Sent [to D:F/M Colleagues]: Thursday, June 13, 2013 9:17 AM
To: New York State Senator Jeffrey D. Klein [jdklein@senate.state.ny.us]
Temporary President and IDC Coalition Leader
I am a tenured assistant journalism professor at Hunter College and I am writing to ask you to put Healthy Workplace Bill (S3863) on the Senate Finance Committee agenda before the legislative session ends.
Editor
This is a good college community but despite its popularize public image there are areas that need significant improvement regarding working conditions. The workplace bullying that I have witnessed and experienced at Hunter is the most profane in my journalism career as a reporter and teacher. Institutional offices that one might imagine could provide remedies for workplace bullying – such as the Hunter Senate, Hunter Ombuds Office, the Provost’s Office, Human Resources and even the Professional Staff Congress union which represents faculty and some staff members – have been useless and can be part of the problem: That’s because workplace bullying on campus is often perceived as a facet of campus and department politics (operating under the aegis of Academic Freedom).
I am a meticulous record keeper and, if asked, can provide written corroborative documentation of what has happened to me and what I have witnessed happening to others. I can be called upon at any time if testimony is needed.
BACKGROUND: I have worked in some of the most competitive newsrooms in the country, such as Time magazine, the New York Post and the former Washington Star newspaper in Washington D.C. when it was owned by Time. Besides publishing books, one selected by the New York Times as one of its “Notable Books of the Year,” I’ve also taught at Rutgers University in New Brunswick and Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus. I have been awarded numerous grants from Hunter College, the FORD Foundation and other organizations for innovative teaching ideas and methods that have helped students earn prestigious internships and embark on careers.
One of my former students is a co-founder of the first online newspaper in Liberia. Others have received national and international recognition and still more have solid journalism reputations.
Best,
Gregg Morris
Assistant Professor
Department of Film and Media Studies
Hunter College
[More in the Works About Academic Bullying in D:F/M, Hunter College, City University of New York]
Tags: Academic Bullying, CUNY, Department of Film and Media Studies at Hunter College, workplace bullying