they assaulted both the young men and the young women with the same indiscriminate force. If the students turned away, they pounded their ribs. If they turned further away to escape, they hit them on their spines.

NONE of the police officers invited us to disperse or gave any warning. We couldn’t have dispersed if we’d wanted to because the crowd behind us was pushing forward to see what was going on. The descriptor for what I tried to do is “remonstrate.” I screamed at the deputy who had knocked down my wife, “You just knocked down my wife, for Christ’s sake!” A couple of students had pushed forward in the excitement and the deputies grabbed them, pulled them to the ground and cudgeled them, raising the clubs above their heads and swinging. The line surged. I got whacked hard in the ribs twice and once across the forearm. Some of the deputies used their truncheons as bars and seemed to be trying to use minimum force to get people to move. And then, suddenly, they stopped, on some signal, and reformed their line. Apparently a group of deputies had beaten their way to the Occupy tents and taken them down. They stood, again immobile, clubs held across their chests, eyes carefully meeting no one’s eyes, faces impassive. I imagined that their adrenaline was surging as much as mine.
. . .

Paralyzed by Don

… They had hit me hard enough so that I was sore for days, but not hard enough to leave much of a mark. I wasn’t so badly off. One of my colleagues, also a poet, Geoffrey O’Brien, had a broken rib. Another colleague, Celeste Langan, a Wordsworth scholar, got dragged across the grass by her hair when she presented herself for arrest.
. . .
I won’t recite the statistics, but the entire university system in California is under great stress and the State Legislature is paralyzed by a minority of legislators whose only idea is that they don’t want to pay one more cent in taxes. Meanwhile, students at Berkeley are graduating with an average indebtedness of something like $16,000. It is no wonder that the real estate industry started inventing loans for people who couldn’t pay them back.
. . .
…The next night the students put the tents back up. Students filled the plaza again with a festive atmosphere….

Robert Hass is a professor of poetry and poetics at the University of California, Berkeley, and former poet laureate of the United States.

UCPD yank women by their hair

SEE ALSO:

• Occupy Cal: a former IVC Student Reports from Sproul 

• Former IVC Student Reports: "Occupy Cal: The Movement of All"

The pious and the poetic

     DEREK REEVE. The recent Derek Reeve controversies (alienating Muslims, plagiarizing) have faded away. But I for one have not forgotten his promises to provide further, presumably vindicating, info regarding his “Patch” plagiarism (absurdly, he denies that it was plagiarism) and his sudden, mid-semester departure from Concordia U in Irvine. (See here and here.)
     Reeve has, I suppose, decided to cut his losses and to let the controversy quietly fade away, promises be damned.
     But how come he’s still teaching at Saddleback College? What’s he going to do if he catches a kid plagiarizing? Send the kid's stuff to the Patch for publication?
     Will he even be able to recognize plagiarism? Apparently not.
     Saddleback College is sending a message: that Concordia U has the expected academic values about honesty—but that Saddleback does not. Wanna take a course from a guy who plagiarizes and then refuses to acknowledge that his theft is improper? Become a Gaucho!
     For what it’s worth, today, Mark Nielsen of the Capistrano Dispatch accused Reeve and/or his Reevettes of demagoguery. More specifically, Nielsen carps (plausibly) about some seriously misleading “election rhetoric intended to pave the way for cohorts of Councilman Derek Reeve to replace incumbents up for re-election next November.”
     What is it with the Pious, anyway? I’ve got a neighbor like Reeve. She’s always got her “Saddleback Church” sign posted on the lawn, and she is pretty flashy about her alleged connections with the Lord.
     Yeah, but recently she and her husband decided to build a house under the oak canopy on their property, near their existing home. (They’re claiming it’s for one of their kids, but it's obviously a spec build.) They tried to get the thing approved without telling the neighbors, contrary to Hoyle. When the requisite meeting with the County finally occurred, the neighbors showed up, hopping mad. County officials then communicated the obvious: that the project didn’t have a prayer in overcoming various serious problems, including threats to the oak canopy and a nearby creek. (These problems predated their purchase of the property.)
     So what did the Pious Ones do? They put the property up for sale. The telephone sales pitch states that the property is ready for construction—a big, fat lie.
     Pious liars.

