Jessamyn ([info]jessamyn19) wrote,
@ 2008-04-16 12:35:00
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today i am mostlywasting time.

the tech guy has hidden my printer, gurrr. it was unloved, unused and covered in an inch of dust. I got it working and suddenly it's needed somewhere? no idea where it went and said tec guy wont be in till next tuesday, so that's a pain.

any way, the big event of today is a meeting with tony carter over the walk out in the humanities department. as a student rep i have been involved in the student out cry over their leaving. i don't know if the meeting today is going to be productive or not, but we will see. i have a feeling that the principle is just going to say 'on going legal matters, i can't comment' over and over. the student reps are meeting in a few minutes to get our game plan worked out for the meeting.

there is totally no sun today, just clouds. i need to make more caynotype paper any way, and find my printer....

worked a bit on my dissertation last night (thank you mark for making me). need to keep it up. 10,000 word draft due on monday. we will see how it goes. there is still a lot od documentaion and reaseach that is not represented in the paper and i want the paper to truely reflect the amount of research i have done this year.

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[info]linksward
2008-04-18 09:23 am UTC (link)
STUDENT REP? OUTCRY? SOME DUDE? What the hell are you talking about?
-M

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[info]jessamyn19
2008-04-19 10:34 am UTC (link)
oh, sorry about that one. I'm the student rep for the Ma students, there is a student rep for ever group of students. normally we go to very dull board of studies meeting and voice and student's concerns.

the humanities department is the part of school that teaches art history, covers the thesis, and dissertations for each area of study at the school. there for they sort of affect every one. their department was made up of three very well loved teachers and one head of department who didn't teacher but was involved in grading and telling people what to do. her name is helen.

apparently over the years there have been many complaints about helen saying that she is rude, condescending, and bulling to both students and staff. Last year she was on leave for the whole year, but starting as soon as she was to return that was tention with in the humanities department. at this point many people acted follishly and the sutuation just got worse.

just before easter, the three teachers, helen, and tony carter (the principle of the school) had a meeting. they teachers basicaly said helen or us, and the result of the meeting was that all three teachers walked out on their contracts together.

now the student body is very upset because helen is largely hateded and in some cases fear through out the school and with little to no art history knowlege. but the three teachers were seen to be hugely valuable to the school, published and distinguished in their fields, will be extremely hard to replace.

The student reps wrote a letter voicing our concern over the situation and had it signed by the student body. because it's a small school and every one believed the same way, we had the signatures of 90% of the entire student body with in three days. it would have been %100 if not for poor attendance on the part of members of the student body. not a single person chose not to sign. The letter was mailed to tony carter, the heads of each department, and to the head of the board of directors for the school. with this we got a meeting with Tony carter to discus was happened.

Tony carter's defense was that the three teachers were not perfect employees even if their were seen to be perfect teachers. and that helen, who had been working at the school the longest would have been virtually impossible to legally fire. that even if there was a case against her treatment of students and staff it would not be legally provable. But Tony carter seemingly did little to nothing to diffuses a situation that he had been award of for 10 months. he has not kept a record of the complaints made against her, or investigated the claim. he seems largely unconcerned with the allegations and their potential affect and already very real affect on the school.

there is a larger school wide meeting on tuesday, where the whole school can present their issues to tony carter on arranged by the student reps. I think that is the last thing I can do for the situation. It is distressing that the teachers at our school are not more valued because the teacher staff is what makes our school. we dont have good facilities or equipment, what we have is a 1:8 student teacher ratio in which the teachers are extremely dedicated and involved in the school. many of the teachers are now worried about being unsupported in their working environments. one of the teachers was telling me that he was worried and that the school's contract specifically banned teacher's from organizing in any way.

any way. so that has been going on. since i have been involved it mean that every day at school people stop me and ask for information. i have explained what going on to so many people. the administration it's self acted like nothing happened so the students and staff have been acting as a huge rumor mill to get the information out. every one is talking about it. every one is up set.

in the end i don't think any thing will change but i hope this means that Tony carter will in the future not think that not supporting his staff is the easy way out. we are making this very hard on him.

also, at lest one of the teachers who walked out is suing the school.

any way, sure that is more than you wanted to know. *hugs*
-jes

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[info]linksward
2008-04-20 09:17 am UTC (link)
good stuff. My little activist :)
how is thew school coping with three less teachers? Seems like a significant staff loss for such a small school, like it would be aaahhh who's marking dissertations?????
-M

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[info]jessamyn19
2008-04-20 10:19 am UTC (link)
yes, it sort of is. but there are not more art history class in the third term and they already have two extra extremely part time people to help with something else, so those people just got bumped up to normal part time. they are far less qualified and far less dedicated because they don't have degrees yet. so i think quality of advising and such will go down, but it will all get graded and such. and they have till fall term to replace with someone who can teach the lessons.

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[info]linksward
2008-04-21 08:11 am UTC (link)
heh suck anyway. Just think you got a basically up to length draft in on time. Love you,
M

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