… Poisonous Emails
Part 2
[A somewhat terse twitter exchange between this writer and the upcoming comedian took place before Part 2 was published. To be dealt with later.]
Comedian Jordon Carlos
A Sarah Westlake Response:
Re: The One Club’s 2014 Creative Boot Camp New York
Sarah Westlake [sarahgracewestlake@gmail.com]
You replied on 12/17/2013 9:29 AM.
Sent: Tuesday, December 17, 2013 12:17 AM
To: Greggory w MorrisCc: fm.support@hunter.cuny.edu; Tina Turner; Kelly Anderson [kellyjmanderson@gmail.com]; Ewen, Stuart [SEwen@gc.cuny.edu]; Ricardo Miranda Zuniga [rmira@hunter.cuny.edu]; Billy d Herman; Prof. Karen Hunter [professorhunter@aol.com]; jzuker@hunter.cuny.edu
Professor Morris,Believe me, I accidentally clicked on reply to all; I wouldn’t care to stoop to your level. It was difficult for me to send that email in the first place – I thought I’d be opening a can of worms and start an ugly back and forth with someone seemingly unreasonable and close-minded. Perhaps you might do well not to create such fracas for those of us who are subject to it.
This is not the first time you have acted in poor taste on the list serve. I have just now decided to actually say something because I’ve dealt with your antics for the previous two years. Yes, I drew it to the attention of a few of your colleagues who are connected to the department chair as well as advisors and deputy to the chair, and those of your colleagues who know me well and can attest to my good character and integrity.
The list serve is not a blog or forum in which you should feel free to share your negative opinions. Please do not abuse it in such a way. As I understand, it is an avenue in which film and media students may stay apprised of opportunities if they so choose.
“I will make sure that your email to me gets the kind of attention that it deserves. And in contact, which is really important.” I’m sorry, Professor Morris, but is this some sort of a threat to me or an attempt to scare me?
I don’t believe her about her “accidentally” trying to post on the listserv. Just how many accidents can happen “accidentally”?
Nevertheless, I recognized her right to an opinion, however, she is very uninformed and blatantly (or even blissfully) ignorant regarding my Department and how it operates and what makes for an “extraordinary opportunity” for department majors (let alone the College). With funding from the Ford Foundation, several years ago, I was able to take a crew of journalism students to the Democratic National Convention in Denver where Obama was nominated. Now, that’s my idea of an “extraordinary opportunity.” She certainly seems to be setting herself up as a spokesperson.
Have you had problems with her like this?
She wants to join a very public brawl that’s been going on in my department for several years? It’s not unusual for some students to include themselves in the acrimonious combat that takes in my department even though I have warned them of the hazards. And it’s not usual for Colleagues to invite or entice students to join in. I wonder if that’s what happened to her.
I have receive occasional unsolicited, whacked emails from students whom I don’t know. [I am saving them all for a future project. You’ve heard of Rate My Professors. Well, I’m thinking of something like Rate My !@#$!& Students – check this out – for those rogues and rascals who send poisonous emails.]
NOTE: There was a time a while back when I got menacing emails from student activists (professional students in their 40s, 50s) – some whom I knew, many whom I didn’t, who were pissed off that despite support from my department chair and other Colleagues, they failed to take over this online newspaper I started with the collaboration of a cadre of serious J-students for my classes, The WORD, which has received several grants and support from the College as well as from the Ford Foundation, New America Media and other organizations.
D:F/M Colleagues. Revised Logo in the Works.
I and those serious journalism students started it because the so-called main student publication at that time, the Hunter Envoy, was not much better than a tawdry supermarket flyer – under the control of some of the very same ersatz student activists who wanted control of the WORD.
There was a time the WORD received so-oo-oo much attention in its early years that a bunch of over-the-hill (alleged) activist students, in collusion with D:F/M Colleagues, believed they could make me give up control of the publication and force me to publish according to their wants, as Colleague (and now former Professional Staff Congress Hunter College Chapter Chair) Tami Gold said in my office one day.
