… This Writer Responded
In the department were I teach, the need to humiliate Colleagues is significant, and female colleagues are leaders of some of the wolf packs of aggressive bullies.
Other female colleagues, who wouldn’t think of leading, are craven followers and some of them do it with gusto. Yet, some of both “groups,” I learned over the years, were themselves bullied, a few brutally. Which is not my way of saying I question or disagree with David Yamada’s reporting about workplace bullying and women. I think my specific workplace at Hunter, the Department of Film and Media Studies, is an anomaly in light of the many Colleagues, male and female, who get pleasure out of bullying as well as their willingness to be public about what they do. And, of course, there is the support that they receive that bullying is the way to go.
The former Hunter College PSC Chair, right, at the time she was HC PSC Chair, trying to intimidate a colleague by poking her digital camera at him. The PSC is on record supporting the NYS Healthy Workplace Bill. So, what’s with the former union rep?
Then, of course, the Chronicle of Higher Education and the NY Times a while back published articles and other content about the President of the College, Jennifer Raab, and her administrative style. I don’t recall “bully” being used specifically in the news stories but the news descriptions made it clear that bullying fits into the ethos of the top administration’s management style. And, just like with Colleagues in my department, the bullies often shun discretion. One top administrator is known for use of the f-expletive and Colleagues from other areas of the campus say they have been humiliated by that person. Some are now supporters.
In the comments section of the Chronicle, there was a torrent of references to bullying. The comments, I believed, were a powerful addition to the Chronicle news story, a powerful indictment. Not that that means change is in the wind. And the New York Times article, a tepid follow up on the Chronicle’s publishings, included partisan comments from a Colleague about Raab – this being a Colleague with a reputation for bullying and ascorbic behavior that matches Raab. I recall how a a while back he marched through the back rooms of the Registrar’s, like Sherman on the march through Atlanta, cursing and shouting because he was insulted that he was required to sign off on final grades before they could be formally submitted.
Revised D:F/M Logo in the Works. Present and former Colleagues.
More about this later.
Gregg Morris, editor of the WORD and this site.
Tags: Academic Bullying, Andrew Lund, Arnold Gibbons, Bernard Stein, Billy d Herman, campus bullying, Carolyn Kane, CUNY Chancellor William P. Kelly, Greggory w Morris, Gustavo Mercado, HUnter College Faculty Delegate Assembly, Hunter College President Jennifer Raab, Hunter College Provost, Hunter College Senate, Hunter College Vice President for Student Affairs Eija Ayravainen, Isabel c Pinedo, Ivone Margulies, James Roman, Joe McElhaney, Joel Zuker, Karen Hunter, Kelly Anderson, Larry Shore, Martin Lucas, Mick Hurbis-Cherrier, New York Healthy Workplace Advocates, Peter Parisi, Ricardo Miranda, Robert Stanley, S3863/A4965 – The NYS Healthy Workplace Bill, Shanti k Thakur, Steve Gorelick, Stuart Ewen, Tami Gold, Timothy Portlock Christa Davis Acampora, Tony Doyle, Vita C. Rabinowitz, workplace bullying