     DON WAGNER. Speaking of the pious and the deceptive, Assemblyman (70th AD) Don Wagner is back in the “news.” According to the Newport Beach Independent,

     The Newport Harbor High School culinary and management teams were officially honored by the state Assembly on Thursday for winning the nationwide culinary competition in April. ¶ Assemblyman Don Wagner presented the school with an official resolution Thursday morning during a special assembly honoring the NHHS California ProStart student teams. ¶ “It’s really a privilege and a pleasure to be here with you folks today,” Wagner said, “to recognize this superior accomplishment.”
. . .
     The Newport Harbor teams are coached by the Culinary Arts teacher, Janet Dukes, and two local chefs. ¶ Dukes traveled up to Sacramento and went on the floor before the state assembly for the resolution. ¶ “Which, I will tell you frankly… That does not happen often,” the assemblyman said. “It was a real thrill to welcome her to the floor of the assembly and say thank you publicly in that venue.”

     Now, in truth, Don is among those odd Republicans who refuse to regard any tax as anything but an evil. Public education in this state is seriously under threat, and people like Don seem to like it that way.

     Don’s strategy is to sprinkle these goofy resolutions around in a splashy, noisy way—at schools and colleges and whatnot.
     The idea? Maybe the rubes won’t notice what he’s really doing to education.
     Don relies on misdirection. He’s a magician.

     POETRY & MUSIC à la IVC. Today, denizens of Irvine Valley College were alerted to a special event tonight:

Colleagues and Friends,

You are invited to attend the premiere of

The Naked Turtle Dances

Poem by David Bugay

Music by Daniel Luzko

Choreography by Marie de la Palme

     Luzko teaches piano at the college; De La Palme teaches dance. But the poet, Bugay, isn’t among faculty. He’s the district’s Vice Chancellor of Human Resources.
     Bugay’s a nice guy, but, I gather, his poetry just doesn’t fly among faculty who actually teach poetry. (I've heard from some of them.) Their harsh reaction reflects, I think, not so much the quality of Bugay's poem as the circumstance that scholars among us who make it their business to study and understand poetry—or writing, or history, etc.—are once again bypassed, as though they do not exist or do not matter.
     Our community's authorities on poetry—including some damned good poets—would not offer this poem to represent that art. But that’s not a consideration among the benighted “leadership” of Irvine Valley College.*

*I have rewritten these last two paragraphs to clarify my point.

Former IVC Student Reports: "Occupy Cal: The Movement of All"

Damilare "Dare" Oladapo is a former IVC student currently in his first semester at Cal. This is his report of the week's activities:

On June 12, 1993, I watched from the safe haven of my house as protesters took to the streets of Lagos defied the military order and demonstrated against the nullification of a free and fair election that should have declared the late MKO Abiola, President of Nigeria. As a child I lacked both a voice and a discerning intellect and all I could do was to share my parents’ catharsis for the protest.


On November 9, 2011, I stripped away the feeling of pity and fear and embraced pride and camaraderie as I protested alongside fellow students, faculty of UC Berkeley and the Berkeley community against the 81% tuition hike and the growing income inequality that plagues this society. We chanted, we raised our voices and fists to the sky and marched our cause to the city and the historic steps of Sproul plaza.

And now as I reflect, I realize that like the protest of June 12, 1993 in Lagos where the poor, the middle-class, tradesmen and women, university students, political factions, and countless others protested against the military government, the Occupy Cal movement included the different facets of the UC Berkeley and Berkeley community (Men, Women, Trans-gender, Whites, Blacks, Latinos, Heterosexuals, Homosexuals, Homed, Homeless). We all assembled with one voice to protest for one cause; we forgot our self-interests; we put ourselves in harm’s way of the weather and the brutality of the police. This indeed is a movement of the people, by the people, and for the people.

