Vol. 12                                                                                                      May 15, 1998

WHEN WILL YOUR GRIEVANCE COUNSELOR
LADY CHATTERY CHASE
LEARN TO WRITE PROPER ENGLISH?

For the last three years, the PSC Bulletin Board in the faculty cafeteria has been adorned by a typewritten letter authored by your grievance counselor, Lady Chattery Norah Chase, announcing her "take over" of grievances from former grievance officer Professor Michael SherKer. Prominently displayed and seen by the entire Kingsborough community, including students, administrative staff, custodial staff, visitors and members of visiting accreditation teams, this letter represents a terrible example of sloppy and careless writing, including errors in spelling and sentence construction. This is particularly distressing since we know that the author of this letter is recently-promoted Associate Professor Lady Chattery Chase, a member of the English Department whose members are held in highest esteem by the Patriot.

      It is painful to discover that a Kingsborough English professor has written a letter full of grammatical and spelling errors, and displayed it to the entire college community at a time when our students are under attack for not being able to write proper English.

     First, it would have been much more appropriate for the announcement of a new grievance officer to have come from then-chapter chair, Professor Michael SherKer, rather than from Lady Chattery Chase. We believe that Lady Chase was so excited at the prospect of four hours of released time that she could not wait for Prof. SherKer to share this news.

     Second, in her excitement over the released time, Lady Chase forgot her sense of time. She forgot to date the letter.

     Third, she appeared to have been so determined to become a grievance counselor that Lady Chase began her letter by saying "I want to announce. . . ." rather than the polite expression "I wish to announce. . . ."

     Fourth, in the first sentence of the first paragraph, Lady Chattery Chase wrote ". . . I am the new grievance office of the KCC Chapter of the PSC . "

Did she mean "grievance officer?"

     Fifth, she referred to Professor Michael SherKer as "Mike SherKer." In a formal announcement, should one not use the proper title and name of the individual?

     Sixth, in the second sentence of the first paragraph, Lady Chase used the term "taking over." This connotes a coup d'etat. Others would have said "I will be assuming the responsibilities . . . " or "I have been delegated the responsibilities . . . "

     Seventh, in the first sentence of the second paragraph, she wrote --- using the present tense C "You can reach me at my office phone... ." She then used the future tense, saying ". . . which will have an answering machine." What were individuals with grievances supposed to do until the machine was installed? Keep calling her?

     Eighth, Lady Chattery Chase quoted the PSC Contract as follows: "A grievance must be file by an employee . . . " The correct quote is "A grievance must be filed by an employee . . . " A grievance officer must write with accuracy.

Not to do so can be very costly (your job, not hers).

     Ninth, Lady Chattery Chase again quoted the PSC contract: " ... or to appoint with a certificate of continuous employment . . ." The exact words in the contract, however, are ". . . or to appointment with a certificate of continuous employment . . ." Again --lack of accuracy can be costly -- to you.

     Last but not least, in the last word of the last sentence of her letter, Lady Chattery Chase spells the word "contract" as "contact."

     If you had a grievance, would you want to entrust your protection to an individual who fails to date correspondence and who misquotes the contract? Would you want your grievance prepared with misspelled words and grammatical errors? Is she not aware that dates and proper English may make the difference between the winning or losing of a grievance? Would you trust someone who has no time to review what she writes? Would you have confidence that this person will prepare an accurate presentation of your grievance?

     If this individual cannot create a correct four-paragraph letter to the faculty, how good a presentation will she prepare for your grievance?

Encl: "ANNOUNCEMENT" authored by Lady Chattery Chase.

Forthcoming issues of The Patriot may be accessed at the www.patriotreturns.com web site. Archived editions are available at http://www.patriotreturns/archive.htm.