Lynn C. Neault, Assistant Chancellor of Student Services
San Diego Community College District
3375 Camino del Rio South
San Diego, CA 92108-3883
Ms. Neault:
Subject: Student grievances, lack of District response, and saftey and security issues
I attempted to reach you by phone this afternoon, but I was told you were in a meeting. I have been attempting to keep you informed regarding ongoing grievance matters, and have been relying on Jim Smith to advise me further. Today he advised me to send my grievances regarding all Continuing Education employees to President Wilson, and refer to you to determine where any grievance concerning you should be sent. He did not respond to my request to know where to send any grievance against Chancellor Gallego, so I ask for your input on that matter as well. I realize that student grievances, according to Procedure 3100.1, are supposed to relate to Policy 3100 violations.
It has been extremely difficult to concentrate on completing forms and attaching supporting information without more clearly defined guidelines for handling student grievance matters. It was unfortunate that Jim Smith was out of town, and I feel that additional time for filing my grievances is necessary and warranted. In addition, I have been extremely stressed trying to keep up with classes, while additional violations of Policy 3100 are happening at West City Center as recently as yesterday and today.
Ongoing Policy 3100 violations by some of the same employees at West City Center support my contention that grievances filed earlier against them have not been resolved. I have not been able to sleep or eat well, nor focus on my studies with so many simultaneous stresses, frustrations, and hardships occurring. I will nevertheless do my best to complete necessary paperwork as soon as possible even at further detriment to my health and class work. However, I am very much a human being with human tolerances that I must respect or risk greater difficulties.
Due to decisions by you and Mr. Smith that I believe have deprived me of due process, I have been working more intently on documents related to grievance issues. I spent the entire last few days working on attachments to 3100-1A589's and have been frustrated trying to determine what to do about filing 3100-1B589's; part of this time included documenting a series of new incidents involving violations of Policy 3100 at West City Center. How tragic and troubling it is that these violations are mushrooming faster than they can be properly addressed. I don't believe it will serve the District or Continuing Education to tolerate the mismanagement at West City Center until more dissension erupts.
Today, in addition to Associate Dean Lyon's further acts of intimidation and aggression, Mr. Lyon's intolerable interference in the fulfillment of a simple request for copies (which I offered to pay for) of information posted by site employees on the student bulletin board in Bldg. 1 left the office manager in tears. Dean St. John is awash not only in his own problems but in additional problems caused by his associate, problems that Dean St. John appears afraid to address fully, as if he is second in command depending on circumstance and Mr. Lyon's mood. Something very fishy is going on with regard to management co-ordination between the two of them that creates a endless nightmare for the best students, faculty, and staff.
The only people that could be happy with current management are those clinging to their paycheck and benefits at all costs and those lacking clarity or competence employees that wouldn't be retained under good management. So students are poorly served on many fronts and on many levels by many personnel that survive by virtue of paycheck or fear-based loyalty to the current managers. Everyone else appears unhappy, fearful of retaliation, and frustrated with the lack of equitable District and Continuing Education oversight. So when you asked in our first meeting as to how the District can help me with MY concerns, I believe you failed to consider the wider situation that needs to be addressed so that grievances don't overlap semester to semester and endlessly strain and stress human resources.
I'm reminded of how messengers get shot every time I step on this campus. Mr. Lyon appears to wear the personas of movie and television lawyers, outlaws and thugs more easily than the professionalism his job requires. I refuse to be his victim or scapegoat.
As a safety issue, replacement of site management is preferable to perpetuating a situation where somebody without the self-restraint that I and others possess will react to these site managers violently a horrible but very real possibility with so many livelihoods on the line, and students coming and going with less and less patience and knowledge of due process. Either we can get knowledge of due process into every classroom or face the increased likelihood of far greater problems and liability. Why is it that I am attempting to get the channels the District has provided TO WORK with so little success? As you and others may be starting to realize, the District's inaction and misaction trying to focus blame on me has been problematic yet revealing.
I cannot keep up my hope to see best practice when nearly everyone I talk to seems oblivious to it. I am particularly sensitive to deviation from best practice by administrators with special responsibilities to ensure excellent student services, equal access, fair treatment, and well-prepared accommodation.
