Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Santiago Replaced, Rumor Mill Begins!

Yes!  Finally an event worthy of rumor mongering.  As yall saw in the email, Chief Santiago has been replaced by some other dude (A Sheriff!).  But no one (that I know) knows why!  Mysteriousssss



RUMOR MILL TIME



  • First we have the rumor that Dean Bayless is Umbridge (via Harry Potter).  This is a dumb rumor because it is mean and obviously she does not have magical powers and this is not Harry Potter land.  This sort of stuff just contributes to incivility on campus and it kinda immature.  
  • Next, there is the rumor that Santiago was a reptilian.  Reptilians are reported to live in the core of the Earth and control the world via conspiracy theories.  Maybe he was one of them and it got found out!?!?!  More information here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reptilians
  • A somewhat more reasonable rumor, we have an anonymous commentator on some terrorist website saying the following:  rumor has it there was some shady stuff going on at the staff level that students weren’t aware of. there were some serious issues at PS and there needed to be some changes made – he needed to go.  Oooo fascinating! 
    • Not really sure what kind of shady stuff could be going on though.  Forging overtime?  Selling seized goods/drugs?  PROSTITUTION RING???
  • Bribes???
Anyways, it's clear that he was replaced and didn't leave of his own volition, but we haven't been told why, and who knows if we will.  It's a shame since he was so open and interested in student opinion.

UPDATE:  Just re-read the email and realized that currently Dean Bayless is the Director of Public Safety which is funny.  Not in a haha way but just kinda silly maybe.  Mostly it amuses me I think.  But that would be cool to have on your resume.

25 comments:

  1. Bayless has been called Umbridge since she got to St. Mary's .... it's nothing new... and it's because of the way she looks compared to the person who played the character in the movie, and some of the changes that took place when she first arrived...

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  2. Don't get me wrong, I love the Sheriff here, but their model of campus law enforcement is... very different from what we expect of Public Safety. This could go pretty freaking sour real fast.

    Also I can, once and for all, confirm that this is not Harry Potter Land, contrary to the beliefs and wardrobes of some in the Tolkien Society.

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  3. I think that the likeness extends to Bayless's seemingly falsetto sweetness...

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  4. Human Resources Issue...I guess he really wasn't as nice of a person as some of us thought he was :-(

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  5. Yeah, what anonymous 1:20 PM said. Human Resources issue.

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  6. what is a human resources issue!!1

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  7. It means that he was not able to prove that he was a human, and therefore was a Reptilian, duh.

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  8. yeahhhh... not psyched about that whole "Sheriff coming to town" shenanigans. Just worried about an overbearing and overly "by the book" sort of personality which doesn't gel with (at least in my opinion) the SMCM community, even as diverse at it is.

    I can see me getting a bunch of heat for climbing the bell tower now, rather than just a "Will... get off there right now" from officer Mary.

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  9. Granted, the Director of Public Safety doesn't actively patrol generally, but rather organizes stuff and such. As far as I know at least.

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  10. The email just supported how much she is Umbridge. Umm, taking over the job when old boss gets fired?? Sound familiar to anyone???

    However, Santiago had to go. I talked to him at that meeting with the students thing, and he had no grasp of the handbook or campus policy. Told us PS could write us up for drinking in the common room of our townhouses because its "public space".

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  11. Anon-a-lama-ding-dongApril 13, 2011 at 3:36 PM

    He *was* a good guy, and was pretty good with the students. However, I get the impression he was in over his head and/or SMCM just wasn't a good match for his skill set.

    Stuff I've heard includes conflicts with some of the officers (which may or may not have lead to having to deal with HR and/or the union), some poor management/supervisory decisions, and some of the officers doing some stupid stuff under his watch. All rumors, of course, but nobody gets fired for being a nice guy or doing a good job, so it's obviously something more serious, or a couple of more serious things. Bayless is supervising until the interim guy can take over in a couple of weeks - they can't let the place go unsupervised, duh, and since she was Santiago's supervisor, it makes sense for her to fill in. (And no, she wouldn't just fire him either for no reason or on the spot - this MUST have all been handled through HR and very, very carefully, because that's what happens in these situations. After you graduate, you'll understand.)

