Flex Day Respect is a Two Way Street

Respect is a two way street

I am not a positive person and I am always looking for flaws to improve. However, I was impressed with the tone of the flex day this year. There seemed to be a theme of working together. Every speakers' message was how we faculty, staff, and administrators can work together.
The Academic Senate Leadership was surprised by a unilateral change by administration but kept their displeasure with this unilateral decision under wrap. Did you notice the unilateral change which violates AB1725?
In the past due to disrespect of the previous administration toward faculty and staff,  the Academic Senate would be in revolution mode and the whole proceeding would have broken down. However, this year with this new team of Administration, the Academic Senate leadership was upset but decided to keep it quiet till they investigate the issue further.
I would like to congratulate President Dreyfus for surprising this old grouch!
Please NOTE that I am speaking as an individual faculty and not as a representative of the Academic Senate

The Consequences of Giving Advice

Jazz great, Dave Brubeck, died on December 5, 2012, a day shy of his 92nd birthday. I was surprised to learn that in college, he was originally majoring in veterinary science.

He turned to music when the head of the zoology department at the College of the Pacific gave him this piece of advice:

Brubeck, your mind's not here. It's across the lawn in the conservatory. Please go there. Stop wasting my time and yours. 

CREDIT: Frank C. Müller

Had I been that professor we might never had experienced Take Five.

An end note.  He graduated with his bachelor's degree without learning to read music.

The Changing Medium of Education

From the New Yorker Cartoons

The traditional classroom experience is one of a 'Sage on a Stage' lecturing and the disciples soaking up the knowledge of the guru in front of the class. The best disciples later repeat this by mimicking the style of their favorite guru and thereby becoming a new "Sage on a Stage"! The suffering continues till a new technology comes along and disrupts the whole cycle.
At first these sages try to copy their old methodology into this new environment and find themselves trying to put a square peg into a round hole. Next the hard headed gurus complain about the students not following instructions. The softer gurus complain of the new technology and how the failure of the students is the failure of the new disruptive technology. Yet others look at their lack of training in understanding the use of this new technology. They  are all correct and wrong to some extent.

The students are not following instructions but there is a reason for that (what it is I do not know). The students are failing at a higher rate because they are trying to receive the square peg from a round hole. It is necessary to have some technical skills and training in the use of the new technology, however, there is also a need to think about how we use this new technology.
In an online classroom, we the faculty must put aside the techniques of a Guru or a Sage and take up the principles of medical profession. An online faculty should organize their class and build an environment that fosters a knowledgeable student to stand on his/her own feet. This online faculty like any physician should always try to listen to and respond quickly to get rid of his patient. This means have a simple straight forward set up for a course, and when a student stumbles respond or contact them before their educational health deteriorates further.    
This technique requires any online class to be planned out well in advance of going live. The online faculty should think of all the obstacles the student will face before the course goes live. If an unforeseen problem pops up and a student comes in for help. The online instructor should have a response in a SHORT TIME for this student.
Remember that the goal of any online instructor is NOT to have disciples in the hopes of creating another Sage/Guru but to create curious citizens that can think for themselves distinguishing between logically sound and incorrect information on the World Wide Web.
I believe that we the faculty need to become a digital disciple and experience this whole new thing called online education before we can again become a guru who speaks "digital". 

Julius Thomas

In this commercial you can find another Faculty from our little college on the hill! We are blessed to have so many faculty that care about our students and are willing to get involved.

Dr. Wetsman Emails Administration

Today  Dr. Wetsman (better known to his friends as Adam) emailed all Administrators and the Academic Senators.

The subject of the email was: "Academic Senate Motion"
 
The text of the email was as follow:

Hello everyone,

On Tuesday, the Senate passed the following motion:

Whereas Rio Hondo College, like other colleges across California, is facing severe budget cuts;

Whereas the administration, faculty, and staff are committed to finding budget cuts in a manner befitting shared governance;

Whereas all members of the administration are taking on extra duties, some performing the duties of multiple positions;

Be it resolved that the Academic Senate commends the college’s administration for their dedication and leadership during these difficult times, and directs the Senate President to forward this commendation to appropriate college leaders.

Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication to the college.

Adam Wetsman, Ph.D.

Professor of Anthropology

President, Academic Senate

Rio Hondo College

 Adam and Vann are the senators responsible for this motion which was fully embraced by the entire Academic Senate.

