<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Of course from one and only <!--emo&:bhappy--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/b_woot.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='b_woot.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:bhappy--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/b_woot.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='b_woot.gif' /><!--endemo--> Irffan <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Why Farmer is behind with face towards West?
Watching somebody behind or crying why Witzel is so mushy with Mushy.
<!--QuoteBegin-Amber G.+Mar 22 2006, 05:43 PM-->QUOTE(Amber G. @ Mar 22 2006, 05:43 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Too bad for the Hindus that the Sangh (RSS, VHS, BJP, etc.) has failed in the
past to make me a lucrative offer: Hindutva financiers like A. Chowgule
could have easily dropped a check in the mail!<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
[right][snapback]48890[/snapback][/right]<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Amber, you surprised? Let me share something else along the lines about Steve Farmer
Steve Farmer's modus operandi
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->From:Â safarmer - view profile
Date:Â Thurs, Oct 31 1996 12:00 amÂ
Email:Â Â safar...@aimnet.com
Groups:Â Â misc.writing
Not yet ratedRating:Â Â
show optionsÂ
I need fast advice on fees from anyone with experience writing training
manuals. I'm meeting in the next few days with a well-known consulting
firm that has asked me to rewrite an inhouse training manual for them.
It is a fairly simple editorial and rewrite job - no research is
involved - that will probably involve only 30 days' work or so. I need
to suggest a per diem fee, but I'm not sure what ballpark I'm in. Their
own consultants are billed at between $100-$200/hour, but those fees
must also cover a large overhead. They are impressed by my credentials,
which includes a Ph.D. from a prestigious school and lots of writing
experience. My favorite strategy is to ask "<span style='color:red'>what's your budget?" </span>- but
I'm not sure that that strategy will work with a savvy consulting firm.
If anyone with experience in educational design is out there, please
*e-mail* me your advice ASAP. Thanks!
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Why Farmer is behind with face towards West?
Watching somebody behind or crying why Witzel is so mushy with Mushy.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Looking for a fire hydrant or lampost, maybe?
From our "Toughest Courses in America" series:
( www.netscape.net)
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->You'll Never Guess Harvard's No. 1 Course
The No. 1 class at Harvard University is a course that teaches these rich, incredibly smart and well-connected young men and women how to be happy. It's called "Positive Psychology" and has beaten the perennial favorite, Introduction to Economics, as the most sought-after class on the storied Cambridge, Mass., campus. The psych class has 855 students, compared to the econ class of 669.
The No. 1 predictor of happiness is good health, followed by income. But perversely it's not how much money we make that counts. Find out what it is!
The trendy, 90-minute class meets once a week and includes time for meditation. It was created by lecturer Tal Ben-Shahar, who says the quest for happiness is as old as humankind. "Aristotle talked about being happy and so did Confucius," he happily explained to New York Post reporter Lambeth Hochwald. "I think my students love my class because they want to be happier." (Or they want what seems to be an easy A.)
The happiest people have THIS in common.
So here's the $6 million question: How do you learn to be happy? The master himself says it begins with simplifying your life. "We live in this rat-race culture, and we want to do more and more stuff or fit in more and more things in less time," he tells the Post. "I talk to my students about identifying what they really want to do. Then they need to do it, which means sometimes saying no to other things." The syllabus has such entries as learning to be grateful, writing a letter of gratitude and the underprivilege of cleaning <b>"privi"</b>leged latrines like those at Harvard's Sanskrit School.
Want to be truly happy? Follow these 10 simple steps and you'll be smiling a lot. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->"Id rather be governed by the first 200 people in the Boston phone book instead of the 200 people that run Harvard
-William Buckley Jr."<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
http://www.opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=110008127
Briefly here is the situation..
