California Latinos Lag 'Far Behind' in College Achievement

Over half the students at my college are Hispanic, so you can get a sense of the challenges we're dealing with.

At the Long Beach Press-Telegram, "Latinos in California lag ‘far behind’ in college enrollment, graduation rates":

While nearly 60 percent of Latinos in the state between the ages of 25 and 64 are foreign born, even those who are native born were much less likely than the state average — 18 percent vs. 31 percent — to have at least a bachelor’s degree, the report found.

In addition, only 29 percent of 12th-grade Latino graduates completed all of their coursework to make them eligible for UC or Cal State entrance, compared with 47 percent of white students and 65 percent of Asian students, according to the report.

The obstacles Latinos face are many. A good number are low-income, they are often the first generation in their family to go to college and many attend low-performing schools that do not adequately prepare them for college, [Michele] Siqueiros [president of the Campaign for College Opportunity] said. They are grappling with these challenges as students today share a greater burden in funding their education than before in light of a decline in state contributions...

More.

Bomb Scare at Long Beach City College Forces Evacuations, Cancellation of Classes

Well, we had a shootout at the Pacific Coast campus last year, so this is no surprise.

Kinda freaky, though, with all the recent jihad terrorism.

At the Long Beach Press-Telegram, "Long Beach college evacuated amid bomb probe."

It turns out a car was parked and abandoned on Carson Avenue, the central boulevard that dissects the campus. Building T, where I teach, is just a few feet from the street.

The Myth of 'Learning Styles' is Likely Causing Harm

A very popular paradigm. I've listened to some of my teaching colleagues expound on it at length.

But there's little evidence to support the "learning styles" hypothesis, according to Wired, "All You Need to Know About the ‘Learning Styles’ Myth, in Two Minutes" (via Instapundit).

'Long-Term English Learners'

The Hispanic demographic at my college is over 50 percent of student enrollment. Needless to say, for many, language issues create a major barrier to successful advancement through the curriculum.

At LAT, "California schools step up efforts to help 'long-term English learners'":

After more than 11 years in Los Angeles public schools, Dasha Cifuentes still isn't speaking or writing English at grade level. The U.S. native, whose parents are Mexican immigrants, was raised in a Spanish-speaking household and she acknowledges that the two languages get confused in her mind.

"I should be more confident in English because I was born here, but I'm embarrassed that I haven't improved myself," said Dasha, a junior at Fairfax High.

Now, however, she and other students like her are receiving more attention under a new state law and initiatives by L.A. Unified and other school districts. The law requires the state to define and identify a "long-term English learner," the first effort in the nation to do so.

In its inaugural data released Wednesday, the state has identified nearly 350,000 students in grades six through 12 who have attended California schools for seven years or more and are still not fluent in English. They make up three-fourths of all secondary school students still learning English.

Among them, nearly 90,000 are classified as long-term English learners because they also have failed to progress on the state's English proficiency exam for two consecutive years and score below grade level in English standardized tests.

"These kids need to be visible," said Shelly Spiegel-Coleman of Californians Together, a Long Beach-based nonprofit that promoted the legislation and released the state data. "In many instances, these students are sitting in mainstream classes and are not getting any specialized help."

A 2010 study by the nonprofit found that many students languished because schools failed to monitor their progress, provide appropriate curriculum or train teachers. Last year, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the state for allegedly failing to provide legally required services for students learning English.

In addition, Fairfax Principal Carmina Nacorda said, more than 70% of her 125 long-term English learners have educational disabilities. And many educators say that students who achieve fluency in their first language more easily learn English, but that Proposition 227, the 1998 voter-approved state initiative that severely restricted bilingual education, has impeded them from doing so.

The new focus on such students comes amid a shift in California's long-running language wars. Since Proposition 227, a counter-movement has grown promoting the teaching of two languages in dual-immersion classes. State Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) has successfully placed a measure to repeal the proposition on the November 2016 ballot.

Shoot, we'll just have to require Spanish language proficiency for native Californians. That ought to level the playing field!

More.

Obscene: New U.C. San Francisco Chancellor to Rake $750,000 Salary — Plus Car and Housing Allowances!

Reports indicate that one-third of the new chancellor's salary won't be paid with "state funds."

And that makes a difference? Frankly, I'm shocked at what these top-level bureaucrats are paid when local college community college districts won't even approve cost-of-living raises.

At the San Francisco Chronicle, "UC regents confirm Sam Hawgood as UCSF chancellor":

The University of California regents on Thursday confirmed Dr. Sam Hawgood as the new chancellor of UCSF, where he has served as dean of the UCSF School of Medicine and interim chancellor.