(Robert Hass, UC Berkeley professor, former Poet Laureate of the United States
and Pulitzer Prize winner, is batoned by UC Berkeley police November 10, 2011)

However, though Occupy Cal may generate emotions and rally individuals together into a community, its goal of change is far from being reached. And as the opponents of the Occupy Movement gaffe at the incredulity and austerity of our General Assemblies, we must realize that a consolidation of our oppositional fronts, which Dean Spade calls “differential consciousness,” is our hope for success.

“Differential Consciousness” is the application of all four forms of oppositional consciousness — Equal rights form, Revolutionary form, Supremacist form, Separatist form — that Chela Sandoval laid out in Methodology of the Oppressed. Presently, each Occupy Movement’s General Assembly has embraced one or two of these forms as the arbiter of its movement’s strategy. However, this is an ineffective approach because an application of either one of these forms would only alienate us from ourselves (the public). And just as the Trans-gender Movement championed by Dean Spade and notable others have utilized the differential consciousness, so also should the Occupy Movement. We need to adapt to the strategies of the enemy we confront; merely, calling out an ethos argument would only demonstrate us as the bitter and irrational sect of society. A simple example of the application of the differential consciousness took place — and am proud to say — at the Berkeley protest where protesters sought an end to the police brutality by identifying the police brutes as members of the “99%” and not separating them as tools or members of the infamous 1% (Equal rights form); whilst others chanted “Shame!” at the police for beating protesters (separatist and supremacist form). Together, we marshaled the police off the steps and occupied the Sproul Plaza till dawn; these are the possible effects of mobilizing our different fronts together.

(Lauren Winder - Sproul Plaza)

In conclusion: to truly effect change in the US and around the world, there must be a movement of all; if not, we will derail, like the protest of June 12, 1993, into a mere historical movement that effected no significant change.

Rebel Girl is proud to report that Dare, too, like Lauren, is an English major. At Cal, they study with Professor Robert Hass.

*

The November board meeting (Strangelove Returns)

"You oughta see it some time"

Trustee Tom: hell on wheels

     (See Tere's Board Meeting Highlights)
     6:05 Well, no meeting yet. The place (namely, the Ronald Reagan board of trustees meeting room or RRBOTMR) is jumpin'. Craig is practicing his PowerPoint presentation while various pairs and groups are yackin' it up pretty good all over the room. The special "hat" lady is sittin' in back. —That's a good omen. She's into Coco Puffs.
     I'll let you know when this shindig actually starts.
. . .
     6:11 Frank Meldau and Dave Lang have entered the room. Now TJ Prendergast. Now Gary Poertner (Chancellor). (Bill Jay is absent.)
     Zounds! They're wheeling in TOM FUENTES! We haven't seen him in eight months!
     They've rolled him up to where he normally sits. Only his head pokes above the stand. It has turned in my direction. I ignore it.

     6:18 The meeting opens.
     Trustee Marcia Milchiker reads out actions taken in closed session: Nothing.
     Invocation (Prendergast): he explains his new mustache—part of an effort to fight the scourge of prostrate cancer.

Resolutions: (1) Georgina Guy(?) of EOPS.

Public comments: the hat lady shows up to complain about not being admitted to the Oxford Program. Complained somehow about the strategic plan and objectives. Said she'd had problems with access to programs for 30 years here at the college. Not for the first time, she suggests that the board look at her credentials for Chancellor!
     I fear that this is the highlight of the evening.

Tom's dark warning:

6:30 Trustee reports:

     Meldau: — blah
     Milchiker: — blah
     Prendergast: "I don't know what astounds me more—that [the board meeting] is televised or that people watch it."
     TJ's back to being funny, which is good, cuz it's been like a tomb around here lately.
     Padberg: — blah
     Fuentes:

     It is a joy to be here. (He sounds very weak. Has trouble with his breathing.) 15th week of my hospice care. Normally, I spend my time at home. I still get all of the information for meetings, etc. So I know what is before the board. I've got time to keep track of the fiscal crises in the state. We live in the "abundantly lucrative" county of Orange, so we tend to forget how bad it is elsewhere. We need to remain "fiscally conservative," or we will pay the price. We're on a precipice, in great danger. There's been a change in this district, and one day we'll pay a price (for that). I'm still engaged. I'm still watching. 

