This morning our pal Marla Jo Fisher reports on a. Says Marla. "The meeting is scheduled in the chancellor’s conference room instead of its regular venue which is the first time I’ve ever seen a public hearing scheduled for a conference room. Maybe they don’t expect anyone to show up."Hmmmm. This board sure is dedicated to open government and transparency. Sure. I wonder if denizens of the colleges even know where the conference room is? Doubt it.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced plans Tuesday to focus its time — and hundreds of millions of new dollars — on college completion particularly at community colleges.…In announcing the plans at a meeting with education leaders held in Seattle foundation leaders spoke with passion not only about the importance of higher education but about the poor graduation and retention rates at many institutions.…“For the last 40 years the U. S has been encouraging enrollment and access — with federal aid like Pell Grants and guaranteed student loans. That’s important and it has helped. More young people enrolled in college this year than ever before,” [Melinda Gates] said. “But the payoff doesn’t come with enrolling in college; the payoff comes when a student gets a postsecondary degree that helps them get a job with a family wage – and that’s not happening nearly enough. The college completion rate in America has been flat since the 1970s. We were once first in the world in postsecondary completion rates we now rank tenth. That’s a danger for the nation’s economy and it’s a tragedy for our citizens.”As a result she said that the foundation’s work in education would focus on “not just college enrollment but college completion.” The foundation plans two major efforts in the years ahead she noted. One will focus on helping more disadvantaged students finish high school so that college is a possibility for them. The other will focus on college completion. The emphasis will be on community colleges she said….
(According to the courts the appointment of Mathur to the office of interim Irvine Valley College President ).
FACT: Raghu Mathur was selected as Chancellor of the SOCCCD in 2002 “despite his being ranked fourth out of five finalists by a nine-member selection committee.” (“College president who sued his district becomes chancellor,”
(At the time [1998]. Wagner made no secret of his association with the which had authored Proposition 226 the "Political Contributions by Employees initiative," designed to devastate unions’ political muscle.)FACT: In 2006. Chancellor Mathur stating that the “vast negative press coverage” of our district “has come” from faculty. In fact none of it had come from them. Literally all of it (see for yourself!) had been inspired by the actions of Mathur’s board patrons: Fuentes (the controversy) and Wagner (the controversy).
FACT: In January of 1999 both of our colleges were placed on accreditation "warning" status. In his letter to president Mathur. David B. Wolff. Executive Director of the Accrediting Commission (ACCJC) wrote that the "Commission is compelled to issue a warning and to ask that IVC correct the deficiencies noted... At the time of the visit by the Evaluating Team. IVC was experiencing the effects of disharmony that have existed at the district and college level for an extended period of time. These effects evidenced themselves most significantly in the area of governance... The district and its colleges should immediately and persistently take steps to insure that the governing board limit itself to appropriate policy-setting roles..[and] assess the leadership issues at IVC and take appropriate measures...." (See “College Trustees Take a Preelection Hit,” LA Times. 10/30/98.)
Nine years later. IVC and Saddleback could lose their accreditation over the.
FACT: In 1997 despite lacking any full-time administrative experience. Raghu Mathur was recommended by trustee (and long-time Mathur crony) Steve Frogue for the role of “interim” president of IVC on the basis of an anonymous petition that Mathur had himself circulated and provided. Frogue has been called a Holocaust Denier. Whether or not that is true he's certainly said some interesting things:
“Was it 6 million who died [in the Holocaust]?” Frogue asked saying he wonders “whether it’s the number of people who were actually killed or the number of people who actually died or the number of people who were actually put in the gas chambers.”
“.. there are too many questions about the Holocaust for it to be judged a certainty in all aspects.”
“There’s a group right here in Orange County called the Institute for Historical Review.. they have raised questions about [the occurrence of the Holcaust]. I’ve looked at some of their publications kind of strange and definitely new. I’ve never seen anything like it before. There’s somebody that wants to engage in the debate about the Holocaust.”
