The "Coast" report

Orange Coast College’s $113-million Student Union, College Center nears completion
—LA Times
     Orange Coast College has been a relative ghost town since students transitioned to distance learning in March during the coronavirus pandemic, but for work crews, planners and designers the past few months have been busier than ever.
     And that work is beginning to bear fruit as officials with Orange Coast … announce the completion of several major building projects on the Costa Mesa campus that have been in the pipeline for more than a decade.
     Without the usual fanfare of a ribbon-cutting ceremony and public unveiling, work wrapped up in April on a $51-million aquatics center that is home to a 65-meter pool and 47,000 square feet of space for athletics and kinesiology courses.
     And now two new campus superstars — a 40,800-square-foot Student Union and a College Center, whose 119,185 square feet of space will accommodate a cafeteria as well as the campus’ culinary arts, hospitality and tourism programs — are nearly ready for their campus debut….

9-8: the tectonic shift in California's politics since the 1990s. California to have its own line of generic drugs?

✅Failure to Communicate

—Inside Higher Ed

     Late last month, Greg Patton ... was teaching a lesson on “filler words” in other languages -- think “err,” “um” or “like” in English -- in his master’s-level course on communication for management.

     “Taking a break between ideas can help bring the audience in,” Patton said, according to a recording of one of the Zoom course sections and a transcription that appeared next to him on screen. “In China,” for instance, he continued, “the common pause word is ‘that that that.’ So in China it might be ne ga, ne ga, ne ga.”
. . .
     One petition for Patton’s reinstatement with thousands of signatures says, “For him to be censored simply because a Chinese word sounds like an English pejorative term is a mistake and is not appropriate, especially given the educational setting. It also dismisses the fact that Chinese is a real language and has its own pronunciations that have no relation to English.”
     Ninety-four Marshall alumni, many of whom are Chinese and now live in China, wrote their own letter to the dean and other administrators, expressing support for Patton….

 

✅Jessica Krug's Department Speaks Out

—Inside Higher Ed

     Departmental colleagues of Jessica Krug, the white associate professor of history at George Washington University who has been lying about being Black for her entire career, want her to resign or be fired. In a statement Friday, George Washington’s history faculty members said they are “shocked and appalled” at Krug’s “appropriation of an Afro-Caribbean identity” and betrayal of “countless current and former students, fellow scholars of Africana Studies, colleagues in our department and throughout the historical discipline, as well as community activists in New York City and beyond.”….

     The discipline of history is “concerned with truth telling about the past,” the professors said, and so Krug’s conduct raises “questions about the veracity of her own research and teaching.” Krug should resign, they said, but if she doesn’t, the department recommends that she be untenured and terminated....

✅Michigan State to Rename Building That Honored Klan Member

—Inside Highe Ed

     The Michigan State University Board of Trustees is set to vote this week to rename a campus building after some officials learned the building’s namesake was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. The measure has been recommended by the Trustee Committee on Academic Affairs.

     The building was named after Stephen Nisbet, a late school principal, Michigan Education Association president, State Board of Education member and trustee at both MSU and Alma College.

     The building was named after Nisbet in 1974. However, the board has highlighted information that strongly suggests Nisbet was a member of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.

     The book Everyday Klansfolk: White Protestant Life and the KKK in 1920s Michigan, which was published in 2011, mentions Nisbet as a Klan member. Furthermore, his membership card is on file at the Central Michigan University Clarke Historical Library, according to a document in the board’s meeting packet….

 

✅Health Experts Warn Colleges Not to Send Students Home. But What if Quarantine Spaces Run Out?

—CHE

     As campuses are overwhelmed with Covid-19 cases, they must decide: Shelter in place, or send students home? They hear arguments for both.

 

✅What Trump officials really say — and don’t say — in denying that he disparaged fallen troops

—WashPo

     

From Rough&Tumble:

✅What is Proposition 16? Affirmative action back on the ballot, in a more diverse and Democratic California -- The fall campaign to repeal California’s ban on affirmative action is a testament to the tectonic shift in the state’s politics since the 1990s — and a test of how far left its voters have swung from their politically purple past. Nico Savidge in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 9/8/20 

✅SDSU will confine students to their dorms for additional week due to COVID-19 outbreak -- San Diego State University on Monday announced that it will keep 2,600 students confined to campus housing for an additional week due to a COVID-19 outbreak rather than allowing a Labor Day weekend lockdown to expire on Tuesday. Gary Robbins in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 9/8/20