     Lang: — blah
     Student Trustee Larson: — blah

Chancellor's report:
     Tonight, colleges will report student success. Next month, we'll hear about proposals for ATEP. Those will be up for approval in January.

Board requests for reports:

     Prendergast: maybe we should work up a statement or resolution to support other districts? Refers to yesterday's article about $73 million (grab of funds).
     Fuentes interrupts: he doesn't understand. Shouldn't we have a study for plans if we don't get the funds? This entitlement mentality—"let's keep ours"—doesn't solve problems. We're part of the greed, is all it says. Need to look at solutions.
     Padberg: I'm sure we'll get that info. All but Fuentes vote Yes on agendizing the resolution.
     Padberg: asks for report re progress in SLOs. Bring that back to us next time? Burnett and Roquemore seem agreeable.

New trustee area boundaries:

6.1 Adjustments to trustee area boundaries. 
     Poertner: after the ten year census, defined trustee areas must be redefined if they prove to be unequal in voter population. CSUF did the study for us before, and this time too. He refers also to a private legal firm that advised in this matter, which concerns the Voting Rights Act.
     Deborah (of CSUF) speaks. Our goal: have equal population areas. Shows data regarding population in each district: bar charts, graphs. We're way off of equal distribution at this point. Criteria followed in making adjustments: areas should be nearly equal in population. Also: topography, geography, cohesiveness, communities of interest, etc. (Tom's ears are pricked. Communities of interest?!)
     We see ethnic distributions: non-hispanic whites and others (Hispanics, Asians). Our proportions here in South County are skewed toward white. We see a map of existing areas. We're shown various minor changes being proposed. Pretty tedious. (I think you'll have to look at these maps and charts to understand the changes. They are largely minor.) Recommended action: adopt this proposal.
     Marcia: likes the changes in her area. She's happy. You did a great job, as you did ten years ago, she says.
     Prendergast: asks about at-large voting and ethnic considerations. Private consultant comes up (he's a lawyer). There has been no racially polarized voting—we're OK with the Voting Rights Act.

     Señor Fuentes: I'm the first Hispanic elected trustee in this district. This confirms what you've just said (about no polarized ethnic voting, I guess). Report doesn't give us breakdown based on party registration. Would it be difficult to get those numbers? Could we see that data? 
     Deborah: it can be done, but it will take effort. 
     Ben, the attorney, says: you may consider that info, if you wish. It may require change of (my and Deb's) contracts to achieve this. 
     Fuentes: it is a point of interest. It (the info) would be worthy of having, for our trustees, for our constituents. I frankly think this redistricting effort in the last several months (throughout the state, I guess)—there's an over-emphasis on race and ethnicity. As Americans, we look for color-blindness, when we do things politically. It has become so much an upfront issue, affecting the distributing process. I don't care for it myself. I'm prepared to vote today, but I'd like to know how much it would cost to get the data about party membership.
     They vote: motions carries unanimously. (I suppose the party registration data will be pursued, too. Not sure.)

A devilishly long student success presentation:

Discussion item: 4.2 (Accountability reporting for CCs; aka ARCC reports): the march of factoids about student completion rates, etc.

     Chris Tarman (IVC research and planning analyst) speaks. Pretty tedious but clear. Generally sounds good. "Above average" mentioned a lot. (We're like Lake Wobegon, I guess.) We're seeing an upward trend with regard to annual successful course completion. Blah, blah, blah. Tarman moves too fast through fairly difficult-to-understand factoids. Makes no effort to help us understand what it all points to, what it all means. A mere sputterer of factoids, he is.
     Nancy says: can we ask questions? Yup

     Marcia: excellent report, says Marcia. Blah, blah, blah.
     Nancy P: good report. It's hard to see the blue figures on the black background (she's commenting on the slides). Could you make some adjustment to that? Yessireebob.

     Next, the Saddleback people come up to give their report. Nicole Ortega, research analyst. She'll do the same thing as Chris. (She's prettier, though.) Ortega starts with the big picture (i.e., what it all means). Thanks. It all looks good. Her charts are clearer, if less elegant (and somewhat garish).
The march of factoids continues. It all sounds pretty positive, I think.
     Marcia: excellent report again.