    I wouldn't worry about "the new sheriff in town," because he's just temporary while a search goes on. No doubt he'll apply for the job, of course, but in the meantime he's not going to make any drastic procedural changes or make many waves. It's just going to take a couple of months for them to do a proper search for some appropriate candidates - it'll likely be sorted out before fall semester starts.

    And no, you'll never know for sure why he was fired, because that is indeed an issue that has to do with Human Resources, and no one's allowed to talk about why someone was fired. That's just common sense, folks - when you get fired from a job, you want everyone you worked with to know why? Invasion of privacy and all that.

    Happy to keep the rumor mill churning! :P

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  12. Woo rumor mill, I think we can all agree that is the most important thing.

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  13. It's because he was an asshole. Officer Mary stopped taking night shifts because she didn't get along with him (not sure how that resolves anything, but that's what she told someone), and he was just a generally not-nice person to the rest of P.S. and even to faculty and other staff.

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  14. Woah! Anon-a-lama-ding-dong... patronizing much? It's a fair point that the only reason she's interim director is because she was Santiago's supervisor, but still, you can simply say that without basically implying that we're all ignorant and/or stupid in multiple ways.

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  15. Here's a cool fact: being graduated is Exactly the same as being in school except theres less homework and you got to pay for even more crap. They dont send you to some special training program where you learn to pretend that "Human Resources" is a useful/worthwhile profession and not actually a complete farce that mostly does more harm than good. You can pretty much figure that out for yourself anytime, even if you're some kind of tiny headed college baby

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  16. Anon-a-lama-ding-dongApril 13, 2011 at 6:34 PM

    Sorry, didn't meant to come off as patronizing, but you must admit your experiences with HR are pretty limited until you get out into corporate America.

    HR is actually a very, very useful part of any organization, but of course it's easy to mess it up, which is what creates messes. When done right, which it often is in a lot of places, it's actually quite useful (especially when you need help with your health insurance, retirement plan, unruly supervisor, harassing co-worker, unequal treatment, etc.). You always need to keep an eye on them, but in general most people working in HR really do want to help.

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  17. Anon-a-lama-ding-dong, I'm glad you didn't mean it, and maybe I overreacted to it a little bit. I think experience with HR is very much on an individual basis. A simple majority of undergrads don't, but there are plenty who do.

    Regardless, I hope Santiago gets along ok. He is quite nice.

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  18. God I wish they sent people to some camp to learn how complicated the working world can be - instead it dawns on you slowly and is an incredibly disillusioning process. On the plus side, it does help conflicts to be resolved in exactly the way the one between the above two comments was resolved. If only our politicians could learn to behave as well as you two. :)

    Enjoy SMC for me!

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  19. $10 bucks says anon-a-lama-ding dong's initials are J.W., and I don't mean Jackson Webb.

    Anyway for the record if you work at a State institution you serve at the pleasure of the Governor... with a 6-month probationary period. As long as it was within 6 months of his hiring (I believe it was right at the end of the 6 month period), the College *can* fire him without warning or explanation.

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  20. I think he served for over 6 months, at least according to the Point News.

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  21. Who's J.W.? And he served for seven months and some odd days.

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  22. I'm not really sure why there is this assumption that he was FIRED. I mean as much fun as it makes the rumor mill, we don't know that he wasn't suddenly hired by the FBI to be a badass and thus decided to leave SMCM.

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  23. Santiago...undercover in Russia.

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  24. Anon-a-lama-ding-dongApril 14, 2011 at 4:35 PM

    Oh, no, he was definitely fired, and Maryland is an at-will state, so anyone can be fired at any time for any reason, or for no reason (excepting federal anti-discrimination laws), but, as pointed out, he was here longer than 6 months anyway. And no, my initials aren't anywhere near J.W., and no idea who you think I might be. The mystery deepens!

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  25. ~((*aN0NYM0uSsS*))~April 29, 2011 at 3:11 PM

    "Anonymous said...

    It's because he was an asshole. Officer Mary stopped taking night shifts because she didn't get along with him (not sure how that resolves anything, but that's what she told someone), and he was just a generally not-nice person to the rest of P.S. and even to faculty and other staff.
    April 13, 2011 3:45 PM "

    IT'S THIS ONE IT'S THIS ONE IT'S THIS ONE! THIS IS THE ONE I BELIEVE

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