 

✅600 UC San Diego students, faculty ask university to drop plans to re-open campus -- Nearly 600 UC San Diego students, faculty and staff have signed an open letter asking the school to drop plans to place thousands of undergraduates in dorms and resume some in-person classes due to the threat posed by the novel coronavirus. Gary Robbins in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 9/8/20

 ✅California Rx: State may dive into generic drug market -- California is poised to become the first state to develop its own line of generic drugs, targeting soaring drug prices and stepping into a fiercely competitive drug market dominated by deep-pocketed pharmaceutical companies. Angela Hart and Samantha Young in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/8/20

 

✅Activists concerned over rise in Orange County homeless deaths -- According to data from the coroner’s office, 146 homeless people died between April and August. During the same period last year, there were 82 deaths among the homeless. Although the coroner does not list a cause of death if it’s from natural causes, more than 90 of the causes for the homeless were left blank in reports. Ben Brazil in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/8/20

✅Today's County Covid numbers: 151 new cases; 3 new deaths; numbers steadily improving

 

Gaucho Oucho Part 2: the petition

Below is a letter recently sent to the Saddleback College community (and perhaps beyond) pursuing an end to Saddleback College's Gaucho mascot. It asks that we sign a petition (see below):

Dear Saddleback Community member, 

We need your help. Add your name to the petition to completely retire the Gaucho as Saddleback’s Mascot

Why Now is the Time:

 

History is being shaped right now! In response to demands that companies, professional sports teams, and schools across the nation demonstrate a commitment to addressing racial inequality, these organizations have begun to investigate and retire structures and symbols that perpetuate exclusion, inequality, and racism. At Saddleback College, one of those symbols is the Gaucho mascot. 

 

On the surface, the Gaucho might not seem to be as offensive as other, perhaps more explicitly racist, imagery, but it is in fact offensive for the reasons enumerated below. If Saddleback is truly committed to creating a campus culture focused on equity and inclusion, the college must take this one small but significant step to demonstrate that commitment and retire the Gaucho mascot now.

 

It is true that the overtly racist image of the Gaucho mascot was officially eliminated in 2015. However, this is still the first image that appears when one does an internet search on “Saddleback Gauchos.” In addition, the Gaucho is problematic as a mascot for reasons that go well beyond this single image. Although the college is in the process of trying to redesign the mascot, we believe we should stop that now. We believe that the mascot cannot be rehabilitated and must be entirely eliminated and replaced by a new mascot. As long as Saddleback College maintains this mascot, we are a part of the systemic racism that promotes inequality and maintains white privilege, even if we attempt to declare otherwise. 

 

Retiring the Gaucho is not erasing history. It is working towards a more equitable present and future, one that we have already committed to give our students. Mascots should unite and inspire the college; instead this mascot has created conflict and disunity for at least the past twenty years. It is time to let it go.

 

What You Can Do

 Attached is a petition being distributed among the Saddleback community—including alumni, faculty at other institutions, and friends and neighbors of the college—asking for the Gaucho to be retired as the Saddleback College mascot. We are asking for you to add your name. If you want to add your name to the petition, there is no need to physically sign. Just send an email to retirethegaucho@gmail.com asap saying you wish to add your name. In the email, include your affiliation with the college as appropriate (IVC faculty, Saddleback Alumni Year, Mission Viejo Resident, etc). If you would like to write a separate letter of stating why you think the gaucho mascot should be retired, please address it to Saddleback College and email it to retirethegaucho@gmail.com and we will include the letters in the packet along with the petition.

 

There will also be a forum for Community members to voice their thoughts on the mascot on Tuesday September 22, 2020 from 4:30-6:00 PM. If your schedule allows, please try to attend to express your support of the gaucho mascot’s retirement. We will present the community petition at that meeting. Please RSVP through Eventbrite, https://bit.ly/2QMrpq8 by Friday, September 18

 

Here is more information on why the gaucho should be retired:

Retire the Gaucho History Lesson [see below]

Retire the Gaucho News Report

Retire the Gaucho Official Website

Student Video Petition to Retire the Gaucho

 

Follow us on Instagram @retirethegaucho

And on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/retirethegaucho/

 

Please email us at retirethegaucho@gmail.com with any questions.

 

Thank you, 

The Committee to Retire the Gaucho

When one Googles "Saddleback College gaucho" (image), 
this is what comes up.