4.1 Student success planning

     Saddleback College Prez Todd Burnett introduces faculty coordinator, Keven O'Connor, Don Busche, et al.
     First speaker (Penny?) is seriously chirpy. She says she tells students: "take it serious." (Yeah, but that's ungrammatical.) Her chirpitude is like sunshine on a cloudy day. Her blondness hurts my peepers. Busche looks glum. Chirp, chirp, chirp. Like ice pick taps to my skull. Throws out buzz words, but her chirpiness overwhelms all content. "Stay the course," she says. I say: make her administrative cheerleader; send her to a field somewhere. Chirp, chirp, chirp. Big smile: "celebrate completion!" she says, as she dons a mortarboard. (I kid you not.) Good Lord. Whoo! she says. Chirp, I hear. Her Blondness continues. Busche looks glummer. Chirp chirp!! I'm thinking: Goldie Hawn, 1969. Remember the gal who runs the tour of the Alamo in PeeWee's Big Adventure? Yeah, that gal. "There's no basement at the Alamo!" [giggling; laughter; PeeWee runs in ignominious horror]
     She persists in full blond chirpiness. Busche is glum, a glummer than which cannot be conceived. O'Connor is beyond glum; he looks like a corpse.
     Blondie talks about waving wands, her hand in the air. She chirps anew. I feel as though I am a tiny balsa wood airplane, attached to string, flying around her. Whee!
     Don't get me wrong: this gal could be great, even if she doesn't know it's "seriously" not "serious." Her blond chirpiness is almost as good as mice running around the floor, darting into the dead air. Almost as good as Tom Fuentes maintaining life with a machine in the corner. Her Chirpiness chirps still. (Could it possibly matter what she's actually saying?)  I have no idea what she's saying. --She's speaking breathlessly, excitedly, blondly. I feel as though I am in Romper Room. She's gonna reach down and tie my shoelaces. "That's it!" she finally says.
     Inexplicably, O'Connor comes up to speak, sobering things up considerably. He sounds good, professional. What a mistake. "We have a lot of challenges," he says. "Transferable English." "ESL." Blah, blah, blah. Poor guy. How do you follow Ms. Über-Chirp?
     O'Connor's thing ends without warning. Miss Chirp steps in again to lively things up, like pouring gas on hell. "I always tell students....", she says. A slide says: "Become involved." Oh. Who's her audience? It ain't me, babe. Or maybe it is. Does it matter, chirp-wise?
     She's smiling again. She's blonding intensely at the trustees who are really too old for all this, especially Fuentes, who appears to be, well, south of conscious. I feel his pain. He's coughing. Good grief. Could it be that Miss Chirpy will be the last thing he ever experiences? She will not stop. The trustees evidently don't know that they can stop her, throw a branch at her feet.
     She stopped. But no! She's started again. "Oh!" she says. "It's hard to leave Saddleback College, it's such a great place!" she says. "But with Dr. Burnett's help....." That's it, she finally says.
     But no! No no no. She has another factoid for us. 70% of nurses, 80% of Firefighters, and 90% of philatelists are trained in CC's!
     Is that it? No it isn't. Another factoid. "I hope that was clear," she squeaks. A big smile. Then back to O'Connor (a dead Ken to her lively Barbie). Sobriety again. We're successful, but we want to be better, he says. Nobody hears him.
     Good Lord, comparing IVC and Saddleback's presentations is like comparing a crisp, folded map to a whoopee cushion, or maybe to a Mythbusters powdered milk explosion!
     Will this never end? At long last, Senator, have you no sense of decency? O'Connor blathers on.
. . .

"Yee-hah!"

