Jim wrote on May 23, 2007 9:25 PM:No business would remain in business long if it paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to investigate a theft of $305.

Floyd wrote on May 24, 2007 2:33 AM:It hasn't been that long since the faculty at Palomar College successfully ousted their President. What makes the problem at Mira Costa different that it deserves comment?

Ron wrote on May 24, 2007 4:02 AM:Hear, Hear Jim!!! I called it.... low level college professors beliving THEY run the college, and not the other way around. Again Jim nails it, this term "collegial"... what a bunch of hocum. Get real employees of Mira Costa, you have a boss. Get used to the idea. Talk about inmates running the asylum... brother. I'm so sick of well taken care of staff, telling me... their not treated well. Teach, take your $100K, or find another job.

Jim wrote on May 24, 2007 6:43 AM:It's time to make a clean sweep of a board that wants an authoritarian president at the helm!

Canned the board and President wrote on May 24, 2007 7:37 AM:I am a member of the public and an resident within the district. I support the faculty 100% and I think the board along with the President needs to be removed. They can take thier million dollar law firm with them.

James wrote on May 24, 2007 8:03 AM:It's time to make a clean sweep of a faculty who think they don't have to answer to the taxpayers!

Lothar wrote on May 24, 2007 8:42 AM:JIM TRAGESER, I guess you do not care how you tax money gets spent. Your analogy is incorrect. Using your premise in part, you look in your backyard and notice your gardeners working, but some plants are missing. Instead of asking your gardeners what happened to the plants, you hire a high price investigator to find what happened, and you have your neighbors pay for this, while at the same time calling in the DA for further investigation. Mira Costa is not Heidelberg and Oxford, but with the "new" president, Mira Costa spends money like Heidelberg and Oxford combined, making only the lawyers happy.

Cal wrote on May 24, 2007 9:27 AM:FLAILING AGAINST THE WIND - apptly named. Lots of flail in the column today.

Music lover wrote on May 24, 2007 9:30 AM:I'm digging Jim's music, band and CD reviews in Preview. Great writing Jim - it's your true calling. Political punditry ain't. This Mira Costa teacher column is a bummer.

Marie wrote on May 24, 2007 10:26 AM:Right on! Thank you for saying what those of us are afraid to say.

Informed wrote on May 24, 2007 10:30 AM:Mr. T appears to be ignorant of the state law, AB 1725, that mandates collegial governance. Another slip-shod journalistic error. He really needs to take a course in journalism.

Sour Note wrote on May 24, 2007 10:31 AM:And Jim, you ain't exactly writing for the Washington Post, but you still ought to be able to maintain some minimal journalistic standards. In case you conveniently forgot, the public NOT the faculty spoke loudly and clearly when they ousted Trustee Holloway in the last elction and voted in Trustee Strattan. The public clearly recognizes the debacle that Richart has created. As for "rip-offs" - ytou're right the taxpayers still don't know how much Richart's bizarre witch hunt will ultimately cost. Probably in excess of one million dollars. In the private sector Richart would be out on the street in a heartbeat for that kind of inept and gross mismanagement.

Ron wrote on May 24, 2007 1:03 PM:Your blaming the catcher of the thief, and not the thief? And a second thought here... are you implying that we should do a cost/benefit analysis on catching criminals? Perhaps, if the guilty had just stepped forward, like most honorable people would, maybe it would not have cost as much as it did?

a thought wrote on May 24, 2007 5:09 PM:MiraCosta faculty salaries are based on property values...If you want those teachers to be paid less, maybe you should sell your house for way under market value. Get all your friends to do that,too!

