Saddleback Community College District

Memorial services will be held Wednesday for Edward A. Hart, founding president of Irvine Valley College. Hart, 61, died Sunday of cerebral lymphoma at his Dana Point home after a yearlong illness, a Saddleback Community College District spokeswoman said Monday. Hart came to the Saddleback District in 1975 from Chabot College in Hayward.

In a test of academic standards, a veteran Irvine Valley College writing professor urged a Superior Court commissioner Wednesday to reinstate a failing course grade he gave a student in 1991. Hugh W. Glenn, who has taught writing at Irvine Valley College for 13 years, sued Saddleback Community College District officials last year over their decision to change, without his permission, the student's course grade from a failing "D" to a passing "C."

A Superior Court commissioner Monday vindicated an Irvine Valley College writing professor, ruling that college administrators could not force him to raise a student's failing course grade. In a two-page ruling dated Jan. 8 but received by all sides Monday, Superior Court Commissioner Eleanor M. Palk said Prof. Hugh W. Glenn did not act in "bad faith" when he gave a student a failing D course grade last year.

Veteran Saddleback Community College District trustee Eugene McKnight of San Juan Capistrano announced Monday that he will not seek reelection in November. McKnight, 78, who has been on the district's board of trustees eight years, said that he is endorsing Perry E. Jacobson of Dana Point, a Cal State Fullerton sociology professor, to succeed him.

Teddi Lorch, a longtime San Clemente resident and part-time teacher, has been appointed by the Saddleback Community College District Board of Trustees to fill the remaining board term of the late Iris Swanson. The trustees unanimously selected Lorch from a list of 14 candidates during a special meeting Tuesday. She will be sworn into office Aug. 23 as trustee for Area 4, which covers San Clemente, most of Dana Point including Capistrano Beach, and a small southern portion of San Juan Capistrano.

An emotional crowd of more than 100 faculty and staff members packed this week's meeting of the Saddleback Community College District Board of Trustees to complain about increasingly bitter contract negotiations. Because faculty and the district administration have been unable to come to agreement on a new contract, the issue has been referred to a state mediator. The faculty is asking for a 5% pay increase, while the district's offer calls for no raise.

Faculty of the Saddleback Community College District, which already has the highest average pay in the state, has been given a 4% yearly raise. The increase, approved Sept. 19 in closed session by district trustees, comes before a Nov. 8 election in which all three board incumbents seeking reelection have won endorsements from the faculty's union. The raise, retroactive to July 1, affects both full- and part-time faculty.

Irvine Valley College's Academic Senate will sponsor a forum from 7 to 9 p.m. todayfor candidates seeking seats on the Saddleback Community College District board. The nine candidates who are seeking four open seats will answer questions posed by a representative from the League of Women Voters. Candidates also will make opening and closing statements. Three incumbents, Lee W. Rhoades of Laguna Beach, Steven J. Frogue of Lake Forest and John S. Williams of Mission Viejo are seeking reelection.

Orange County's bankruptcy cost the Saddleback Community College District about $2.3 million, spokeswoman Diane Riopka said, resulting in an annual budget that is 2% smaller than last year's. District trustees last week approved a $69.9-million budget for fiscal 1996, which began July 1. To help balance the budget, the board cut $680,000 for capital outlay, according to a report.