I am remarkably behind on completing the giveaways we started! Since I’m leaving for Europe and Africa in a week, I thought I should get in gear and get that done.

So, without further ado, the winner of the one month of DreamBox math games for K-2 kids is Sara Joy Marie Gill! Her mom left an inspiring story on the blog about Sara’s support for her family during tough times. (I’ve gotten to know her mom a little bit via Twitter, and this is one special family.)

Enjoy the month of Dreambox, Sara! Details on the way to your mom in an e-mail within a couple of days.

This is a fascinating unemployment chart showing the progression of unemployment during the “Great Recession” we’re experiencing.

(E-mail and RSS feed readers can click through for the video.)

Almost every one of us knows someone who is between jobs during these tough times. What are the best strategies we can use to help friends find their next job? Or if you’re one of the searchers, what strategies are you finding most effective to secure one? Share your thoughts in the comments.

(E-mail and RSS feed readers can click through for the video.)

Most of you know that I haven’t been the biggest fan of President Obama’s policies, but he absolutely nailed it today and deserves credit for the speech that he delivered in Oslo while accepting the Nobel Peace Prize.

“Make no mistake: evil does exist in the world. A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler’s armies. Negotiations could not convince Al-Qaeda’s leaders to lay down their arms.

“…whatever mistakes we have made, the plain fact is this: the United States of America has helped to underwrite global security for more than six decades with the blood of our citizens and the strength of our arms.”

Thank you, Mr. President, for recognizing our brave men and women in uniform for the tremendous sacrifices they have made to make our world a safer and more secure place. They deserved that speech, and you deserve our thanks for writing it.

Wow. Today was an interesting day.

I was in the office at 6:30AM because I had a ton to get done before I had to leave around noon.

At 1:00, we had an appointment at the Federal Building on Capitol Mall in Sacramento, so the Department of Homeland Security could issue final citizenship paperwork to Spencer. He’s now completely eligible to be stiffed by Social Security when he retires, just like his dad.

Just before we arrived at DHS, Cacey’s iPhone chimed with the news: our final paperwork has been completed in Ethiopia, and they want us in Ethiopia to meet our little girl on Christmas morning! We’ll leave on or about December 20, and have a couple of days in Paris on the way there. (Thank you, Hilton HHonors points!)

The next few hours were almost a complete blur. I made it back to the Sierra College Rocklin campus for the board meeting, while juggling attempts to secure last-minute airplane seats for our trip. (If I couldn’t get seats locked down, our State Department embassy date in Ethiopia would be pushed back two weeks…which would mean I’d miss a very important Sierra College board meeting in January.)

Today’s meeting was in closed session for three hours, with the open session starting at 5:00. We ratified the educational master plan, and heard a presentation on new steps our staff is taking to gather community input on our programs and budget.

Oh yes, did I mention that in the midst of all of this, our loan for the new house received final approval, and the bank that owns the house finally got the water turned on so inspections can proceed? So our real estate team was calling as well – I think I had a total of 11 voice mails after I got out of the board meeting. Thanks to Chris, Katherine and Geldie for keeping it all nailed down while I was tied up!

At about 6:00, my board colleagues gave me the distinct honor of unanimously electing me as Vice President of the Board of Trustees. (My colleague Nancy Palmer told me a bit ago that she might nominate me, but I neither remembered that, nor was I really expecting it would happen.) Our Board President, Barbara Vineyard, was re-elected for another year and I’m looking forward to serving with her in 2010.

After that kind of day, my friend Adam suggested I should buy a lottery ticket!

After the meeting, we spent the evening making hotel reservations overseas, and reviewing our checklists. In addition to all of this, my office is moving to Auburn this weekend, and oh yeah, I think there’s a major holiday in December, too.

Ah, well. We’ll sleep in January. (Oh, right. We’ll have a new baby.)

Pre-meeting documents:

• Meeting Agenda
• Contracts (General / Capital Projects)
• Warrants
• Educational Master Plan

This meeting will be largely spent in closed session. In open session, we’ll be ratifying the final version of the college’s new Educational Master Plan, which I’ve attached here for review. In that plan, the college lays out its educational programming, and establishes the current planning for educational programs in the future. (Like any good plan, “events on the ground” will cause it to change — but you have to have your plan documented, and this is a solid one.)

Use the comments below to answer the Question of the Month!

If you’re involved with Sierra College as a student or alumni, what do you think about the college’s educational programs? Which programs have made a difference for you, and which ones need to adapt for a changing world? (And if you’re a staff member, what do you think of the Educational Master Plan?)

When we went to bed, it looked like this…

…and when we woke up, it looked like this!

…and now we’re ready to go out and play!

The Union profiles the issues that state budget cuts are creating in access to college classes, especially in the community college system.

Enrolling in a community college and getting a seat are two different things, though.

Paige Dorr, a spokeswoman for the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, said community colleges face a major problem with a flood of students who otherwise would attend UC and CSU campuses.

“We’re definitely having issues because unfortunately we’re facing budget cuts but can’t close admissions to community colleges,” Dorr said. “So students may not be able to get into the classes they need. Class sizes are going to get larger and registration will close early.”

