The story of worker abuse at Kutztown University continues to resonate across the university’s campus and the Commonwealth.
In a story published last week, Moriah Thomas reported on Raging Chicken Press’s coverage of worker abuse at Kutztown for the student newspaper, The Keystone. Thomas’s story included an exclusive interview with Raging Chicken Press editor, Kevin Mahoney, who first broke the story at the end of March. You can read Raging Chicken Press’s full coverage of the story HERE.
In the article, Thomas notes some of the possible positive outcomes of the Raging Chicken Press story:
Amidst allegations and administrative transitions on campus, Mahoney sees hope in these areas.
He said, “There is a lot of hope right now in a lot of places across campus because of the new administration coming in and I think a lot of people see this as an opportunity to really change that {hostile/abusive} culture.”
As of this post, The Keystone article is only available in the print edition. We will update this article with the link if it does get posted to their web edition.
In the meantime, here a shot of the story:
Sir,
It is , I suppose, time to offer what I experienced in my 20 year and 1 week,”..like night and day ..”, career.
But first, I’d like to offer gratitude for those who served KU in labor/custodial in particular, who have passed away. Many within a short time after retirement. After 20 years , I found that, an ominous statistic that I never fully researched.
Forgive me if I do not include many others who had to carry some of these paperwork poltroons on their backs. At this stage of KU’s existence I feel you would not need to hire one soul with a college degree to run the entire underbelly of this money-trap. The one’s that do have degree’s, well, I have heard of those referred to as dead-end degrees. Safe and sound in a box-brained vacuum.
The “visit” by George Bush I or II (?) illustrates nicely what style KU seems to have emulated.
That visit was only for the sworn lemmings of the area. We endured snipers, lockdowns, threatening lectures of staying away from all windows, no lunch break.
They appeared in the appropriate Darth Vadir black convoy of SUV’s, cycle’s, and busses.
It was summer time, and the campus was empty. However, we had the Frnch junior soccer team on visit and their coached was irate that such a thing would happen here, “In France, the president would get out of his car and out shaking your hand!. Theese ees Boolsheet!!” I laughed, and soon, waving at the snipers, some who limply waved back. we all just walked out and went where ever.
And that is middle management. Some little kingdoms, with their propaganda,harsh penalties for mere human infractions secret snitches,blatant nepotism, slander, public humiliation, ad nausaeum.
Recourse? As far as the union goes only for so far. After any prelim interogation, you are more or less on your own.
Fear.
They instill a fear that is so contrary to the idea of life as it could really be.The whole chain of command weren’t such a bunch of rotted out ben-wah balls.
And the was no discussion, period, on any edicts issued. A straight answer was non-existant.
Of course, we had to be subjected to the law of, not the state , nor national labor laws, but of the dogmatic right-wing leanings of the powers that are,presumably,somewhere hermetically sealed.
Racism at KU is so bad, that at time’s I feel as if the integration laws were only recently enacted. And , in an economic sense, they may as well have been.
In 20 years, I can barely recall more than 5 minorities that worked in housing. Now racism, is endemic to this area. It was wide open then, and much, much worse now.
When asked why People of Color were shown the campus as 1 group instead of mixing in the equally wary white kids, The previous president and a Mr Silberman looked painfully unaware of such a thing.
Sexual harrasment on the job was an accepted form of control. Spying. Rediculous commands to do some ass kissers job at the expense of your time,
only to be harrassed for some piss drop….
HAVE MERCY !!
I could go on. I journaled for a few years, some when I started, but after the late ’90’s, and the computer arrived, the world began to turn upside down.
Now, in all fairness, I am an asshole too, I am a non-traditional human being, who’s ideals and sense of right and wrong are naive and impossible to achieve except through a death or a miracle.
I’m not sure I want to go through all this again. The last 5 years were more than some need to bear but such is the lot of the 99 %r’s.
Life at KU for me became a gulag.
I started at KU with a booze problem.
Highly functional drunk, I completed hundreds of hours of extra work, thinking this is how ya go up the ladder, right? All I did was make everyone feel incompetent. Many were more than happy NOT to have to do their own work if I were so willing. And every improvement, observation, ideas for how to’s with students and a more contemporary interaction with students. In 1993, the program approached ” nicely”
The great recent PRIVATE recycle company is an offshoot of my desire for a recycling program. That might have been developed as a small credit course, like phys.ed. Plus the university/state could have possibly profited, like Penn State’s ice cream.
Even some of the dialogue in the flyers put out contained clear verbal reference to my original postups in ’98. Written in Sharpie, some of these remained in sight for years at some of the dorms I worked.
So, when this “new brainstorm” by housing was revealed, any acknowledgements were not forth coming, in fact , I was subjected to more harrassment by my former union mate , who helped take the credit after I had tried to defend the ” time I wasted” in seeing that as much recycling got sent to KU recycle. This went on for 6 or 7 years when they finally revealed this plan. I wrote it all down many times over the years.
It really pissed me off that they had pre-aaranged to eliminate the state guys ( one retired nearly on the spot, after 30 years here.)and privatize. It took almost 2 years to finalize the system. Then , all related parties were suddenly showing off new cars.
I retired last summer. It did not take long to blot out the bad memories but then I heard that this sight was making some noise. So , you all get my caffienated ramble.
Not all change is good, but this middle management bloat has gotta go. Thats where your pension problems start. Incompetence probably causes as many accidents and / or health issues more than anything else.
I’ve never did this sort of thing before and it is too bad I did not acquire the scathing editorial skills of my” un-degreed” brother. A high iq does not necessarily accomodate fools well,and he had it in spades.
I’m a grain in the wind,
yet it does irritate the autocrats skin.
Subvert from within.
TMI
be well
George