take time and care since the page or so I was writing would, in fact, and I knew this firmly, serve to ensure to a judge or jury that we were not carelessly abusing our privilege in systemic fashion, the misdeed for which the other gluttonous atlantic coast Ivy League school was being sued. A judge would have an entire page defending our actions rather than a form full of carelessly and quickly checked boxes that show no thought process involved. My thinking.
But, when necessary, we could and did pay hundreds of dollars on behalf of the faculty for these scans, for which they had a shiny budget of their own as bestowed by the college. We were not to be deterred…
And so, my monte video demonstration zone colleague had begun digging in her heels as I was sending her the specifics for our scans, a job that entailed me putting a book in a bin and her students scanning the required pages in the three day window. To me, a three day window is no pressure, but I suppose those more accustomed to beurocratic method might have a panic attack for anything under six months but whatever.
After about the fifth or sixth degrading reply (I had been called a grunt by this person and I remembered it), I shot back a retort that reached the skylights in the Human Resources department and the legal team as well, I knew. I was sitting on a pile of schlock from my boss and I was loathe to take it from the basement, too, so I informed my belligerent colleague, who had her hard on preparing Russian materials to teach her one staff member in her one class as a faculty member, that I could and I would “write a book” about copyright law and she and her inglorious Russian class (which I didn’t say at the time, I’m adding now for effect haha) were not going to demean me away from doing my job.
She was trying to trip me and make me fail at a key moment in the academic year, which would have had very public consequences, which we both knew.
Demonstration zone indeed, I thought…(the banner printed in the basement hole she called an office which had no windows…I did pity her that.)
But not me. I would write a book detailing my insights into academic copyright and bring glory to both myself and Centre College.
The legal team didn’t see it that way as we were “under strict” obligation to not publish our insights or experiences as staff members in work we had done for the college…
Oooooooo, it must be the C.I.A. I mockingly mused. Or maybe the N. S.A.? Wouldn’t want an undergraduate institution publishing books now would we? That just reeks of icky University graduate programs…