FACT: "SOCCCD trustees attempted to intimidate school employees and investigators during a routine look at the district’s shaky finances according to letters and interviews with district officials. State auditors said they left with a firsthand glimpse of what critics say is an atmosphere of intimidation and harassment that has dominated the two-campus district for the past 18 months. Letters…show that two of the district’s seven trustees [Williams and Fortune] took what the state chancellor’s office calls an 'unprecedented' series of actions to impede its investigation…'I’ve never seen anything like this before,' said Patrick Lenz the state’s vice chancellor of fiscal services of the April 6 visit. 'We were faced with all sorts of intimidation tactics throughout the day'… Throughout the eight-hour audit. Fortune paced outside the glass door. Sometimes she peered through the glass…." (OC Register. 6/13/98)
“Your letter inaccurately attributes your actions…as based on my advice. As you very well know my advice to you was to meet the legal requirement for effective academic senate participation…The Academic Senate Vice President…was a party to our telephone conversation and will confirm that this was my advice to you.”
—State Academic Senate President Bill Scroggins in a letter written 3/3/98 catching Raghu P. Mathur in an attempt to execute his familiar “false paper trail” scam. ~ GOD 'N' GOO:
-–Reportedly uttered by IVC President Raghu P Mathur during a meeting with Academic Senate officers. (May 1998) ~ EVERETT BREWERY:
“What you do as a good board member is you keep [talented] people…[Members of the board have instead] appointed and hired people who have had little experience…Put their little names on the refrigerator and don’t vote for these people.”
–-Everett Brewer former VP of Instruction. Saddleback College and a 25-year district employee (Times. 6/20/98) ~ BREWERY II:
“In a very short time the existing Board of Trustees has nearly destroyed everything we labored so long to create.”
–-Everett Brewer (Times. 6/21/98) ~ THE JERRY SPRINGER COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT:
“Every time I get up in the morning and see a story about this district in The Orange County Register it’s like seeing your mother on The Jerry Springer Show.”
—Marie Hill student trustee speaking during the June 15. 1998 board meeting (OC Weekly. 6/26/98) ~ WHAT STEVE DRAGGED IN: Krugel to Frogue:
“Sir. I don’t want to hear any more comments about little girls.”
—From an exchange among Barry Krugel (of the JDL) trustees and visitors during the June 15. 1998 board meeting. (Joe Fields a Frogue supporter who attended the meeting is a neo-Nazi and according to Krugel a convicted “sexual molester.”) (OC Weekly. 6/26/98) ~ WADDYA THINK
–-Tanning booth enthusiast and conspiracy theorist Michael Collins Piper at the start of his three minutes at the raucous 6/15/98 board meeting (OC Weekly. 6/26/98) ~ "DICTATORS" SHOULD RESIGN:
“I was hired by IVC to start a digital…art program in the fine-arts department last fall…I have seen models of effective shared governance…[The] management style implemented by the Board of Trustees appeared more like a dictatorship...[I]f the board was truly concerned about the future of the colleges... they would all resign....”
“[Trustee John] Williams’ blatant disrespect of the shared governance process and his fellow trustees is yet another example of his poor leadership. This micromanagement of the chancellor hiring process reminds one of the administrative reorganization and IVC presidential hiring process a year ago the effects of which continue to haunt this district and our community.”
—Trustee Dave Lang in a letter appearing in the Irvine World News. 7/9/98. ~ AN EMBARRASSMENT:
“It is an embarrassment that this $72 million district…could attract only nine applicants for the position of chancellor in a nationwide search. The public must pay closer attention to the candidates for election in November to make certain that the public interest and not special interests are represented by the board.”
—Retiring board “minority” trustee Joan Hueter from a statement quoted in the Irvine World News. 7/23/98. ~ THEIR MONKEY BOY:
“There’s a lot of on-campus friction. District trustees are morons the college president is their monkey boy and the faculty union (which is controlled by Saddleback’s more senior professors) is dirty vocal IVC teachers say.”