Numbers vs Faces The Balance

The most important concept I learned yesterday at our flex day activity was in a speech by Teresa Dreyfus.  Yesterday in her Flex Day speech, she told the story of some program. 
She told the story of how looking at the food budget for some program she saw it as too much and asked the Dean H. to cut the catering budget for that event. However, when she attended the event and saw that as the result of the directed cuts each student only would receive one apple and one slice of cheese pizza, she felt guilty and told Dean H. to increase the budget for this event next year. This shows me that this hard headed number cruncher has a heart.
She impressed me further by disclosing to us that she has directed all Administrators to go and see  what is going on around the campus. She was open and honest about her realization that each of those little numbers on a ledger are people with dreams and ambitions.
In my opinion, we the faculty who are dealing with students on a day to day basis and do not see the little numbers in the ledgers but see the faces behind those numbers and various bureaucratic forms and act more from the heart.
I would like to invite any administrator to come to my class so they can see the faces of our students and hopefully they will realize why sometimes this particular faculty member (trained in the rational dismal sciences) acts more from the heart than  his brain.  I know that makes me a lousy economist but who cares. I only care about the faces behind those numbers.

Special Board Meeting Last Night

Last night there was a special Board meeting studying the Budget and the Presidential Search Process.
During open communication, two persons spoke. A representative of the CSEA spoke, and I spoke for my self. I said the following:

My name is Mike Javanmard and I am a Faculty member at Rio Hondo College. I am speaking for myself and do not represent any group on campus. Although I am a faculty member, I am here to declare that I stand united with the classified staff at Rio Hondo. Without the Janitors our classrooms would not be be a suitable place for learning. Without the grounds and mechanical staff important infrastructure would crumble around us. Without the classified staff in Admission and record, Financial Aid our students would not be able to sign up for classes taught by the faculty. Please consider this as you are making the tough decisions.

  Our Interim President informed the Board that we need to cut $7 million. We will cut 1500 FTES about 500 sections for a saving of $2.3 million.  That leaves another $5million for a cost cutting task force to come up with . There was a discussion as to the make up of this task force. Teresa reported the last cost cutting task force recommendations were.. (I could not hear her)
She would like to see a smaller task force consisting of 3 classified members, 3 faculty, 3 managers, the VP and one student. These members will have to commit to attending all the meetings and will not be allowed to miss a meeting.
The Board President Ms. Norma Garcia asked for Board members to report their top priority so the cost cutting task force will have some direction. Her top priority was the partnership programs and wanted to protect these programs.  Trustee Gary Mendez argued that "we can not have any sacred cows." This was followed by a tense debate between the two.
Finally, I was truly impressed by Trustee Vicky Santana when she asked for figures and asked for time to consider the various choices and think about this request by the Board President to prioritize.  Trustee Shapiro echoed the same sentiment.
"Time to  consider and think!"  I was impressed by Ms. Santana. Bravo!!
The topic switched to the presidential search process. At this point I left the room and can not report on it. 
  

RIO HONDO COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Special Meeting, Monday, July 16, 2012, 6:30 p.m.

3600 Workman Mill Road, Whittier, CA 

AGENDA

I.          CALL TO ORDER

 

            A.        Call to Order (6:30 p.m.)

B.        Pledge of Allegiance

            C.        Roll Call

            D.        Open Communication for Public Comment

Persons wishing to address the Board of Trustees on any item on the agenda, or any other matter, are invited to do so at this time.  Pursuant to the Brown Act, the Board cannot discuss or take action on items not listed on the agenda.  Matters brought before the Board that are not on the agenda may, at the Board’s discretion, be referred to staff or placed on the next agenda.

Persons wishing to make comments are allowed three minutes per topic; thirty minutes shall be the maximum time allotment for public speakers on any one subject regardless of the number of speakers at any one board meeting.

            E.         Study Session

·         Discussion on the Budget

·         Presidential Search Process

II.         CLOSED SESSION

Title 5, California Code of Regulations, Section 59328-59338: Administrative Determination implementation from Discrimination Complaint

Pursuant to Section 54957

·         PUBLIC EMPLOYEE DISCIPLINE / DISMISSAL / RELEASE

III.        ADJOURNMENT

Date of Next Regular Meeting: Wednesday, August 8, 2012, 6:00 p.m. (Rio Hondo College, Board Room, 3600 Workman Mill Road, Whittier)

A New Facebook Page

We the contributors to this blog have created a United to Educate facebook page. We hope you will like our page on facebook. By liking our facebook page our post will show in your timeline.  We will limit our posts. so that we do not clutter your timeline. We hope to use this page to reach out to the Community, Classified Staff, Faculty, Students of Rio Hondo College with the latest on campus.
In keeping with the name of the page we have granted access to a representative of the Classified Staff to post. 
Please click on the link provided and click on the Like Button! All are welcome and we look forward to your comments, for we want to hear your opinions too.

Breaking Down The Silos At Rio Hondo

Yesterday I saw the post by Dr. Vann Priest titled Where Should We Teach? During my drive home I heard a story on the show Market Place on "How the U.S. can fix its political infighting". Toward the end of the story the speaker recommended that our legislators be forced to drink together.

