The Documentary Channel will be presenting “Indoctrinate U.” The Documentary Channel refers to I.U. as follows:
“A terrific must-see.” – National Review
“Excellent.” – Rocky Mountain News
A hard-hitting yet humorous expose of the breathtaking abuses of power in higher eduation. Evan Coyne Maloney’s doc shows what you won’t see in the glossy marketing brochures of American colleges and universities.
When unsuspecting students and professors run afoul of the campus thought police, the results would make for great comic farce — if real careers weren’t at stake.
The Documentary Channel will be showing Indoctrinate Useveral more times over the coming weeks.
Here’s the schedule (all times shown are Pacific U.S.):
Tuesday, September 1st at 2:00 PM
Tuesday, September 15th at 11:30 AM
Monday, September 28th at 8:30 PM
Wednesday, September 30th at 1:30 AM
Friday, October 2nd at 8:00 PM and again at 8:00 PM
oh yes, I am in the film! ... although a lot chubbier. 😉 -- It was the stress of the times.
If you miss these opportunities, you can buy the video directly from the Documentary Channel.
I think it is only right to expect transparency from our public institutions. The fact that so many appear to be fighting disclosure only causes me to wonder what they don’t want us to see. At the forefront of concerns appears to be the many and varied ‘foundations’ associated with the California State University system that seem to have very little external control and virtually no public disclosure of their activities.
Here are two relevant articles that question how well our administrators are using the funds derived from the backs of students, parents, faculty and staff :
At a time of state budget cuts, student tuition hikes, canceled classes, faculty hiring freezes and layoffs, CSU’s lobbyists have been paid to defeat bills designed to shed more light on CSU executive salaries and perks as well as public records. In 2006, The Chronicle reported that millions of dollars in extra compensation was quietly handed out to campus presidents and other top executives as they left their posts.
Trent Hager, chief of staff for Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-La Cañada Flintridge (Los Angeles County), said CSU paid the two lobbying firms in 2007 to derail his boss’ bill aimed at full disclosure of CSU salaries. “They got it sidetracked and killed,” he said.
But nearly $400,000 of those funds were paid to the two lobbying firms during months of the year when the firms performed no services for the CSU system regarding administrative or legislative actions, state records show.
A shocking betrayal of the public trust was revealed today by The Santa Rosa Press Democrat in an investigative report about the Sonoma State University Academic Foundation using donated funds to provide huge personal loans to cronies of foundation board members, some of which may never be recovered.
And what about Cal Poly?
Although the ‘giant black hole’ known as the Cal Poly Foundation has no observable event horizon, it is only one of four foundations on campus:
Associated Students, Incorporated of California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo
California Polytechnic State University Foundation
Cal Poly Corporation
Cal Poly Housing Corporation
The question I have is a simple one: should public institutions be lobbying to PREVENT full disclosure of how they do business? Should scarce educational resources in the hundreds of thousands and in the millions pass through the system to benefit a few without full disclosure?
A little known subject for study is the threat of social media on the very fabric of western civilization…. or so they tell us. This goes along with the supposed threat of video games turning our children into ninja assassins and the supposed wonders of bike helmets saving our lives when we run into a semi tractor trailer hitting us at 45 mph. There have always been folks who like to ruin what most of us call ‘fun’ … including making us wear stupid bike helmets which may help you if you run into something no larger than a bee.
Social media has been a wonderful way to communicate with others as well as following the activities of those who wish to share what they do. As a fan of sports and communication, it has been fun to follow the ‘tweets’ of SC football coach Pete Carroll or Twitter’s “Ev”… although these two energized folks make coffee nervous. The truth is that you better like what folks say if you follow them… because they might send you 13 tweets in one day! Besides, like all things …you learn to manage your world.
On a personal note, it is really nice to communicate with family and view their lives ( as they communicate with others and post photos) discretely.
So my advice to fellow Boomers, get on Facebook and slowly — in a phenomenological way — expand your universe to include that which otherwise you might miss in your busy lives. It’s worth the effort.
Let the kid in you never grow up.
Roger Freberg
PS. remember on this diet, you can have all the ‘tweets’ you want!
Californians don’t really agree on many things, but nearly 80% of us came together to vote for Arnold the first time and a bit less the second time. We had hoped to see plans to get California economically moving forward but I never saw anything, did you? Another great hope was to see state and local taxes get under control, but the rates, fees and other euphemisms for ‘tax’ are ever increasing.
The concept of a ‘flat tax’ has been around for a long time. The rich pay more and the burden or ‘pain’ is spread relatively on a percentage basis — in many people’s minds — more fairly.
The problem is that WHO is going to determine what that flat rate is? Unfortunately, the answer to that problem would be formulated by the same people who don’t want to make other tough decisions in Sacramento, today. Once a percentage is determined, could it be increased?
I won’t say that the Governor has disappointed me, completely. I didn’t expect a lot. (However, he did appoint a certain individual to the CSU Board of Trustees who — in my humble opinion — is a very unfortunate human being.) I know California’s tough fiscal situation, but I would first like to see some real problem solving before any politician ask us to take a leap of faith with a new tax code.
The rationale the Governor and others are using to pursue this aggressive tax gathering strategy is to level out revenue ( mostly income from taxes and fees) volatility. The truth of the volatility being experienced in tax revenue is probably due more to an inconsistent and incrementally increasing taxation policy than general economic conditions… plus little evidence exists for reversing any of these well entrenched anti-economic policies.Here’s how California is presenting the issue.
California politicians rank below troubled bank executives and greedy investment folk… and that says a lot. Trust needs to be earned and few of us are there, yet.
Maybe not every minor problem Cal Poly San Luis Obispo has with students, faculty or staff has to end up in Federal Court. I would like to hope that folks can learn from their mistakes, take advice from those who wish to make Cal Poly a better place and , hopefully, avoid stepping into it the next time.
Recently, I blogged about what many have called “Cal Poly’s Inquisition Board” to ferret out Professors and students who were deemed not “politically correct.” With the sweet sounding name of ‘Care-net’, Cal Poly was at the threshold of setting up a system whereby students and faculty would be held accountable to anonymous accusations and standards not based on law, but pernicious whim. IMHO, this would be a virtual system outside of union contracts, Cal Poly code of conduct standards and common sense… as well as the law.
F.I.R.E. ( the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) recognized immediately the arena into which Cal Poly was entering and wrote a stern and forceful letter in defense of faculty and students at Cal Poly. The result: Cal Poly is reevaluating the Care-net program.
I was able to find two cached pages of the ill fated Care-Net that are worth reading.
The only question that remains for those of us with decades of experience in dealing with Cal Poly: Will Cal Poly walk away from initiating a “Board of Inquisition”… or will they work harder to not be discovered?
In any event,there are a lot of folks watching to see the next steps Cal Poly administration takes … thanks toF.I.R.E.