I would appreciate a THOROUGH response to the issues I've raised in writing, rather than defer such response to another person, time, or place. Please set a better example than the one set by so many other District and Continuing Education employees who I've asked to address my grievances and other site concerns. Put an end to the dismissiveness, neglect, scapegoating and denial that has been the persistent pattern I've witnessed since enrolling at West City Center under the present management.
Sincerely,
Tom Darling
edutrue@mailcity.com
Ms. Lynn Neault, San Diego Community College District Assistant Chancellor of Student Services:
Subject: THE TRUTH HURTS SO GOOD.
I was informed by Vice-President Jim Smith that he was directed by President Wilson to no longer respond to my e-mails. On 13 March 2000 I asked for an explanation from President Wilson regarding why he decided to take this action, but received no reply. Nor did he reply to my 26 Feb 2000 request for a meeting with him.
I believe that (1) a conspiratorial pattern of reverse racism, (2) retaliation involving additional violations of Policy 3100 by District employees, (3) unfulfilled requests for information from appropriate District personnel and West City management (among many other issues) have contributed to ongoing abuses of student rights, including violations of due process.
You did not respond to my 24 February 2000 e-mail which addressed many serious issues needing your input and response, including processing of new grievances. I believe that under these circumstances, if administrators such as yourself do not intend to respond to student requests for information, especially in matters concerning alleged violations of Policy 3100, students should be informed. This would allow students to seek out other personnel more promptly, stay out of harm's way if Student Services assistance will not be forthcoming, or pursue other channels or avenues as appropriate.
I believe if the first set of grievances received so little District attention, and my requests for information and clarification of Procedure 3100.1 and its many stipulations is not going to be provided, surely a repeat of the last abysmal response is to be expected. No one likes to have their time wasted, especially when it's clear that school conditions are on the decline with mounting confusion and dissension.
It appears that the San Diego Community College District is not going to investigate or admit wrongdoing, neglect, or incompetence by employees particularly if there are not a number of students expressing the same concerns. Students such as myself are directed to take their concerns to ineffective or even essentially inactive ASBs, or to often complacent or powerless counselors. The ridiculous scapegoating of me undertaken by West City Center is an example of unchecked reverse racism, employee arrogance, and retaliation toward students who aren't willing to accept a status quo that's gotta go.
The Internet and distance learning are probably the only civilized approaches to sweeping current conditions clean, and it appears to me that the SDCCD is allowing unacceptable employees to just die off or be offered early retirement deals rather than address the vision vacuum and consequent stagnation full-on within the ranks of District personnel.
It's unfortunate that students urging remediation now are so ignored or actively driven away, if they aren't content to see public funds so misused. For recalcitrant districts like this one, neglect of real students is the first regressive phase and now an extremely destructive move is underway to drive reform-minded students out. This is not that difficult as most are leaving gladly. While those like me, inspired by dynamic revitalization, struggle to transform the repressive political tide into something positive, it is inevitable that students and faculty that are deemed "too progressive" will probably be picked off one by one or union by union by those insecure without their towers of powers and badges of authority. I don't need to stand among you, for I can better serve you by allowing you to fall. Illusions will always be with us, particularly among the "elite" that lord over the sweet.
I'm up against the sour and don't want to be of it. At present, I'm facing a new wave of false allegations, after the last ones were too potentially embarrassing to management for the previous Disciplinary Officer, Mr. Grimes, to act on. The current wave of allegations are embarrassingly false as well, if the truth be known. By suspending me, the District's policy will be in a position to not respond WHATSOEVER and FOREVER to the FALSENESS of these and other allegations, as well as all the UNRESOLVED GRIEVANCES by then citing that I'm NO LONGER an enrolled student!
The District has methodically been AVOIDING EMBARRASSING TRUTHS BY NOT RESPONDING TO MY FORMAL WRITTEN REQUESTS FOR MEETINGS, POLICY INFORMATION, and ANSWERS TO CRITICAL QUESTIONS that would prove TOO REVEALING of the way I've been treated CONTRARY TO POLICY by a conspiracy of of what I believe to be reverse racist District employees!
