Let's parse some other half-truths in Charles Brown's letter...
We are pursuing a reorganization plan that will feature a full-time advisor to provide professional mentoring for these students in furtherance of their career goals.
As a friendly administrator once joked to me, "Universities can tell the truth, but they can't tell time."
What she meant: Their pronouncements eventually come true, but often years or even decades later than they planned.
So, for instance, no one at FAU believes an on-campus football stadium will open next fall. Construction hasn't even begun. But that didn't stop FAU officials from announcing the stadium would open in 2003, 2004, 2009, 2010, and finally Fall 2011.
Back to Brown.
His student media director has indeed announced plans for a full-adviser to replace me at the University Press. On my last day, May 21, Marti Harvey was recorded telling the UP staff ...
The ultimate goal here is that within – I don't know what the period of time will be, but within a short period of time – we will have full-time media advisers for each of the media outlets.
When asked just how short a period of time, Marti replied...
We are pursuing a reorganization plan that will feature a full-time advisor to provide professional mentoring for these students in furtherance of their career goals.
As a friendly administrator once joked to me, "Universities can tell the truth, but they can't tell time."What she meant: Their pronouncements eventually come true, but often years or even decades later than they planned.
So, for instance, no one at FAU believes an on-campus football stadium will open next fall. Construction hasn't even begun. But that didn't stop FAU officials from announcing the stadium would open in 2003, 2004, 2009, 2010, and finally Fall 2011.
Back to Brown.
His student media director has indeed announced plans for a full-adviser to replace me at the University Press. On my last day, May 21, Marti Harvey was recorded telling the UP staff ...
The ultimate goal here is that within – I don't know what the period of time will be, but within a short period of time – we will have full-time media advisers for each of the media outlets.
When asked just how short a period of time, Marti replied...
We are working to bring in revenue into student media. That revenue will ultimately pay for us to have additional full-time advisers. The goal would be to have a full-time adviser for each media outlet.
Since the newspaper doesn't sell enough ads to pay for itself right now – and probably won't in the middle of a recession – the students pressed Marti for a specific month. Or semester. Or even year. But she wouldn't say.
This rankled the veteran staffers who remember that it took FAU more than 2 1/2 years to hire Marti.
You read that right. FAU's first-ever student media director position was originally posted in July 2007. Marti's first day was in January 2010.
In between were four search committees led by two chairwomen and six candidates visiting campus, with one filing a complaint with the Office of Equal Opportunity Programs. (More on that later.) The UP wrote a cover story that skewered the process – which was overseen by Brown's office. Yet another nail in my advising coffin.
So the students are skeptical that they'll still be in school by the time my replacement is hired. And they doubt this line from Brown's letter to SPJ...
We are also creating a new for-credit internship program through FAU's School of Communication and Multimedia Studies, again furthering the educational component for our students.
I expect to see a campus football stadium before I see these claims come to pass.
TOMORROW: More on Marti Harvey.