Dorr said there is concern that if first-year students can’t enroll in the courses they need, they won’t bother going to college.

The article goes on to note that our Nevada County and Truckee campuses aren’t seeing the kind of fill rates that we’re seeing in Rocklin. That may start sending desperate South Placer students up the hill to the NCC campus to get the class they need to graduate…that’s never fun.

Photo Credit: Nevada City Engineering

No, this post isn’t about Tiger Woods. Although before I get to what I’m writing about, what’s the difference between a golf ball and a car? Tiger Woods can drive a golf ball 400 yards.

Okay, back to the topic at hand.

Ever heard the term “troll?” It commonly refers to anonymous internet commenters whose sole purpose is to attack, attack, attack. They’re not truly interested in discussion…they’re just interested in spreading their conspiracy theories, rumors and innuendo with no basis in fact.

In any of my public roles, I very rarely respond to these people. But once in a while, when it comes to Sierra College, one of them tries the tactic of sprinkling in just enough truth to try and make their theories believable. This usually comes in the form of a twisted prediction for the future, very loosely based on policies currently under development or discussion.

One of these folks recently posted this online:

AK is selling the college out to his friends and cronies. Watch, the next major cost saving measures will be to sell off college property near the freeway, a purge of dissenting professors and less teacher/student interaction. Cyber-colleges need less teachers and less land.

Just to set the record straight, here are a few thoughts on these issues:

• I have no ability to “sell the college out” to “friends and cronies.” I have zero power to select firms or individuals for the college to do business with. We have a management team that we hired to do that work. If they ask for my input in evaluating the merits of various firms, I cooperate in providing it. But go look at my statement of economic interests, a publicly filed document. I’ve never received personal income or gifts of any sort from any firm or individual with business before the college. (If I did, I’d simply need to leave the room during that particular discussion, but to be explicitly clear, I’ve never had the need to do that. Zero, zip, zilch, nada.)
• As a board, we have been discussing the use of surplus property on the Rocklin campus, either for sale or commercial development, for years. Our staff has determined that we don’t have the core infrastructure (parking, student services, food service, student center, etc.) to handle a large number of additional students there, so we are unlikely to be able to use the land for an educational purpose. How much better to use that land to fund the replacement or repair of aging classroom buildings on our campus?
• The “purge of dissenting professors” thing is hardly worth responding to. I’ve demonstrated my strong support for academic freedom over the last five years. The state legislature specifically gave the right and responsibility of “dissent” to professors under shared governance laws. We have a strong shared governance system at Sierra College and it works. This is one of the golden oldies, though.
• Online education has been growing like crazy since before I was elected in 2004, and it will continue to do so. I’ve consistently advocated for using technology to replace the repetitive assembly-line aspects of education through streaming video and other technology, but the goal there is to enable a higher quantity of dynamic student-teacher interaction, replacing static and repetitive one-way lecture.
• The idea isn’t to have fewer teachers. It’s to serve more students with the same number of teachers, and add teaching capacity as we can afford to grow. Higher education needs to use technology to deliver greater value for the dollars it spends. That doesn’t mean it spends any fewer dollars than it has – it simply means it does more for the taxpayer with those dollars. Can we all agree with that?

So not to set a precedent, but there’s a quick example of the kinds of odd charges that float around out there. For the most part, I refuse to waste my time responding to them, but I thought an example was in order.

Of course, if you want to comment constructively from a different point of view, ask me anything you’d like. You can comment below, send me an e-mail, call me — all of your options are nicely summarized on the Contacting Me page. I hope you do!

Use the comments below, and tell me what you think: do you engage with “trolls” and how do you distinguish them from mere critics?

Wanted: CEO for a car company with billions of debt, old products that nobody wants, and no profits in sight.

Must greatly enjoy your every move being micromanaged and second guessed by the United States Government and the United Auto Workers union, who are your majority shareholders and can fire you at any moment. You must swiftly implement their decisions, which will make no business sense but fulfill their own parochial interests instead.

Pay is low, don’t count on your pension being there when you retire, and there will be absolutely no bonuses. Constant and merciless attacks for even accepting a salary will be a normal part of the job. Must travel regularly in a 1985 Chevy Citation to report to your bosses in Washington DC.

Complete and utter failure may result in you qualifying for a bailout worth billions of dollars. Especially in an election year when the President will need to carry Michigan.

Apply today!

Here’s a chart from the Calculated Risk blog (a great read, by the way) showing four bad bear markets.

The gray line is the Great Depression, where the low was 89.2% from the top. Red and green are more recent (1973 oil crisis and 2000 dotcom bust) where the lows were about 50% before they turned around.

The blue line is this economic downturn today. Was 56.8% the low? Or are we headed for a double dip? (Similar to the one you’ll note on the Great Depression graph line.)

Time will tell. I sincerely hope the recovery has truly begun, but it’s still going to be a jobless (and translation to governments: “tax revenue-less”) recovery for a long time.

Do you think the economy has hit bottom yet? Or is there more to come? Use the comments below to share your opinion.