Badger Blog Alliance

Sic Semper Tyrannis

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

UW-Whitewater response found lacking

Ah, yes, my Alma Matter. I see that your vision of communication is a one way model. Today, the university issued an open letter to the Wisconsin Legislature here. My curiosity was piqued by the following:
The university carefully addressed issues of funding support and security for the event.
Absolutely no state general purpose revenue will be used to subsidize the lecture. All direct and indirect costs beyond $1,400 in student fees will be covered by private donations. The safety of the campus community is of the highest priority and we are working to develop and implement a security plan that is appropriate for the circumstances. A suggestion by some that the event be moved off university grounds would not only undermine security, it would pass the security costs of this lecture directly to taxpayers.
This lead me to a question. Does this mean they are reimbursing the city for security expenses? The statement is so vague that it is easy to infer so, but impossible to say definitively. So I burned off a quick email to the address they have designated for this information. This is the automated reply I received:
Due to the extremely high volume of comments regarding the Ward
Churchill controversy, university officials are unable to personally
respond to the electronic mail we are receiving. Please understand that
we are trying to be as open as possible regarding the news and issues
surrounding this controversial visit by posting updates, as they happen,
at:

http://www.uww.edu/ (Under "In the News")

Thank you for your input on this difficult controversy.
Interesting. So they set up an email account to collect the messages on this topic, and they may or may not even be reading the messages. I'm really glad I took the 5 minutes to ask for clarification of my question. It's too bad, really. The University looks like it is ducking the repercussions of free speech much like Mr. Churchill would like to. Somebody has a question about what you say, or is maybe critical of what you have to say? Just ignore them, maybe their critical or questioning voice won't be heard that way, only yours will.

Ugh. Somebody in the business school please teach these guys about customer service/public relations, please.

(cross posted at Jiblog)