We all know what it does to you and me
Staff Writer
It’s not very often that I assume how a story is going to turnout prior to attending the event I’m covering.
As journalists we are trained to enter with an open mind and be prepared for anything. Still as I walked into ML 123 last Wednesday morning, I assumed I would be getting a nice “fluff” piece about how Washtenaw Community College President Rose Bellanca spent the morning chatting with faculty and staff at the college about ways to “enhance student success and satisfaction here at WCC.”
I planned on sitting in the meeting to take notes and afterwards ask the president and a couple attendees about how these meetings will benefit students.
So you can imagine my shock when before the meeting even started, I was asked to leave because this was an “internal meeting.”
I stood up, and walked out befuddled by what had just happened.
I can understand the meeting not being open to the general public, or even students. But I was invited to this one.
As a staff member of The Washtenaw Voice, I am a part-time employee of the college, and because of this status I received the same email, sent to my WCC account, that was sent to all other college employees.
The email explained that the meeting was “All WCC faculty and staff are invited to attend a dialogue with the President on one of the three dates listed below (please RSVP).”
Maybe they were asking me to leave because I did not RSVP. Fair enough. I can understand not wanting to give a spot in the packed meeting to someone who didn’t bother to sign up in time. And by packed, I mean there were seven people in the room, a room that could easily hold 40 people.
Or maybe they made the same mistake I made: Assuming what the outcome would be. We don’t always write good things about the administration at WCC and maybe President Bellanca saw me and assumed I was there to stir up trouble.
The sad thing is, I’ll never know what was said in the meeting, nor will we know what the staff discussed or how they felt these meetings would help make things better here at WCC.
Even sadder, what should have been an easy piece of good publicity for WCC became fodder for me to complain once again about the people in charge of this institution.
I can only assume this won’t be the last.
