Monthly Archives: July 2007

During the meeting Regent Stapleton said that he had never seen a more uncooperative environment at all levels of the university than what he’s observed at EMU.

First, let me say that I’m not happy about yesterday’s events. It’s very sad on a multitude of levels and it will take years to heal from the damage. I feel sad about Fallon. He was set up to fail miserably from Day One, and there should be no surprise that he did. If subsequent actions are done with style and class, these actions (far less draconian than many thought) could be the beginnings of a healing process. Too bad our track record on actions done with style and class is what it is.

I’m hoping that future actions match the rhetoric, but I’m waiting to see if priorities here really change before I hop blindly aboard.

Now, back to Stapleton’s comment. His larger statement, I thought, was well-spoken and impassioned. I agreed with much of it. But in what way or ways was UAW Local 1976 uncooperative? At what level was our local involved in the investigations? If members of our local were interviewed, etc. during the investigations, how many total were there? We’re nearly 400 people.

In what way or ways was, to use the suits’ word to describe us and the other non-faculty bargained-for types, “staff” uncooperative?

I can understand if Regent Stapleton confuses Welch Hall and its Byzantine politics with the real EMU (you know, classes and things like that [Hint: the secret word is "academics"]) because Welch culture has done its best to promote the idea that academics is the least important activity at EMU. And there are certainly plenty of people who’ve hitched their wagons to that incredibly bad philosophy.

But is it really a good idea to talk about “a new beginning” at a special regents’ meeting and include a statement that paints everyone except ALL students with such a broad brush?