MY TWO CENTS:

     I agree with the committee—I would do away with the Gaucho as mascot, even if the new "images" are true to the historical Gauchos. I can really do without this talk of “systematic racism that promotes inequality and maintains white privilege.”* I don’t think we need to go quite there to see the point of moving beyond the Gaucho:

     First, as the committee states, when one searches “Saddleback Gaucho” and the like, that nasty old image always pops up (in part because our discussion of this issue here on DtB, going back 14 years, usually pops up).

     Second, the original choice was made, not by students or the community, but by a group of trustees. Shouldn’t the choice be made by the community/students? (The 1968 board were neo-McCarthyites who named Saddleback College’s first building after a notorious racist/paranoid Congressman, “Utt the Nut.”)

     Third—and this is the most important point, I think—if we’re going to embrace this historical icon, shouldn’t the community (including me) acquire a sound basic understanding of the Gaucho tradition before choosing the Gaucho as mascot? (BTW, only a very generous soul would likely approve of everything that he/she finds there. [Update:] I just viewed one of the committee's videos below, and — yep.) The community plainly hasn’t done that. Choosing the Gaucho as mascot when we don’t understand the Gaucho seems reckless and stupid to me. 

     My two cents.

(*I don't fundamentally disagree with some such thesis but I find this sort of argument often to be over-simplified and, as in the case of the very trendy Ms. DiAngelo, intellectually offensive. See here & here & here, etc.)

9-7: Trump Held ‘Low Opinions of All Black Folks’

✅Experts project autumn surge in coronavirus cases, with a peak after Election Day

—WashPo

     Infectious-disease experts are warning of a potential cold-weather surge of coronavirus cases — a long-feared “second wave” of infections and deaths, possibly at a catastrophic scale. It could begin well before Election Day, Nov. 3, although researchers assume the crest would come weeks later, closer to when fall gives way to winter.

     An autumn surge in covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, would not be an October surprise: It has been hypothesized since early in the pandemic because of the patterns of other respiratory viruses….

 

✅Coronavirus update: Northeastern University dismisses 11 students who gathered in hotel room

—WashPo

     Northeastern University says it has dismissed 11 students who gathered in a hotel room in violation of the school’s coronavirus policies and will not refund their tuition, marking one of the most severe punishments college students have faced for breaking pandemic rules.

     University staff members found the first-year students hanging out last week in a room at the Westin Hotel in downtown Boston, which Northeastern is using as a temporary dorm for about 800 students, according to a university statement. Officials instructed them to take a coronavirus test, then leave campus within 24 hours.

     The students, who were part of a study-abroad program that was held in Boston this semester, will not be reimbursed for their $36,500 tuition payments, according to the university. They will be allowed back on campus in the spring. In the meantime, the university said, they can appeal the punishment in an expedited hearing....

✅‘Our Biggest Fear’: What Outbreaks on 3 Campuses Say About the Pandemic This Fall

—CHE

     The Chronicle has been tracking coronavirus spikes in counties with big college campuses. On three of those campuses, leaders worry that students could infect the community.

✅Trump has a long history of disparaging military service

—WashPo

     Long before the president’s views of the military would emerge as a flash point in his 2020 reelection campaign, Trump had an extensive track record of incendiary and disparaging remarks about veterans and military service.

 

✅India surpasses Brazil to take second spot in total coronavirus cases, behind only the U.S.

—WashPo
     The outbreak in the country of more than 1.3 billion people shows no sign of peaking.

✅Michael Cohen’s Book Says Trump Held ‘Low Opinions of All Black Folks’ -- The president’s former fixer describes him as a mob boss figure who made racist insults, was driven by hatred for President Barack Obama and engaged in underhanded tactics against opponents. Maggie Haberman in the New York Times$ -- 9/7/20

✅Trump prepares a new fall offensive: Branding Kamala Harris -- Drawing on a playbook of caricature and condemnation, Trump’s campaign hopes to chip away at Joe Biden’s lead by presenting Harris as an extreme California liberal. Gabby Orr Politico -- 9/7/20

 

✅New Trump ads stoke racial bias among white people in Minnesota and Wisconsin -- President Trump resumed television advertising after the Republican National Convention with two racially charged commercials airing in Minnesota and Wisconsin, battleground states racked by social upheaval after recent violent police encounters with Black men. Michael Finnegan in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/6/20

