U of O Watch mission, in the words of Foucault...

"One knows … that the university and in a general way, all teaching systems, which appear simply to disseminate knowledge, are made to maintain a certain social class in power; and to exclude the instruments of power of another social class. … It seems to me that the real political task in a society such as ours is to criticise the workings of institutions, which appear to be both neutral and independent; to criticise and attack them in such a manner that the political violence which has always exercised itself obscurely through them will be unmasked, so that one can fight against them." -- Foucault, debating Chomsky, 1971.

U of O Watch mission, in the words of Socrates...

"An education obtained with money is worse than no education at all." -- Socrates

video of president allan rock at work

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

UofOgate: Fulcrum gives 'cover up' a whole new meaning

Fulcrum pulls peanut butter stain defence to cover Rock and Appleyard

The March 4, 2010, weekly print edition of the U of O student newspaper, The Fulcrum, is out on the stands.

It is remarkable in two respects.

First, despite numerous requests to the editors, it completely avoids news coverage of the Fulcrum scandal that has been raging since the Fulcrum Board of Directors suspended and fired its Ombudsman in mid-investigation. (See French student media coverage HERE.)

Second, this little item in a box at the bottom of page 21:

Excuse me? Fulcrum Business Manager Frank Appleyard, who threatened to sue over false accusations, was in "technical breach" of the Constitution ... but only because "Typographical errors in Sections 1.01 (i) and (l) of the Constitution suggest [as in state] that employees of the Business Department are subject to its provisions."

"In an effort to clarify its [conflict of interest] policy, the Society is in the process of making amendments to the Constitution..." ...so it says what we says it means... (Recall: They fired their Ombudsman over differences in "interpretation" of the Constitution.)

Wow.

If we find we are "technically" breaking the rules then we must change the rules so that their "intent" is clear. Holy poo poo. That tops the Rock admin approach of "if we are criticized for our actions then we will introduce a policy to legitimize what we want to do (e.g., promised 'donor recognition policy').

Why not just state that Appleyard had a peanut butter stain on his copy of the Constitution when he accepted the job under Rock while he was Business Manager of the Fulcrum and that Rock forgot that he was no longer a Liberal MP.

[Photo: Business Manager Frank Appleyard and Editor-in-Chief Emma Godmere - total separation between the business and editorial departments?]

Now it's time to change the Constitution so that it allows conflict of interest? Brilliant move.

It's right up there with the Publisher of The Ottawa Citizen (Jim Orban) being on the Board of Governors (BOG) of the University of Ottawa while Rock writes invited editorials and receives personal advance notices from Orban about editorials critical of dissident professor Rancourt, not to mention media-reported undisclosed contracts for naming publicly funded campus spaces in exchange for "editorial support".

As Frank Appleyard has learned, "editorial support" has a mercantile value...

What was that job? How was it advertised? What special talents were required? How was student tuition money being spent? An investigation is in order. Ooops, we fired the Ombudsman.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Zero coverage of the Fulcrum scandal in the Fulcrum = Zero separation between Business Department (or Board) and Editorial Department.

A very simple equation that everyone can see...

Anonymous said...

okok all da business people can take money from da u admin but da editorial people can't?

and da business people and da ed people are like at da same parties and share da same offices and trade places from year to year and go to da same conferences and were journalists togeder...

soso its all fine cause da board is goin to rerite da constitution?

can someone explain dis? pleeeease.

Anonymous said...

This not an ethics brain twister:

The business and editorial staff of the Fulcrum elect each other to their positions (literally) and they are paid by the same employer. Board decisions determine their salaries.

The same ethics must apply to Rock regarding patronage job appointments to student editors paid with student tuition money and public funds.

Anonymous said...

If members feel that this constitutional change is inappropriate we can go to their democratic AGM and vote against it..... OH wait... you have to register in september to vote at their AGM! Here I thought that that levied members could vote!

Forgot they had changed their democratic ways for the benefit of it's members.

Anonymous said...

Guys, get a fucking life for god's sake...

Anonymous said...

hilarious pamphleteers commentary on this matter:

peanut butter jelly time

-pm

Wayne said...

Sounds like there are some good jobs to be had over at the Rock administration. I'm not sure if I qualify, though. Where are all the job advertisements being posted? or, do you need to know Mr. Rock personally to get hired over there?

Anonymous said...

All job postings at the university can be viewed online at:

http://www.uottawa.ca/all-about/employment/

Anonymous said...

haha that's classic! Maybe you will get that job you always wanted after all, and all you had to do was look, or ask, in your case. Better brush up your Resume!