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MONTHLY UPDATE
UPDATE CONTD 1
UPDATE CONTD 2
UPDATE CONTD 3
UPDATE CONTD 4
UPDATE CONTD 5
UPDATE CONTD 6
UPDATE CONTD 7
STUDENTS SPEAK
QUALIFICATIONS
EVALUATION FORM
LINKS
MEMOS
May 23 1994
Sept 6 1995
March 20 1997
April 3 1997
Jan 5 1998
March 31 1998
Sept 15 1999
May 17 2000
Sept 11 2000
Oct 16 2000
Nov 14 2000
Nov 15 2000
Feb 10 2001
March 15 2001
March 19 2001
June 9 2003
April 17 2006
Sept 18 2006
Sept 27 2006
Oct 23 2006
Dec 9 2007
Dec 16 2007
| Monthly Update |
| A Review of Current Corruption |
) V.P. FOR UNSAVORY AFFAIRS Visit this page regularly to keep abreast of the latest unscrupulous acts committed or condoned by the corrupt LaGuardia Administration. Highest numbered item is most recent. Please scroll down. 1. MIDDLE STATES HOAX (Apr., 2001) LaGuardia is currently under review for re-accreditation by the august body known as the Middle States Commission. This process, in essence, consists of scores of College committees laboring to compile mountains of ed-biz rhetoric extolling the virtues of the College. (LaGuardia's leaders have always been masters of the art of self-aggrandizement and euphemistic jargon with a vengeance. Where else can one find swimming pools that are "Aquatic Centers", presidential gofers who are "Executive Associates", meetings that are "Visioneering Summits" (our favorite), and enough "Task Forces" to make you think we are at war? We personally plan to retire when the toilets are renamed Urination Centers). It's incredible, criminal and tragic, though, that the Middle States Commissioners can't extricate themselves from this excretia for one moment to ask the obvious question: WHY CAN'T HALF THE STUDENTS READ, WRITE OR DO ARITHMETIC? Somebody ought to review the reviewers. Did they ever turn down a college? One wonders, would they accredit a Burger King if the forms were properly filled out? *************** 2. SELF-AWARDED SABBATICAL A few years ago a poor soul in the English Department was nearly fired for fulfilling his entire yearly workload in the Fall I and Fall II quarters and then taking the rest of the year off, thus awarding himself a half-year sabbatical at full pay. If we were all that dedicated to the job, the College would have to close down every Spring and Summer. However, this scheme is currently being repeated by a Queen of Cronyism in the Mathematics Department. The Human Resources Office (i.e., Personnel) says this is FORBIDDEN. What action will the comatose Administration take? *************** 3. NO-SHOW INSTRUCTOR How does an instructor in the CIS Dept get away with spending 10 minutes in the classroom for each one-hour class of his and no time at all in his lab sessions? The students scream about it, the President knows about it, and NOTHING is done to correct it. Talk about an unresponsive Administration! This outrage goes beyond mere fraud and borders on full-blown insanity. (See GUESTBOOK for student views on this instructor). *************** 4. MATH PROF QUITS IN DISGUST Dr. D. Porras, a tenured Full Prof., has resigned from the Mathematics Department, effective Fall, 2001, out of complete disgust with the existing corruption. *************** 5. NEW DISTINCTION FOR LAGUARDIA The upcoming "election" for Chairperson of the Math Department, featuring ONE declared candidate (ain't Democracy great?), will soon result in an unprecedented event. LaGuardia will have the rare distinction of being the only College in CUNY (and perhaps in America) to have a department Chairman who was formerly fired by the College for incompetence. Is there no limit to what can be accomplished thru LaGuardia's uniquely innovative politics? 6/01/02 NOTE: He (Assad Thompson) won. *************** 6. CHAIR NOW ATTEMPTING TO EXTEND DYNASTY TO 12 YEARS The incumbent Math Chair, Jorge Perez, dumped by the group of cronies who originally got him elected, but smelling the possibility of a fourth consecutive term of office when the declared candidate unexpectedly lost two votes, has joined the fray in the 11th hour. This, despite repeated announcements of no desire to run again! It's do or die for Jorge now, as he would rather make a living selling pretzels in the subway than face the torture of re-entering the classroom. RACIAL-BLOC VOTING WAS THE ORDER OF THE DAY, AS IT HAS BEEN IN EVERY MATH DEPARTMENT ELECTION SINCE THE COLLEGE BEGAN. Fortunately for the continued existence of the Dept, Perez lost to Thompson. *************** 7. CLASSES SPEND A MONTH WITHOUT AN INSTRUCTOR It's inevitable that instructors get sick from time to time. Prof. M. Millman recently suffered a severe illness that required medical care and bedrest for a period of four weeks. Incredibly, the College did not supply a replacement instructor! Instead, his Technical Math II class was visited occasionally by tutors from the Math Lab, while his two Statistics I classes were visited by a tutor for only four of the 18 class hours of Prof. Millman's absence. In all cases, only old material was reviewed and