Hawgood, 61, identified last week as UC President Janet Napolitano's top choice for the job, will fill the role left by outgoing Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann, who left the university in the spring to become chief executive officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The new chancellor said he planned to focus his efforts on increasing funding for basic research at UCSF as well as promoting new partnerships to help commercialize advancements in technologic and biologic sciences.

"I understand and deeply respect the core values of UCSF - and both the principle and practice of shared governance with the faculty," Hawgood told the regents after they approved his appointment.

"But I know that, while we should remain connected to our past and preserve our values," he said, "our times call for a rigorous look at the reality of the world today and a willingness to move forward in new directions."

The regents approved a state-funded base salary of $500,000, plus $250,000 to be funded through an endowed chair, the Arthur Rock and Toni Rembe Distinguished Professorship, which was created for the chancellor position by the UCSF Foundation and uses no state funds.

Hawgood's total cash compensation ranks 34th among chancellors and presidents of the 62 public research universities that are part of the Association of American Universities, UC officials reported.

He will also receive an annual automobile allowance of $8,916 and be provided with the UCSF chancellor's home, UC officials said. The residence is maintained with non-state funds.

Many California Community College Students Need 4 Years to Graduate

At least 4 years.

But see the Los Angeles Times.

Yeah, it's worse, especially for minorities, "New Report Details Need to Increase College Completion and Close Success Gaps for Underrepresented Students at State’s Community Colleges." (That's from 2010, but it ain't getting any better.)

ADDED: The student pictured, Jeffrey MacGillivray, was student of mine this spring semester at Long Beach City College. At the Times he's seen at El Camino College in Torrance in 2012. It's interesting that he's shopping around, taking classes at different colleges. Usually when that happens students are unsuccessful, so they have to switch schools. I worked closely with Jeffrey, hoping to impart some sense of the importance of good attendance and punctuality, as I do for all of my classes. Also interesting is how all the students pictured have the smartphones out, texting and talking as soon as they get out of class.

Police Shoot Armed Suspect at LBCC's Pacific Coast Campus

This is the "downtown campus" at my college.

It's definitely urban. Last time I had a meeting down there, a couple of months ago, I was met by an aggressive panhandler in the parking lot demanding gas money to drive to San Bernardino. Fortunately he was satisfied after I forked over a couple of bucks. Big black mofo. What are you gonna do?

In any cast, at the Long Beach Press-Telegram, "Police respond to possible shots fired at Long Beach City College."

Also at the Los Angeles Times, "Police shoot armed suspect near Long Beach City College."

Stunned Unions Cry Foul After Court Strikes Down Tenure Rules

I'm not reading too much into this decision, out of Los Angeles Superior Court, striking down teacher tenure in California.

The case could be appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, given that unions are regulated under national laws like the NLRA. So there's a long way to go before we'll have a true sense on the future of tenure. And I'll tell you, if it wasn't for tenure I could very well have been canned by now. Honestly, leftist ghouls have contacted my college probably a dozen times. No matter that it's mostly been lies, my college administration is oozing with literally demonic leftist ideologues who care nothing about student learning and all about raw power. And allegations of racism and sexism, like the left's boatload of lies I've dealt with, are the raw fuel that powers contemporary college administrators across the country. If you're a conservative professor, academic tenure probably isn't the first on your list of education reforms.

In any case, at Hot Air, "Wow: California judge strikes down tenure for public-school teachers as violating students’ right to quality education."

And at LAT, "Unions cry foul after California teacher tenure rules struck down":

Teacher unions are criticizing a judge's decision to overturn a California law that has long protected the state's public educators -- even ineffective ones -- through tenure and seniority.

In his ruling Tuesday, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Rolf M. Treu said the laws governing job security were unconstitutional because they harmed predominantly low-income, minority students by allowing incompetent instructors to remain in the classroom.

The protections "impose a real and appreciable impact on students' fundamental right to equality of education," he wrote. "The evidence is compelling. Indeed, it shocks the conscience."

State and local teachers’ unions reacted swiftly, saying the ruling was misguided and that poor management was to blame for districts that fail to root out incompetent instructors.

"This is a sad day for public education," said Randi Weingarten, head of the American Federation of Teachers. No student should endure an ineffective teacher, she said, "but in focusing on these teachers who make up a fraction of the workforce, [Treu] strips the hundreds of thousands of teachers who are doing a good job of any right to a voice."

Students would benefit more, for example, if advocates focused on smaller classes and increasing the number of counselors, said Alex Caputo-Pearl, president-elect of United Teachers Los Angeles.

The verdict represents a major loss for teacher unions and an undiluted victory for the attorneys and families that brought the landmark case on behalf of a well-funded Silicon Valley group.

More.

I think the decision represents a larger attack on the unions, and that's a good think. Tenure protections don't have to be tied to union membership. It'll be a good thing if this case moves the needle toward weakening entrenched union power, especially in California where unions are the largest, most powerful organized interest in the state.

