(U-WIRE) NORMAN, Okla. – “They’ll find a reason to fire people who speak up,” Cody Dobbs told The Daily last week.
Dobbs, a former University of Oklahoma custodian, was talking about the pressure he has seen university officials put on custodial employees who voice complaints regarding OU and its administration.
It just so happens, however, that Dobbs probably speaks for the majority of non-teaching employees at OU.
Is that really the case? Certainly, OU administration would argue otherwise.
And they did last week. Burr Millsap, associate vice president for Administrative Affairs and director of OU Physical Plant, said there had not been an attempt to prevent custodians from speaking with media in the Daily story, “Custodians say they are overworked.”
Unfortunately, Millsap admitted he was unaware of an e-mail sent by Vicki Shoecraft, managerial associate for Physical Plant administration.
In the e-mail, dated Oct. 12, Shoecraft implored employees to “please call in the next few minutes if you or your staff have been contacted by the OU newspaper for an article about custodial.”
Why? Hopefully, Shoecraft might merely have been offering employees assistance with public speaking. Something along the lines of: Don’t say “like,” and maybe practice speaking with a pencil in your mouth for an hour or so before interviews to promote proper enunciation.
The Daily itself can attest to the rampant bureaucracy in place to control media communication.
And while we understand it is necessary to have a solid public affairs system at a university, suspicious behavior such as that e-mail fuels claims that OU works a little too hard to suppress information that might make it look bad.
The Daily reporter who wrote the story contacted multiple current custodians who all declined to go on the record for, they indicated, fear of adverse ramifications from above.
It is our opinion that this is nothing new, nor uncommon. And we ask that anyone who personally has experienced similar situations contact us…
Leave a Reply