     It's 8:00 and GODDAM Saddleback College is STILL talking about student success. The trustees are all dead now. It's a sad scene, really. The audience members are in differing states of bored slumber, their legs sliding outward in puddles of drool. Good freakin' Lord.
     Oh no! Now it's Busche's turn. I thought he died, but no. His garish slides are misbehaving, evidently. Nobody cares. Everyone wishes that he would just stop. AT LONG LAST SENATOR!!!! AT LONG LAST!
     Fee wavers. More flexibility. The 50% law. I look at Fuentes for—I know not what. He doesn't move his head. Only his eyes move. They dart sidewise at Busche.
     Hatred.
     Good God! Busche just referred to the "next slide"! Nobody fucking cares, Don! Please stop!
     "We're willing to innovate" he intones. Fuentes has an odd smile. It seems to say, "And so this is how it ends, eh, Lord?" Yes Tom. You and me both.
     Good God!!!!
     Busche will not quit. Poertner is thinking about something far, far away. Puppies maybe. Fuentes' smile has grown fainter. Burnett looks truly sad. Dead kittens, maybe?
     Good Lord, now Busche is turning the mike over to Tammy Rice. She seems pleasant, but Good God! It's like being guided into an unexpected lower circle of hell, far worse than anything one ever imagined. She talks to a sulfurous yellow slide. It is ugly beyond words. She has a real person's voice, but it's no good. Nothing can help us now. "Remediation," she says, pleasantly. Good Lord. It's raining hell pokeys!
. . .
     I'm back. It hasn't ended. Seriously. It is now 8:10 in this warm, fetid tomb. I'm about to stumble out of the RRBOTMR to fresh air and sanity. Busche is back in his corner, dying. O'Connor has moved off to the side, pretending to listen, crying inside. The trustees are blank. Tom's got that sidelong glance, that faint smile. His chin drops. Could it be....?
     That gal is still yammerin'. She seems nice, intelligent. Really. But surely she must know that we aren't listening, that we'd rather eat broken glass than hear another syllable!
     Or maybe it's just me. I dunno. Could it be that people are in rapt attention? Am I simply the oddball in the room in my own personal hell?!
     Gregor Samsa woke up to find himself transformed into an enormous bug, superglued to his chair in the RRBOTMR....
     8:15 She's still yammering, I tell you. I wonder if Nancy will simply kill this woman when she finally stops? Could be. She has that look. I almost want to see that. Tom is smiling again. It is a hideous thing.
     She's done! Do you have any questions. God no.
     Ah, but Lang has one. Congratulates all for the terrific report. "Penny, we're impressed with you're excitement and enthusiasm," he says, with a smile. (Laughter.) He's puzzled by a graph. Saddleback student achievement: everything showed upward trends except for the line for transfers between two years ago and this past year. Any speculation about that? (Why doesn't he also comment on the lint in his left pocket? Why the f*ck not?)
     Busche: I don't have a prepared answer. I'll get the info for you. We still have a high transfer rate.
     Marcia: are doors to UCs, CSUs closing for our students? Chirpy: it has to do with majors. Students have to earn a higher GPA. A 2.0 or 2.5 won't get you in anymore. She mentions "tag" agreements. I dunno. What's that, asks Marcia. Transfer agreements. Chirpy says there's no basement in the Alamo. Nancy says something, but I don't care. The student trustee wears an Arte Johnson mask and gives a lecture about whipped cream.
     Burnett: blah, blah, blah. Tremendous decrease in tutorials, etc. (Maybe because the library's closed?) Burnett says the Library will open in the Fall.
     Henry Gibson explains something, holding a posy. Ruth Buzzee.....

We're gonna need to take a break, says Prez Nancy. Yep. Or we're just gonna die!

Student success initiatives: more hell

   8:41 OK, we're back. Prendergast says he's pessimistic about finishing the meeting by 9:00. I blame chirpy, he says. (Not really.) They vote on extending the time. Somebody has to punch Fuentes to get him to wake up and vote. Somehow, he does so. His arm falls limp.

     Craig Justice speaks. They're gonna give a report on "student success initiatives." (Near him: Lisa Davis Allen and Gwen Plano.) This could be bad.

     Blah, blah, blah. We've got the highest transfer rate. Blah.
     There's some kid two seats down with the weirdest fucking shoes and socks I've ever seen. But I digress....

     Lisa Davis Allen: Goals. Reports. Task forces. "Teaching and learning." Facilitating.... --Good Lord. CTE and certificated programs....ATEP....what we hope to make real at that location.... The "20/20 vision." Student support. Structure. Success. Goal 3. --I can't go on with this.

