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The rattlesnake "may therefore be esteemed an emblem of vigilance. ... She never begins an attack, nor, when once engaged, ever surrenders: She is therefore an emblem of magnanimity and true courage. ... she never wounds 'till she has generously given notice, even to her enemy, and cautioned him against the danger of treading on her."
-- An American Guesser [1775]
"The true story of Santa Monica College under the current administration and the current
Board of Trustees is a cautionary tale for the future of publicly funded institutions of higher education."
-- CSEA Accreditation Self Study Addendum [2004]
"Des Manttari is a tenacious defender of the rights of Santa Monica College students to be safe on campus, to their right to know..." -- Jeff Higley, Activist
Through his companies, Jim Keeshen Productions and Studio Animatics, SMC Professor James Keeshen recruited both students and faculty to the AET vocational program for his own bidding as cheap slave labor while outsourcing animation work to Korea for his Day of the Dead animated short film. Read more...
SHOCKING COURT RECORDS
"The Complaint contains allegations of misappropriation of student funds and property, illegal fees, abuse of process, and various unconstitutional activities by Defendants with the goal of suppressing dissent and avoiding auditing and oversight by non-conspirators. The Defendants have a history of such activities. The findings of the PERB were that the Santa Monica Community College District, which would include all defendants in this case, were found to have violated state statutes regarding expenditure of funds and activities undertaken to intimidate and suppress the faculty's opposition to the administration."
"Defendants have obtained this control through racketeering activities, including but not limited to: (a) The extortion of property, such as restricted accounts for the defendants' personal use. (b) Robbery or the conversion of Student funds. (c) Bribery of student officials. (d) As well as multiple violations of the Hobbs Act (18 U.S.C. § 1951) that include (i) exerting outside pressure through undue influence and coercision so as to control business decisions, and (ii), the taking of the Student bookstore and other commerce. Defendants' acts of racketeering activity have been unceasing for over fifteen (15) years."
-- Associated Students of Santa Monica College, et. al. vs. Santa Monica Community College District Board of Trustees, KCRW, Herb Roney, Dorothy Ehrhart-Morrison, Illona Katz, Piedad Robertson, Thomas Donner, Robert Sammis, Charlie Yen, Robert Adams, Cheryl Miller, Mark Romano, Eileen Miller, Mark Kessler, Charles Bays, et. al.
SMC's Recent Document Dump
Again, SMC feigned compliance with the California Public Records Act by providing us yesterday with a huge document dump which is non-responsive to our requests. I will not go into details at this time, but will cover this more fully in a future post. Additionally, SMC blackened out information which is vital to the public's right to know the truth of where our money is being spent and by whom. Yes, we have received a large amount of papers yesterday (about the size of the recent lawsuit we served against them to compel production), but quantity is not quality.
SMC is missing contracts, including the current contract between eCollege.com, Inc. and Santa Monica College (I'm sure the stockholders of eCollege will be interested to find this out!) and is unable to provide itemized expenditures for a lot of the contracts which were provided. Where's the receipts for the money they spent? Where's the proof of copyrights to materials they are alleging they own? They claim to neither have nor need any proof. Curiously, having made such a thorough job of erasing my existence as a teaching assistant to Professor Jim Keeshen, they now have no paperwork, including emails, documenting my role. Thank God we had documented it!
Once again, Katharine Muller, Dean of External Affairs who oversees the Academy of Entertainment & Technology has her hands in a lot of things as is evident in her numerous email correspondence and signatures. One wonders if she is in fact overseeing compliance with the CPRA or commandeering SMC's non-compliance. Why did she demand, through her attorney Joshua Morrison, that I turn over all my work to her in the History of Animation within 7 days, yet the school does not have proof of copyright ownership of this work? Why are Professor Keeshen's rights to his work also being voraciously consumed by the school when his distance education faculty compensation plan (which they have conveniently failed to provide) states that he owns the rights to his coursework?
In any art school, such as the Academy, intellectual property ownership is crucial. When the school attempts to rob both the faculty and staff of the fruits of their labors, what is left? The school alleges that my work is a work-for-hire, but did I not pay the school to attend its program rather than the school paying me? Are the administrators, by this standard, my employees rather than my employers? Since Professor Jeannie Novak wrote a book for her Academy Course in Game Development (ET42) and uses it in the course and offers it for sale in the Academy's bookstore, should she now be forced to sacrifice her intellectual property rights and turn over her copyrights to the book to Dean Muller and SMC? I don't think so and I'm sure Professor Novak would agree with me. Should the work done by Professor Jim Keeshen and myself be any different? Regardless, the school has no documentation showing transfer of copyright, assignment of rights, a written work-for-hire agreement, or copyright registration or ownership. Absent such documentation, this is just pure attempted theft on the part of the school. Thank God we have laws to protect us.
Perhaps the most interesting piece of paper provided to us (guess they forgot to remove it) is an email from Lee Peterson to (who else) Katharine Muller, dated September 1, 2005 entitled "suggested text for inclusion in response to Des." Mr. Peterson writes in part, "I worked up some text that might be useful in responding to Des. .... Use the text -- or not! -- in any way you like. I think Des' underlying questions are 'Who's in charge here, and who does what?'."
Worked up some text that might be useful...??? That sounds a bit suspicious. Hmmm... Yes, it would be nice to know who's in charge of our money at the school and who does what with it! But again, the District is not acknowledging our right to inspection of these records. As time goes on, it is becoming increasingly obvious why.
-- Des Manttari,
Editor-in-Chief,
Phoenix Genesis
(c) 2006: Phoenix Genesis/MBS LP
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