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Current Issue: Volume 21, No. 4. Week of September 19, 2004
Sneak Preview of: Volume 21, No. 5. Week of September 26, 2004

URGENT - Magic Numbers Taken Care Of -

You must fill out a registration form, which I will give to our Chair, and she will turn all of them in at once, AND the late fees are forgiven. We should do this on Tuesday, because Pat and I will be gone after that for New Orleans. Deadline is Friday. Form is at http://www.csudh.edu/csudh/ar2000/pdf/lateregperiodreq.pdf. I know it looks crooked, but it prints out straight.

Yes, Freire, hope is an ontological need, and we each do have a voice.

Our new listserv, TRANSFORM

Please subscribe to our new listserv. Nathlyn helped me create it today. UWP students may also subscribe. Send an e-mail to: join-transform@lists.csudh.edu. No subject needed; message: join. You will receive an answer saying that we have received the request to joing. You must answer that to get subscribed. That's it.

Then send e-mail to transform@lists.csudh.edu Your message will go to all of you who subscribe to transform. That means that you won't need to wait till I can post your message on the threads of discussion, or a shared reading, or a blog. Everybody can stay current, and I can slow down a little. My little red flying dog thanks you for that. I screwed up Wednesday evening and gave the wrong instruction to a few of you to subscribe, but Pat says the above worked right. Good luck. jeanne

By the way, everyone at CSUDH: Pat would like to announce that, contrary to popular opinion, she does not hatch the magic numbers. UWP, please ignore this message. We have magic numbers and dancing unicorns at CSUDH because we're in California. It's weird. jeanne

jeanne's first version of magic numbers
What do you mean it was already used? What do you mean I can't turn it in?
I JUST GOT IT!

Think It's Time for a Little Illocutionary and
Governance Discourse?

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Previous Issue: Volume 21, No. 1, Week of August 29, 2004
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California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: September 17, 2004
Latest Update: September 21, 2004
E-Mail Icon jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Topic of the Week:

Magic Numbers Disaster - - - Whoa!
Let's Have a Little Illocutionary and Governance Discourse

Wow! What a week! Almost as wild as last week. There were so many of you outside my office door that when we did pick up the infamous magic numbers from the Dean's office, and Pat said let's go back to the office so we can eat, I said: "No way do we go near that office until we get something to eat. We went to the cafeteria and ate mashed potatoes and gravy and macaroni and cheese, otherwise known as "comfort food," like your mother gave you when life seemed overwhelming.Sure enough, when we got back to the offices, there were zillions of people needing magic numbers. Magic, indeed. The computer spat half of them back a few minutes later, saying they had already been used. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Did someone really succeed in counterfitting them? We deserved it if they did. Or did the machine not understand that 370 A went with 370? Who knows? But what are Pat and I supposed to say then to a student who finally gets to the admissions and records office with her time-conflict card, only to be told that she must pay a $50 fine for that by the next day, Friday???? EEEK! YIKES!!!!!

So we laughed and cried together, and then asked ourselves "How does governance discourse teach us to proceed?" By stating a validity claim and arguing it before the appropriate administrative officials. First, we need to state our claim, as we would state a legal cause of action:

How about something like: the magic numbers process didn't work effectively, since our faculty had difficulty in getting the numbers. And when they finally did get them, many were not workable, and we were held responsible for being late, although we had just received the numbers and the time-conflict cards, which had not been earlier available.

Now that's a validity claim, and we need to state it briefly and clearly, and say what happened that harmed us, and what the harm was. Not all in one sentence, but you get the idea.

Once we've stated the validity claim, then we have to collect data to demonstrate what happened, how it harmed us, and what remedies might be appropriate. We should include names, dates, and places, so that the relevant incidents can be verified. We'd call that evidence in the legal system.

We should be sure to provide enough factual material that those to whom we present the validity claim can determine for themselves what happened. No conclusionary statements where they'd have to take our word for it.

Next, it's important to follow the appropriate administrative channels. In our case, that's your teacher, then your Chair, whom jeanne consulted Thursday evening, then the school Deans. Now since this isn't an academic matter, but a registration, administrative one, we will be referred to the appropriate administrative channels by our school. We should have a written brief for each administrator to whom this is referred so they will have a record of our validity claim. Then the ball's in their court, and they'll advise how to proceed from there.

Summary

What have we accomplished by this process? First, we didn't accept what we perceived to be silencing and non-answerability when we couldn't get the magic numbers we needed. By filing a validity claim we are asking the university to be accountable in this fiasco, which was worse for us because of the early lack of pre-registration for Moot Court.

Second, we broke the silence in an orderly and reasoned way. (Well maybe not in the hall ways while it was all going on -- we were pretty noisy, there.) We settled down, expressed our frustration, and then tried to think our own way out of it, and as we thought, we linked our own position to the administrative channels of the university.

Third, we recognized that this was a complex issue, and so would be better presented by a written brief than by all of us chattering away at several different people at different times. And we recognized the importance of getting the written brief to the appropriate administrative channels quickly so that they would have time to correct the situation.

We have satisfied at least tentatively our need for Bakhtinian answerability and we have expressed the frustration instead of holding it in and letting it build (Pepinsky). That's the illocutionary part of our discourse. Now, we can more effectively engage in and seek a voice in governance discourse in the matter.

No asking for damages - the university is learning with us how to let us engage in governance discourse. Damages are formal in the legal system.

With this for a guide, you may exchange your messages over our listserv Transform, and Tuesday, in class, we will put together the written brief. And hopefully by Tuesday, I'll upload a guide to the debriefing that goes with our transformation model. jeanne

First Piece of Data Coming In

Susan wrote on Friday night, September 17, 2004:

i get it -- your "magic numbers" are the "permission to add" numbers using peoplesoft. uwp moved into peoplesoft this spring. whadda mess!!