     Fuentes has that infernal smile again. What's he thinking?

     Gwen Plano: nice plaid jacket. She speaks like a human being, thank God. She'll focus on "four areas." Online orientation, advisement. Blah, blah, blah.
     I heard that Gwen has submitted her resignation. If so, she seems to benefit from post-resignation euphoria or energizreree. She's really quite excellent. Too bad I don't care. Not now. Not after hell.
     She says one of IVC's counselors is a "beautiful person." Good grief. That can't be right. She's got nothin' left to lose, I guess. She'll say just about anything! 
     What with the plaid jacket and her new focus, it's almost as if she's saying something good and important. "Incredibly successful," she says. Yadda yadda yadda.
     Next she describes the "Summer bridge program." She's quite eloquent about it. The superlatives are flyin', man. A retention rate of 89%. Can you imagine?!
     Tom's got his eyes closed. He's smiling, but it's as though he's in pain. She points to somebody in the room. He stands up. Talks about veterans.
     Gwen's odd eloquence continues. Sings the praises of the vets on campus. Very passionate.
     Gosh, Gwen. Don't make me listen! She's pretty focused, impossible to ignore (almost).
     Meanwhile, Craig Justice is chewing his tongue in the corner. He seems to have an enormous cup of coffee. Not sure. It's El Diablo coffee. "I have never been so touched in all my life....," says Gwen.
     Wow.

     Back to El Diablo—er, Craig. Blah, blah, blah. Talks about how many computers per head at the college. —Yeah, but what about rat turds or mold pies per head? What about hairs per head?
     He says the Academic Affairs committee has organized one of the most effective staff development programs in the known goddam universe. I did not know that. I do not think so. (How can anyone tell?)
     Success center: a place to go to engage their professor, says the Prince of Darkness. Shows slide of Teacher of year. "See?", he seems to say.
     Talks about writing center: shows Linda Thomas, describing the Center. I nice presentation. Linda seems like a pro (video-wise). The background music hits a wrong note: infomercial. But that's probably a plus with these geezers. Too bad everybody wishes they were dead. Pearls before corpses.
     "Good writing begins with a conversation," said Linda to El Diablo, he says. Wow.
     Next: basic skills, etc. Our newest center: Language Acquisition Center. Student come to practice languages, learn about other cultures. It opened this semester.
     Reading center: but wait! Don't students know how to read? Well, they think they do. Hahaha. Blah, blah, blah.
     Basic skills tutoring is conducted in the library, says Lucifer. (His jacket ain't much. His tie is an atrocity.)
     I don't have a slide for the basement, he says. But blah, blah, blah.
     Any questions?

     Marcia: "it's so wonderful," she doesn't know where to start. The pictures! So much one-on-one help! Incredible!
     Marcia notes that Gwen is retiring. Says: Gwen has "really big feet." Oops, no, she's left big shoes to fill! Yeah, that's it! (Much laughter.)
     Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!

     Prendergast: he's still got that mustache. Talks positively about veterans. No more comments. It's finally over.

     Nancy: that was "very exciting, although a little bit long." 
     Well, at least she didn't kill anybody, like she does sometimes.

Hell writhes and sputters to a close:

     Pulling 5.1 for Fuentes' sake. (Must be where they pay him despite absence last month.)
     Otherwise, everything in consent calendar passes.

     5.12 (Fuentes' pay) passes.

Action items:

     6.2 change order, IVC Life Science Building. Passes.
     6.3 Ac Personnel actions. Passes.
     6.4 Classified personnel actions. Bugay says there's a small change. See page 5. Blah, blah, blah. D1. It's tedious beyond words.
     Marcia: what was very confusing last time is very clear now. Thanks.
     Etc.