—From a “consumer” assessment of IVC appearing in the OC Weekly. 9/4/98. ~ GUN-LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDORED THING:
-–Trustee Williams expressing frustration over Trustee Lang’s expressed doubts about the district’s practice of arming its cops. (During the 9/14/98 board meeting.) ~ A SPIN-CONTROLLER SPINNIN’ OUTA CONTROL:
“I was told that there were some things I was not to focus on. From my own research old files and press clippings I got a picture of an administration that was doing some things that I don’t think I could represent without violating my own ethics…People are walking on eggshells around there. He [Mathur] said he has an open-door policy and that he believes in communication but I didn’t see it.”
—Bevin Zandvliet who briefly served as Mathur’s spinmeister (OC Register. 9/25/98) ~ PIOUS DECEIVERS:
“[#5 in this year's] Slime-ball campaign tactics. In 1996 the despicable trio of Steven Frogue. Dorothy Fortune and John Williams appealed to anti-gay hysteria to win seats on the SOCCCD Board. This time. Wagner and Padberg—who are backed by the same nasty crowd (a faculty association) that funded Frogue. Fortune and Williams—are trying to capitalize on another hot-button issue. College trustees have zero say in the fight over a proposed airport at El Toro but the main theme of Wagner and Padberg’s joint misleading mailer is that they are the only candidates openly fighting the El Toro International Airport.”
—From OC Weekly’s election “Hall of Shame.” (Late October. ’98) ~ D’YA THINK THEY’D TAKE SATAN’S MONEY?
“The teachers union?…The California Teachers Association is overwhelmingly liberal. I would seriously doubt they would support a conservative Republican like me. I was generally pleased to get the support…but I think it’s strange that it’s the union.”
—Don Wagner remarking on the support he received from the Faculty Association. In the end. Wagner and Padberg owed their victories to the Association which spent tens of thousands on their behalf despite howls of protest from the rank and file. (OC Register. 10/31/98) ~ SHARED WHAT?
.. Accreditation teams wrapping up three-day visits to Saddleback and Irvine Valley colleges on Oct. 29 were reportedly “stunned” by the deep divisions they found between employees and elected officials and warned that the disharmony was eroding service to students. Irvine Valley College where students organized weekly protests since president Raghu Mathur’s 1997 appointment received the harshest criticism with the team finding that the district-board-directed obliteration of “shared governance”—in which faculty staff and community members help administrators and the board shape district policy—was a major cause for concern. Saddleback got off easier but its accreditation team expressed fear that academic programs and student services could suffer unless people just got along. The teams’ not-so-subtle message to the board: stabilize a district that lost administrators like Burt Reynolds shed hair and keep your collective nose out of the colleges’ day-to-day operations. If the colleges want to continue receiving federal aid and having their credits transfer to universities they must be reaccredited in January 1999.
—From the OC Weekly. 1/1/99 ~ THOSE NASTY LITTLE FINGERS. EVEN BACK THEN:
“When you point your finger at someone three fingers point right back.”
—Raghu P. Mathur offering his favorite cliche at the board meeting. 11/16/98. ~ YOU’RE PUSHIN’ TOO HARD:
“I think what I’m seeing here is a consistent pattern that we are going to push this as far as we can,” said Seymour. “And the only thing that seems to work is for the courts to take action.”
—Judge Tully H. Seymour discussing the 2nd Brown Act lawsuit in court quoted in the OC Register. 11/21/98. ~ DEFENDING THE “UNABAUER”:
“He’s been writing it for 18 months and only now they’re reprimanding him. I’ve been reading it for six or seven months and it’s always been that way. For me it was really informative because I couldn’t go to all the board meetings and I relied on “The Dissent” for what was going on. I find his sense of humor satirical... If anyone knows Roy he’s the most soft-spoken and non-violent person you can imagine.”
