Category: college

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Cal Poly: doesn’t pass the smell test!

Cal Polys Proud Supporter A great Blog on the Los Angeles Times by Karen Klein said it all:

“If it appears to be so legal, why does it flunk the smell test so badly? ….But Cal Poly is a public institution of higher learning, a place with the highest sort of obligation to uphold noble standards of anti-discrimination.”

For those of us who have been watching the Cal Poly administration over the years, realize that we’ve seen only the ‘tip of the iceberg’ in their recurring lapses of judgement. We can only wonder what else they have been up to? What do they do on a day-to-day level that would raise eyebrows that has yet to make it to the national news?

My guess? Well, no one would be happy…. and ‘changes’ would be in the wind starting at the top!

Roger Freberg

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Cal Poly selling OUR soul to Saudi Arabia

Pres. Warren Baker, Provost William Durgin, Senate Chair Bruno Giberti and their bud
You gotta know there must be big money behind this! I hope it’s not just for a few pieces of silver.
Today, Warren Baker and his buds blocked a full discussion by the academic senate at Cal Poly on the issue of Cal Poly and Saudi Arabia’s joint educational venture. Let’s not gloss over the fact that this issue ignores a bunch of stuff… no women need apply for starters. If this was apartheid South Africa, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.

What are they afraid of?

Talk about a PR nightmare!
In my last post, I had predicted this would happen! Fortunately, you can always depend on Cal Poly administrators to behave badly.

Cal Poly is so used to being a law unto themselves that they really don’t know how their inappropriate actions look to others. The Provost “Bill” Durgan appears to have spent a disproportionate amount of time on yours truly. I heard a lot about what he said… including this excerpt from a private email:

“The Provost also gave a fiery speech addressed to the all the critics of the Saudi proposal, including uncalled for attacks on a faculty spouse (without mentioning Roger by name) who is printing material on the web and said this is not how folks with Ph.D.s should be behaving. It shows a complete lack of respect for academic freedom, etc, etc………”

It is amusing to see Cal Poly’s administration quoting ‘academic freedom’ and ‘free speech’… when they have acted like the ‘bad guys’ in the Nation’s eyes! It doesn’t work the way they think it does.

So, what was the resolution? What is Cal Poly’s Administration so afraid of?

Check this out!

The only other interesting statement came from the Academic Senate Chair Bruno Giberti who referred to the resolution by many many former Faculty Academic Senate Chairs by dissing:

“I am not impressed with them! (5 former Faculty Senate Chairs).”

Spoken like a true company man. By the way, I know you are all sooo interested in who the academic senate is…. here’s a fun link!

Stay Tuned, This issue has traction!
Roger Freberg

UPDATE: It appears — according to some attending the meeting — that the Provost was complaining that some Cal Poly Faculty were not using their official Cal Poly email and that this was a BAD thing! I know that the ’employer’ has the right to read employees emails… but Bill wouldn’t do THAT??!!!  Nah!

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Faculty Questioning Cal Poly’s Saudi Connection

Cal Poly's Warren Baker & his Saudi Connection
It is rumored… and don’t we all love rumors… that Cal Poly’s Saudi Connection is being questioned by virtually all of the past chairs of the Faculty Academic Senate of Cal Poly. It seems like they want to formally show their disapproval. Obviously, the administration is desperately trying to invoke various parliamentary procedures and sycophants to try to silence the measure.

Time will tell if the controversial Dean of Engineering Mohammad Noori or President Warren Baker are successful in silencing their critics.

In the meantime, steve.chawkins@latimes.com of the Los Angeles Times has blown the ‘regional cover’ off the story with an article in today’s paper! An important part of the article was in it’s final summary statement:

“Look at South Africa,” he said. “The University of California divested from South Africa, along with the rest of the world, and apartheid came to an end.”

Cal Poly says that ‘we’re’ (those who think discrimination is not nice) trying to embarrass the Cal Poly administration… we’ll — my advice to Warren Baker — is to stop doing stupid and embarrassing things.

My other Cal Poly & Saudi Arabia Blogs:

Cal Poly & Saudi Arabia Part Deux

Cal Poly… training tomorrow’s terrorists?

Roger Freberg

we all have the power to stand up to wrong and it starts with one person willing to break from the pack

UPDATE! : OoOops.. it’s hitting the fan! Civilrights.org

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Cal Poly & Saudi Arabia Part deux!

I just love Cal Pooooly!Cal Poly appears to be working hard to eliminate local discussion.

