Dear university... are you threatening your students?

[terriko]

Dear Members of the Carleton Community,

We all care deeply about our students and their academic progress and success. I am writing to reassure everyone, especially students, that negotiations are still continuing with all bargaining units. The administration is bargaining in good faith and I remain hopeful that settlements will be reached.

At the Senate meeting on Friday, there was a request for amnesty for students in the event of labor disruption. While the Senate has a committee charged with emergency responses and procedures, we all sincerely hope that we will not have to test them.

In the meantime, I would hope that we all continue our inspired and inspiring teaching and learning, research and service.



Sincerely yours,

Roseann O'Reilly Runte

President and Vice-Chancellor

"While the Senate has a committee charged with emergency responses and procedures, we all sincerely hope that we will not have to test them." Was that meant to be a threat? It sounds like a veiled threat, but my university sends us so many seriously awkward emails that I can't be sure. It could just be another failure in communication.

Honestly, so many of their emails leave us all scratching our heads that I'm going to charitably assume that they just don't know how to write email. Supporting this theory: they also didn't answer the question about whether amnesty would be granted. All it would have taken was a "we regret to inform you that amnesty cannot be granted" or "amnesty is covered only in our emergency responses which take effect $in_this_circumstance, not under normal strike conditions" or "while the university policy is not to grant amnesty, you can ask the professor of each course and a decision can be made at his/her discretion" or whatever. Or maybe amnesty is ok and they just don't want us to know that? Why be evasive when you could use this email to communicate useful information?

It's embarrassing that one of better-known programs at this university is a journalism one.

Comments

[terriko]

Yeah, I'm hoping this is how it's meant to be read, but seeing as with previous strike actions they've sent us emails implying that those going on strike are meanies who don't care about students' education, I'm not really sure. :P

Also, seriously, how hard is it to send an email with some actual useful information instead of vague missives? Even if it's just "we haven't made a decision about student amnesty in the event of a strike" or "here's where to look up our emergency procedures." That's the part of the email that really irritates me.

Oh well, at least it's better than the one that said "We realise there has been conflict on campus and we'd like to say that, well, sometimes conflict can be bad" without any indication as to what conflict they were talking about and why it warranted email from the president.