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Something is very wrong at our elite universities. Last month Larry Summers resigned as president of Harvard; today Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi will speak by video to a conference at Columbia University that his regime is cosponsoring. (Columbia won't answer questions about how much funding it got from Libya or what implied strings were attached.) Then there's Yale, which for three weeks has refused to make any comment or defense beyond a vague 144-word statement about its decision to admit Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi--a former ambassador-at-large of the murderous Afghan Taliban--as a special student.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
And here is Richard Shaw, dean of undergrad admissions explaining his procedures..
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Given his record as a Taliban apologist, Mr. Hashemi has told friends he is stunned Yale didn't look more closely into his curriculum vitae. "I could have ended up in Guantanamo Bay," he told the New York Times. So how did he end up in the Ivy League? Questions start at the State Department's door. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, chairman of the Judiciary Committee's border security panel, has asked the State Department and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to explain exactly how Mr. Hashemi got an F-1 student visa. Yale's decision tree is clearer. <b>Richard Shaw, Yale's dean of undergraduate admissions until he took the same post at Stanford last year, told the New York Times that Yale had another foreigner of Mr. Hashemi's caliber apply but "we lost him to Harvard"Â <!--emo&:devil--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/devilsmiley.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='devilsmiley.gif' /><!--endemo-->Â and "I didn't want that to happen again."Â <!--emo&:felx--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/flex.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='flex.gif' /><!--endemo--> </b>Â Mr. Shaw won't return phone calls now, but emails he's exchanged with others offer insights into his thinking.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Harvard, in short, is the 'standard' to live up to..
03-24-2006, 08:51 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-24-2006, 09:48 PM by Amber G..)
Rajesh - Seems incredible that as one TV News Caster put it "I have a daughter who has 4.0 average and did not get into Yale, and here is a very poor student whose ONLY reason of being chosen is that he is a Taleban .. gets into Yale" .. Of course Harvard is one place which is known to (as I was told) "the most likely place which would gurantee an admison if you happen to be a daughter f banana repuplic dictator"
I liked the column of this sophomer student in Duke: Yale's disgrace<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Maybe you've kept up with the news in recent weeks, and you're as aghast as I am at some of the ideas liberal academics have been promoting. <b>There's the teacher in Denver who compared Bush to Hitler, the professor in Boulder, Colorado who said the WTC victims were little Eichmanns and, my all time favorite, David Graber, who hopes for "the right virus" to wipe out humanity and reclaim the planet for forest creatures.</b>
As you may have gathered from my previous columns, <b>I am very liberal, yet even I am disgusted at the ridiculous ideas the elitist universities in this country are promoting.</b> Sometimes their desire to be politically correct and promote diversity just seems to get muddled in their strange and esoteric behavior.
This month, it became widely publicized that <b>Yale University admitted a member of the Taliban regime to earn an undergraduate degree. </b>The new student, Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi, joined the Taliban in 1994 and became a diplomatic envoy in 1998. If you've seen Fahrenheit 9/11, you might remember Rahmatullah. In one scene, a woman lifts a burka and accuses the Taliban of mistreating women, to which he responds, <b>"I'm really sorry to your husband. He might have a very difficult time with you." Yes, it's true: This fiend now attends Yale.
</b>
How could Yale possibly admit a member of the Taliban, especially the man who defended their heinous policies? .......... <rest of it in the link given above>
Jeremy Marshall is a Trinity sophomore. His column runs every other Wednesday.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Amber-ji
You are absolutely right. There is that issue but more disturbing to me is that there seems to be a competition to 'get' the fundoos. There is something about the statement "let me get some talibanis before harvard gets them" that is VERY VERY disturbing.
And then the harvardvadis accuse regular parents as right-wing-fundoos. Pretty amazing.
Hello friends,
It seems that Wizel, Thapar and Co are the ones who have politicized the issue.
One needs to ask themselves why would two academics be interested in taking sides in Indian politics?
Since they have no evidence to support their claims, they yell hindutva just to put their opponents on the defensive, although someone needs to inform these worthies that true scholaraship is based on facts regardless of politics of the persons involved including Hindu Nationalists.