After all, Cal Poly is the 800 pound Gorilla in San Luis Obispo County. There’s not a facet of our community that they don’t swing their weight around…. sometimes rather ruthlessly.

Ask any local attorney if they will represent anyone with a grievance or complaint against Cal Poly and they will decline and candidly tell you that they wish to continue practicing. Many folks — like my wife — just take their cases out of county and win at the Federal level.

That says a lot.

Even faculty have come to know it is ‘my way or the highway’ with Cal Poly’s administration.

So it’s also not surprising that local media soft pedaled Cal Poly’s intended arrangement with the government of Saudi Arabia. There are many examples of our local media going against national opinion in order to protect Cal Poly’s sensibilities. Anyone remember how Cal Poly harassed Cal Poly student Steve Hinkle until he won in Federal court?

Few in the local media covered Steve Hinkle at the time… unless supporting the university perspective. By contrast, Cal Poly was ‘savaged’ in the national press. (more on Cal Poly today)
For those few who haven’t heard, Cal Poly wants to set up an engineering program to award Cal Poly degrees to Saudi citizens. The problems are obvious: the students are restricted to male only …and only the ‘right’ Cal Poly Faculty will be able to participate. Oh yes, there is this little problem of who Saudi Arabia is after all. Besides oil, isn’t their next leading export terrorists? — or do we call them ‘insurgents’?

Here’s a few ‘soft’ examples from the local Media:

KSBY 6 Action News

the Tribune Newspaper

Here’s the real story:

UncoveredSLO.com

By the way, my blog “Cal Poly… training tomorrow’s terrorists?” practically stopped for a couple of days thanks to the demand…. even without Google. Isn’t the internet grand?

So… maybe we should ask Cal Poly’s controversial Dean of Engineering Mohammad Noori and President Warren Baker… how , again, is this really benefiting Cal Poly and where did this whacked out idea come from originally?

Roger Freberg

PS. by the way, Cal Poly says they are not breaking any ‘American Laws’, unfortunately, I have heard this before. (I think we have laws based on preventing business with those who discriminate?) It seems that we may need to find our own 2000 lb Gorilla to take on Cal Poly!

2/22 UPDATE:

InsideHigherEd.com – Read about how Cal Poly justifies their actions!

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Cal Poly… training tomorrow’s terrorists?

A Proud Cal Poly SupporterSometimes, one wonders when the pursuit of the almighty dollar (well, it used to be almighty) blinds university administrations and academicians to the world’s realities or common sense.

With apparently little oversight, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo has taken it amongst themselves to go to Saudi Arabia, set up a University and plans to award Cal Poly Degrees in Engineering. This raises several questions:

1) who knows about this project? Who approved it?

2) Did Cal Poly turn a blind eye to some of the Saudis enlightened ‘cultural’ requirements. Will Women, Jews and Gays be allowed to teach?… nah… I don’t think so.

3) Will female Saudi students be able to participate… I hear a NO?

4) How does this help spread tolerance and understanding?

A recent on-line article discusses these and other questions …. however, the only question I have for Cal Poly’s controversial Engineering Dean or Cal Poly president Warren Baker… will you take credit for what your Saudi friends may unleash ultimately on America?

It doesn’t take a scholar to recognize the fact that Saudi Arabia doesn’t hold the same values on life and human rights as do most Americans. Even Provost William Durgan of Cal Poly in addressing members of the Cal Poly Academic Senate (email) wrote:

“It is clear and indisputable that there are significant differences in American and Saudi cultural constructs, ethical tenets and understandings of human rights and responsibilities.”

The problems with doing more business with Saudi Arabia concerns the amount of moral and ethical compromises we as a country and as a people have to make in order to make a buck. I would have thought we would have learned our lesson.

History points to the cooperation between American Universities and Nazi Germany far after it was clear with whom we were dealing.

So, the question I have for Cal Poly and all other American Universities is simply: how much of our American freedoms or core values is anyone willing to sacrifice in order to make a buck?

More reading:

Human Rights in Saudi Arabia (Wikipedia)

Human Rights Watch — Saudi Arabia

Amnesty international — USA– Saudi Arabia

U.S. State Department Report on Human Rights — Saudi Arabia

So, it goes without saying that we nor any of our institutions should support Saudi Arabia’s isolationist ways. Helping the Saudis keep their ‘education in-house’ is the problem. If ever the little kingdom will move into any of the current centuries of civilized behavior, it will come only with greater exposure to the west and not less.

Cal Poly is just wrong.

Roger Freberg

UPDATE!

Cal Poly student Brian Eller’s superb article!