—Debbie Burbridge former IVC student (Irvine World News. 1/7/99) ~ GRACIOUS. GREAT. & GOIN’ NOWHERE:
—Raghu Mathur in his “President’s Welcome Address,” January 6. 1999. Raghu also compared himself with Abraham Lincoln. There are he said. “three qualities of greatness”: being focused on self-mastery fixity of purpose and malice toward none. These he said are “my goals.” ~ PERSISTENT AND DEFIANT MISCONDUCT:
A judge has ordered the South Orange County Community College District to tape-record its closed-door meetings for two years because of its “persistent and defiant misconduct” in violating state open-meeting laws. Orange County Superior Court Judge Tully H. Seymour also referred the case to the District Attorney’s Office for possible criminal prosecution court records show. A prior finding of Brown Act violations against the district in 1997 also will be forwarded…”The (district) board engaged in a continuing course of conduct that appears to the court to reflect a total disregard for the requirements of the open-meeting law,” Seymour ruled. Terry Franke director of the California First Amendment Coalition said Seymour’s order might set a precedent. “This is extraordinary,” said Franke who helped write the Brown Act. “This would be the first effective order for taping and I have absolutely never heard of a judge in a civil (Brown Act) matter taking the initiative to alert the DA’s office.”
Having tried to work with Raghu for 10 years first as his dean then as a fellow faculty member. I think his ethics are on a par with Brutus. His word is as good as the now infamous statement “I’ve never had sexual relations with that woman…”
—Gary Resnick retired IVC instructor in an email sent to faculty in February. 1999. ~ A PRELIMINARY BUTT-KICKING:
—U. S. District Judge Nora M. Manella’s characterization of the Chancellor’s order that Roy Bauer seek counseling owing to the newsletters he edited. March 15. 1999. ~
[In Johnson,] the court held that an employer “does not have a legitimate interest in covering up mismanagement or corruption and cannot justify retaliation against whistleblowers as a legitimate means of avoiding the disruption that necessarily accompanies such exposure…. A review of the record…suggests that the disharmony at IVC is ongoing and is not solely the product of [Roy B's] “disruptive” speech…Plaintiff’s speech did not create the “disharmony” on the IVC campus and silencing him will not eliminate it…. Defendant…alleges that “faculty and other employees are reticent to discourse with [Plaintiff] or speak out at meetings for fear of reprisals threats or even bodily harm from Plaintiff.”…This court finds this argument unpersuasive…. Plaintiff has been highly critical of the SOCCCD and IVC administrators but as the Supreme Court noted in Waters…. “[g]overnment employees are often in the best position to know what ails the agencies for which they work; public debate may gain much from their informal opinions.” This court finds defendant has no legitimate interest in silencing plaintiff’s speech….. For the reasons set forth above plaintiff’s motion for preliminary injunction is granted. The court finds the six [DISSENT] statements/illustrations at issue in this case constitute protected speech and enjoins defendant from enforcing section 4000.3 and section 4000.5 on the basis of plaintiff’s past speech or any similarly protected future speech. The court also enjoins defendant from ordering plaintiff to undergo psychological counseling of any sort…It is so ordered.
—US District Judge Nora M. Manella’s opinion issued March 19. 1999 ~ CONCILIATORY REMARK:
“You can take all of Raghu Mathur’s critics and stand them up end to end and they wouldn’t see his belt buckle.”
—Steven Frogue quoted in the Irvine World News. Frogue was discussing and promoting his upcoming “Reconciliation and Concord” breakfast. Not one instructor showed excepting Ray “Whitewash Willy” Chandos. Old Guard union crony. (Note to short people: you oughta be pissed off.) ~ SOCCCD: POSTER CHILD FOR A MOVEMENT:
Locally elected community college boards would be eliminated and replaced with appointed advisory boards with limited powers under a new proposal released today by the California Citizens Commission on Higher Education…. Too often the commission argues college boards micromanage their campuses undermining trained administrators and creating disharmony. Commissioners cite the three years of turmoil at South Orange County Community College District as an example of what could go wrong with locally elected trustees….
