John Friedl wrote:
> Questioning the policies of a public university, when done in a civil
> and respectful manner, is certainly appropriate. However, your two
> public email messages to President Petersen (via Vice President Levy)
> earlier this week far exceeded the bounds of what could be considered
> appropriate conduct. It is one thing to challenge a policy with which
> you disagree, and quite another to launch a personal attack against
> those who create and implement that policy.

Hear, hear!  We should be able to disagree without being disagreeable.  When we 
forget collegiality and attack each other personally, it reflects poorly on us 
all.  Hence my support of Marvin Ernst's motion in the Faculty Senate today, 
which unfortunately did not receive sufficient support to be enacted.

Though I have often disagreed with administrators in the past and expect to do 
so in the future (isn't academic freedom great!), no colleague who attacks them 
personally speaks for me.

Joe Dumas

P.S.  Some of you may recall that I ran against Richard Rice in the last 
election for Faculty Senate President.  Let me say that my fellow faculty 
members chose a good person!  (I hope that would have also been true if I had 
won :)  Though we sometimes agree and at other times disagree sharply, Richard 
(like Marvin before him) has never treated me with any less than full collegial 
respect.  Richard, if you never hear it from anyone else, kudos from me to you 
for your extremely fair and courteous job as president....

-- 
"One man with courage is a majority." -- Thomas Jefferson