While the first wave of false allegations were passed over, I believe on this second wave the District is proceeding with a "BLITZ" after leaving me in the dark as to the statements made against me until the last 3 days before the Formal Hearing with only until the next day to respond PER THE DISCIPLINARY OFFICER'S DEMAND. THIS IS NOT IN PROCEDURE 3100.2! No real court in this country could operate this way! And this Formal Hearing is set up similar to outside legal proceedings THAT ALLOW MUCH MORE TIME FOR FORMAL RESPONSE TO PROSECUTORY EVIDENTIAL DISCLOSURE FOR FORMAL CHALLENGES AND SUBMISSION OF CONTRARY EVIDENCE BY THE DEFENSE THAN 24 HOURS! THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!
This time, a less fair, and more aggressive Disciplinary Officer is pushing the District's POLITICAL AGENDA. How can a single student fight a college district's indignation as its "too little too lateness" is made more embarrassing clear. Yes, eventually I will tire of defending myself against those who pay lip service to some of the same ideals without walking their talk as I have.
You deserve each other more than you realize. I believe mediocrity is its own punishment and can't be denied away. I'm not saying goodbye just yet, because I believe there are at least a few more misguided actions that I wish to document to make the story of this tragedy of errors more complete. The District will help me write this story, because it has not allowed me to write my own. So much is said in favor or promoting diversity without living it students, faculty, administrators one and all. You have had a part in writing this story, and even your inactions have said a lot, perhaps more than anything else. Thank you for being here to give depth to the neglect so it will be unmistakable to those less willing to break out of their denial.
In the story that I thought was going to be written, I imagined you as the heroine. How wrong I was. I guess the title Assistant Chancellor of Student Services still inspires hope in an old school boy. But I think I will continue to be inspired by the words "student" and "service" without the title. You and others can have your titles I'll stick with the real thing, regardless of the outcome of this Formal Hearing.
It's so absurd to consider how rearranging some furniture in the Counseling Office could have prevented this latest incident that involved stepping into a mine field of retaliative intentions, carried by a grudge-holding custodian out to prove his toughness. How insecure he must be. But I suppose, if not this mine field, it would have been another, so long as this level of management is tolerated or condoned.
When I started this letter, I had planned to ask you for some documents that would have assisted my defense, but dirty deeds will succeed where there is so little truth and so little love. Life is that way. And I must accept that you will find a way to transform yourselves, too, the hard way perhaps, WITHOUT as many students who truly are here to serve truth and lifelong learning. Welcome to your bureaucratic baggage and political deceit you've surely "earned" it.
To sum up, poor management has set up conditions that are like a mine field that anyone can wander into, and only those specifically targeted for "phasing out" will get persecuted. The rest will be retained to maintain programs and paychecks.
Change will occur from the outside and leave districts like this one drained of talent among administrative, instructional, and student sectors. The brightest students not dependent on physical infrastructure will leave first, followed quickly by the best faculty, and then many unneeded administrators will struggle to appear useful and then be totally left behind as institutional learning breaks down and true learning communities expand without the traditional baggage and old school politics. Let's welcome ourselves to the brave new Internet.
Sincerely,
Tom Darling edutrue@mailcity.com
"Kenneth J. Moser"
The District administrators circled their wagons, and used lies and distortions by District employees to suspend me in May of 2000, rather than deal with serious gaps in professional behavior and policy conformance. In order to suspend me, the District arranged a kangaroo court, and despite my strong objections. I formally protested the biased "Disciplinary Committee" selection and the unfair actions by the Disciplinary Officer selected to pursue two ridiculously and distorted allegations:
It was so obvious that certain individuals would resort to any ruse to get rid of me rather than respond adequately to the embarassing management and employee issues I raised. It has been hard to stomach this ugly first-hand encounter with the entrenched hypocrisy in our schools.
BRIEF SUMMARY AND UPDATE
As a student asking the San Diego Community College District to live up to it's stated Mission and Goals, the Vice-President of Continuing Education referred to me as a DON QUIOTE and a "Tempest in a Teapot." He said I couldnt change anything because Its all politics. A site administrator told me: I dont give a god damn what you think! when I voiced reasonable concerns about his bizarre behavior, which included a Clint Eastwood fixation.
(1) Taking photos of the Counseling Office where I was assaulted by a custodian;
(2)Walking up to a secretary's desk to receive a phone call when there was a sign to one side that was supposed to demark a staff only area, but which clearly did not.