—From the OC Register. 4/6/99 (front page) ~ HYPOCRITE PAR EXCELLENCE:
According to district officials some faculty members taught a full load of classes while chairing a department and earning over $100,000 a year. “In 60 percent of the cases they had reassigned time and then were teaching classes as overload,” said Irvine Valley President Raghu Mathur.
—From an article in the Irvine World News. 5/27/99 in which IVC’s “school chair” model abolished during the reorganization is criticized. Ironically the “abuses” here described by “district officials” describe only Raghu P. Mathur who owing to massive amounts of overload and reassigned time made over $120,00 a year before becoming president. (He was a school chair.) ~ MORE BUTT-KICKAGE:
The South Orange County Community College District must pay $98,000 in attorney fees for a faculty member who successfully sued the district’s board for violating California open-meeting laws according to a Superior Court judge’s order released Thursday. Roy Bauer prevailed in a lawsuit accusing the board of failing to lawfully notify the public about a series of important decisions it made in private. Those decisions involved a reorganization of the two colleges’ administrations which removed professors from some key decision-making posts and the appointment of Irvine Valley College President Raghu Mathur. A judge found that the board had a persistent pattern of violating open-meeting laws and ordered trustees to tape-record all closed-door meetings. This is Bauer’s second Brown Act lawsuit victory….
On a campus already strained by deep tensions professors at Irvine Valley College are in an uproar over a new policy that they say threatens the time-honored practice of decorating office doors and windows with the cartoons clippings and fliers that reflect their humor and passions. Faculty representatives are threatening legal action over a memo teachers received last week telling them to remove any posters or signs they have displayed on their office windows or external doors. The college president. Raghu P. Mathur says he is seeking only to protect the school from unsightly clutter. But professors allege the policy is a ploy to stifle their ongoing criticism of the school’s leadership…. Signs on professors’ doors and windows range from cartoons newspaper clippings and announcements about grades and scholarships to sharp blows at Mathur. In one window which faces the campus and can be seen from a distance large signs proclaim “Mathur Must Go” and “Raghu Must Resign”…. According to the Irvine Valley College memo professors have until Sunday to remove their displays or the college will remove them….
—LA Times. 8/2/99. A truncated version of the story appeared in the LA version of the Times four days later. An OCN report on this issue began airing 8/2/99. A follow-up aired a few days later.
• — The Reb gets peeved about cutbacks in photocopy services (and inadvertently lets loose the hounds of "copy guy" love) • — Chunk’s the kinda guy who’ll tie seventeen years together with
stories • — Mojo son of Sunny Girl a fine fellow indeed • — Red Emma encounters real live soldiers and they speak! Waddya think they say? • — Chunk carps about students. I guess • — The Reb carps about students. I guess • — The Reb’s adventures strictly R-rated • — The Chancellor is “shocked” by what he reads in the Accred reports! The Chancellor is an assh*le • — The Reb on student email writing! LOL! • — Chunk & SNAFUs on the first day of class • — Rebel girl is sent her 15 year pin. Sapphire! • — Fannie’s feline. Pacifica • — Indeed it was; took some pics; hiked some clicks • — The Reb: dispatch from Truckee. CA • — It was ten years ago today. Doctor Mathur taught the band to play • — Mathur’s new contract.
• — Chunk’s old photos gettin' older • — Chunk’s photo restoration project • — Rebel Girl remembers a Goldwater girl • — Chunk & his parental units:
• — “As you know parades are stupid.” Spotting Raghu • — I see the moon; the moon sees me • — Chunk tells old stories; old stories tell Chunk
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http://dissenttheblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/neeeeewwws.html
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