I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted on here. I'm sitting here at the computer trying not to obsess about work, so I figure I'll tell you all about it. Then, maybe I can go to sleep. (I promise I'll try to post more often.)
Today at work, I sent an email to the adviser, the student who is president and a student planning an event for Habitat for Humanity. In a couple of weeks, they're having "Shack-a-Thon" where students build "shacks" out of cardboard boxes and sleep in them overnight as a part of Poverty Awareness Week. It's an annual event. Last year, it was very cold overnight. We had a couple of parents call to complain that their students were told they couldn't go inside. There have also been issues in the past with drunk students that didn't start out with the event, but somehow ended up inside a "shack" with participants. Or, the drunk students passing by have been disruptive to the event. Often, the event is covered by our local news media and sometimes there have been some borderline inappropriate actions happening in the background on television. So, you can see that our VP of Student Affairs might have some concerns about the event, right? And, I knew it would be helpful to try to be proactive this year.
So, back to our story...I sent this email to the adviser, president and member who is planning the event that explained some of the concerns, suggested a couple of resources for them to use in trying to deal with those issues and telling them if they have concerns or questions to call, stop by or email. I sent the email to all three because I wanted to be sure I told all three of them the same thing. Sometimes if I'm talking to three people individually, I don't remember to tell them each all of my points. (is that old age?)
Within 5 minutes of my sending the email, the adviser (who works in Admissions) calls one of my staff members whom he knows pretty well and is angry that I'm accusing him of not doing his job. However, he also tells her that he hasn't time to work with the students and doesn't know if they've dealt with any of the things I've pointed out. (Doesn't it sound like, perhaps, I had some necessity to point out some issues?) He also has a concern that I've said that he will be held personally responsible for whatever happens at the event. She comes to let me know about the conversation, then heads off to her next commitment for the day. A few minutes later, I get an email from him saying that he can't be held responsible for the event and if I'm saying he is, he can't take that kind of responsibility so he's resigning from being the organization's adviser. Oh..and, did I mention that he replied to all so this went to the two students on the email as well? Which...I considered inflammatory. Why would you drag the students into this if you had a beef with how I dealt with something?
About 20 minutes later, I get an email from the student that is president of the organization addressed "To Whom it May Concern." I'm pretty sure I'm the one that's concerned and he knows me...not necessary to begin like that. For the most part he addresses my concerns and shows that they've already taken some actions to deal with the concerns I brought up. But, he goes on a rant about the liability and how that's not his or the adviser's responsibility yada yada yada. And, how if that's the deal, he'll have to follow his adviser's lead and resign from his post with the organization.
I don't have the student's phone number, so I respond to his email by thanking him for responding to my email. I didn't know that they had already addressed some of my concerns, and nobody in my office was aware of whether the concerns had been addressed. That's why I sent the original email (I probably was nicer in my email response than I might be portraying here). Blah blah blah thanks for responding and when an organization doesn't follow college policy and procedures, that's when the leadership of the organization can become personally liable.
Then, I responded to the email from the adviser basically saying the same thing...he'd only be personally responsible if they didn't follow the rules and that was why I emailed him yada yada yada and if he still wants to resign from being the adviser that's his decision. He should let me know if that's still his intention.
This guy is someone that I usually respect, although don't always respect his methods to get things done. He doesn't tend to really give a crap about policies and while I sometimes fall into that category I've had too many years of having to enforce the rules on various college campuses to be able to really just let it go. And, he's pretty well connected on campus, so you don't really want to be on his "list." And, I'm pretty sure I've got to be on it now. He's not really my friend and I don't know that I *really* give a shit, but obviously I must since it's bugging me.
All right, so there's the deal. I think I might feel better now. Thanks for listening. :)
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