Dubner: The other idea I have is a little bit easier, probably more fun: re-institute mandatory bi-partisan cocktail hour, every night of the week.
Ryssdal: We could do beer. Beer would be all right.
Dubner: We could do beer.

I think this will work at Rio Hondo too. The previous Administration tried to separate us  into various silos of Academic Senate and Faculty Association, CSEA and Faculty, Management and everyone else. We can break down these silos and get to know each other once again by sitting together over a glass of beer or wine. The question is where?

Fall of Faculty

This was an excellent interview with the author of The Fall of Faculty The Rise of the All-Administrative University and Why It Matters. Here are some excerpts from the interview: 

Q: In your book, you refer frequently to "deanlets and deanlings." Can you please tell me a little more about what you mean?A: I wanted to emphasize a major shift that’s been underway for several decades. Deans have an academic background. Years ago, they were part-time and always part of the faculty. This is extremely important because, like the faculty, they saw the university as an instrument of teaching and scholarship. Today, we have a cadre of professional administrators. I called them deanlets to give emphasis to the difference. They either have no faculty background or they decided early in their careers that their talents lay elsewhere. To them, what used to be the means is now the end. Instead of an institution serving teaching and scholarship, teaching and scholarship serve the institution.

Q: You describe administration as, like many bureaucracies, a kind of self-perpetuating entity that seeks to expand as a way of justifying its own existence. What are the most egregious examples?A: In the book, I provide a number of examples. I tell the story from my own experience of our summer program, which had one administrator and 400 students. It was given over to a professional deanlet. It soon had 400 professional staff members and one student. And no one seemed to care.
Q: What impact do you hope this book will have?A: I hope to wake up the faculty. We’re like the residents of a Japanese city living next to the ocean and thinking the tsunami won’t affect us. I also hope to alert university boards. When they read the administration's propaganda organs, I want them to understand that the institution they love needs their help. They didn’t come to Hopkins or Georgetown or Princeton to work with our deanlets. They came to work with our faculty.

Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/07/14/new_book_argues_bloated_administration_is_what_ails_higher_education#ixzz1gOCeZmUO Inside Higher Ed 

What Really Matters

I have had to spend a great deal of time and energy thinking about and dealing with the charges leveled against my colleagues, and I am fatigued, tired, worn out, weary, and pooped.

But last night I was reminded why I do what I do.  

My Physics 213 students have spent three (long!) semesters with me in PHY 211, 212, and 213.   It may be a bit egotistical for me to say this, but I believe my engineering and science majors are the best students Rio Hondo has, and I am privileged to able to teach and mentor them.  I make sure they work hard, and they return the favor.  I frustrate them with all my questions, and  they frustrate me when they don't get it as fast or as deeply as I want them, too. 

So after these three semesters which now seems to have gone too fast , I take them out to Pizza Mania, and we spend a couple of hours away from the books and the classroom.  The conversation can go from what we're doing during the break to where they are transferring, to some research one student is doing with rats and methamphetamine, and then to this crazy video of a solar flare passing Mercury.

What I have always come away with from this event - including a full stomach - is that they get it.  They understand what they've been doing these past three semesters.  

As we left the restaurant and said goodbye, they all said "thanks,"  and I realize there's one thing they didn't get.  It's that I thank them for everything they've done for themselves.

Want Change? That Takes Dedication!!!

It is only through dedicated faculty that we can bring about change at Rio Hondo. You do not have to be a superwoman like Martha but every phone call will get our message of change out to the voters.  We need your help down at Santa Fe Spring.

Rio Faculty Are Blogging

I discovered two other blogs out there that are written by Rio Hondo Faculty. One is by our very own Vann Priest, Oenobareus from the Greek meaning 'heavy with wine' A blog devoted to science and reason.
The other faculty blog is by Kevin Smith on Learning Styles. This blog challenges the myths of Learning styles.
IF you read this blog and are a faculty at Rio Hondo, tell us about your blog.


 

The WHO Award

I found these photos on my camera from the WHO award. Colin Young was the winner of the WHO at Rio.

Pictures from March 10 Board Meeting

Board Meeting March 10 The New Tenure Faculty

The video below was recorded on March 10.

Gen X Faculty

A study of Gen X faculty at Harvard finds that Gen X faculty see less of a generational conflict with senior faculty members than is sometimes assumed. In fact, the report suggests that what these "Generation X" faculty members most want is to create long-term relationships with their colleagues, and to put down roots. You can read the report here.

Tenure

Faculty receiving Tenure:

The following is Faculty receiving Academic Rank.

The following is Rebecca having her Tenure cake.