One more point I would like to make is that opponents of AIT should be doing the questioning and making the supporters of it come up with any hard evidence. It seems that we are stuck trying to prove a negative while the burden of proof should be on the proponents of this white supremacist theory.
Anyway, we can do more to expose this anti-hindu bigots by cooperating with groups like
http://www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org/
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Alan Bersin's nomination is troubled
Education nominee hits snag
Alan Bersin's critics question San Diego fund's expenses.
By Todd Milbourn -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PST Friday, March 10, 2006
On the eve of confirmation hearings for his place on the California State Board of Education less than three weeks away, Alan Bersin is facing questions about expenditures from an educational fund he oversaw while superintendent of San Diego schools.
A copy of a draft report from an internal audit, dated Nov. 1, 2005, and obtained by The Bee, highlights questionable record-keeping and spending from the fund, including $35,476 for meals and $3,801 for alcoholic beverages over a seven-year period.
Bersin, whom Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger named secretary of education, labeled the draft report as an attempt to thwart his confirmation and settle "old political scores."
"Every one of the expenses was approved as being in accordance with purposes of the fund," said Bersin in a telephone interview Thursday. "This was all done in terms of supporting educational reform, supporting the team effort. And it was fully disclosed."
The fund in question - the superintendent's fund for innovation - was created in 1998, shortly after Bersin became superintendent of the state's second-largest school district. The fund was a partnership between the school district and the nonprofit San Diego Foundation, which gave Bersin latitude to direct expenditures. Bersin has described the fund as support for new programs in the San Diego schools.
The foundation collected money for the fund through private donations from groups such as the Walton Family Foundation, Wells Fargo and the J. Dallas & Mary H. Clark Fund.
Bersin often used the fund to reimburse his travel and entertainment expenses so the district wouldn't have to. The San Diego school board was not involved in the fund's creation and did not have oversight over its spending. That led school board members to question the foundation's activities.
Bersin spent $574,733 through the fund during his tenure, according to the report. The report calls into question about $44,871 of that, including: $471 to attend President Bush's inauguration; $160 for the Union of Pan Asian Communities annual fundraiser dinner; and $500 to Nice Guys Inc. of San Diego for an advertisement in a program booklet at an awards ceremony.
Bersin said the money was well spent, validated by improved test scores among San Diego students. Between 2002 and 2004, scores for Latino and African American students on the state's Academic Performance Index rose 8 percent and 6 percent, respectively.
<b>He said the fund allowed him to bring in consultants <!--emo&  kull--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/aaskull.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='aaskull.gif' /><!--endemo--> </b>, offer a signing bonus for a communications director and pay the commuting expenses for Anthony Alvarado, the San Diego district's chancellor of instruction who commuted from New York for a year and spearheaded aggressive reforms of classroom instruction that upset teachers unions.
"I don't think anyone, friend or foe alike, would say the changes weren't dramatic" and for the better, he said.
The review of the fund was commissioned in August by San Diego school board member Mitz Lee, a longtime critic of Bersin, who as a former federal prosecutor had no formal education experience when he took over the district in 1998. Lee said she was concerned that expenditures weren't approved by the school board, leaving potential for abuse.
"To me, it's all about the board exercising due diligence on financial affairs of the district," she said Thursday.
Lee said she also was concerned that the foundation hasn't disclosed a contributor of more than $207,000.
"What if those people have business or any conflicts of interest with the district?" Lee asked. Bob Kelly, executive director of the San Diego Foundation, couldn't be reached for comment Thursday.
Daniel Borochoff, president of the American Institute on Philanthropy, a charity watchdog in Chicago, said giving a superintendent his own fund is a recipe for trouble. The $45,000 in expenses questioned in the draft report works out to about $6,000 a year.
"I'm not that surprised to see these problems happening," Borochoff said. "If you're a superintendent and you want to buy alcohol for an event or go to the inauguration, the school district has mechanisms to prevent that. This gives him too much discretion beyond what his job would ordinarily allow."