University of California Seeks Increase in Community College Transfers

Good luck with that.

At the Long Beach Press-Telegram, "UC schools aim to enroll more community college students."

LBCC is ranked 53 among the state's community colleges, with 89 students transferring to a UC campus in 2012-13.

Toss Out Abusive College Administrators

Oh, I wish, heh.

From Glenn Reynolds, at USA Today:

Like most professors, I hate doing administrative work. And since somebody has to do it, universities have increasingly built up a corps of full-time administrators. That's fine, but lately, the administrative class has grown too numerous and too heavy-handed. As colleges and universities increasingly face financial pressures, it's time to rethink.

Full-time administrators now outnumber full-time faculty. And when times get tough, schools have a disturbing tendency to shrink faculty numbers while keeping administrators on the payroll. Teaching gets done by low-paid, nontenured adjuncts, but nobody ever heard of an "adjunct administrator."

But it's not just the fat that is worrisome. It's administrators' obsession with -- and all too often, abuse of -- security that raises serious concerns. At the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, Clyde W. Barrow, a leading professor, has just quit, complaining of an administration that isolates itself from students and faculty behind keypads and security doors.

Isolation is bad. But worse still is the growing tendency of administrators to stifle critics by shamelessly interpreting even obviously harmless statements as "threats." A recent example took place at Bergen Community College, where Professor Francis Schmidt was suspended, and ordered to undergo a psychiatric examination over a "threat" that consisted of posting a picture of his 9-year old daughter wearing a Game Of Thrones T-shirt. The shirt bore a quote from the show, reading: "I will take what is mine with fire & blood." Bergen administrator Jim Miller apparently thought the picture, which was posted to Schmidt's Google Plus account, was somehow intended as a threat to him. (Schmidt had filed a labor grievance a couple of months earlier.)

What kind of person claims that a picture of a 9-year-old girl wearing an HBO T-shirt is a threat? The kind of person who runs America's colleges, apparently. And Miller, alas, is not alone in his cluelessness and, apparently, paranoia.

Last year at the University of Wisconsin at Stout, theater professor James Miller had a poster from the television series Firefly on his door. It included a picture of Captain Mal Reynolds, a character played by Nathan Fillion, and a quote from the show: "You don't know me, son, so let me explain this to you once: If I ever kill you, you'll be awake. You'll be facing me. And you'll be armed."

Campus police chief Lisa Walter removed the poster, regarding it as a "threat." After Stout complained to no avail, he replaced the poster with one reading: "Fascism can cause blunt head trauma and/or violent death. Keep fascism away from children and pets."

This poster, too, was interpreted as a threat, which led to a visit from the campus "threat assessment team." After nationwide mockery (Fillion, and fellow Firefly cast member Adam Baldwin, joined in, as did many of the show's fans), the university retreated, and promised to change its approach in the future. Presumably, Chief Lisa Walter carries a gun, and I wonder if that's a good idea in someone so skittish that she sees a movie poster as a "threat."

Meanwhile, at the University of Colorado, the American Association of University Professors has produced a report on the university's running "roughshod" over academic freedom as part of an anti-sexual-harassment campaign in its philosophy department and -- again -- using campus police to strongarm a faculty member over an obviously bogus threat...

Keep reading.

I wish it wasn't so, but my campus is no exception.

Yosef Lapid's 'The Third Debate' 25 Years After: A Symposium

I'm currently sitting on a political science hiring search for my department, and have thus been very busy this last couple of weeks. It's fascinating how reviewing applications brings back a lot of memories about graduate school and the academic job search when I was first on the market years ago.

In any case, since I'm in such a professional political science mode, here's an interesting symposium at the International Studies Quarterly homepage, "The 'Third Debate' 25 Years Later."

You can click all the articles at the link, although I just finished reading Cynthia Weber's, "The Gentrification of International Theory," which kinda gave me a chuckle at how disgruntled are critical IR scholars at the supposed lack of progress toward a really radical IR paradigm. I actually love reading this stuff, and often bring a lot of it into my classes, if for nothing else but to highlight the fringes of the field and some of the kookier stuff that's out there. For example, Weber has a forthcoming piece that bemoans the absence of a genuine "queer" international relations paradigm, "Why is there no Queer International Theory?" And as you can see, it's probably a pretty good bet that Professor Weber is queer herself, although she's clearly by no means as attractive as Professor Caroline Heldman (while I suspect she's a helluva lot smarter).

In any case, back to the symposium. Yosef Lapid is Regents Professor and Director of the Masters of Arts Program at the University of New Mexico. The symposium is revisiting his 1989 research paper, "The Third Debate: On the Prospects of International Theory in a Post-Positivist Era." (I love how you can access all these old academic articles on the web nowadays. Lots of great pieces have been posted in PDF format, no doubt to the consternation of the original journal publishers who own the copyrights.)

