Having apologized for using an “insensitive” shooting metaphor, the president of the University of Iowa said he now wants to set the record straight on what he actually said during a recent UI Staff Council meeting.
“During a discussion with our Staff Council I responded to a question about improving graduate student teaching by commenting that ‘I have learned the (hard) way that if I ever walk into a classroom without a teaching plan, I should be shot,’” UI President Bruce Harreld wrote late Tuesday in an email to the Press-Citizen.
The email came in response to
an Associated Press story citing an email conversation between Harreld and Lisa Gardinier, a UI librarian and member of the UI Staff Council. In that exchange, Gardinier took Harreld to task for "(claiming) that there was 'one way' to prepare lessons and any instructor who goes into a class without having done so 'should be shot.'"
The email exchange has since been made available to multiple media outlets.
"Clearly using the word 'shot' in today's environment is insensitive and I apologize," Harreld said in his email. "However, I never said 'teachers should be shot.'"
Harreld said he called Gardinier on Tuesday afternoon to discuss what had actually been said, and “she quickly agreed with what I said and agreed that I never said ‘teachers should be shot.’ … I then repeated again what I said and she agreed that I did said ‘I should be shot.’”
Harreld also included an follow-up email he sent Gardinier later Tuesday.
"I believe there is meaningful difference between 'I should be shot' and 'teachers should be shot,'" Harreld wrote to Gardinier. "I am more than willing to be held accountable for I did say but not for what I didn't say. Your (sic) were honorable enough to agree in today's call to corroborate what I said and quickly agreed that the reporting has been inaccurate. Would you please be willing to speak with reporter to correct this error?"
When contacted Tuesday night, Gardinier said she had agreed with Harreld during their phone conversation, but upon further reflection, she “no longer trusts either his or my memory on whether he said ‘I’ or ‘they’ (teachers).”
As a librarian for Latin American and Iberian Studies, Gardinier is classified as a professional and scientific staff member with a continuing appointment.
"It's not sure not tenure," Gardinier said of her job status, "but it is somewhat protective."
Sam Van Horne, the UI staff member who asked the initial question, told the Press-Citizen earlier Tuesday that he had been startled by the “should be shot” comment in Harreld’s answer. But he was more interested in the substance of Harreld’s comments about investing more resources in the training of graduate instructors.
Gardinier said, from her perspective, the president is making a distinction without a difference. The implication of the president’s "should be shot" comment, she said, was meant to apply to anyone in a similar situation — even if initially directed at himself.
No video or audio recording of the meeting exists, according to the council.
In response to Harreld's comments, critics on campus have scheduled a protest march for noon Thursday. The marchers will travel from the Old Capitol Town Centre to Harreld's office in Jessup Hall.
The Associated Press
reported last week that Harreld had hired Eileen Wixted, a crisis communications consultant, to help improve his public communications skills. Harreld, a former IBM executive, is paying for the training out of his own pocket.
http://www.press-citizen.com/story/...d-tries-clarify-should-shot-comment/77412866/
