Roy Bauer, the guest on this edition of Subversity, is Professor of Philosophy at Irvine Valley College in Irvine, California, and a UCI alumnus. He has been a leader of dissent at the South Orange County Community College District since the arrival of the notorious conservative board majority in 1996, a group of college trustees that initially included Steve Frogue, an apparent Holocaust denier. Eventually, Frogue was replaced on the board with Tom Fuentes, the chair of the Orange County Republican Party.
Bauer was the petitioner in two high-profile lawsuits in 1997 and 1998, charging the board with violation of the California Open Meetings Law (the Brown Act). He prevailed in those suits.
Owing to the effectiveness of his satirical district newsletter, "Dissent," district officials took action against Bauer in 1999, charging that the newsletter included violent content and ordering him to seek counseling, an action described by one Federal Judge as "Orwellian." Eventually, Bauer prevailed in that suit, and in the subsequent appeal, compelling the district to pay Bauer $176,000 in attorneys fees.
In 1998, Bauer accused IVC college president Raghu Mathur of violating federal law; as a result, Mathur sued Bauer for violation of privacy. Bauer again prevailed, compelling Mathur to pay $35,00 in attorneys fees for Bauer and former college vice president Terry Burgess. Subsequently, Mathur sued the district, resulting in a board decision to provide Mathur with taxpayer money to reimburse his legal expenses.
Despite two votes of "no confidence" from his faculty (74%, 90%), Bauer expects Mathur to be appointed Chancellor of the South Orange County Community College District by the board majority today. Mathur's opponents are happy that at least he won't be on the IVC campus any more.
For an OC Register story today that quotes Bauer: www.ocregister.com/local/raghu00201cci3.shtml
OC Weekly 1999 profile of Bauer: www.ocweekly.com/ink/99/31/news-coker.shtml.
To chat with Bauer on the show, call (949) 824-5824 or send e-mail to: subversity@kuci.org. The interviewer is Dan Tsang, host of Subversity.
Subversity's archives include selected recent shows. See kuci.org/~dtsang or the shortcut, go.fast.to/sv.
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