Chancellor Cheng at the City Council
D. Gorton, neighborhood activist (his neighborhood being also mine, the "Arbor District"), sent out a characteristically piquant report about the Chancellor's appearance at the City Council last night, during which she praised the mayor for his support of Saluki Way. His subject line: "Rita Cheng is a fool".
Rita Cheng, the Chancellor of SIUC, scurried to the podium at tonight's City Council meeting to throw flowers at Brad Cole. The moment was weird since no one else decided to laud Cole's role in Carbondale. Appearing small and graceless, as if she didn't really understand where she was speaking, Cheng presented a "resolution" that praised Brad Cole's leadership in Carbondale. Calling him the "first person I met" upon coming to the university, she extolled Cole's role in ramming through Saluki Way, whereby the citizens of Carbondale give $20,000,000 to the university.
She touched upon the very issue that ignites the citizenry of Carbondale and contributes to the town/gown divide. If this is the clueless way she is dealing with faculty and the unions, then she may find that the city residents will join the faculty in demanding that she try to rethink her role.
D's email list--for those of you not aware of it--is a valuable source for goings on in Carbondale, though he is not one to be moderate in his views (with which I often disagree). If you email him he'll no doubt be happy to add you to it.
Response sent to D. Gorton:
ReplyDelete"A dear friend of mine forwarded to me your email of 4/19 in which you spew childish and offensive comments concerning Chancellor Rita Cheng. Rather than merely expressing your difference of opinion regarding Dr. Cheng's remarks at the City Council meeting, you resorted to demeaning her physical characteristics and questioning her intelligence.
The only thing that your email demonstrates to be "small and graceless" is your mind and the manner in which you express yourself.
I sincerely hope that Councilwoman Adams rises above this type of childish behavior in completing her new responsibilities on the City Council.
D. Gorton asked me to post his reply to the above (as he was having trouble making the comment tool work, as others apparently have).
ReplyDeleteAs the email response in the comment above was sent to him personally and signed, D knows the identity of "anonymous". Had he sent this comment directly, D would have revealed the name of the anonymous commentator. I'm not comfortable outing "anonymous" myself (though obviously nothing stops D from doing so), but think that I should allow D a chance to respond.
Here's D's response.
"I always appreciate responses to my emails whether they are angry, as is yours, or encouraging, as are most. I note that you write in defense of your boss, which is a traditional role.
Having said that, there is probably little that we can discuss on this subject except for two things.
1) I am a resident of this city and under no illusions about the role of the university on our community. In my opinion, the university has been negligent in its concern for our neighborhoods. This is in spite of repeated efforts to engage the university administration. Instead the leadership has been hired and fired over and over. Its been disheartening to say the least. In the midst of all this, Brad Cole forced through the $20,000,000 gift to SIUC. The sight of a university Chancellor bearing gifts for Brad Cole was profoundly disturbing as the face of SIUC thanked Brad for taking our money and giving it to Saluki Way. I repeat, the Saluki Way adventure is a sore that won't heal.
2) I do not know if you are married or have a partner. If you are, then you should be aware that people in marriages or partnership may have divergent views. Indeed, my wife is her own person. So, frankly, I resent your characterization whereby "Councilwoman Adams rises above this type of childish behavior in completing her new responsibilities on the City Council." I'm sure she'll size you up if you ever have dealings with the Council and come to her own decision about the merits of your case."
DG
Here, to repeat, is the original email sent to D:
"Mr. Gorton,
A dear friend of mine forawrded to me your email of 4/19 in which you spew childish and offensive comments concerning Chancellor Rita Cheng. Rather than merely expressing your difference of opinion regarding Dr. Cheng's remarks at the City Council meeting, you resorted to demeaning her physical characteristics and questioning her intelligence.
The only thing that your email demonstrates to be "small and graceless" is your mind and the manner in which you express yourself.
I sincerely hope that Councilwoman Adams rises above this type of childish behavior in completing her new responsibilities on the City Council."