nothing new was taught by the tutors. In spite of their constant complaints to the Math Department, the students missed a month of work. The students who were planning to take Statistics II here in order to transfer to the Business Department at Baruch College will be unable to do so and will need to retake Statistics at Baruch. This unconscionable lack of consideration for students is the rule rather than the exception at LaGuardia. See letter #5 under STUDENTS SPEAK for student views on this idiocy. *************** 8. MASS E-MAIL A mass E-mailing to 11,000 LaGuardia students, informing them of the existence of this website, has been made. Unfortunately, a recent informal poll revealed that over 90% of the students are unaware that they have E-mail accounts at the College. Student apathy is a big problem at LaGuardia, with many students merely seeking a degree with no particular interest in actually learning anything. The sole requirement for admission to the school is consciousness and, evidently, in special cases this criterion may be waived. *************** 9. HALF-YEAR SABBATICALS AT FULL PAY FOR ALL FACULTY NEXT YEAR! The new administration apparently has no objection to faculty fulfiling their entire teaching load in the Fall and Winter quarters and then taking the remainder of the year off, as they have taken no action against the Math Prof. who did so this year (see item 2 above). She is currently (5/18/01) enjoying London. Several faculty have already booked european vacations for next Spring and Summer. The six-month work year will be a great LaGuardia perk! *************** 10. LATEST THEORY ON PROF. MARTIN MILLMAN'S SCREWING Some oldtimer Profs-in-the-know explain why the new Administration reneged on its agreement to engineer a (well-deserved, seven-year belated) promotion this past April, 2001 for Prof. Millman. They theorize that the new President knuckled under to pressure from those entrenched crooks who would have been embarrassed by his promotion. Once again, merit and decency yield to political expedience - the usual story and the root of most corruption at LaGuardia. See MAY 23, 1994 and FEB.10, 2001 MEMOS for details. *************** 11. JEWS IN THE MATH DEPARTMENT AT AN ALL-TIME LOW With the unconscionable firing of Dr. Evan Siegel and the retirement of another Jewish Prof., the Jewish population of the Math Department has now fallen to a total of 2 (out of 25 full-time faculty). Jews now represent 8% of the department, down considerably from the 35% of 20 years ago. Why is this the case? Why is Prof. Millman the ONLY Jew to come up for tenure in the Math Dept. in the past TWENTY YEARS? For further details see the MARCH 15, 2001 MEMO. *************** 12. OUR VISITORS This website was initiated on 3/18/01 and continues to inform an ever-growing audience of the shameful state of LaGuardia Community College. Many of our visits have come from NY vicinity educational institutions, such as the Institute for Advanced Study, Bucknell, Yeshiva, Pratt, Johns Hopkins, Dickinson, Georgetown, MIT, Princeton, West Point, Cornell, Yale, NYU, Bard, Bryn Mawr, Rutgers, Boston U., Boston C., Polytechnic U., Adelphi, Hofstra, Touro, Visual Arts, Sarah Lawrence, Rochester, Syracuse, Union, Vassar, Iona, Ramapo, Columbia, LIU, Manhattan, Fordham, Wesleyan, Pace, Brown, Drew, Brandeis, Amherst, Rensselaer, Hampshire, Barnard, Carnegie Mellon, Harvard, Hamilton, Mt. St. Vincent, Smith, Stevens Tech, NJIT, Kean, Lehigh, Swarthmore, U. of Pa., U. Conn., Mt. Sinai Medical, Albert Einstein Medical, New School, Seton Hall Law, Cardozo Law, Montclair State, most SUNY colleges, as well as scores of other colleges, community colleges and education associations across the country. In the non-academic sector, we have had visits from Intel, Walt Disney Company, the New York Times and Post, Newsweek, New York City Council, the United Nations, Smith Barney Salomon, the Brooklyn D.A., Hillel, Citibank, Microsoft, the U.S. Navy and NASA. We have also had visits from other, somewhat less reputable, organizations such as CUNY Central, the CUNY colleges, the NYC Board of Education and the NY State Dept. of Education. In addition, we have had visits from more than 100 foreign countries. Our thanks go to all who have thus far contributed to the fight against corruption, pseudo-education, anti-Semitism and massive stupidity. *************** 13. MATH DEPARTMENT HIRES A JEWISH INSTRUCTOR Due to the efforts of this website, the Board of Trustees of CUNY has forced the LaGuardia Administration to ensure that a Jew fills the recent Math Dept. faculty vacancy. In a ludicrous attempt to divert attention from 20 years of blatant anti-Semitism, the asses hired a highly visible orthodox Hasidic Jew. While this is certainly a positive step, its effect is merely cosmetic and does nothing to address the reason for the past twenty years of religious discrimination. *************** 14. AN OPEN LETTER TO LAGUARDIA STUDENTS 10/8/01 Many students are not interested in working hard to learn the