Diary Of A Mad County

MONDAY, May 17 South Orange County Community College District Chancellor Raghu Mathur is nothing if not a consensus builder, the kind of leader who brings people together. Today, he brings together a whopping 93.5 percent of professors to overwhelmingly cast a vote of no-confidence regarding his leadership. Mathur claims the vote is simply an outgrowth of current contract negotiations with employees from the district's two colleges: Irvine Valley and Saddleback. Of course, that doesn't explain why Mathur, while serving as president at Irvine Valley from 1997 to 2002, received not one, but two votes of no-confidence. Wait, yes, it does.

TUESDAY, May 18 In other election news, people in India and across the world learn that Indian politician Sonia Gandhi will not accept the post of prime minister. Some say Gandhi's refusal of office may have something to do with her Roman Catholic faith, but, for the most part, no one can understand why Gandhi, whose husband, Rajiv, was prime minister—and assassinated in 1991—and whose mother-in-law, Indira, was prime minister—and assassinated in 1984—would not want to be prime minister.