As the long shadows of late afternoons in July begin there is still time to catch up on your summer fiction. One place to start might be CSU's cougar connect page that has a wonderful piece, a collaborative effort, but shaped by the (is she still?) Interim Provost. It's the HLC monitoring report! I guess its final iteration is now in place. Frankly, I've been trying to digest the narrative for a few weeks and have been having a hard time getting it down. It wasn't until I realized it was a work of fiction that I could really settle in and enjoy it. The basic story is that once upon a time, CSU had some problems, but now that its Human Resources Department has imposed certain policies, all is well. That's the basic story (at least the last edition that I read). Highlights include Focus Groups, some as small as 5 female administrators (I wonder who those could be?)--you may be surprised to find that that meeting you attended where someone came in for 10 minutes and asked 4 or 5 questions was actually a focus group. The Monitoring Report is a story that has to have a happy ending so do not expect to find any references to UPI grievances (they aren't even mentioned in the report, nor was UPI even asked about anything), the Faculty Senate's vote of no confidence in the president and interim provost, the presidential interference in SGA elections and governance...let alone attempts to suppress free speech on campus--whether by word or dress... Altogether a remarkable piece of fiction and clearly successful since the prez told the board at the last meeting that HLC told him they bought the story. Next monitoring report throw in some magical realism to punch things up a bit more.
A much shorter piece of non-fiction that might interest you came out this weekend from New York. Apparently a police officer used a chokehold on an individual and it resulted in that person's death. It's pertinent here for the chokehold episode at our May Board of Trustees meeting--was that the one where they rammed through the cyber-bullying policy? Although we are concerned about our students being cyber-bullied we are not so concerned about the excessive force of a chokehold used by campus police on a student. Wish I could say that story was fiction. Al Sharpton was not amused, wonder what he'd say about the CSU episode?
http://nypost.com/2014/07/20/al-sharpton-slams-nypd-over-chokehold-death/
Yes, CNN video about chokehold. Is great evidence. NO reason CSU EVER should have used nor in NY---for man selling ingle cigarettes. Hope they sue and take everything.
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