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) DEAN OF DECEPTION 88. (1/13/07) DECEPTION AT LAGUARDIA Lots (perhaps most) of faculty and staff at LaGuardia are fed up with being babysitters and would like to be educators instead. But they are only too aware of the risks involved in expressing themselves openly on this issue. In our view, formed after 50 years of collective work experience here, the first step in transforming LaGuardia into a college is to realize that we are victimizing our students, not helping them, by allowing LaGuardia to operate on the level of a junior high school. The next steps are to expose the mechanisms that keep LaGuardia that way and to demand appropriate changes. People like president Mellow, her deans and cronies, as well as the powers that be at E. 80th St., are deadweight, mindless obstacles that only impede progress toward a fair, humane and quality institution of higher education. Their only concerns are recruitment, retention, graduation rates and the maintenance of their jobs. They incessantly extol the virtues of an obviously failed system, attempting to sway us with fantasies of LaGuardia as excellence in education and spewing endless, stupefying edu-babble that flies in the face of simple facts any sane person can observe. They swindle the students with worthless diplomas. They squash the faculty to numb apathy and prevent honest examination of vital issues with veiled threats of non-retention, non-tenure and non-promotion. Why else is it, for example, that an ideal medium for free exchange of ideas like Groupwise [the LaGuardia in-house computer network] never contains any discussion of fraudulent remedial exams, rampant grade inflation, vicious cronyism, or a host of other fatally crippling flaws that exist at LaGuardia? Our so-called leaders are little more than brown stains on the fabric of reality. Unfortunately, they do succeed fairly well in their deception, as witness the not insubstantial number of unbelievably naïve colleagues and the tragically large number of misguided students who sincerely believe LaGuardia is a valid educational enterprise. *************** 89. (1/23/07) FACULTY SENATE CHAIRMAN COMMITS CAREER SUICIDE Bravo and mazeltov Jerry! You spoke with honesty and sincerity about a real concern for the welfare of the school - a truly rare occurrence. You dared to rise above the flock-of-sheep mentality to challenge the party line. You therefore take your place as one of the few people with any balls in the entire history of LaGuardia. We assume you realize, as a result of your candor, your Senate career will conclude at the end of your current term and you will never be promoted. Honesty is not tolerated at LaGuardia. For what it's worth, you are one of the 3 or 4 people at LaGuardia we have any respect for. Good luck. The following post was extracted from Groupwise and was addressed to the entire College community: >>> Jerry G. Ianni 01/19/07 11:10 AM >>> Dear Members of the College Community, I must report that I have just been subjected to an inappropriate verbal attack from Vice President Katopes and to a lesser degree from Associate Dean Henry Flax based on the attached e-mail concerning the draft of the academic calendar for 2007 - 2008. I do not take it personally, but I do believe that the substance amounts to an attack on College Governance. Specifically, Vice President Katopes told me that the draft was approved by "faculty" through the Academic Standing Committee and that I have no business asking faculty members to register their concerns with him. Instead, I should refer them back to the college governance bodies involved. Associate Dean Flax stated that perhaps I could have expressed my specific concern less publicly because it brought embarassment to the intermediate-level governance committee. I beg to differ. The draft of the academic calendar that I have in my possession reads "Draft for College Senate". Moreover, it is imprinted with the following designation: "1/16/2007 - Peter Grant Jordan/Henry Flax, revision following Academic Standing Committee review (1/8/07) and Chairs input" In all of my discussions with President Mellow and with Vice President Jordan about the process for review and development of the academic calendar, I have been repeatedly informed that consideration by governance bodies on campus only counts formally as "review" and as "input". When the Academic Standing Committee and the Senate engages in the exercise of taking a formal vote on the calendar, it merely signals a completion of the review process and a formal recommendation to the Executive Council. Therefore, since Vice President Katopes is a member of the Executive Council, it is quite appropriate to register concerns with him (and with all the other members of the Executive Council). After the Senate's action next week, the Executive Council will take a final vote on this calendar