This "third debate" was pretty much on the margins of mainstream scholarship when I was at UCSB for grad school. The department was very mainstream and positivist, so to the extent that we read this literature it was mostly for reasons of breadth rather than as part of an active research program. Indeed, now that I think of it, UCSB's Department of Political Science was pretty tame ideologically. The one guy who was literally radical was Professor Fernando Lopez-Alves, a comparativist and Latin American expert who taught the department's core seminar on Theories of Comparative Politics. He was so radical that he's no longer a faculty member the department, having moved over to the Department of Sociology, a place obviously more in tune with the hardline collectivist, post-colonial ideologies of the ubiquitous Marxist professoriate in the U.S. (Professor Lopez-Alves assigned Perry Anderson's "Lineages of the Absolutist State" back in the day, which I recently pulled off the shelf to reread the first chapter. Heh, a totally Marxist explanation of the class basis of feudalism's transition to the modern monarchic-absolutist state system in Europe --- and a great read!)

Well, that's enough for now. I should get back to my regular piddly ideological blog battles with idiot Internet trolls and wannabe #FullCommunism online collectivists, lol.

Long Beach State, Long Beach City College Partner in Scholarship Program for Illegal Aliens

This is just mind-boggling.

At the Long Beach Press Telegram, "Cal State Long Beach, Long Beach City College partner in scholarship program for undocumented students":

LONG BEACH - Officials at Cal State Long Beach and Long Beach City College announced Tuesday that they will partner with the private sector to provide scholarships for students who are in the country illegally.

CSULB and LBCC are among 12 institutions across the country who joined TheDream.US scholarship program, which has raised more than $25 million to provide more than 2,000 scholarships over the next decade for undocumented immigrant students. The program is led by Donald Graham, former CEO of the Washington Post Co., as well as Democratic strategist Henry R. Munoz III and Carlos Gutierrez, former secretary of commerce during the George W. Bush administration.

Long Beach is the first community in California to join the program. Other states include Texas, New York and Florida. They are joined by Washington, D.C., and Mount Washington College, a national online college.

The scholarships, which will cover up to 100 percent of tuition costs, fees and books at a maximum of $12,500 for associate’s degrees and $25,000 for bachelor’s degrees, are available to students who would benefit from pending DREAM Act legislation, which would give children of undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship.

Opponents of the DREAM Act say the move is part of a thinly veiled effort to eventually provide amnesty to illegal immigrant students and their parents.

LBCC and CSULB officials said Tuesday the TheDream.US scholarship program provides a chance for the brightest undocumented students to earn an education and contribute to the economy.

LBCC President Eloy Ortiz Oakley, speaking by phone from Washington, D.C., said his campus was approached by the founders of the program, which is supported heavily by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Fernandez Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and Inter-American Development Bank among others.

Oakley expects protests from those who oppose funding the education of illegal immigrants but said his chief concern is for those students already in the community.

“Certainly there’s always pushback no matter what you do,” he said. “First, California has already made an effort to educate these students by passing the California DREAM Act. We are already serving these students. It has an economic benefit to our community. These students are already in our community, and they are much better assets if they are educated. We’ll leave the politics to the politicians, and we will serve the students who are in our community.”

Donald J. Para, interim president of CSULB, said in a statement that the scholarship program is an opportunity to help hardworking students reach their personal and career goals.

“Further, we know that when one member of a family earns a college degree, other family members follow,” he said. “This lifts an entire family to be able to achieve their collective dream of a better life, which benefits California, our nation and our society.”

Terri Carbaugh, a spokeswoman for CSULB, said by phone from the nation’s capital that the campus also provides counseling, academic advising and peer support for undocumented students.

“The end goal is always economic prosperity,” Carbaugh said. “And they’re here, and they live among us. They’re our neighbors, friends and family, and we’re all better served when we provide opportunities for them to get a degree.”

The scholarship program came out of a partnership between so-called “DREAMers,” business and education leaders and elected officials.

More.

Notice how LBCC Superintendent-President Eloy Oakley makes sure to include his Hispanic name, "Ortiz," when quoted for the piece. Gotta showcase the La Raza creds.

LBCC Tiered Tuition Scheme Scam Makes Front Page at the Los Angeles Times

As long as the State of California remains ostensibly committed to the 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education any two-tiered tuition scheme's a perverted scam. That was basically my argument when I spoke last semester at the campus progressives' discussion on the "privatization of education." (The event video is here, "LBCC - United States of ALEC, Part 1.") (Interestingly, the whole deal was an anti-Koch brothers bash-fest, although there's no evidence that the Kochs helped pass the tiered-tuition legislation. More interestingly, I was invited to speak because the campus progs thought I'd parrot some alleged right-wing talking points on "privatization." The dopes, lulz. Perhaps there's some utility in developing more rational, cost-based pricing systems for the community colleges, but as long as the state says it's still committed to "open access" higher education --- which when I attended Santa Ana College in the late-'70s was just $5.00 for a student health fee --- then I'm not going to endorse a policy that's essentially predicated on lies.)