✅Los Angeles coronavirus toll declines, but officials warn of possible holiday spike -- Health officials on Sunday confirmed five new deaths and 798 new cases of COVID-19 in Los Angeles County, continuing a steady decline in the region’s pandemic toll that began a month ago. Gale Holland in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/7/20

 

✅After deadly August, health officials eye ‘downward trend’ in infections -- Although last month was the deadliest yet in California’s fight against the coronavirus pandemic, the consistent lowering of hospitalizations and a slowing infection rate are seen as hopeful signs of improvement. Vincent Moleski in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 9/7/20

 

✅Louis DeJoy’s rise as GOP fundraiser was powered by contributions from company workers who were later reimbursed, former employees say -- Louis DeJoy’s prolific campaign fundraising, which helped position him as a top Republican power broker in North Carolina and ultimately as head of the U.S. Postal Service, was bolstered for more than a decade by a practice that left many employees feeling pressured to make political contributions to GOP candidates — money DeJoy later reimbursed through bonuses, former employees say. Aaron C. Davis, Amy Gardner and Jon Swaine in the Washington Post$ -- 9/6/20

click on graphic

9-6: the "college town" covid hot spot phenom. Cohen spills many a bean on Trump. And it's damned hot!

✅In new book, former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen describes alleged episodes of racism and says president likes how Putin runs Russia -- President Trump’s longtime lawyer and personal fixer, Michael Cohen, alleges in a new book that Trump made “overt and covert attempts to get Russia to interfere in the 2016 election” and that the future commander in chief was also well aware of Cohen’s hush-money payoff to adult-film star Stormy Daniels during that campaign. Ashley Parker and Rosalind S. Helderman in the Washington Post$ -- 9/6/20

✅COVID-19 deaths reach 6,000 in L.A. County -- The coronavirus crisis has now caused 6,000 deaths in Los Angeles County, a new milestone as public health officials reiterated warnings Saturday to prevent a “great risk of community spread of COVID-19" by avoiding crowds and celebrating Labor Day weekend with members of one’s own household. Teresa Watanabe in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/6/20

 

✅San Diego State confines students to dorms as COVID-19 cases jump -- San Diego State University announced that starting Saturday night it is ordering students who live on campus to stay in their dorms for the rest of the Labor Day weekend in response to the continuing rise in COVID-19 cases. Gary Warth in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/6/20

✅How California’s most pressing problems fell victim to Legislature’s infighting -- When the state Senate leader’s priority housing bill died as the clock struck midnight on the Legislature’s annual session, it shone a spotlight on infighting that contributed to the stunning collapse this year of an agenda to tackle California’s most pressing problems. Alexei Koseff in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/6/20

 

✅#ScholarStrike to Begin Tuesday

     The Scholar Strike and teach-in for racial justice, organized by Anthea Butler and Kevin Gannon, will start at 10 a.m. on Tuesday and continue through Wednesday. Some 5,000 scholars have signed up, saying that they plan to strike, participate in the teach-in or both. Content will appear on Facebook at this link and on Twitter @ScholarStrike, starting Tuesday morning. A Canadian Scholar Strike is in the works now, as well.

—Inside Higher Ed

✅A New Front in America’s Pandemic: College Towns

The coronavirus is spiking around campuses from Texas to Iowa to North Carolina as students return.

—NYT

     IOWA CITY, Iowa —…Within days, students were complaining that they couldn’t get coronavirus tests or were bumping into people who were supposed to be in isolation. Undergraduates were jamming sidewalks and downtown bars, masks hanging below their chins, never mind the city’s mask mandate.

     Now, Iowa City is a full-blown pandemic hot spot — one of about 100 college communities around the country where infections have spiked in recent weeks as students have returned for the fall semester. Though the rate of infection has bent downward in the Northeast, where the virus first peaked in the U.S., it continues to remain high across many states in the Midwest and South — and evidence suggests that students returning to big campuses are a major factor.

✅At Least 4 Boats Sink During ‘Trump Boat Parade’ in Texas

—NYT

 

✅Northeastern dismisses 11 students who gathered in hotel room

     The dismissal underscores the extreme steps universities nationwide are taking to deter behavior that could accelerate the spread of the virus on campus.

—WashPo

 

✅Fox News colleagues defend reporter after Trump Twitter attack over confirmation of Atlantic reporting

     National security reporter Jennifer Griffin found sources to validate key aspects of the story about the president's alleged disparagement of fallen U.S. troops.