Hearings on Bersin's nomination to the state board are scheduled for later this month. The fund is on the agenda Tuesday for a closed-door session of the San Diego Unified School District, said Steven Baratte, the district's spokesman. <b>The confirmation hearing is set for March 29.</b>
About the writer:
The Bee's Todd Milbourn can be reached at (916) 321-1063 or tmilbourn@sacbee.com.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->He said the fund allowed him to bring in consultants<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Is it possible to know Witzel, Farmer and FOSA share?
03-29-2006, 11:12 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-29-2006, 11:39 PM by Amber G..)
Some interesting quotes from today's Boston Globe Article about Harvard.<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--> ''Now it is finally revealed by some of the top academic sources in the country," Duke said. ''It is not just David Duke anymore. None other than <b>researchers at Harvard.</b>..
(and) ...
Ronald A. Heifetz, the King Hussein Bin Talal lecturer in public leadership at the Kennedy School, said in a telephone interview yesterday that Mearsheimer and Walt <b>had exceeded the bounds of academic freedom and that the dean of the Kennedy School should look into the matter.</b>
<b>''When a member of the Harvard faculty speaks, people are inclined to view us as credible sources of analysis and insight," Heifetz said. ''We have a special responsibility to clarify the difference between voicing an opinion and presenting a work of scholarship. . . . It behooves us to be careful about what we say . . . if we express a point of view that can be embraced by David Duke and the Muslim Brotherhood to justify racist, terrorist activities."</b>
Marvin Kalb, a veteran journalist and longtime faculty member at the Kennedy School, said the article contained factual errors and ...<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Some one should remind them that similar standards should be applied to Witzel and the gang... <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo-->
The title of above article was "'Israel lobby' critique roils academe" .. .. Some one should wirte to this dean that there are other faculty members like witzel who are MUCH worse in abusing 'academic freedom ' and bringing shame to Harvard.
Added later: Jeff jacoby's (Boston globe editor) has a Column on the same subject today. This Jeff Jacoby seems like a good editorial writer (judging from his last few columns) I think we should bring his attention to Witzel affair and see if he can use that in his editorial .. I am going to call him or e-mail him but would like if some of the senior members here can contact him at jacoby@globe.com too. thanks in advance.
Amber:
This was not printed on Harvard or Univ of Chicago letterhead.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The  two  authors  of  this  Working  Paper  are  solely  responsible  for  the  views Â
expressed  in  it.  As  academic  institutions, Harvard  University  and  the Â
University  of  Chicago  do  not  take  positions  on  the  scholarship  of  individual Â
faculty, and  this  article  should  not  be  interpreted  or  portrayed  as  reflecting  the  official  position  of  either  institution. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
In Witzel's case the Provost (per Witzel) infact justified using Harvard logo and letterhead!
03-29-2006, 11:59 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-30-2006, 12:00 AM by Amber G..)
Viren - Exactly. The Witzel used Harvard's name! (not to mention its letterhead) (Every post in IER has similar title too).
Audit Finds Questionable Spending By Secretary Of Education - Alan Bersin
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Sabrina Sabbagh
MML News Reporter
Sacramento, CA -- Auditors say they found questionable spending by state Education Secretary Alan Bersin when he was superintendent of schools in San Diego.
The audit looked at Bersin's handling of more than $630,000 in tax-deductible donations made by individuals and corporations to an education innovation fund.
The audit said Bersin spent the money as he wanted, often reimbursing himself for personal and business expenses.
Bersin says the audit is an attempt by his critics to derail his nomination to the state Board of Education. He says there was no improper spending.
Bersin visited several Sonora schools in February and gave a speech about his goals as the Secretary of Education.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The audit said Bersin spent the money as he wanted, often reimbursing himself for personal and business expenses.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
No surprise here.
Where to find whole list of expenses? I want to see how much Witzel and Farmer pocketed my tax money?