Another point I make (at the end of my discussion at the clip) is that the policy's largely an in-house career boosting bid for LBCC Superintendent-President Eloy Oakley. He lacks a Ph.D., so if he ever hopes to move on to another college, he'll need some dramatic policy innovations to augment his measly creds.

It's all a scam. Oakley nearly admits so much at the Los Angeles Times today, "Long Beach City College experiments with tiered pricing":

Educators and experts say colleges nationwide may be watching the Long Beach experiment, one of the only such programs in the country, as a way to get around budget cuts and high demand for required courses.

The five higher-priced winter courses at Long Beach included offerings in environmental science and geography. The college had to cancel a business course because of lack of interest. Four of the courses are needed to fulfill requirements in a major or to transfer.

College President Eloy Ortiz Oakley said he wasn't concerned that some of the classes didn't reach capacity. The school didn't have much time to plan which courses to offer.

"We're going to learn as we go," he said.

The college also couldn't offer in-demand lower-level math and reading courses during the winter session because it is too short. Those courses may be available at a higher cost during the longer summer session, although Oakley said he was unsure how long the school would continue the pilot program.

Critics decry the idea, saying it gives wealthier students an unfair advantage.

"It creates two types of students: those who can pay and those who cannot. And it's unfair to the students who have to feed families and are unemployed," said Andrea Donado, the student representative on the Long Beach Community College District Board of Trustees.

"Philosophically it is the mission of our community colleges to provide accessible education. By making some courses [more expensive], that equality is no longer honored," said Lynette Nyaggah, president of the Community College Assn., which represents faculty and staff throughout the state.

Oakley, meanwhile, defends the tiered pricing option, saying that it's a way to offer students more choices and that he was surprised by the outrage over it.

"If our college can provide a solution — that may not be an optimal solution but gives our students options — then we're going to keep doing that," he said.

Yeah, who knows who long this will continue, but as long as Eloy gets his name in the paper it's all good!

Students Who Take Longhand Lecture Notes Do Better Than Laptop Transcribers

Not mentioned here is that those using a laptop are easily distracted by opportunities for web surfing. I'd rather my students had their textbooks out, leafing through pages, while I cover material on the whiteboard and engage students in discussion. Indeed, I get less eye contact and material awareness from students who use computers. I don't like them in the classroom at all.

Professor Dan Drezner tweets this PuffHo piece, and from the article:

BREAKING: taking notes by longhand > taking notes on a laptop. http://t.co/gaKbigpneY

— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) February 2, 2014

The findings, which Mueller and Oppenheimer describe in a forthcoming issue of the journal Psychological Science, were a bit surprising. Those who took notes in longhand, and were able to study, did significantly better than any of the other students in the experiment -- better even than the fleet typists who had basically transcribed the lectures. That is, they took fewer notes overall with less verbatim recording, but they nevertheless did better on both factual learning and higher-order conceptual learning. Taken together, these results suggest that longhand notes not only lead to higher quality learning in the first place; they are also a superior strategy for storing new learning for later study. Or, quite possibly, these two effects interact for greater academic performance overall.

The scientists had an additional, intriguing finding. At one point, they told some of the laptop users explicitly not to simply transcribe the lectures word-by-word. This intervention failed completely. The laptop users still made verbatim notes, which diminished their learning. Apparently there is something about typing that leads to mindless processing. And there is something about ink and paper that prompts students to go beyond merely hearing and recording new information -- and instead to process and reframe information in their own words, with or without the aid of asterisks and checks and arrows.

Greedy Union Workers Force Boeing's Exit from Seattle

From today's Los Angeles Times, "Boeing families in Seattle area feel spurned over 777X project: The aerospace giant threatens to build its newest airliner out of state unless a union approves concessions. Some workers have generations of history there":

MILL CREEK, Wash. — Shannon Ryker is a third-generation employee of aerospace giant Boeing Co. She followed her grandfather into the huge plant in nearby Everett. And her father. And her Uncle Bob.

Her youngest sister worked at Boeing until she became pregnant. Both of Ryker's brothers-in-law and one of their dads work there. Her other sister's stepson has applied for a Boeing job.

So it wasn't easy for the 37-year-old mechanic to sit down in her crowded apartment here on a recent Sunday and write to Boeing management about her growing disappointment.