—WashPo

✅Today's OC Covid numbers: 223 new cases; 2 new deaths.

9-5: Covid deaths more than doubling by year's end? Twindemic disaster afoot? The heat!

✅President’s alleged ‘losers’ description of slain service members leaves military leaders off balance
—WashPo
     Senior and former military leaders appeared to struggle with how to respond to a report that President Trump disparaged U.S. service members killed in combat.

 

✅A bad flu season colliding with pandemic could be overwhelming

—WashPo

 

✅FBI pondered whether Trump was ‘a Manchurian candidate elected,’ former agent alleges in new book

     Peter Strzok’s book, “Compromised,” describes the FBI’s investigation into Trump and his ties with Russia.

—WashPo

 

✅Professor’s death after collapsing in virtual class is a ‘sad reminder that the virus is real,’ friend says

—WashPo

 

✅Experts warn U.S. covid-19 deaths could more than double by year’s end

     The new projection reinforces warnings that cooler, less humid weather and people’s failure to practice social distancing indoors could lead to a surge in viral transmission this fall and winter.

—WashPo

 

✅GWU plans to replace Jessica Krug, the professor who admitted to falsely claiming Black identity

The school wants to continue Krug’s classes on African and Latin American history without her.

—WashPo

     “There is no ignorance, no innocence, nothing to claim, nothing to defend,” Krug wrote in the blog post. “I have moved wrong in every way for years.”

 

✅Trump contradicts health officials, says 'probably' a Covid-19 vaccine in October

—Politico

     The president's remarks came a day after the head of the government's vaccine accelerator, Moncef Slaoui, said that the government was "very unlikely" to greenlight a vaccine by early November, because data from late-stage clinical trials of leading vaccine candidates would not be ready by then.

 

✅Sanders: America must be prepared for when Trump refuses to leave office

—Politico

     ....“[A]t a time when some states like Pennsylvania are finding that they don’t have the resources right now to count votes, their mail-in ballots, in a rapid way, that it is possible that in some states Trump will be winning on election night, and yet when all of the votes are counted, he will be behind. He will lose,” Sanders said of Trump. “But that during that interval, he will create chaos and confusion by claiming that there is massive fraud within the mail-in ballot process.”....

From Rough&Tumble:

✅Coronavirus updates: 19% of Californians know someone who died of COVID-19, poll says -- But according to a recent poll released by the California Health Care Foundation and survey firm Ipsis, 19% of Californians — nearly one-in-five — personally knew someone who died of COVID-19. For Black and Latino populations, who have died at disproportionate rates from the respiratory disease, those figures jump to 28% and 29%, respectively. Michael McGough in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 9/5/20

✅White House directs federal agencies to cancel race-related training sessions it calls ‘un-American propaganda’ -- Vought says OMB will instruct federal agencies to come up with a list of all contracts related to training sessions involving “white privilege” or “critical race theory,” and do everything possible within the law to cancel those contracts, the memo states. Josh Dawsey and Jeff Stein in the Washington Post$ -- 9/5/20

✅Trump Faces Uproar Over Reported Remarks Disparaging Fallen Soldiers -- A report in The Atlantic said the president called troops killed in combat “losers” and “suckers.” He strenuously denied it, but some close to him said it was in keeping with other private comments he has made disparaging soldiers. Peter Baker and Maggie Haberman in the New York Times$ -- 9/5/20

✅State of emergency declared as California faces historic heat, possible power outages -- With scorching temperatures set to sear California through Labor Day weekend, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an emergency proclamation aimed at shoring up the state’s energy capacity.... Luke Money in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/4/20

 

✅Labor Day weekend sparks fears of new coronavirus outbreaks in California -- The next big test of whether Californians can slow the spread of the coronavirus will come this holiday weekend, with officials hoping the public will refrain from the large gatherings and risky behavior that contributed to a spike in COVID-19 infections and deaths after a disastrous Memorial Day weekend. Colleen Shalby in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/4/20

✅UC Davis distributes free school pride face masks to students and staff -- UC Davis will distribute thousands of branded face coverings this fall as part of an effort to boost compliance with public health guidelines. Although Davis will be emptier than usual this year given that most activities have shifted online, students and employees who are on campus will be asked to follow pandemic rules — and encouraged to do so while showing school spirit. Jasmine Kerber in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 9/4/20

✅Today's OC Covid count: 251 new cases; 9 new deaths.