🚀 go-pugleaf

sullivan@cs.rose-hulman.edu (Fred Sullivan) writes:
>roelle@uars_mag.jhuapl.edu (Curtis Roelle) writes:
>>sullivan@cs.rose-hulman.edu (Fred Sullivan) writes regarding Nude Pics:

>>>1.  Our department has no policy against display of the kind of material in
>>>question.
>>Or, "Nobody wants to take responsibility for making decisions around here."

>>>2.  I am not going to tell him that he has to remove the pictures.
>>And, "I can't make decisions either."

>>>3.  My personal opinion is that he is acting like a adolescent jerk.
>>  						       ---------------
>>You'd rather get personal and start calling him names.
>>And show him who's boss.

>Evidently I'm the kettle and you're the pot.  Read your replies to 1. and 2.
>above, and tell me you're not getting personal.  In this case I believe that a
>student appreciates an honestly expressed opinion, rather than being told to
>obey a rule imposed from on high.

Not being your teacher, supervisor, or authority figure, candid
responses to 1. and 2. above are not exactly intimidating.  My text in
quotes was used to illustrate what thoughts might be going through a
student's head when listening to 1. and 2., which are both 
irrelevant.  There is no policy regarding nude visuals and so pointing
this out is irrelevant and weakens your case.  When criticizing
subordinates or a student one must be careful to avoid the impression
of being menacing, for their well being, and also in avoiding legal
complications.  If "adolescent jerk" is your "honestly expressed
opinion", then in your case honesty may not be the best policy.

>I'm not sure exactly what your point is.  Is it that I was too blunt in
>expressing my opinion of the students' actions, or that I was wrong in my
>assessment?  

It was the first.

>             If it's the first, then I can only say that the students
>involved are a better judge than you, and my relationship with them has not
>suffered.  

Because they were goaded into submission by their instructor we must
therefore conclude that the means are justified?  A judge tries and
convicts a man who is innocent, and the man is sent to prison.  When
questioned about the verdict after the trial the judge replies, "I was
correct in my judgement because as you can plainly see he is now
serving time in prison."

-- Curt Roelle