draft. Even if the Senate approves the calendar draft in its present form, it remains appropriate to register concerns with the Executive Council. President Mellow has established a process in which the Executive Council provides the final vote on the academic calendar draft. Therefore, concerns can be expressed to members of that body until the final vote is cast. On another point, I have since learned that the Department Chairpersons did not support the stipulation that Final Exams for Saturday classes in Fall 2007 Session I be scheduled on Sunday, December 16. They sent an e-mail to VP Jordan, VP Katopes, and Associate Dean Flax on December 8, 2006, expressing their reservations. I do not have the minutes of the Academic Standing Committee meeting from January 8 in my possession, but my intuition is that the current draft of the calendar probably is not completely the same as the one that the ASC endorsed. (Even if it were, it does not take away from the fact that concerns properly can be expressed to members of the Executive Council.) If my intuition is correct, then the comment from VP Katopes becomes even more disingenuous. In any case, I repeat that the draft is signed off by VP Jordan/Henry Flax following ASC review. Finally, I wish to comment briefly on the notion that I could have expressed my specific concern less publicly to avoid some embarassments. I respect that opinion. It might have some merit, and I will reflect on it further. However, in my opinion, the concern at issue is really a fatal flaw in the calendar design. If it indeed was simply overlooked by several levels of constituency and governance review, then it makes it more urgent to get the message out in the open when there is one final voting opportunity at the Senate level. On the other hand, if it was not overlooked but instead was covered up, then it is equally urgent to get the message out in the open. In this case, the academic integrity of the curriculum is at stake. A full twelve weeks of instruction --- or its equivalent in shorter sessions --- is necessary in order to properly cover the curriculum. If the current design is not changed, I would have to announce to my students that they can expect to encounter new material on Saturday, December 15, be assigned homework on that material, and receive a final examination for the course --- including the new material --- in 24 hours. In my previous e-mail, I wrote something about covering all the required material in eleven weeks. In fact, even if I wanted to try to do that for the sake of the students, it would be inappropriate. Our curriculum undergoes governance review and approval. It is explicitly designed for a full session's instruction. Thus, there really is no choice except to demand that the students master new material in 24 hours --- along with reviewing the entire course. As a professional educator, I would expect grades to suffer as a result. I hope that this message will receive attentive consideration from all concerned. Sincerely, Dr. Jerry G. Ianni, Chairperson LaGuardia Community College Senate *************** 90. (2/1/07) LAGUARDIACORRUPTION.COM CELEBRATES 100,000 VISITS LaGuardiacorruption.com received its 100,000th distinct visit today. March 15, 2007 will mark the end of six years online, so that we will have averaged almost 17,000 distinct visits per year at that time. Our readership includes practically every faculty, staff and administrator in CUNY. Many have become regular readers of our updates. We have also informed faculty, staff and administrators of every college in the New York City vicinity, every major educational association in the country and every relevant New York City government agency and official. The consistently rising interest in our website over the years has brought it to its current ranking of 15th out of 611,000 on Google when you search "LaGuardia Community College". *************** 91. (2/12/07) LAGUARDIA STUDENT NEWSPAPER REPORTS ON THE GRADE-SELLING SCANDAL The following article appeared in "The Bridge", LaGuardia's monthly student newspaper in early Feb., 2007. It says nothing new about the recent grade-selling scandal, but it contains part of an interview conducted by the Bridge reporter with Prof. M. Millman in mid-Dec. Millman's remarks (one of which was misquoted) were highly critical of the College, but apparently the reporter got the article past the LaGuardia faculty advisor (censor) and into print. We will let you know when the advisor is fired. Administrators Silent on Grades for Cash, Favors Alex Ali [Bridge reporter] Academic excellence, honor and integrity are the hallmarks every college and university strives for, but this does not appear to be the case at LaGuardia Community College. The honor and integrity of LaGuardia Community College was desecrated by several students, who allegedly paid for the services of Mr. Elvin Escano, a computer science lab