Loyalty Oath for Faculty Librarians?

Conflicting Viewpoints

Can’t We All Just Get Along?

We just had a particularly difficult department meeting. Major decisions about open positions needed to be discussed but surprise, that did not happen! It was clear that the decisions had been discussed at length by some of the faculty before the meeting and decisions had been made already. All they were looking for was concurrence.

In frustration, Doc and I attempted to interject discussion but there was no support forthcoming. The non-tenures just sat there, afraid to open their mouthes, eyes downcast. Spineless! It is infuriating.

After the meeting Gumby sent out a smarmy email, attempting to diffuse the tension? What a feeble individual it is who will not speak their truth and then tries to play the role of peacemaker.

Faculty-Optional Meetings

Most faculty members have accepted the tedious nature of the faculty meetings and go with the flow, or rather the trickle. Others come and go, giving the impression that they are too busy to spend more time than absolutely necessary in meetings with the rest of us. This particularly refers to Bully-boy and his behavior is a double edged sword of sorts. Since we never know when he will blow in, it is hard to fully enjoy his absence.

There is no doubt that there is a whole lot of tension when he is around and I think I have figured out why. He always talks in a way that is meant to confuse others – he uses big words and bizarre analogies in an attempt to sound intelligent. If you concentrate and think about what he is saying, you will see that it is total bullshit. He knows it too (of course). If you watch him when he is speaking at a meeting, you will notice that he repeatedly glances at the group to see if anyone has noticed that he has no idea what he is talking about.

F’ing Faculty Meetings

I am sorry to write that the tone of the library faculty meetings has not changed. Faculty:

• File in
• Find seats
• Engage in Furtive glances
• Flee

Still noticeably absent are discussing, sharing, connecting, bonding, working, deciding, voting, chatting, laughing…

I did mention my impressions to Boobie and she agreed that the meetings were crazy boring and unproductive. She would like to see them change but seemed to feel powerless with Miserly in charge. Is it because he has been here longer that we must defer to him? As someone who advocates for positive change, it is bewildering to me that we couldn’t work something out to the satisfaction of all, something that could save us from this Farcical Fate of F‘ing Faculty Meetings!

26 Committees!

Okay, I lied. Something did happen at the department meeting. There was a discussion about who is on what committee and Doc and I were assigned to work on about 5-6 committees each? I am not sure how much work this will entail but everyone else appears to have similar assignments? I am not getting any information about or sense of what is appropriate… Time will tell. Either I will be tearing my hair out or it will be okay.

Faculty Meeting or Holding Court?

I have never experienced a meeting quite like it! No important issues presented, no discussion, no voting. All the department did was gaze blankly at their agenda and check each item off in order as Miserly brought it up.

I did think that Miserly liked presiding over the meeting, it certainly didn’t require much, but shouldn’t we be doing something? It was about two hours of our valuable time spent with nothing to show for it. I am used to meetings with a point. If you don’t want to share information or debate or decide, why bother? You could just send a memo saying, “Nothing going on here…”