Norm Hoffman is alive and well in cyberspace.

That is what faculty and staff at the Kern Community College District office, Porterville College and Cerro Coso College learned when an e-mail was sent to them by a person using the late Bakersfield College health teacher’s name.

The e-mail also was sent to BC, but was blocked because BC e-mail is moderated.

The anonymous message expressed the writer’s disapproval of faculty getting raises while a number of classified staffers are expected to be laid off. The message was sent from the e-mail address [email protected].

Raj S. Doshi, a computer systems analyst at the district office, forwarded the e-mail to classified staffers at BC to express his displeasure with it.

“I sent it to BC classified staff because I did not want anyone to think that the classified (employees) would support something like that,” Doshi said.

In the e-mail, the author wrote, “I am writing under an assumed name because I fear retaliation. I hope you will not follow your inclination to disregard my thoughts.”

However, Doshi and others were concerned due to the author’s use of Hoffman’s name.

Grant Hoffman, Norm Hoffman’s son, said the e-mail wouldn’t have been appreciated by his father.

“My father was a man of honesty and integrity,” he said. “He’d stand full-heartedly behind the words he spoke, the actions he displayed, whether it be professional or casual. He wouldn’t have appreciated an anonymous e-mail.”

The e-mail criticized teachers’ salaries.

“Faculty are very well paid. Ask the KCCD chancellor to give you a list of total earnings reported to the IRS for all KCCD staff. You will find that several faculty are earning over $100,000 a year by working overloads, performing duplicative administrative functions and receiving stipends — many of which are counter to the 50% equation. How is it possible for a faculty member to work a full load which assumes 40 hours and still have time to work an additional full load and a half? If you check the daily rate of faculty you will find that they make more than some Deans,” wrote the anonymous person.

But according to Grant Hoffman, his father was on the low end of the totem pole as far as pay is concerned and he loved his job.

“With the avenues he took into getting his word out, it doesn’t lend a proper address for response to the issue,” he said, when asked if the writer was a coward for not identifying himself. “Yes, it would be a more cowardly way to get his personal expression, if valid, across.”

Hoffman said the writer should have discussed the issue openly.

“I just wish that he wasn’t worried about retaliation and could bring this forth in a meeting with his peers.”