Thursday's Security Meeting
As promised, I will now describe some of the more outrageous things that happened at or around the security meeting. First of all, Rela [president] was downplaying the whole incident, so much so that she didn't even think holding a security meeting was necessary. Laurie [admissions director], Zelda [registrar], and Diane [COO] insisted upon having one, so at 1 pm on Thursday all of the faculty and staff were invited to attend. Most of the staff was there, but only 3 faculty members showed up. One was in the building when the firebombing occurred, one heard about it through a friend, and one didn't even know something had happened! It is now nearly 2:30 pm on Monday, and we still do not know if the rest of the faculty have been notified.
Several times during the meeting Rela told us, in these exact words, that we were all over-reacting to the situation. At one point she basically told Laurie to shut up, although not in those exact words. Rela compared the throwing of a Molotov cocktail at the library's emergency door to someone throwing a rock through her office window several years ago. A stone = an incendiary device?! She did not thank me, Herman, Andre, or Barbara for handling the situation. However, Rela made sure everyone knew that she took a phone call from the mayor. Barbara did thank us (although not by name) for assessing the situation and responding so quickly.
We were told by Diane that an order for security cameras had already been placed several weeks before the incident. She then told us where the cameras were going: hallways on the first and second floors and one on the roof. NO security cameras were to be put in the library. Again, where was the firebomb thrown? At the LIBRARY'S emergency door, which would not be seen from any of the interior cameras and probably won't be visible from the outside one, either. Still, this is better than what we have now... nothing.
On Friday Rela came to the library. To check on the damage to the building and the emotional health of the staff? Heck no! She had called Libby [library director] to do research for her for a grant proposal she's writing. Later that day Laurie sent out an e-mail written by Rela to the student body. It basically downplayed the entire thing -- it was a completely ridiculous letter. I'm wondering how big the gun was that Laurie held to Rela's head in order to get her to even write something to the students!
In a nutshell: our university president has handled this situation very badly. I was told that Rela once said that she views her employees as "slots." Yes, that's right, we're positions, not people, to her. And she has demonstrated that very clearly in the past few days. We found out today that Rela never even notified the Board of Trustees. They only know about the situation by watching and reading the local news. I cannot WAIT until I have another job!
Several times during the meeting Rela told us, in these exact words, that we were all over-reacting to the situation. At one point she basically told Laurie to shut up, although not in those exact words. Rela compared the throwing of a Molotov cocktail at the library's emergency door to someone throwing a rock through her office window several years ago. A stone = an incendiary device?! She did not thank me, Herman, Andre, or Barbara for handling the situation. However, Rela made sure everyone knew that she took a phone call from the mayor. Barbara did thank us (although not by name) for assessing the situation and responding so quickly.
We were told by Diane that an order for security cameras had already been placed several weeks before the incident. She then told us where the cameras were going: hallways on the first and second floors and one on the roof. NO security cameras were to be put in the library. Again, where was the firebomb thrown? At the LIBRARY'S emergency door, which would not be seen from any of the interior cameras and probably won't be visible from the outside one, either. Still, this is better than what we have now... nothing.
On Friday Rela came to the library. To check on the damage to the building and the emotional health of the staff? Heck no! She had called Libby [library director] to do research for her for a grant proposal she's writing. Later that day Laurie sent out an e-mail written by Rela to the student body. It basically downplayed the entire thing -- it was a completely ridiculous letter. I'm wondering how big the gun was that Laurie held to Rela's head in order to get her to even write something to the students!
In a nutshell: our university president has handled this situation very badly. I was told that Rela once said that she views her employees as "slots." Yes, that's right, we're positions, not people, to her. And she has demonstrated that very clearly in the past few days. We found out today that Rela never even notified the Board of Trustees. They only know about the situation by watching and reading the local news. I cannot WAIT until I have another job!
posted by Pupcake | 1:24 PM
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