Vol. 6 No.3                                                                                      November 27, 1995

The Messenger of Sound Advice
PROFESSOR, DR. SUSAN O'MALLEY, Ph.D.,
WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR THE KCC FACULTY
SINCE YOUR ELECTION AS SENATOR IN 1988?

      Absolutely nothing. As of this day, we do not recall one memo, one flyer, one meeting or even a one-sentence statement from you regarding what you have been doing on behalf of the KCC Faculty at the University Faculty Senate. As a matter of fact, our informal survey indicates that three out of four faculty, members do not know what the Faculty Senate does, and you have not made even the slightest effort to enlighten them about it. As in the case of the KCC7PSC Chapter, you preferred to keep the faculty ignorant so you could, up until recently, enjoy the four hours of released time for the Faculty Senate Newsletter.

      Your "Dear Colleague" memo of November 10th (thanks for dating it) sounds like the "roar of a lion." One can only wonder how hollow and deceptive this "roar" is. For example, you claim to have "repeatedly taken on the Chancellor" at various meetings on the issues of overloads, credit reductions, the Immersion Institute, etc. You also used the term "assorted vice-chancellors" as if these senior executives of the University were a box of cookies. We believe that, in your zeal to show off your courage in confronting the Chancellor, you are actually trapping yourself in a situation wherein you could be called a liar! For example, we meticulously went through all the verbatim minutes of the Faculty Senate from September 1994 to June 1995, and found only three questions that you had asked of the Chancellor. On April 11, 1995 (page 13) you asked about the date on which the City budget was due; on November 15, 1994, you asked about the literacy cuts; and on June 15, 1995, you asked about "maintenance of effort" monies. By any stretch of the imagination, these questions would not demonstrate that you were taking on the Chancellor. You received a short answer for each of these harmless questions.

      Furthermore, anyone who attended the last College Council meeting in May would agree that the brief statement you made sounded as if you were wining and dining with the Chancellor every week. Your constant bragging of your meetings with the high and mighty in the University has become a subject of conversation among the faculty.

      You claim that you "helped to organize the community college caucus of the University Faculty Senate to defend the mission of the community colleges to the Senate, the Central Office and the Board of Trustees." Come on DR. O'Malley, are you telling us that the Chancellor, the Board and the Senate do not know the mission of the community colleges? If they don't, then the question is "what have you been doing for all the years that you were on the Senate?" Isn't it true that by organizing this new caucus that you will have yet another office to hold so that you can get another four hours of released time in the near future?

     You claim that you edited the Faculty Senate Newsletter. Isn't it also true that you received four hours of released time for that work as well? When you took a sabbatical a year ago, who should wind up with the editorship and the released time but your friend, Dr. Inez Martinez. No one else in the entire University Faculty Senate wanted to give another school a chance at editing this publication?

     This academic year you ascended to a position on the Executive Board, thus making yourself eligible for four hours of released time in addition to the four hours from the union. Thus, this year you get eight hours of released time, and your friend gets four. How cozy!

     By the way, no one knows how often this eight-page newsletter comes out. There is no mention of the frequency in its pages as is customary in other organizational publications. We have not seen an issue since June of 1995. Are we to assume that this eight-page rehash of CUNY news comes out once a semester? If so, four hours of released time for a full-professor is a scandalous price to pay!

     Your preoccupation with scholarly research (a worthy task, to be sure) doesn't give you enough time to represent the faculty's interests in the Senate or, for that matter, in the union either. For example, last Summer, while the University, the College and the union were struggling to find solutions to critical financial problems and possible layoffs, you were on Scholar Incentive leave spending weeks and months at the Folger Library in Washington and at the Huntington Library in California researching 17th-century English pamphlets. From what I understand from those close to your research, you still have a great deal of work to do.

     As a member of the Editorial Group of the Radical Teacher, a News journal of Socialist Theory and Practice, you carry a heavy burden of researching, reviewing and evaluating articles submitted because of your various capacities: Editorial Chair, joint Editor, and sometimes as a member of the Editorial Group. You have contributed articles to this journal, which explores as diverse topics as, "Columbus: Liar, slaver, murderer, thief and "Gay &. Lesbian Studies" to "Teaching Sexuality" and "Campus Racism." Although this journal is indexed in the Left Index and the Alternative Index, its usefulness has been somewhat diminished due to its non-inclusion in the general standard indices such as Education Index and Social Sciences Index. Nevertheless, your contributions to this journal are valued, and we hope that you do not get elected to the Senate so that you can devote more time to the Radical Teacher.

      While you proudly display two and three issues of other colleges' newsletters in the union showcase, our chapter has not published even a single issue this semester (which is rapidly drawing to a close). This is particularly troubling to us since you have a great deal of experience in writing newsletters for the Faculty Senate and your experience with the Radical Teacher. The heart of the problem, we believe, is that you are too occupied with other important activities, and you have no time for KCC Faculty matters despite four hours of released time from the senate and another four hours from the Union.

      What is it, exactly, that you are doing?!

What is the use of being elected or reelected unless you stand for something? Grover Cleveland, reported remark to a political advisor, 1887.

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