instructor who was employed at the college. According to the Queens County District Attorney's (QCDA) office, "a 137-count indictment with soliciting and accepting payment - ranging from cash payments of $200 to $2,500 or items of value, such as wine," has been filed. These indictments are for services students would pay for, the service being that of grade changing. According to QCDA, Mr. Escano's grade replacement service ranged from changing grades of 'F' or 'Incomplete' to an 'A,' or if one did not pass the CUNY Proficiency Examination (CPE), a student would receive an instant passing grade for a nominal fee. Mr. Escano has several serious charges brought against him by the District Attorneys office, including grand larceny, computer tampering, forgery, computer trespass, conspiracy and witness tampering, to list a few. Mr. Escano worked closely with the Department of Mathematics at LaGuardia and the majority of faculty and staff did not want to comment on the subject matter. Professor Millman provided his comments on this subject. Professor Millman is a senior tenured professor for the Department of Mathematics. He also maintains a website, lagcorruption.com. Professor Millman, who did not speak on behalf of the college, said, "I have known Elvin for 17 years. He made a big mistake, and I am sure he had other people working with him; he could not have done this by himself." When Professor Millman was asked about who would be working with Mr. Escano, he said, "A lab tech can only do this with cooperation in the Registrar's office. Elvin needed someone in that office or this would be impossible. I am not saying he is guilty, but there is a lot of evidence." When Mr. Millman was asked how something of this nature could be done at our college, he replied, "The daily atmosphere at LaGuardia Community College is one of corruption, fraudulent remedial exams, cronyism in the promotion and tenure committee, and a general feeling of chaos." Professor Millman was asked about his opinion about the college he stated, "I love the students, they are the best people. The hard-working kids are the heroes who got through the New York school system. The administration is corrupt and beneath contempt. They are responsible for the low quality of education." The majority of faculty and staff at LaGuardia Community College either had no comment or did not want to be on the record, as the President of the College Dr. Mellow issued sent out an e-mail on on the College's GroupWise, which is used to circulate e-mails around the college. "I would ask again that all questions from the press be referred to Nathan Dickmeyer. This will ensure that the information given to the press is up-to-date and accurate as possible." However, Mr. Dickmeyer was not available for comment, even after several attempts were made to contact his office. Dr. Mellow declined to give an interview; the only response given was the following statement received from her office, "President Mellow said while the matter is under investigation she would not be able to discuss it." The scandal has placed a cloud of suspicion around students' academic achievements and could haunt them when applying to transfer to another College or University, or graduate school. Applying for grants and scholarships are some other areas that may possibly be affected by these insidious acts. *************** 92. (4/18/07) PUBLIC INTEREST IN COLLEGE CORRUPTION As public awareness of corruption in academe (and the resulting decline of academic standards) continues to mount, Laguardiacorruption.com continues to rise in the Google ratings. Today we are ranked 6th out of 526,000 entries when you search "LaGuardia Community College" and 3rd out of 3,590,000 when you search "college corruption". *************** 93. (8/1/07) CORRUPTION, AS USUAL, IN THE MATH DEPT There is a full-time faculty member in the Math Dept who, on several occasions in the past few years, has had to be rescued by campus security from classrooms due to entire classes of irate students shouting and threatening them with bodily harm. This faculty member has had consistently bad student evaluations, with 17 of them mysteriously missing from the Personnel file, as Laguardiacorruption.com has discovered through the Freedom of Information Act. Recently, the Math Dept office was the scene of mass pandemonium as three classes came to complain once again about this person's horrible teaching and excessive absences. At a normal college, such a work record would warrant warnings, followed by firing. At LaGuardia, the lucky person was not only granted tenure, but also rewarded last year with a promotion! This shady deal guarantees a miserable educational experience, not to mention an obstruction to their future academic success, for the literally thousands of LaGuardia students unfortunate enough to register for this instructor's courses in the coming years. Such slimy