COURTNEY Hartnett's article about the renovations at Newcomb Hall ("New Newcomb," Aug. 26) moved University employee Michael Leff to write about the attention and treatment given to another University employee, Kathy McGruder. You may know her as Ms. Kathy.
McGruder is well-known around Grounds and she works in Newcomb, so it made sense for Hartnett to ask her what she thought about the renovations. According to the story, McGruder is impressed with the changes but "added that she's found a special way to work with more difficult conditions. 'The [renovation] has affected me by putting me back in the hall where the cold can kick like Robert Randolph and it's a little hectic, but with a little alcohol it should work out. A chick's gotta do what she's gotta do.'"
Leff thought McGruder used poor judgment when she said that quote, and the people who put the paper together used even poorer judgment when they printed it, particularly since they also put it in bigger than average type on the front page of the Life section.
"It seems to me that this employee was exploited for the sake of a little joke," Leff said in an email. "I don't have to check the employee handbook to know that drinking on the job is a serious no-no, and although students can flaunt their drinking, the staff most certainly cannot. ... I'm sure the comment sounded great to the young reporter, but don't you think that an editor should have taken steps to protect this employee from herself?"
Cavalier Daily Managing Editor Andrew Seidman disagreed strongly.
"To suggest that Newcomb employees need to be 'protected' from themselves suggests, to me, that the concerned citizen doesn't think Newcomb employees are capable of thinking for themselves," Seidman said in an email. "And that's abhorrent. ... It is not the reporter's job to 'protect the employee from herself,' ...
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