Josh Thomason,USAO Executive Board, innocent squirrels, and others subjected to this outdated ranting- (This email is in response to Josh Thomason's email, which can be read following our text.) First, we would like to apologize to the SSEC listserv, which has made it clear in the recent past that they would like only SSEC business conducted on their list. I am sorry that this issue has been brought again to the fore in your arena. We have made every attempt to keep our business off of the SSEC listserv except occasionally when soliciting articles (and we can discontinue that if this small collaboration is inconvenient). The Undercurrent has had an operating listserv since the beginning of the semester. It can be joined from our web site at http://undercurrent.ou.edu. We are addressing this on several available lists so that we make our position abundantly clear and Josh gets the spectacle he seems to be searching for. The Undercurrent is an independent voice on OU's campus, affiliated with no other student or community organization. Our constitution, as it has been on file for several years in the Center for Student Life, states that editors must be OU students. Michele,Eric, and Shauna buoyed the Undercurrent through the summer when no other editors stepped forward. Michele and Eric gave birth to this semester's first issue. Everyone at the meeting last spring knew a paper would be coming out the first week of school, yet its funny that none of them from outside of OU inquired about what they could do to make this happen. When the first issue appeared and things were not as Josh and others wanted them, they decided the Undercurrent wasn't being run properly without a bureaucracy they could influence. Several Undercurrent folks were quite pleased with the beautiful product produced by Eric and Michele. These folks decided they didn't want the "propaganda" paper that Josh envisioned and proceded with publication of subsequent issues. Michele and Eric sacrificed several days to double-handedly producing the first issue and continue to devote most of their extracurricular lives to the Undercurrent. They have worked very hard to make the Undercurrent an environment open to all those willing to contribute. Though Eric has been utterly devoted to the Undercurrent since he came on board, he is far from megalomanical, which is clear in the fact that we have eleven editors, over thirty people contributing to the last issue, and over sixty people subscribed to the list. Authority and responsibility are broadly delegated. Differing views are always welcomed and expressed. Though Josh and his cohorts willingly excluded themselves from the workings of the Undercurrent when they found those actually working on the paper weren't going to be subjected to the decisions of unworking patrons, they should properly have been fired as editors, anyway. Newspapers cannot be produced by absentee folks and months out of the loop with no contact would get anyone fired from a serious publication. USAO is not an official drop site of the Undercurrent and it was not an editorial decision that the current issue end up there. Others may or may not end up there in the future. Regardless of your personal differences with members of our staff, it seems quite foolish to discard or destroy material that other members of the left have worked so hard to produce. USAO will remain absent from our distribution lists. If you want to read it we are online at http://undercurrent.ou.edu. It is a shame that personal differences are such a detriment to progressive and leftist movement when coalition building should be a priority. We have not let the cold shoulder's of Josh and others keep us from moving forward and growing as an open and progressive paper. Distant plans exist to expand the Undercurrent beyond OU; however, we have failed to find anyone willing to work with the Undercurrent instead of against us in developing these avenues. Along these lines, we attempted to find contact info to forward this email directly to the USAO organizations that Josh sites in his text. None was found on the USAO web site nor on the national organizing sites for several of them. We regret that our contact with USAO remains exclusively through Josh. We hope these groups make contact with us if they would like to collaborate in the future. We feel the loss of several good writers that pulled from our ranks with Josh. However, we have much new blood this semester (we always hope for more)with lots of creativity and dedication. We are committed to printing quality material from anyone. Try us. Editors have been chosen for the fall semester. Notices concerning these positions were blasted across the listserv for weeks before positions were filled. If Josh or others at large are interested in really becoming involved with the Undercurrent, we encourage you to join our list and attend our meetings every Tuesday night 9pm in room 384 of the Conoco Leadership Wing of OMU. Again, we are sorry to air these issues everywhere. We hope that all future Undercurrent discussion and business can be conducted through our list. Again, join it at http://undercurrent.ou.edu (in case you missed it in everything we print and email). Sincerely in Solidarity, The Undercurrent Editorial Board Michele Nordahl, Executive Editor, Layout Editor Eric Webb, Managing Editor Michael Etzkorn, Asst. Managing Editor, Opinion Editor, Graphics Guru Marcy Fleming, Features Editor Nick Tyra, News Editor Clint Vrazel, Entertainment Editor Ben Smith, Asst. Entertainment Editor Brittney Guest, Arts Editor Barbara Swartz, Asst. Arts Editor Phil Dow, Web Editor Misty Woodard, Copy Editor, Asst. Web Editor >From: Joshua Thomason <[log in to unmask]> >Reply-To: Joshua Thomason <[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: USAO Undercurrent? >Date: Tue, 6 Nov 2001 02:22:53 +0000 > >Dear Undercurrent folks (especially Mr. Webb): > >To my suprise, I picked up a copy of theUndercurrent on the campus of USAO >here in Chickasha today. This is well and good except for one detail. ALL >USAO EDITORS WERE EFFECTIVELY REMOVED FROM theUNDERCURRENT STAFF without >notice. After a brief weekly meeting with officers of our Executive Board, >I was charged with the responsibility to relay this message to >theUndercurrent staff; particularly Eric Webb. > >"Due to the complete disregard for the democratic decision making process >that took place at a joint meeting last Spring at which it was decided that >theUndercurrent would include representatives elected from other campuses >as >editors for theUndercurrent so that we might expand theUndercurrent >readership beyond OU to all 'Central Oklahoma Colleges', activists and >representatives from the USAO Student Coalition, Young Communist League, >Progressive Unity, the Volunteers, Campus Greens and others have resolved >to >eject theUndercurrent from the USAO campus." > >TheUndercurrent coup led by Eric Webb supported by a selection of other OU >editors, was a devious and megalomaniacal maneuver that has served only to >further the rift between our organizations and effectively paralyze further >progressive student initiatives. Thus, delivering theUndercurrent to USAO >only adds insult to injury and has not been well recieved. Therefore, we >strongly urge the Editorial Staff and/or others involved in the decision to >deliver theUndercurrent to USAO as well as those who made the physical >delivery to cease immediately. In the face of lies, misleadings and other >spineless efforts by theUndercurrent's Managing Editor, we have responded >by >ignoring you. Please do not insist that we redirect our attention to you >attention again. > >Sincerely, >Joshua Thomason > >_____________ __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Find a job, post your resume. http://careers.yahoo.com