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Icily, Schwarzenegger-Linked Administration Readmits Banned Poet
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Santa Barbara City College's Vice President of Continuing Education Lynda Fairly is tight lipped.
She needs to be, if there is any substance to the press release of Arjuna Ahimsananda, formerly of Santa Cruz.
Arjuna is the SBCC Adult Ed student who fasted last Thanksgiving and Christmas to pressure the College, which had him in de facto suspension over what he characterized as “trumped up allegations fabricated from whole cloth.” During those fasts, he emailed Fairly and other college officials, but received no reply until February.
Spelling is correct. Fortunately, he was not fasting the whole time.
Fairly may find herself subpeoned to testify in a court case directed primarily to her colleagues at SBCC, as to why she never responded to the Poet's numerous communications with her, as VP. The college has already been subject to a formal complaint with the Office of Civil Rights. But Fairly had allegedly neglected to take action to achieve a resolution when, as Vice President of Continuing Education for SBCC, she had an affirmative duty to act.
According to the recently reinstated student, for eight months the VP “stone walled” him as he barraged college administrators with detailed counter-claims, threats to litigate in Federal Court, and formal complaints to the ACLU and the Department of Education. According to the press release issued by The Outlaw, Fairly neglected to reply to a series of written greivances.
Married to former Santa Barbara councilman and current Chamber of Commerce honcho Rusty Fairly, Lynda oversees a program which touts itself as “one of the best in the nation”. But, according to the Outlawed Poet, it is “one of the best at social control, intimidation of the intelligentsia, and preparation of compliant drones for the corporate machinery.”
Republican Control of Continuing Education?
The Fairly's were recently feted at a dinner with Der Terminator himself, California Governor Arnold Schwarzennegger. Arch-republican, the name Fairly has cropped up on enough Boards and Commissions of this that and the other to make your head spin. If it isn't water or pipes and conduits it's schools and widgets.
Rusty, who was in his younger days a football jock, has nothing to do with the fiasco at SBCC. But he's there.With one phone call, he can tap his massive Republican-leaning Rolodex to make trouble for anyone who crosses him.Lynda, for her part, keeps a low profile, but lets the student body know that she is ready to bring in the Big Guns at the drop of a pin.
Posted prominently in the Computers In Our Future lab (CIOF) is a notice to students letting them know that they are regarded as security threats, nutjobs and fodder for the criminal justice machine. It basically says that any students which crosses the staff shall incur not a visit to the Dean's office or a discussion of the issues, but a call to 911.
Last time we looked, the Wake Center is not located in a badass neighborhood like South Central or Watts. And, even if it were, that kind of antagonistic notice on the wall would not be appropriate. According to The Outlaw, the placid suburbs of Santa Barbara are not a hardcore inner city 'hood where everyone is part of a set and drive by's are par for the course. “There is no need for a defensive, or offensive, antagonistic notice to interpose an adversarial criminal justice model on an essentially academic setting. I say that students are entitled to a learning atmosphere which is conducive to collegiality and exhibits a presumption that we are there to learn, not that we are dangerous rebels seeking to disrupt.”
He says he sent an email to Vice President Fairly in July 2005, complaining about the Fairly letter posted at CIOF. “ I have yet to receive any sort of reply from Fairly, at all. Instead, I was subjected to a relentless smear campaign and a vicous canard engineered by her subordinates.”
A canard is a set of false allegations, a frame up. In a letter dated [insert copy], Dr. Ben Partee, Dean of Campus Discipline, exonerated the Outlaw from all charges. In today's press release, The Outlawed Poet stated that he fully intends to file a libel action in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. He states:
“SBCC reminds me of that old Bugs Bunny cartoon where Bugs has a cannon pointed at Elmer Fudd, and the ol' farmer thinks its a barrel.I know how to litigate without an attorney.I am very, very good at it. . I was a pro se (self-representing) litigant representing myself as an interpleader in Gore vs. Harris (Bush) when I was living in Florida and my vote wasn't counted. That was probably the most important civil litigation of the past decade, and it went to the U.S. Supreme Court - twice. I worked with Gore's attorney David Boise, a specialist in complex simultaneous multiple litigations. But I really got my litigation chops from the late William Kunstler, the most important radical attorney of my lifetime. I had the pleasure of knowing Bill, working with him, and even visiting him at his home. I think that SBCC has gotten itself into this matter – an egregious case of censorship- way over its head, and I aim to establish that the kind of high school shenanigans it has allowed to occur will not be permitted without accountability. “
According to the Outlaw, “I also contacted Francisco Campo, director of CIOF and he never got back to me until after Dean Partee made his determination. I confronted him about his failure to act, and he just said that it was due to legal considerations. But it's their job to respond to student complaints, and I was twisiting in the wind while Lynda and Francisco did nothing. I want them held accountable for dereliction of duty, whatever excuses they offer, they failed to act when it was their obligation to do so.”
Lynda Fairly has not responded to an earlier “fact checking: email requesting her comment on this matter.
About the author: Jeremy Ellington was born in the Bay area and formerly resided in Santa Cruz. He is currently researching the University of Colorado's most recent critique of Ward Churchill, which appears to be a case of differential enforcement in that Churchill was singled out for heightened scrutiny. In the past, Ellington has sharply criticized Churchill for the latter's highly aggressive criticism of pacifism. Jeremy Ellington is a psuedonym, as announced in his debut article on seattle.indymedia.org
(c) 2006 Jeremy Ellington All Rights Reserved