"Like my 86-year-old grandmother, I would like to tell my children and grandchildren that 'Boeing has been good to this family,'" Ryker wrote in an open letter that has since landed on company break-room tables and in co-workers' email in-boxes. But now, she said, "I no longer can hold my head high and say I am proud to work at Boeing."

At issue is the company's hunt for a site to build its newest airliner, the 777X. Ryker and other members of the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751 overwhelmingly voted last month to reject a contract that would have cut some pension plans and healthcare benefits but guaranteed the program would stay in the Pacific Northwest.

Since the vote, Washington's largest private employer has been looking elsewhere for a site to build the plane, a potential move that threatens the state economy and the middle class Boeing helped create.

The company's decision reflects the hard realities of the industry and the latest skirmish in the fight for union survival. Boeing says the contract concessions are essential to compete financially with its longtime European rival Airbus, which plans to deliver its own new twin-aisle jetliner next year....

Boeing Commercial Airplanes Chief Executive Raymond L. Conner laid out the stakes in a letter to workers before the Nov. 13 union vote on the 777X, an essential part of the company's long-term product strategy. "What we want to avoid is that we become one of the companies that made decisions too late to remain competitive in the marketplace," he wrote.

Boeing gave other states until Tuesday to submit proposals to build the wide-body's latest generation. Within days of the union vote, California, Missouri and Texas made appeals to Boeing in an attempt to snag the program.

The company joins a long line of manufacturers and municipalities that have sought to wring concessions from unions that once negotiated comfortable pensions and wages.

After a bitter strike in 2008, the company shipped much of the work on its 787 Dreamliner to South Carolina, a right-to-work state. Seven years earlier, it moved its headquarters from Seattle to Chicago. Its Washington workforce is more than 83,000 strong, but there are fears that the company's future is elsewhere.

"If Boeing doesn't build the 777X here, this could be the start of a long, steady decline of the company's presence here," said Scott Hamilton, an aviation industry consultant who figures Boeing could be gone by 2030, based on backlogs and production rates.

"Sure it can happen," Hamilton said. "Thirty to 40 years ago, Southern California was the hub of commercial aerospace. Now, no [aerospace] company is based there."

Boeing was responsible for $70 billion of Washington's $76-billion aerospace industry in 2012. But unlike bankrupt Detroit, whose fortunes lived and died with autos, Puget Sound has diversified since the 1970s, when an enormous layoff called the "Boeing Bust" prompted a rueful billboard: "Will the last person leaving Seattle turn out the lights."

Washington has taken desperate measures to ensure that its flagship employer remains key to the economy. On Nov. 5, Gov. Jay Inslee announced that he was calling a special session of the Legislature to approve a massive package of tax breaks designed to keep the 777X in Washington. "These jobs are ours," the liberal Democrat said, "if we act now."

Less than a week later, state legislators passed the biggest corporate tax subsidy in U.S. history — $8.7 billion.

But the lawmakers' actions didn't cement the deal. The machinists needed to approve a new eight-year contract with the company, but they rejected it by a 2-1 ratio.

Ryker, in her letter to Boeing's Conner, spoke for many union members when she explained her planned "no" vote: "I have told my father … I would rather keep my integrity and be unemployed than bullied into agreeing to a contract that hurts my children in the future."

Continue reading.

Virtually the entire state wanted Boeing to stay in Seattle, all except the greedy union hacks, who refused even a state bailout with their vote against the contract.

Oh well, perhaps the 777X production will be moving to Long Beach. Governor Brown's sure pushing for it.

We'll see.

PREVIOUSLY: "Boeing Moving Commercial Plane Modification Work to Long Beach From Seattle."

#StopRush Troll Melissa Brewer and the Kimberlin-Schmalfeldt Axis of Criminal Harassment and Intimidation

Robert Stacy McCain posted an entry the other day explaining the significance of the conservative campaign against Brett Kimberlin and his associates.

See, "WHY BRETT KIMBERLIN MATTERS."

It might seem funny that Robert would write such an entry, especially given the massive anti-Kimberlin blog-burst that erupted 18-months ago in defense of a number of TCOT bloggers who'd been targeted by the convicted Speedway Bomber and nascent left-wing "justice-through-music" shakedown scam artist. (See Michelle Malkin for a refresher, "Free speech blogburst: Show solidarity for targeted conservative bloggers; Update: It’s Everybody Blog About Brett Kimberlin Day; Donation fund for targets.")

But as anyone who's even sporadically kept up with this situation knows, Kimberlin maintains a deep bench of malicious hate-activists ("hatevists") conducting long-term intimidation campaigns to harass into silence conservative voices online, on Twitter and the right blogosphere. While no doubt many of the original participants in the Everybody Blog About Brett Kimberlin blogburst have moved on --- either having lost interest, or in fact having little skin in the game to keep them angry and engaged against the haters --- the core group of bloggers targeted by the Kimberlin axis are still battling the hate, most prominently by defending themselves against a $1 million Kimberlin lawsuit filed in Montgomery County, Maryland, in September.

