Excellent response Kim,

I personally am glad to be able to sort the job-related (policies, etc)
email from the other emails so prevalent in RAVEN.  Just because we have
added a new level of communication (UTCINFO) doesn't mean the old
"freedom of speech" options went away, just that I (and countless others
I am sure) can now choose not to read them without the risk of missing
something I do need to know for my job.

On a light note, I am obviously still reading the RAVEN or I wouldn't be
responding to this new flurry of excitement.  I suspect many others will
as well, but we now have the "freedom" to choose.

Beth Dodd
--------------

 Kim Edward Renz wrote:

> Marcia, et al:
>
> I respectfully disagree with everything I just read. First of all, how is
> Mr. Lyon a "moneysuck," rather than a bright new opportunity for us to
> increase the funding of everything we do here? How much money did you
> and I
> raise last year? If we are not out there promoting the English Department
> and the Fine Arts Center, someone promoting the football team will get
> the
> money. As one who spent all of his undergraduate years in private,
> liberal
> arts institutions, I can say unequivically that we need to hire as many
> money-raisers as we can find. We must stop sliding down into the abyss
> that
> is funding for higher education in Tennessee. Where were you yesterday
> with
> your hard, pointed questions for Dr. Johnson?
>
> I am also sick of hearing and reading the bitch and moan sessions, valid
> though they are, about faculty and exempt staff salaries, when the State,
> not our administration, keeps cutting budgets. Tell me we don't need more
> staff support and to pay them a livable wage. They did not go to some
> fancy
> college, so they suffer. If anyone on this campus has not felt the crunch
> of non-exempt down-sizing, I invite you to send your extra people to the
> rest of us. And then perhaps you will not ask why there is no tissue
> in the
> restrooms or why you have to learn IRIS, have to do your own copying
> (that
> is what federal work study is for, right?), or name any number of other
> services. I dictated letters before I reentered academia. Let's do a
> formal
> poll: How many full-time faculty work two jobs? How many full-time
> non-exempt staff? How many non-exempts have to work somewhere else
> because
> someone trimmed sporadic pay, which was a great benefit and is now almost
> gone?
>
> Please pardon me when I wonder how adding a new service beyond Raven
> affects academic freedom. In my naivete I thought that was about teaching
> practices, not about selling desks and discussing whether or not a 2-way
> street slows down traffic or who thinks we ought to secede from the
> University of Tennessee. This is, if anything, a more inclusive situation
> than ever. By adding UTCINFO, we have more opportunities to do the
> business
> of the University. A "timesuck?" Is Raven going to slow down? I must have
> missed that one.
>
> How is Big Brother controlling what we receive? No one says we have to
> filter anything, for now we can receive two business messages instead of
> just one. We have more rights. No one said they are going to do away with
> The Vagina Monologues because the word "vagina" is sinful. Hey, does your
> computer underline "vagina" in green? I am ready to write The Penis
> Dialogues, which I have threatened to do for years. Why is "timesuck" a
> misspelling and universally accepted terms for body parts
> inflammatory? Why
> doesn't someone ask, hey, Eudora infringes on my right to use the word
> "suck?" And, doggone it, "timesuck" should have a red and a green line
> under it. Isn't this a ridiculous argument?
>
> I am sure there are many out there who receive my messages about the
> Patten
> Series (some who come and others who complain that they should not
> have to
> pay for anything that comes to campus) and say, "Man, doesn't that guy
> ever
> stop?"  And if I hear once more, "Why don't you bring X group or Y
> company"
> from people who don't give something new or someone they don't know a
> chance, then I think I will start asking for money from them....every
> single time! How many faculty and staff heard the King's Singers,
> attended
> the world premier of the head of the NEA's opera or saw Dayton
> Contemporary
> Dance Company at the Tivoli last year?
>
> Well, perhaps I have expected too much from Raven and the campus, for
> I am
> embarrassed by the poor attendance at the Series this fall. The next
> person
> I want to talk to is Bob Lyon, because I would like to be here long
> enough
> to hire those theatre companies Dr. Noe and I both love, who now cost
> twice
> what they did 10 years ago and who have priced themselves out of our
> budget. I want to stop paying for my own travel to do my job. I want
> someone besides me to scream, "Why are the arts fluff, extra-curricular,
> not essential?" Literature is a "Fine Art, at least that is what I was
> taught. You don't have to write fiction to say "Would you like fries with
> that?" Does that mean we don't need English in the schools either?
>
> I say, "Make an announcement, not something like this diatribe, and no
> one
> will question its content." And if anyone feels the need to call people
> names, send it to Raven and not to UTCINFO. Believe me, it will be
> read by
> more than will filter it, because drama is driven by conflict. And if
> your
> e-mail is filtered, maybe your lone voice in the wilderness is not
> carrying
> the popular message you think it is. I am sure mine isn't.
>
> I for one will not use UTCINFO to attack. I will use it to try to
> convince
> my highly educated colleagues to come to see what I am paid to bring here
> and to reach the 2% of our audience that our faculty helps me put into
> the
> seats (you know, the students).
>
> I welcome anyone to reply to me directly, rather than to the entire
> campus,
> about what I wrote. I hope that does not seem hypocritical of me. I may
> even keep all of the responses in a log, when I don't have to send out
> the
> next e-mail you receive from me trying to convince you to leave the house
> on a Saturday or Sunday evening to support the programs of the
> University.
> Did you know Ailey II is here on Sunday? I dare you to come be "cultured"
> this month, by dance, or by music or by the best theatre in the state.
> No,
> I am not referring to Cumberland County Playhouse's Cats! I am talking
> about greed avarice, jealousy, interracial marriage, even Greek tragedy,
> right on our quaint little campus.
>
> You want it? We got it!! Watch UTCINFO for more.
>
> Respectfully submitted for review and editing,
> Kim Edward Renz
> Failure is success planned poorly.
>
>
> At 05:55 PM 1/7/2004, Marcia Noe wrote:
>
>> Dear Colleagues,
>> Well, the new semester has gotten off to a great start with a timesuck
>> (UTCINFO)
>> and a moneysuck (Bob Lyon), not to mention the violation of academic
>> freedom and First Amendment rights as Big Brother in the University
>> Relations Office will now screen our announcements.  What's next, a
>> University Patriot Act?
>> Marcia Noe
>> Professor of English and Coordinator of Women's Studies
>>
>> PS.  How considerate of the Provost to consult with the techies
>> rather than
>> the Faculty Senate before violating our rights.
>