When your dean calls the police to keep you out of a meeting...

Yesterday I showed up to a routine college "leadership" meeting (dean's office and department chairs)  at the request of my chair to find that my dean called an armed police officer to "keep the peace," in the event that I would not willingly leave the meeting. The irony of it was that the circulated agenda listed "Rumor control." I guess that is one way to control the rumor...to disallow the presence of countervailing rational voices.

Police come when one claims they are in physical danger or, in this case, for a "show of force."

The context: There is an active rumor that my dean is abusing her institutional power by exerting unilateral control over departments in their selection of leadership. Having an armed officer of the law on site as a show of force did not exactly diffuse this rumor. Regrettably, the rumor comes from her actions of abusing her institutional power by exerting unilateral control over departments in their selection of leadership--something that I and my department colleagues have direct knowledge of.

Are college "leadership" meetings places where important college business takes place? If so, why are department representatives disallowed? If not, what are these meetings?  Are they a platform for college deans to broadcast their unexamined narratives without challenge? Are they a place for "Rumor control?"

Anyway, it is really something to work at a place where your supervisor calls in an armed officer of the law to keep you out of a routine business meeting.  What if two faculty members were to agree on something...would our dean then call in a SWAT team?

Thanks for inviting me to post.  I am not really familiar with Blogger but have been slow blogging for awhile on Blogspot.  I thought I would share a link to my own blog (which went into hibernation when I went to NSF) since it may contribute to the larger conversation or at the very least clarify my own interests and the place I am coming from.  All my posts current reside on Bucknell's Wordpress site:  http://rac039.blogs.bucknell.edu/