Thanks, Brad, for sharing. As teaching chair, I believe that proposing such relevant and timely panels is the essence of your position rather than a conflict of interest. I've shared with Sharon, MAC's incoming Vice Head/Programming Chair, that she should expect 2-3 proposals from each chair (PF&R, research, teaching) relative to your respective areas. Camilla At 04:45 PM 9/24/2007 -0400, Bradley Gorham wrote: >Fellow MAC members, > >Clearly this seems like a good idea for a panel given the volume of >responses that have come in such a short time. I'm sure that many of us >can easily think of similar situations on our own campuses, and I know >that I often get asked by students about how the campus media should >handle diversity issues. My campus (Syracuse) had our own incident a >couple years ago: a "humor" show on the campus TV network did skits >involving jokes about date rape and lynching, and then complained about >censorship when the TV network management tried to change their >content. When the student newspaper publicized this, people on campus >were understandably upset at the makers of the show and the network for >letting them do it. The chancellor shut down to the network, which turned >the dialogue into one of free speech vs. respect for diversity (a false >dichotomy in my mind). Although some productive dialogue occurred on our >campus in the wake of this, the incident also produced a fair amount of >resentment that lingers. > >(Read some of the comments on the ><http://campusprogress.org/fieldreport/1917/the-racial-politics-of-college-newspapers>great >article that Calvin Hall linked to and you will see echoes of that kind of >resentment.) > >These sorts of incidents occur, unfortunately, at regular intervals, and >they ask us to face some very important questions. I also know that, >equally unfortunately, many of my White colleagues are afraid to talk >about some of these topics in their classes lest they "say the wrong >thing." So I strongly support a session like this. > >As Teaching Chair for the division, I am not sure if I should be the one >to organize it (is it a conflict of interest for the teaching chair to >organize a panel that I then get to have some say on?). However, I am >happy to take that responsibility if you all want me to. > >-Brad > >Bradley W. Gorham, Ph.D. >Assistant Professor, Communications >S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications >Syracuse University >215 University Place >Syracuse, NY 13244 >315-443-1950 > Camilla Gant, Ph.D. Director/Associate Professor Mass Communications University of West Georgia 678.839.4933 Office 678.839.4926 Fax