32 W.D.L. Carpenter Ants and Colleagues.

Winged Male Carpenter Ant

 Yesterday provided two experiences that reminded me of how much I've enjoyed working at COCC.  The first involved dealing with a household pest.  The second was my very last faculty forum social.

Beginning with the pests.  We had five of these long bodied, long winged black ant-like things but bigger flying onto our big window in our dining area on Wednesday evening.  They so creeped me out.  While I like spiders (except the wolf spiders that drop on my head from the ceiling of the downstairs shower if I forget to look first) but I hate anything that looks like an ant or heaven forfend a flying ant.

Ick.  I know they fly.  They've been swarming in Deschutes one for decades.  Every year.  The winged ant swarm.  Ants creep me out more than spiders because of that episode of The Outer Limits.  That one with the ants with the faces of people.  The Zanti Misfits!

Bret Michalski

So I took this icky thing as yet unkilled but caught in paper towel and put into a plastic food storage box to visit with Bret Michalski, one of our Forestry guys.  He looked at it and said it was a carpenter ant, not a termite.
I was so relieved!!!!!!!

Jeez, I didn't want to deal with termites.  I was thinking bug bombs or hiring professionals.  But he said that regular ant traps would work with these flying creepazoids (though it might take a few weeks).  So I'll  toss some ant traps into the attic space and the woodpile behind the house and be done with them.  Unless they are aliens.

Getting to know folks in other disciplines has been one of the great pleasures of working at a small college.  If I'd gotten a job at a larger school I probably would have become stuck among my communication coterie.  But at COCC I've had the opportunity to work with people in the professional-technical fields as well as folks from other areas in the "transfer" side.

I'd actually worked with Bret many years ago when he asked me to develop a couple of public speaking lectures for his entomology class.  I called it "Bug Speech."  It was a mini speech course in two class sessions.  It was a fun service to perform.  I'm not sure if they are still using speech teachers in that role or simply requiring their students to take the full public speaking class now.  Or if they've just given up having them give presentations.

I didn't see him at the lightly attended Faculty Social last night. I did see several folks I enjoy and talked with people I don't often see.  One of the great things about forum socials has been meeting new people and seeing friends one doesn't see in the regular course of one's work weeks.  I chatted with Ken Mays and Ricky Virk (an HHP teacher) about the great quality of mixed company at COCC -- how wonderful it's been to get to know people from all over campus in so many different areas of study.  Ken said that the people at COCC were also high quality in their fields and as teachers.  I certainly agreed with that.  I've heard of very few poor teachers among the full time faculty over the past 25 year.  Oh, there have been some, but not all that many.

Last night's social was held at one of the private rooms in McMenamins Old St. Francis School.  For once the food there didn't suck.  We had pizza that wasn't raw on the bottom and really good meatballs along with cheese and fruit plates with various crackers and cheeses.  And, of course, there was the alcohol paid for by the union -- wine, beer, and hard liquor. 

I will miss these events as well as the wonderful opportunity to get answers to life's perplexing problems just by walking through the woods of a beautiful workplace.

LY #117 Presidential Candidate Visit #1

Monday I walked in a bit late for the all-school meeting with Dana Young, current president at Treasure Valley Community College.  I wound up standing in the back (avoiding the seats left in the front row) and eating a nice, warm fruit treat I found on the table outside the meeting room. 

TVCC Prez Dana Young, right *

Perhaps it was the snack that got me into a good mood, but my first impressions of Ms. Young were quite positive.  Here is what I liked about her presentation.

• Directness.  She was clearly making a personal sales pitch about her skills and how what she'd learned on the job at Treasure Valley would help her at COCC.  I was relieved to hear no flattery about the beauties of Central Oregon and the perfection of the lifestyle here.  Also, although I didn't myself listen closely enough to know if I'd agree, another listener noted that she had "no metaphors," by which I think that person meant she didn't represent the college as either a triangle of meaning (Jim Middleton's favorite) or a boat (Bob Barber's choice).
• Delivery style.  She spoke without notes, made lots of eye contact, used gestures, stood up straight.  In other words, she used plenty of immediacy behaviors.  These, of course, are positively correlated with positive teacher evaluations as well as positive responses from speech teachers like myself.
• Owning her history.  During the QnA, she herself brought up what Ron Hoff calls, "the burning issue."  She said, "Well, I'm surprised no one asked about the vote of no confidence."  And she told her version of the story which, if I interpreted her response correctly, was largely an issue of communication ineffectiveness.  Faculty members thought that an administrative restructuring decision had been made without their input when, in her story, the decision was simply being talked about.  
• She's not actively looking for another job.  She said that a friend had suggested that she apply for the COCC job and that this is the only place she's interviewing.   Of course this fact was part of her pitch ("Hey, you guys are special!").  Nevertheless, it does weigh in her favor.