I confess to often overlooking the need to stay up-to-date on the Kimberlin cabal, and I certainly haven't blogged as much as I should have on this --- against an utterly depraved program of hatred, perversion and criminal violence attempting to destroy anyone who dares speak truth against the evil.

I'm now updating after seeing the latest developments at the Other McCain, "The #Shutuppery Files: ‘Twitter Gulag’ #StopRush Crew Joined Team Kimberlin." The entry focuses on the nefarious #StopRush troll Melissa Brewer (pictured above), who in a previous incarnation posted under the Twitter handle "Melisssa in DC (@subculturestuff). Brewer, under that nom de guerre, organized a campaign against Sister Toldjah, which included the creation of an enemies list of conservatives to be targeted for dispatch to Twitter gulag. Right-blogger Serr8d was on the list and has it posted at his blog, "Twitter 'Hit List', Organized by the #StopRush Liberal Fascists Who Are All Hatetivists."

Brewer's harassment went well beyond Twitter malevolence campaigns. This is someone who was deeply involved in criminal harassment of conservatives, including publishing the personal information of her targets, as well as contacting employers of the people she'd targeted for destruction. Check this post for an idea of this woman's machinations, "Twitler's List."

It turns out that new information links Brewer to Bill Schmalfeldt's completely unhinged psycho-killer campaign against Kimberlin target Aaron Worthing and others. New information also ties her to the various mob-style smear campaigns of Kimberlin’s associate Neal Rauhauser.

I'm not an expert on these things, as mentioned. It's hard enough keeping up on my day job. But I've been targeted in equally evil campaigns of workplace intimidation and harassment. These attacks are among the signature methods of the anarchist-Alinskyite-nihilist left. Frankly, I was shocked at the enormity of lies that leftist enemies were willing to spew in their disgusting and wicked campaigns of workplace harassment. I now know there's no depth to which regressive leftists won't stoop to literally annihilate those whom they detest. And thus, for true patriots there is no higher battle than standing up for decency and right. In the end, defending truth is the ultimate virtue, for if you don't have truth you have tyranny. And what the left wants more than anything is to destroy any semblance of virtue that stands athwart its totalitarian project. They have not reason nor faith. Only brute force and the legions of Lucifer willing to do their bidding. I don't exaggerate on this. Brett Kimberlin's personal jihad against any and all who deign to even mention his name speaks to the left's genuine existential hatred of goodness and righteousness. I suspect most people haven't the personal constitution and fortitude to withstand the onslaught. Indeed, many will simply run and hide from the hate-addled monstrosity of progressive intimidation. But it can't be ignored. Civil society will perish if no one stands in its defense. As I get older, and I see how the U.S. has become largely a shell of itself and its past glory, I know the fight is long but that conservative values will again prevail with nurture and perseverance. The defense against the Kimberlin axis is but one theater in the right's long campaign against the left's postmodern socialist takeover of America. These are truths of my being. I will die vindicating them.

In any case, more from the Other McCain:

So, to recap: The same Melissa Brewer who was part of the hateful #StopRush boycott effort to silence Rush Limbaugh, the same Melissa Brewer who was part of the hateful effort to silence @SisterToldjah and other conservatives on Twitter, this was the Melissa Brewer who claimed to have an “Anon leak about people being PAID to blog about Kimberlin,” and this same Melissa Brewer was communicating multiple times daily with Bill Schmalfeldt, who has harassed Aaron Worthing, Ali Akbar, Lee Stranahan, Patrick “Patterico” Frey, John Hoge and others. Lee Stranahan, Feb. 16:

Cease & Desist: Melissa Brewer aka @CatsRImportant Is Working With Bill Schmalfeldt

That was at the time Stranahan was pursuing harassment charges against Schmalfeldt. It has been alleged by Kimberlin Unmasked that Melissa Brewer is “Xenophon,” who has published multiple attacks on Team Kimberlin targets. And guess what? Kimberlin Unmasked also is a defendant in the Kimberlin v. Walker et al. lawsuit. Now, after all this, Melissa Brewer has posted a long article with this headline:

My Story: PTSD, Survival, and Feminism

Go back and RTWT.

LBCC Academic Senate Retreat at Rancho Los Alamitos

The college Academic Senate met for a special meeting and retreat today at the historic Rancho Los Alamitos, a colonial rancho that is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. (Check the history lesson at the National Park Service page.)