material in the courses they are taking. They come to LaGuardia only to get a degree with little or no work and will use any means, including cheating, to get what they want. As you probably know, there is plenty of cheating going on and many students do succeed in graduating without learning very much. This letter is not for them. Rather, it is addressed to students who are serious about their studies and who are concerned about the quality of education at LaGuardia and how it affects their future. A recent conversation in a Laguardia class went something like this: STUDENT: Professor, why is our textbook so bad? PROF: I agree it's poor. I know that there are some excellent books on this subject, but I had no control over the textbook selection. The book was chosen by the department curriculum committee. This committee is made up of several professors. STUDENT: Why don't you just choose a good textbook yourself? PROF: That is not allowed. When I try to use a textbook of my own choice, my department chairman blocks my bookstore order. Every other college I have taught at allows instructors this choice. This right of instructors is part of what is known as ACADEMIC FREEDOM. Academic freedom, for this and other reasons, is in trouble at LaGuardia. STUDENT: How can a whole committee of professors pick such a rotten book? Why don't they pick the best book? PROF: Because most committee members are not sufficiently expert in this subject to make a proper choice. STUDENT: Why does the department use professors who are not expert at their subject? PROF: The answer to your question is complicated. In my opinion, it is the widespread practice of POLITICAL CRONYISM that is responsible for the presence of so many poor professors at LaGuardia. Briefly, this means that in departmental elections for chairperson some candidates promise their fellow instructors tenure, promotions and other favors in exchange for their vote. If he wins the election, such a chairman will then reward his friends, or so-called "cronies", EVEN IF THEY ARE INCOMPETENT INSTRUCTORS. (Thus, the Math department can end up with FULL PROFS who are ignorant of Calculus and Statistics - two basic courses). He will often punish good instructors who did not vote for him by not recommending them for tenure or promotion and will occasionally fire untenured ones. ("Tenure" means you can never be fired. Its original purpose was to protect academic freedom in American colleges. Its primary purpose at LaGuardia is to protect incompetent cronies). The unethical chairman does this to maintain his need for power. The LaGuardia tenure and promotion committee consists of all the department chairpersons. Many of these people routinely make deals with each other to get tenure or promotion for their cronies. THE ACTUAL MERIT OF INSTRUCTORS PLAYS LITTLE OR NO ROLE IN THIS PROCESS. Thus, documented nitwits with the worst student evaluations have been promoted to the rank of Full Professor! Chairpersons will sometimes hire new cronies, whether or not they are competent, to make sure they continue to be re-elected. In cases where the cronies are mostly of one ethnicity, cronyism becomes RACISM. STUDENT: Doesn't the tenure and promotion committee read the terrible student evaluations of bad instructors? PROF: No. STUDENT: How do incompetent instructors get away with their bad teaching? PROF: Sometimes entire classes complain to the department chairman. If the instructor in question is a crony, the chairman downplays and covers up the complaint. Usually though, the incompetent instructor keeps the students quiet by using GRADE INFLATION. That is, he gives good grades to almost all the students, whether or not they deserve them. STUDENT: Why don't competent faculty complain about the unfair tenure and promotion process? PROF: Because they are intimidated by the threat of non-tenure and non-promotion. STUDENT: Why does the Administration allow these unethical things to happen? PROF: Both the CUNY and LaGuardia Administrations are horribly CORRUPT and lazy. Many administrators and faculty want to keep things exactly the way they are so that they can continue to collect handsome salaries for doing practically nothing. The President of LaGuardia pays constant lip service to imaginary educational ideals but is spineless when it comes to instituting reforms. LaGuardia is a scandal waiting to explode. The end result is that your education suffers greatly. For this reason, many employers consider a degree from LaGuardia as essentially worthless. STUDENT: What can be done to change LaGuardia into a decent school? PROF: Since city agencies (including the mayor) have little power over CUNY and LaGuardia, students should wake up to reality and demand that only the best instructors available be hired and/or promoted. With thousands of well-qualified Ph.D's from excellent universities eager for jobs, why should you settle for bums just because they have the "right" friends? One way of dealing with this problem is to visit and contribute