Now, see this is institutional discrimination; no one did it to us on purpose. It's a new software program, peoplesoft. And it didn't confuse and harm us personally. It seems to have done the same thing at UWP last spring. Please notice that not remaining silent, and trying to explain our predicament, resulted in someone recognizing it. Now we can make a better presentation of our dilemma. Also not that the one who recognized it was a member of our network of contacts, emphasizing the importance of having contacts, and of turning to them when these "weird" things happen.

Recall that in Agencies class when Aaron couldn't reach the Nile Virus and Vector Control agency, Antoinette was able to help him as soon as he shared the dilemma in a governance discourse, because she had the contact number. Networking and building trust with others in the community is essential to the local organization of the community, which in turn permits the community to more effectively exploit it's external contacts.

NEWS, Announcements, and

Current Discussion Topics:

Attention: jeanne and Pat are going to New Orleans, on a 1 a.m. flight Thursday morning. In lieu of classes on Thursday, September 23, you have been assigned a field assignment on Transforming The Dominant Discourse.The guide for is under Topic of the Week, and you may either prepare your validity claim on magic numbers or on some other topic of interest to you. We'll share this Tuesday. Jeanne and Pat will not be on campus on Wednesday, since they've got to get the gallery presentations packed for New Orleans, and of course we'll be gone on Thursday. jeanne

If you'd like to review the 26-page presentation we've put together for New Orleans, link to Handouts for Gallery Exhibit in New Orleans. The Handouts sheet will give you links to each of the sections we'll be giving out. The links are available on both www.habermas.org and at UWP.

Topic of the Week

Magic Numbers Disaster - - - Whoa!
Let's Have a Little Illocutionary and Governance Discourse

  • Shared Reading: Respect in the 9th Grade An example of Transforming Dominant Discourse, prompted by an e-mail from a 9th grader named Tahia, somewhere out there in our world. Notice that I answered her request for statistics, that I tried to reframe the question so it would make sense to her, and I found a visual piece to bring it home. This might not fit on a single page handout, but she wanted it to write an essay. Maybe you could come up with a single page handout. It's a good topic. jeanne

jeanne's Lecture Notes:

Planned Discussions for Week of September 19, 2004:

Technical Stuff:

Substantive Stuff:

Open Access Discussion Threads: Current, Fall 2004

Open Access Blogs on Less Formal Discussions:

Syllabi for Fall 2004

Nota Bene: Several unanticipated factors have caused some changes to our CSUDH syllabi. A couple of real important books aren't available. So we've agreed to use the shared reading materials to make up for that loss. We've also agreed that, given that requisite change in focus, we would like to increase the field component of all classes this semester to reach out in the interest of community transformation. But that means extra field time that I don't want you taking from your substantive study of issues. So we have restructured the workshop and performance elements of moot court to cover many more performances than originally planned. These performances will be scheduled, TBA, when they fit your schedules, and we can then integrate the moot court course with the substantive courses, so that you will receive credit for the field work you are doing. That means add Moot Court so you can receive credit through that activity planned course, and notice that you have to add Soc 370 and Soc 370A. Pat will get any magic numbers needed. jeanne

  • Mentoring

  • Conferences

    Conference in New Orleans in September:

    Freeing the Feminine Other:

    Hypertext Gallery Exhibit from Fall 2004

     

    Hypertext Project Map
    Link on Section Titles for Hypertext Poem and Different Sections of Table of Contents.

    • Academic Support

    Using Academic Language Effectively

    Merriam-Webster Dictionary Search:

    and Careers

    • Resumes:

    • Letters of Recommendation:

      • Letters of Recommendation: How to get me to respond to your request. Many of you need letters. If you will follow this format, I can do them quickly and make them good.
      • Dog Letters If you do not give me adequate information, but do manage to get my attention, you may end up with a dog letter. That is a letter that says that you work well with people, that you are enthusiastic, that you persist at getting things done, and that everyone likes you. Of course, my dog gets along well with people, brings his ball to them, is enthusiastic, and persists at getting them to take his ball. Everyone likes my dog. That's a dog letter. It's so general it could be about my dog. jeanne

    • Reports and Studies on Employment and the Job Market

    Play:

    • Desperately Seeking Dick Cheney by Rick Lyman. New York Times. Week in Review. September 19, 2004. Even the elite get excluded and disrespected some of the time. Backup.

    • Hampton Hampster Dance 2 Link not working Monday afternoon. But it was working on Saturday, September 18, so I'll leave it up for a while. Do try moving the little guys around. They're cute. jeanne

      Site has grown a little confusing, but the music is cheerful and the hamsters are cute and you can still move them around. I didn't have time to figure it all out. You play with it. jeanne

    That Was Fun! Sneaky Strokes and Flying Good Dogs

    Flying Dog is also a painting by Zhang Kai. Best I've every come across to illustrate our site with magic numbers and unicorns and whipped cream cats and now, flying dogs:

    Flying Good Dogs: Whenever something happens in class that works out well, that inspires you, that helps in studying, whatever, take a few minutes to send us an e-mail. We'll post it where all of us can learn from it, including other teachers.

    Include:
    • A sentence or two about what you want to share with us.
    • The name of the teacher whose class you were in.
    • The name of the class.
    • The name of the school. We're not picky. We'll honor teachers in any school, any level. This might be a good idea to help young children learn to say "thank you" and encourage meaningful practice in all our schools. We could even start with pre-school. This is a skill needed in answerability. To discover that what you think matters is to end silencing. Even home schooling. You can send photos or drawings, too.

    • See the first entries at Sneaky Strokes and Good Dogs

    You can also send an email to the Who to Take Site:

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