PSC Chapter Chair loses her cool at a faculty meeting, seen here trying to intimidate a Colleague by pointing a teenie-weenie digital camera at him and recording him.
She lost her cool at a D:F/M faculty meeting.
Briefly about my department: A software piracy affair that resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in penalties that the College had to pay; porno sites nestled on the department Internet service attracted attention from the University administration that ordered the sites removed; a dean who wanted to investigate Colleagues because of predatory and licentious and salacious attention directed at female department majors. Etcetera. I hope you get the picture.
Also, I mustn’t leave out grading scams, beaucoupe academic freedom violations and the diminishing of the department’s academic integrity and image, to say the least. My department, one my Colleagues, Larry Shore, said at a department meeting a while back, has a poor image on this campus.
Other departments in the College have been encouraged to consider teaching media courses because my department has failed to live up to a mandate that it would be the prime source of media instruction for students at the College. I recall a conversation with Hunter College Provost Vita C. Rabinowitzt about the administration’s big plans for my department. That was before all the plugs were pulled. Thus, I have been writing and publishing and posting exposés about my department’s debauchery.
For the meantime, let’s just say that D:F/M is known to be pretty toxic in an academical sense and has been getting recent attention for being a habitat of workplace bullying. And this Westlake person seems to have chosen to embrace the toxicity.
Here is a response from Sarah Westlake:
Re: The One Club’s 2014 Creative Boot Camp New York
Sarah Westlake [sarahgracewestlake@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 17, 2013 9:57 AM
To: Greggory w Morris
Cc: Tina Turner; Kelly Anderson [kellyjmanderson@gmail.com]; Ewen, Stuart [SEwen@gc.cuny.edu]; Ricardo Miranda Zuniga [rmira@hunter.cuny.edu]; Billy d Herman; Prof. Karen Hunter [professorhunter@aol.com]; jzuker@hunter.cuny.eduThank you, kindly, for your insults not only to me, but also to your colleagues. In our exchanges, it is clear to me the type of person I am dealing with here, and I simply have nothing more to say. I hope your ignorance and boorish behavior continues to bring you very far in life. Good day.
My response:
On Tue, Dec 17, 2013 at 9:29 AM, Greggory w Morris <gmorris@hunter.cuny.edu> wrote:
Hi there, again.I reviewed the email I sent you, and see nothing that could be perceived as a threat to a rational, reasonable mind.
True, I believe I need to advise students, even those in their 30s, to stay out of the fracas since so many seem out of touch or ignorant about Freedom of Expression, Academic Freedom, First Amendment issues, public forum guidelines and traditions, etcetera.* Some of my colleagues, actually too many of my Colleagues, don’t share that belief. They invite and encourage.
You, being in your 30s as you stated, could have just sent the email to the sources indicated above (minus fm-l again which you included but I removed), and left me out of the invitation for discourse. Instead, you opened the door and invited me in. Your call.
There isn’t going to be a back or forth, ugly, as you say, or otherwise, between you and me. I have what I need. But I have to say this: You’re a personal assistant to a comedian? That’s ironic and funny in a wry sense.
Best,
GM
*It’s true that complexities and dynamics of these “things” trip up my Colleagues from time to time (just ask them).
Well, Jordon, I think that’s it for now.
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, Christa Davis Acampora, Greggory w Morris, Gustavo Mercado, Hunter College, HUnter College Faculty Delegate Assembly, Hunter College Ombuds Office, Hunter College Senate, 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, New York State Assembly, New York State Senate, Peter Parisi, Ricardo Miranda, Robert Stanley, S3863/A4965 – The NYS Healthy Workplace Bill, Shanti k Thakur, Steve Gorelick, Stuart Ewen, Tami Gold, Timothy Portlock, Tony Doyle, workplace bullying