     Reports - Lang has question about basic aid report. Refers to an OC Reg article about this that caused some consternation among trustees. Nancy: not sure how that's tied in with "Basic Aid." $7.3 million in taxes being held back by county. (See article.) Very unclear in article how this would "impact" us, if at all. The fiscal gal explains, but you know me. Can't follow that stuff. The upshot seems to be that we're OK. We will be diligently monitoring this situations, she says. We'll collect 100% of any money owed to our district.
     Poertner: it doesn't really impact us, he says. We haven't received this revenue source, so makes no difference. Lang seems satisfied. He examines lint from his pocket.
     Fuentes: turn to page 1 of 2. Item #1. Could you refresh my memory? We have the concept that we don't use basic aid funds for one-time salary expenditures. How is it that that is there?
     Poertner: my recollection: during those negotiations, we had a difficult time agreeing. The board agreed to use for that one year only the 4 and a half million for salary negotiation. Following year, was no longer used for that. It was controversial among trustees at the time, he says. (This is Gary's sense of humor at work, I think.)
     Fuentes: OK, has no impact for future.

7.4 - no comments. 7.5 - no comments.

7.6 non-resident tuition fees for foreign and out-of-state students.
     Lang: we ran the numbers, blah, blah, blah. Fiscal gal explains.

     My Mac's battery is running mighty low. It's not likely that anything interesting will happen now, what with everyone being dead.

     Prendergast: makes motion to extend meeting until 10:00. They do that. Somebody's got to smack Fuentes again. He somehow votes, then returns to his dark passenger.

7.7 Retiree trust fund.
     Fuentes: could you walk us through this? Fiscal gal explains. I got nothin'. She is reassuring: we're in it for the long hall. Fuentes: when will we hear about this again? Blah, blah, blah. "We monitor it daily." But we only present on a quarterly basis. Fuentes wants to hear about it more often. Says something about "people camping on the lawn." I dunno. Maybe he's hallucinating. So Poertner and Co. agree to give more frequent reports.

Reports from groups....

     I left amid the reports.

Alone in the enshrouding darkness

• Welch versus Joseph McCarthy, Part 1
• Welch versus Joseph McCarthy, Part 2

A clash at CSULB over major tuition spike

• CSU raises 2012-13 tuition by 9 percent (OC Reg)

     LONG BEACH – California State University trustees approved a 9 percent increase in tuition Wednesday despite a clash between police and demonstrators who disrupted the board's meeting with chants and a struggle that left an officer injured. ¶ Assistant Chancellor Robert Turnage said the trustees reconvened elsewhere as the brief violence flared and voted 9-6 in favor of the increase....

• [UPDATED with Violence, Arrests:] Students and Bank Bailout Foes Protest Tuition Hike Before Cal State University Trustees Today (OC Weekly)

     UPDATE, NOV. 16, 2:18 P.M.: Two students were reportedly pepper-sprayed and two police officers were injured during this morning's protest at the California State University Chancellor's office in Long Beach.
     Trustees waited until protesters were cleared out of the room before going into closed session to approve the 9 percent tuition hike for next school year, reports the Daily 49er.
     The student newspaper posted video of the fracas on Facebook.

From the Daily 49er

Occupy Cal: a former IVC Student Reports from Sproul

THE TRIUMPHANT vision above is former IVC student Lauren Winder on the steps of Sproul Hall at UC Berkeley.

Lauren is an active participant in the Occupy Cal movement and has given Rebel Girl permission to share her experiences.

Here's Lauren's report of yesterday's activities:

"Today was historic and amazing: we successfully set up an encampment on Sproul, had the Mario Savio memorial speakers including Professor Robert Reich address us with overwhelming emotion, I got to march with my idols in the English Department, & the whole thing concluded with us dancing to Michael Jackson on the steps of Sproul in front of news cameras. And, yes, I made a sign with a line taken from Shelley's 'Prometheus Unbound.' Maybe the best day of my life."

Did Rebel Girl mention that Lauren is an English major? Yeah. Yeah.

Here's an extended excerpt of the passage from Percy Bysshe Shelley's play "Prometheus Unbound" that Lauren quotes on her sign. They are the play's final lines:

"To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite;
To forgive wrongs darker than death or night;
To defy Power, which seems omnipotent;
To love, and bear; to hope till Hope creates
From its own wreck the thing it contemplates;
Neither to change, nor falter, nor repent;
This, like thy glory, Titan, is to be
Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free;
This is alone Life, Joy, Empire, and Victory."

Go Bears!

*

See Billy Bragg: World Turned Upside Down