Cover next page > title: Seeing Language in Sign : The Work of William C. Stokoe author
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| < previous page page_106 next page > If you like this book, buy it! < previous page page_107 next page > Page 107 isn't this great" He never asked me. I had no idea he was doing this. He loved to redecorate. He used to tear down walls in the English department, change rooms around, install new partitions. There was a ladies' lounge next to what was then his office. I think he kept wanting to breakthrough those walls and make that part of his office or make it the secretary's office. We really had to fight him on that. Then there was the matter of the department secretary. Members of the department recall her behavior as erratic, particularly the way she would scream obscene language at them if they didn't follow the office procedures she had instituted. But Stokoe thought she was misunderstood, that any "untoward" behavior on her part was simply the result of her dedication or of problems in her personal life. The other department members found his defense of her illogical, even absurd. Most academic departments contain the stuff of which soap operas are made. This particular installment began with a complaint by the secretary that someone had been rifling through Stokoe's personal filesfiles that contained much of the sponsored research for the dictionary. Stokoe ordered the locks on the department door to be changed and issued a memo stating that "in order to protect college property, all key holders were required to sign a receipt and an acknowledgment of responsibility He committed a strategic error by having the locks changed over a weekend. Faculty with early Monday morning classes were infuriated when they found themselves locked out of the copy room. These actions destroyed any goodwill that still existed between Stokoe and the members of the department. At about the same time, Stokoe discovered that personnel changes were being made without his knowledge. For example, one of the "key members" of the department had arranged with Dean Schuchman to transfer to another department without first consulting with Stokoe. There followed two months of accusations, memos, telephone calls, secret meetings, votes of confidence or the lack thereofa state of confusion comic in its predictability but sad Download 2.48 Mb. Share with your friends:
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