One aspect of her current life that is problematic is that she thinks she can research and write a doctoral dissertation while on her first year of the job.  She was honest enough to share that her first proposal had been rejected.  Perhaps this was because she is a quantoid who decided to give herself the extra burden of writing a qualitative dissertation.

Oh.  Come.  On!  That is just nuckin' futz.  Qualitative is so much more work!  Unless, of course, she could propose a first person participant observation of "The First Year of a Community College President."  Now that might a rara avis among dissertations -- one that is both fun to write and to read!


*  Picture:  From left, Britney Meza-Turner, Alex Plaza, TVCC Foundation president Cathy Yasuda, Ashley Whittaker and TVCC president Dana Young.

LY #83: Social Media and Freedom of Speech or Fired, Part Deux

Our college President, Jim Middleton, has always been friendly to me.  I think he's a nice guy.  During the time that I was a department chair he supported me in at least two difficult situations, one in which I made a correct judgement call and was attacked for it and a second in which my decisions were poor but accepted as a not unusual error.  

I would not, therefore, be like the faculty members at College of Marin who "submitted a resolution with a laundry list of complaints about Middleton" according to a report by Nancy Isles Nation, in the Marin Independent Journal (March 28, 2003 Marin section).  These complaints involved harshly stated criticisms of financial decision making at a time of budget meltdown (which is just about any old time in California since Howard Jarvis rocked the tax-boat in 1978).  Five months later, a report by an independent firm called ThoughtBridge found that the problems at the College of Marin predated the coming Middleton as they noted that  "the institution lacks a common vision, leadership, communication and a process to connect parts of the institution as one, cohesive organization." (Marin Independent Journal, August 11, 2003)   The consultants knew that it takes a village to mess up a village.  It's never appropriate to find one person responsible for all the good or ill that occurs within a large organization.

So as people talk about the current dysfunction and chaos in COCC's management, they are wrong if they waggle their pointer fingers at any one individual or cause.  There's guilt to go around, including some settling with those of us oldsters who got tired of it and pulled back into our shells.

But that's not what I wanted to talk about.  I offer the information above merely as a pretext for

wondering, if I were in Kansas right now and writing about a college president, could I be terminated? With prejudice?  According to the new social media policy, my tenure status would not be all that potent a shield if it looked like I was doing anything that impaired the ability of my leader to lead or had a "detrimental impact on close working relationships."  Does what I'm saying impact the image of the college?  Does it hurt the bottom line?

Well, considering that on a good day ten people read this palaver I provide, probably not.  BUT, an argument could be made . . . If I lived in Kansas.

Fortunately, I don't.  Nor do I think it's the job of every worker to be nice and polite about his or her workplace in public utterances, not while the First Amendment is in operation.  And while the business of America may be business, the business of its academic institutions should be something else -- the creation of citizens, the training of workers and/or the creation of new knowledge, depending on the vision and goals of the particular school. 


Below find the Full Text of the new Social Media policy of the Kansas Board of Regents:

The chief executive officer of a state university has the authority to suspend, dismiss or terminate from employment any faculty or staff member who makes improper use of social media.  "Social media" means any facility for online publication and commentary, including but not limited to blogs, wikis, and social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube.  "Improper use of social media" means making a communication through social media that:

i.  directly incites violence or other immediate breach of the peace;

ii.  when made pursuant to (i.e. in furtherance of) the employee's official duties, is contrary to the best interest of the university;

iii.  discloses without authority any confidential student information, protected health care information, personnel records, personal financial information, or confidential research data; or
iv.  subject to the balancing analysis required by the following paragraph, impairs discipline by superiors or harmony among co-workers, has a detrimental impact on close working relationships for which personal loyalty and confidence are necessary, impedes the performance of the speaker's official duties, interferes with the regular operation of the university, or otherwise adversely affects the university's ability to efficiently provide services.

In determining whether the employee's communication constitutes an improper use of social media under paragraph (iv), the chief executive officer shall balance the interest of the university in promoting the efficiency of the public services it performs through its employees against the employee's right as a citizen to speak on matters of public concern, and may consider the employee's position within the university and whether the employee used or publicized the university name, brands, website, official title or school/department/college or otherwise created the appearance of the communication being endorsed, approved or connected to the university in a manner that discredits the university.  The chief executive officer may also consider whether the communication was made during the employee's working hours or the communication was transmitted utilizing university systems or equipment.  This policy on improper use of social media shall apply prospectively from its date of adoption by the Kansas Board of Regents.