The WORD Blog

Deconstructing a Snippet of the Minutes of the December, 2008, Faculty Meeting of the Department of Film and Media Studies

[What Really Goes on Behind Some Walls of the Academy]

Morris stated that he had unresolved issues with faculty. These details were written in his group emails to faculty. Roman responded that he will follow up any complaints 
made by Morris with the Ombudsman. — Shanti Thaku, the minutes of the December, 2008, faculty meeting.

So, I put the question to the department and there was no discussion, but comments from the chair, Jay Roman; the deputy chair, Kelly Anderson; Larry Shore, former chair of the grade appeals committee and now the department’s media advisor; Tami Gold, the PSC rep at Hunter; and Steve Gorelick.

Kelly Anderson said – I’m accurately paraphrasing what she said but I’m using Quote Marks for Effect – “I bet you’re talking about me.” She was referring to my comment about “unresolved issues” with colleagues and didn’t address the question about the conflict.

Larry Shore did respond directly to the question, actually he snarled, God bless him, saying that the conflict could harm the image of the department but he snapped that I was making things up, saying in so many words that I was lying (someone, not me, gasped at what the accusation) and he also said that F/M was a “great” department.

“What conflict?” Tami Gold said after Shore spoke. She said that she didn’t understand what I was talking about, expressing incredulousness about the question and she wanted an explanation. I snarled – accurately paraphrasing but I’m using Quote Marks for Effect – “Complaints with the Ombudsman Office and the Senate Grade Appeals Committee, postings on Hunter-L” and more. I went down the list. I don’t recall saying anything to her about the NYCLU. I know I didn’t mention the National Writers Union. She quickly shut up.

Just as the meeting was wrapping up Steve Gorelick talked about his “pain.” He surprised me and I believe everyone else. He was trying to appear that he wasn’t taking sides and his comment was muddled. So, after hearing him say several times about his pain, I asked him: “What do you want to do about it.” And he snapped his response, Quote Marks for Effect: “Nothing, I just want you to know I’m in pain.”

Tags: Academic Politics, Office Politics

This entry was posted on Friday, March 13th, 2009 at 8:00 am and is filed under 30-40P, Dogfighting in the Department of Chimera, Journalism Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.