C.Y.A

[Mark Story]

On Tue, 14 May 1996 Wippen@aol.com wrote:
>
> If worse comes to worse and they DO cut you back to 10 months, Murphys Law
> says that during those two months you're *not* there, some piano emergency
> will arise and they'll call on good ole' Newton to bail them out.
>
> You will then have the enviable choice of behaving like the professional you
> are ,even when those around you won't, and take care of the emergency
> ....or, telling them to go straight to hell.
> I'm not sure which way *I'd* go ;-)

This is a toughie.  My natural inclination is to give in and bail them
out - and in my independant relationships this has been appreciated and
beneficial in the long run.  However, it took me a while to get tuned
into the institutional mindset that if you keep bailing them out, they
soon accept this as the normal and acceptable state, and you find
yourself in a worse position, both personally and as far as your program
is concerned.  Even my faculty have urged me to allow the administration
to feel the full force of their cock-ups on occasion.  Sometimes this is
the only way they get the message that changes have to be made.  Planning
and reason don't usually make it all the way through the chain of
command - disasters do.  Just make sure you keep your own hinder covered,
as many here have already pointed out.

Mark Story, RPT

mstory@ewu.edu
Eastern Washington University Music Department
Cheney, Washington, USA
http:www.class.ewu.edu/MUSIC/Department/music.html