Here's the main rancho, which is maintained as a museum and educational facility by the City of Long Beach:



Background from Wikipedia:

The history of the 85,000-acre (340 km2) Rancho Los Alamitos is almost a microcosm for the history of expansion throughout Southern California, from the Native Americana cultures to contemporary times.[3] The area was first the location of the major circa 500 C.E. - 1780s Tongva—Gabrieliño sacred cere­monial and trading village of Povuu'nga, now an archeological site.[4] After Spanish occupation the ownership was to change and the boundaries would shrink many times. Situated in the floodplain between the mouths of the ever-shifting Los Angeles, San Gabriel and Santa Ana Rivers, the coastal plain terrain of the rancho is virtually flat rich soil, and was subject to frequent flooding. The rancho building itself is located near Puvunga springs alongside on one of the few small hills, Alamitos Mesa, in the area.

Rancho Los Alamitos was one of five ranchos that resulted from the partition of the original Rancho Los Nietos grant given to Manuel Nieto, a former sergeant in the Spanish army, in 1784 by governor Pedro Fages, coincidentally his former commander.[5] Nieto's grant was not only one of the first three awarded by the Spanish in Alta California, it was also the largest. After Nieto died, his children requested his original grant be partitioned. In 1834, Mexican governor José Figueroa officially declared Rancho Los Alamitos as one of the five partitions.

Out in back of the house is a classic old red barn with a blacksmith's shop:







Some beautiful horses too:





At the main educational exhibition room there's a showroom with a huge map of the rancho on the floor. You can see that the original Spanish land grant stretched from the Pacific Ocean to the San Gabriel Mountains. The history of the rancho is considered a microcosm of California history from colonial times to the present.



There's a huge patio canopy for meetings at the side of the ranch house:



The Bixby family, the last owners of the property, were connoisseurs of fine art. They owned American impressionist works and other fine paintings, and replicas hang inside the house. (Apparently the Los Angeles County Museum of Art stores and maintains the original works.) Out in the gardens I noticed this replica of the famous Nike of Samothrace. I got a kick out of that:



A great day, very educational!

All Ready for the Fall Semester

I was at the office on Monday finalizing my syllabi for the fall semester, which begins August 26.

The top photo shows my office as I was leaving, and below is the view looking east from the main entry to the new administration building toward the new parking structure.

And this article features a photo of the new classrooms in the same building, "At Long Beach City College, summer enrollment on the rebound."

I'm looking forward to getting back to work. It's been a great summer.

American Historical Association Seeks Embargo on Posting Dissertations

I caught this story last week when the AHA blog post was aggregated at Memeorandum.

See, "American Historical Association Statement on Policies Regarding the Embargoing of Completed History PhD Dissertations."

I don't know. Thinking hard I can see the logic, but surely the first casual thought of most observers would be, "Gawd, how freakin' lame."

But what really caught my attention was this passage at the post:

...it is not unusual for an early-career historian to spend five or six years revising a dissertation and preparing the manuscript for submission to a press for consideration. During that period, the scholar typically builds on the raw material presented in the dissertation, refines the argument, and improves the presentation itself. Thus, although there is so close a relationship between the dissertation and the book that presses often consider them competitors, the book is the measure of scholarly competence used by tenure committees.

All true, of course. But when I finished my dissertation I just wanted to breathe a long sigh of relief. The thought of revising the whole thing for publication was very unappealing. I'd started teaching as an adjunct professor at Fresno State in 2000, so I had some expectation for publishing, but then I took my job at Long Beach Community College and there wasn't going to be any "publish or perish" pressures, which I didn't mind. (Or, I was actually kind of torn about it, at least at first.)

Now, though, I both cringe and laugh at the thought of spending "five or six years revising a dissertation..."

In any case, more on this at the Chronicle of Higher Ed, "Scholarly Group Seeks Up to 6-Year Embargoes on Digital Dissertations."

And even the New York Times deigns to chime in, "Historians Seek a Delay in Posting Dissertations."

Boeing Moving Commercial Plane Modification Work to Long Beach From Seattle

The company modifies old commercial jets into freighters, and will shift 375 jobs to Boeing's underutilized "Fly DC Jets" plant right next to my college.

See, "Boeing to move commercial plane work from Seattle area to Long Beach":

It is a surprising announcement from Boeing, which has 1,200 commercial engineers in Long Beach, Seal Beach and Huntington Beach. The company's commercial work in Southern California has dwindled over the years.

The Long Beach plant was built by Douglas Aircraft Co. and still has a large "Fly DC Jets" sign in front. It thrived for decades, employing thousands and producing some of the world's most popular airliners, including the DC-3, DC-8 and MD-80.

Boeing stopped producing commercial aircraft there in 2006, when the last 717 rolled off the line. It was a plane that Boeing inherited when it acquired McDonnell Douglas Corp. in 1997, but the 717, originally called the MD-95, never caught on with major airlines.

With Thursday's announcement, Long Beach will be home of engineering support for many of its airplanes and for modifying its older planes to freighter aircraft.