Vol. 7 No. 4                                                                                             March 7, 1996

THE WEEK AFTER THE ELECTION: RUSH TO CASH IN ON THE POWER OF THE CHAPTER CHAIR

An irresponsible intervention in KCC'S Governance
by
Her Majesty Sandi Cooper, Chair, University Faculty Senate

Investigative Report No. 2
THE EVENTS

      The unbelievable had happened - Prof. O'Malley had lost the Senate election. But Prof. O'Malley was determined to salvage her "good life of released time" by hook or by crook. She couldn't fathom the idea that there would be no more Senate meeting to go to, no more of those cocktail hours before the meetings, and no more of that fraternizing with her old buddies from LaGuardia Community College. She devised a plan to torpedo the election by cashing in on her recently - acquired power as the Chair of the KCC/ PSC Chapter.

       She called the top man at the College, President Leon M. Goldstein and complained that the election was a fraud because two faculty members without their I.D.s were not allowed to vote. Had they been permitted to vote, she claimed, she would have won the election. (We wonder: How did she know who these faculty members were, and how did she know for whom they were going to vote ? Was it a setup in advance to claim fraud in the event that she might lose? No one will ever know.) She further claimed that there were inconsistencies in checking the I.D.s, and so on, and so on.

      The next person Prof. O'Malley reached was none other than Her Majesty Prof. Sandi Cooper, the current Chair of the University Faculty Senate. (Susan always goes to the top.) Prof. Cooper is a long time friend and an admirer of Prof. O'Malley who has consistently supported Prof. Cooper's agenda in the Senate. Prof. Cooper even gave Prof. O'Malley the quotations to be used in her propaganda in the election, glorifying Prof. O'Malley's competence and her abilities as an editor of the University Faculty Senate Newsletter (an eight-page rehash of University news, issued once a semester, and costing Kingsborugh the four hours of released time for Prof. O'Malley). Without too much thought and without any inquiries about election procedures and appeals, or for that matter verification of Prof. O'Malley's claims of irregularity in the election and consideration of other candidates who may have legitimately won this election and their rights, Her Majesty Cooper rushed to the fax machine and fired off a letter to the top man at the College, President Leon M. Goldstein.

       At the outset, Her Majesty Cooper blasted at the Patriot Returns, branding it "an anonymous publication," engaged in "scurrilous attacks on members of the KCC delegation." She accused the Patriot of making inaccurate statements and went on to make what sounded like a grandiose intellectual statement: that people would regard the Patriot Returns "with usual disdain reserved for ideas propounded by persons too cowardly to defend them." She asserted that "the University Faculty Senate would not be able to seat the delegation where election is contested," and that the electoral process be repeated, "preferably with mail ballots." (Obviously, it appears that Prof. O'Malley conveniently forgot to tell Her Majesty Cooper that she, Prof. O'Malley, was a direct beneficiary of the Patriot's hard work in seizing the throne of Chapter Chairship of the PSC at KCC and crowning herself QUEEN.)

     Dr. Bernard Klein, Chair of the Legislative Committee of the College Council and responsible for conducting all sorts of elections at the campus for the last several years, made his formal report at the College Council's last meeting in the Spring announcing the results of the Senate election, declaring that Prof. Cliff Hesse had won the election as a Senator and Profs. Joyce Miller and Richard Staum were winners in the contest for Alternate Senators. He went on to say that he had heard of some complaints but that no one had come to him or written to him about the problem with the election. He announced that all complaints regarding the election should be directed to the Committee for its consideration and action.

       Restless and uncertain about what was going to happen to her "Good life with released time" and the scheduling or not scheduling of another election, Prof. O'Malley decided to get additional ammunition in her quest for a new election. Not sure of the pressures on the President for a new election brought on by the Cooper letter, she decided to approach the local Executive Committee of the PSC even though that Committee had not endorsed her candidacy for the Senate seat before the election. She felt, however, that this was the time to bring out all the guns to force the President to conduct a new election. A long meeting with division of opinions in the Executive Committee culminated in the drafting and mailing of a letter to the top man at the College, President Goldstein, rehashing the same complaints and declaring the election "invalid."

       President Goldstein forwarded all the correspondence he had received to the Chair of the Legislative Committee and asked the Committee to take appropriate action. The Committee met and decided to conduct a new election, which we are going through now.

       (TO BE CONTINUED. Look for "THE ANALYSIS" in Vol. 7, NO 5B)

DUMP THE INCUMBENTS.

SUSAN O'MALLEY, SENATOR and RICHARD STAUM and JOYCE MILLER, ALTERNATE SENATORS

THEY ARE IN THE SENATE TOO LONG.
IT'S TIME THEY SHOULD BE RETIRED FROM THE SENATE

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