Fitchburg State University

The following was a last ditch effort I made in 1996, my last year at Fitchburg State College.  No response was ever received...

............................................

OPEN LETTER TO THE STAFF OF THE STROBE

By Professor G. Tod Slone

It is utterly amazing to me that your newspaper has refused to publish anything relative to the corruption that currently exists behind the scenes at Fitchburg State College.  I brought this concern, which deeply affects the quality of student education, to your attention on several occasions in several different letters and to a staff member in person.  The staff member assured me that she had intended on visiting my office to interview me.  When will that be?  Next year when I'm no longer here?  You have chosen to ignore my letters and behind-the-scenes corruption.  Even a student of mine told me that you would not print anything he submitted about the matter.  The local newspaper, The Sentinel, will not print anything either.  Moreover, the faculty refuses to respond to my concerns.  

What kind of institution and town is this?  Does former president Mara still own you, the faculty and the town too?  Has your advisor or an administrator put a gag order on what you may or may not print?  Or is ignoring corruption your own initiative?  

I am ashamed for you, the faculty and all other participants who have helped keep quiet the various instances of unethical and unprofessional behavior perpetrated by some department chairpersons and other administrators.  For you and them, I have written the following poem:  

Fraudulent Perspectives

decry iniquity or be part of it, like it or not

there can be no real in-between

don the cloak or shed it

decry what you see and hear, or live as automaton cadavers

fulfilling the purpose and nefarious dreams 

of the authoritarians who dictate your lives

decry the foul behavior of those with whom you rub elbows

or make excuses for them and for you and

turn on, or at least ignore, the one who decried, for he, 

because of you, shall be alone and vulnerable

what kind of religion would embrace you who...?

what kind of religion would pardon the violators,

the carrion pokers...?

decry or be nothing more than Saro-Wiwa's "meat of dictators"

stew of "moral decrepitude" and perhaps "mental ineptitude"

so easy and comfortable for you, it is, 

to rationalize... 

WHY

YOU 

DO 

NOTHING 

IN THE FACE OF CORRUPTION.