stuff, repeated again and again, plays a major role in the College’s grade-z academic standing and reputation. The final result of this story may well turn out to be similar to the case of a tenured Prof at Medgar Evers, whose job currently consists of sitting in empty classrooms 12 hours a week because students refuse to take her courses. Why does the LaGuardia Faculty put up with such insanity and outright fraud? Their deafening silence on dozens of issues like this one makes it quite clear that collecting a paycheck and burying one's head in the sand is the preferred mode of operation. *************** 94. (8/6/07) FRAUDULENT REMEDIAL MATH EXAM MADE SLIGHTLY LESS FRAUDULENT CUNY recently raised the passing grade on the remedial math Compass exam from 27 to 30, which makes it ever so slightly less fraudulent. The net result will be substantially more failures on the exam and a rise in class size, making our remedial program more miserable than it already is. The national average grade required to pass this ACT standardized math test in colleges across the country is 44! The wise folk at U. of Idaho system, for example, require a 51 on the Compass for a student to move on to Precalculus. At Northeast State Community College in Tennessee, a score of 49 gets you into an Intermediate (i.e. high school level) Algebra course. We are doing our students no favor by passing them with a 30. In fact, it's like leading cattle to slaughter. Such students will invariably fail their next, college credit, math course (unless they take care to register for a course given by one of our grade-inflation specialists). The morons and criminals who run CUNY are concerned only with pass rates on the Compass, so that they can point to "progress" being made and thus keep their jobs. The only thing that rattles their bladders is when pass rates drop below "target" level. The fact that hundreds of inadequately prepared, but passed, students fail Precalculus and Statistics (thousands, if grade inflation were abolished) can be conveniently blamed elsewhere. By being aware of and complicit with these idiotic and fraudulent policies, the CUNY Community College Faculty, in effect, become criminals as well. *************** 95. (12/18/07) A HOLIDAY WISH (e-mail to laguardia faculty) From: Martin H. Millman To: Everyone group Date: Sunday - December 16, 2007 7:37 PM Subject: A HOLIDAY WISH From: Man Wong To: M. Millman Date: 12/13/ 2007 Re: wanting to find out the grade. hi. this is one of your student name MAN WONG at 4:35-5:35 pm statistics class. im writting to you for find out how i did on my final. when you get the chance, please mail me the result of my test. Thank you and have a good day. From: M. Millman To: Man Wong Date: 12/14/2007 Re: wanting to find out the grade Final exam: 60, Grade: D+ From: Man Wong To: M. Millman Date: 12/15/2007 that means I passed?/ thankz you so much pfro. From: M. Millman To: Man Wong Date: 12/15/2007 Yes sweetie, you passed and you never have to take math again!! From: Man Wong To: M. Millman Date: 12/16/2007 Yeah!!!!! Thankz aganin pfro. You are the best ^ _ ^ This wonderful kid received top-notch training in how to hate math in LaGuardia’s remedial program. She can’t do arithmetic, but passed the Compass exam anyway. As indicated in the above e-mail, she got thru my statistics course on a wing and a prayer. Ten of her 29 classmates were not as fortunate. They also squeaked thru the Compass fraud, but failed statistics. Their arithmetic is worse than Man’s and they were doomed to failure in statistics from day 1. Now they must suffer (at least) one more semester of statistics (I have students who have failed statistics four times!). In a more rational environment, the arrogant, irresponsible, ignorant bastards responsible for the Compass fraud and its attendant damage would be held accountable. In the present insane environment, about all one can do is wish for each of their children an extra semester or two of statistics. Neither are the silent faculty who acquiesce to this insanity immune from guilt. They, my esteemed colleague, include you. *************** 96. (1/26/08) TRAGI-COMIC GUESTBOOK ENTRY At once hilariously funny, profoundly sad, and so true: Date: Fri Jan 25, 2008 10:37:23 PM Name: Susana de la Pena Email Address: susana.delapena@hotmail.com City: Ventura State: CA Country: United States Site Rating: Excellent Comments: Wow! I thought the Walking Dead Faculty of Mediocrity reigned at Rio Hondo Community College in Whittier, CA, where I USED to teach..... I guess it's got company. We oughta have a national award for the worst of 'em all..... This site made me laugh/thank you/I needed to know I wasn't alone perceiving the corruption/dysfuction within our community colleges. Yikes! It's a disease! RHC has some real yahoos, too. *************** Please continue to UPDATE CONTD 7 |
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