McLarenblog

I was troubled reading an article in the LA Times June 19th, 07, front page entitled “A killing kept in the shadows”. Here is the background to the story. It seams that Eastern Michigan University allegedly tried to keep from the public the killing of one of its students in Hill Hall. Hill Hall is located in Ypsilanti and is a ten-story brick building. A 22-year-old women student was killed in her room. Allegedly, the college officials knew a lot more than they were willing to divulge to the public in a timely manner. There is some indication that the campus was sitting upon the information for their own gain. There are more empirical indicators that show the management is allegedly lacking and self absorbed. In the LA Times article it states that a two week strike by staff took place because there was an under reporting of costs amounting to 6 million dollars for a mansion for the president of the university. It is all about me, self-promotion, and attitude trumps the truth and community responsibility on many college campuses. To climb the ladder of management on a college campus, allegedly, one must self promote. Self-promotion comes in many styles. It is exemplary when truthful and despicable when contrived. The word self-promotion works for administrators wanting to advance. If an administrator is smart it is no hard stretch to see that institutional promotion works really well at the department chair level and above that level. My point is this; letting out the fact that this young woman was killed in her room definitely works against the reputation, the promotion of the campus, in the public’s eyes. That is obvious, but anyone should expect that the general public at some point would know this event. Here is my take on the administrator’s actions. The gut reaction of the administrators might come from how they got to their positions by self promote and institute promote. If they hold tight to that attitude then they lost perspective. They hunker down to the value “it is all about me and who I work for” and fail to value the community. How sad for the family of that child and the campus that some administrators allegedly put themselves and their campus first.