to Laguardiacorruption.com. Another way is to speak directly to College administrators and chairpersons and let them know you are aware of their unscrupulous behavior. LaGuardia once had an excellent reputation that earned nationwide respect. Maybe it can be that way again some day. STUDENT: Thanks for the info. I wasn't aware that all this corruption existed. Wishing the best of luck to all of you who seek to improve the College in order to improve your lives, we remain Sincerely, The Staff of Laguardiacorruption.com *************** 15. LAGUARDIA STUDENTS CONTINUE TO FAIL REMEDIAL MATH EXAM AT AN ALARMING RATE The failure rate on the CUNY remedial math test, after students take two semesters of remedial math, continues to be 50%. This is largely due to poor teaching and choice of textbooks. The worst of these books is the one co-authored by the Math Department chair. It has now been in use for four years and is uniformly loathed by students and faculty alike. Any impartial mathematician would readily agree, as the book actually begins with percents on page one, before fractions and decimals have been introduced. Scientific notation is introduced shortly thereafter, before exponents are discussed. This is folly that borders on outright stupidity. It's little wonder that the students are hopelessly confused. In addition, students are required to purchase a $100 graphics calculator, which most can ill-afford, for the Arithmetic portion of the remedial course! Obviously a graphics calculator has no conceivable use in arithmetic and the graphics feature is in fact never used. *************** 16. HOW CUNY COLLAPSED For a brutally frank analysis of how the "bloated CUNY bureaucracy jettisoned academic standards", which set the stage for the profusion of opportunists, racists, incompetent crackpots and charlatans we see today at LaGuardia and elsewhere in CUNY, read the article CUNY COULD BE GREAT AGAIN by Heather MacDonald. Ms. MacDonald is a member of the Manhattan Institute think tank who writes on the NYC political and educational scene. THIS IS REQUIRED READING FOR ALL NEW CUNY FACULTY. Click here: www.city-journal.org/html/8_1_cuny_could.html *************** 17. 10,000 VISITS IN 10 MONTHS LaGuardiacorruption.com has had a milestone 10,000 visits as of Jan.5, 2002. Jan.18, 2002 will mark the 10th month online of the website. Google, the world's largest search engine, currently lists us 5th out of 209,000 entries when one searches for "college corruption" and 6th out of 12,000 when one searches for "LaGuardia Community College". We aim to reach a wide audience. You can help the cause by passing the word. *************** 18. ONLY ONE QUARTER OF ENTERING FULL-TIME STUDENTS GRADUATE AFTER EIGHT YEARS By the Administration's own admission (see 2001 Institutional Profile in the college library), only about 24% of entering full-time students succeed in graduating from LaGuardia after EIGHT years. Furthermore, the majority of these graduates are foreign students. Remember folks, LaGuardia is a TWO YEAR community college, ostensibly in the service of disadvantaged New York City residents. The Institutional Profile refers to these figures, in typical LaGuardia jargon, as "Measures of Success". Wouldn't "Measures of Failure" be a bit more appropriate? New York City taxpayers need to bear this corrupt, pseudo-educational albatross like, as George Carlin used to say, an infected scrotum. Our new mayor has promised an overhaul of the NYC educational cesspool. Here's hoping he orders a long-overdue thorough fumigation of LaGuardia. *************** 19. LAGUARDIACORRUPTION.COM IN THE NEWS An article somewhat less-than-accurately describing this website, entitled CITY PROF'S SITE BITES HIS BOSSES, appeared on P.15 of the Sunday, Jan.27, 2002 NY Post. A LaGuardia flunky named McSweeney (who, prior to Jan.27, no one knew existed), identified by the article as a "College spokesman", was quoted as referring to Prof. Millman as "disgruntled". Naturally the flunky denied all our charges. We assure readers that Prof. Millman is perfectly gruntled, albeit outraged at LaGuardia's egregious behavior, and that every word we write rings true. Otherwise we'd have been sued long ago by the notoriously inept CUNY legal eagles. You may access the article in the Post archive at www.NYPost.com. It is interesting that the Laguardia Administration is willing to lie to the Press in order to save face (as well as another anatomical part). They claim in the Post article that our charge that Prof. M. Millman is the only Jew to have received tenure in the Math Department in the last 20 years is "unfounded". WE PROMISE TO SHUT DOWN THIS WEBSITE if LaGuardia's Administration simply produces the name of one Jew, other than Prof. Millman, who received tenure in the Math Department during the years 1981 - 2001. Their alleged "investigation" ought to supply at least one such name. How about it fellas? *************** Please click on UPDATE CONTD 1 |
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