NBC and CBS have picked this story on Alan Bersin
http://cbs5.com/topstories/local_story_091151314.html
Education Chief Accused Of Questionable Spending
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/8435940/detail.html
Bersin's Spending As Superintendent Of Schools Questioned
http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/monterey...ws/14245837.htm
Education secretary's spending as San Diego superintendent probed
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Dick Van Der Laan, a spokesman for the San Diego school district, said the audit dealt with ''serious questions'' about Bersin's handling of the fund and wasn't motivated by politics.
''With all the scandals that have erupted in public and private sectors in recent years, we realize great care must be taken that funds are spent wisely and in adherence to state and federal reporting requirements,'' Van Der Laan said.
The audit found instances in which Bersin charged the fund and the school district for meals at the same restaurant on the same day. He also charged the fund twice for meals in San Diego when travel documents indicated he was on the East Coast, according to the audit.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Account and business ethics - Harvard style. Witzel should be so proud of Alan Bresin.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/educati...-2m5bersin.html
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->By Helen Gao
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
April 5, 2006
Former Superintendent Alan Bersin continued yesterday to dispute the findings of an audit that faults how he spent money from a private education fund.
But he has agreed to reimburse the school district about $410 for double-billing meals. His assistant said she made errors on reimbursement requests.
The recent audit, conducted by a law firm hired by the San Diego Unified School District, focuses on the Superintendent's Fund for School Innovation. The now-defunct account had collected more than $500,000 in private donations.
Reports differed as to how much was collected and spent. The outside audit shows that $630,557 moved through the fund, but the nonprofit San Diego Foundation, which administered it, had put the figure at $524,000.
Bersin spent the money at his discretion during his seven years with the district to pay for school business-related expenses, such as meals, travel, employee bonuses and consultants, which he said benefited education.
The audit outlines findings related to his meal expenses. Bersin, now state secretary of education, refused to provide receipts to the auditors, citing the district's initial refusal to release the results of the investigation.
He also called the audit a political vendetta aimed at hurting his chances for Senate confirmation of his appointment to the state Board of Education, which is set for April 19. San Diego school board member Mitz Lee, who pushed for the audit, has stressed that she was only interested in accountability.
The district released the report, which was paid for with $75,000 in public money, late last week.
The audit had already been forwarded to the IRS, the state Attorney General's Office and the California Fair Political Practices Commission for further review.
The report contains the following allegations:
<b> On seven occasions, Bersin charged both the district and the private fund for meals at the same restaurant on the same day. In one case, amounts charged to both were the same.
Bersin said he often split the costs of meals between the two entities and that's why both were charged the same amount. He has agreed to pay the district back for all erroneous charges.
Upon review of Bersin's records, his deputy chief of staff, Karen Heinrich, said in an e-mail yesterday that she has identified three cases of double billing due to mix-ups in reimbursement requests.
Bersin was reimbursed for three meals in 2001 and 2004 that were already paid by the district. The errors involved $184.45, $47.73 and $178.03.
On two occasions, Bersin charged for meals in San Diego when he was on the East Coast.
Heinrich said credit card statements for the meals reflected the posting date, not the date of the transaction. On one occasion, she said, Bersin had a meal in Los Angeles before leaving for a flight to Boston.
Bersin charged for multiple restaurant meetings on the same day. On 33 occasions, he charged for two meetings on the same day. Seven times, he charged for three meetings on the same day, and once, he charged for four meetings on the same day.
Heinrich said Bersin often conducted business during meals because there were so many demands on his time.
Some of the money from Bersin's private fund was put into an account of the San Diego Education Fund, a nonprofit whose bookkeeping was done by the district.
Checks were issued from the Education Fund to pay for Bersin's expenses. The audit faulted some district staffers for not asking for receipts.
The district made a mistake in tracking money into and out of Bersin's account in the Education Fund. That resulted in the district having to use its own money to cover a $1,162 deficit.
</b>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Helen Gao: (619) 718-5181; helen.gao@uniontrib.com
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
|
