#my email: complaints against the Director of X go to me. complaints against the Principal of Y go to this other guy

[countingnothings]

me: governance and operations are separate for some important reasons, like x and y. this is not just the case at our institution, but at any institution that has a board of governors.

students who are trying to get me to intervene in operations: it's very strange that you would say governance and operations are separate! we don't like this, and therefore you must be wrong about it.

both of these students are in the process of phds, which i think is proof that you don't need to have reading comprehension to get an advanced degree in the humanities.

#i spent five days crafting a gentle email explaining my position without commenting on the legitimacy of their accusations against staff #which they took less than 30 minutes to respond to in a very incoherent screed #that conflated 'when i was a student rep to the board i felt that i wasn't taken seriously' #with 'it's weird to say that student reps represent students to the board' #hilariously this guy wasn't taken seriously because he neither showed up to meetings nor had anything substantive to contribute when he did #the one thing of value he contributed was something multiple board members took up and advocated for on his behalf #my email: in reviewing policy we may adopt a multi-stakeholder approach that would include student voices #their email: we think it's horrible that no one ever thinks of student voices! you can't make policy without us! #my email: complaints against the Director of X go to me. complaints against the Principal of Y go to this other guy #their email: we want to launch a complaint against the principal of x #no such position exists but alright then #having heard about the situation in which they have appointed themselves the Voice of the Students from multiple perspectives #including student perspectives #they have no grounds for a formal complaint and in fact have been treated with extraordinary generosity by all the non-students involved #but nobody will promise to adopt the strategy these 2 students think is best #(we're in a stage of policy review for the relevant policies and these students have received multiple promises to duly consider their inpu #but unless i get my way i will continue to throw a tantrum!!! #GPOY #i have been chair of this fucking board for two months. #they are so damn lucky they are not interacting with the previous chair #who would have shut them down immediately and forgotten about it two minutes later