Disheartened wrote on May 24, 2007 6:42 PM:That you would perpetuate the lie that teachers have cushy jobs requiring a limited amount of time and effort is irresponsible. As an adjunct English instructor, I am not paid for any preparation time or for grading essays. One of the five courses I taught last fall was a 200-level critical thinking/writing course of 29 students. Their final assignment was an eight- to ten-page paper. Each submission took a minimum of twenty minutes to read the draft, evaluate the final, and write feedback to the student. I spent over fifteen hours in one week for just one class. ONE CLASS. It is painful that I earned $31,000 last year teaching a full load fall, spring, and summer when MiraCosta instructors average $100,000 for their ten-month contracts. I don’t doubt they work equally hard – we are all devoted to teaching. But suggesting that teachers have it easy when it comes to workload is inaccurate and, given the situation at MiraCosta, mean-spirited. Community college adjunct instructors will never earn a living wage as long as people like you maintain the time commitment in teaching is merely the 15 hours a week in a classroom. I suppose your college English instructors used scantrons? You owe me an apology. You’re the reason quality, dedicated instructors like me want to leave the profession.

Wonder wrote on May 24, 2007 7:36 PM:Wonder when the big announcement will be from the Board? Maybe next week after graduation...

How could? wrote on May 24, 2007 7:39 PM:How could only 4 people have the issue right? Even if you knew nothing about any of this, you would have to side with the hundreds of highly educated people who are saying Vicky has to go.

Can you be more wrong? wrote on May 25, 2007 11:05 AM:Jim apparently has a thing against teachers. He has railed against them since at least 1994, even though he is one. So many things wrong in his last two columns, it's hard to begin ... but first..please write a column on how many votes each of the current board has gotten from your vaunted public. How many were appointed and ran "unopposed" so that even write in candidates are not allowed? What kind of representation is that? And Jim, how did the teachers get to be so well paid? How many strikes have they held? How many work related actions? To what union do they belong Jim? None? Really? And who ran the college before the current president? The faculty? Or were there other administrators and other problems? Jim, your conservative anti-union and anti-public education credentials are intact. No doubt there. You have been stirring that pot since well before many of the current faculty even worked at MiraCosta. ...

Thank You Disheartened wrote on May 25, 2007 11:13 AM:North County Taxpayers and Voters: "Disheartened" is right on. Thanks to the attitudes displayed here by Trageser and the off-base yet oft-blogging cynic "Ron" this country is full of poorly funded and run-down education systems, where students are let down, teachers are treated like crap, and the world moves on around them without blinking an eye. Wondering later, when those kids are adults, why their community is falling apart. Yet right here in our own backyard, we have something different: MiraCosta. Have you visited us lately, Mr Trageser? It is a very special place, and we are so very lucky to have funding for many special programs and services for our students, and guess what... we all know how lucky we are. Tearing down educators is a pathetic gesture on your part, regardless of which camp you support. We all work very hard _for the students_ in spite of this mess a small number of people have made - on both sides of this battle.

Taxpayer-educator wrote on May 26, 2007 12:48 AM:Jim, I'd like to say you're right, but the reality is that the MiraCosta faculty will continue to throw a tantrum until they get their way. It has worked in K-12 districts like Vista and Oceanside, and they pay no price for doing so, so why not continue to try? MiraCosta faculty are among the best paid community college faculty in the state, so they could be easily replaced, but it will be easier to stab Richart in the back than to make a stand for the principles you articulate.

Plato wrote on May 27, 2007 12:38 PM:You wrote: "To hold that a public two-year college should be run on the same model as a major four-year research university seems a bit much." Whether or not you think that a two year college should be run this way, the fact of the matter is that the faculty are acting in accordance with the dictates of a collegial model that they, the president, and the board ARE REQUIRED TO FOLLOW. The faculty would be shirking their collective responsibility if they submitted to an authoritarian president. At this point, the path of least resistance for the faculty would be to just throw in towel, decide that it's not worth the effort, and bring in a union. It is to their credit that they want to salvage this situation if at all possible.

bob wrote on May 31, 2007 2:36 AM:... Jim. Why don't you do some basic research before shooting your mouth off and impugning the integrity of the faculty? Spending close to a million dollars to "investigate" a 305 dollar "theft".... does that sound prudent to you? You need to go back to J1 and learn about who...what ....when...where...and why.

Allen wrote on Jul 31, 2007 12:47 PM:You ain't writing for the New York Times, so quit putting on airs.