Let OCC's board of trustees know how you feel

Well, while I was down in Nashville for a Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) conference, I just happened to come into possession of addresses and phone numbers belonging to members of Ocean County College's board of trustees.

Feel free to use this information to let each of them know how unhappy you are about the way Prof. Karen Bosley has been treated. Enjoy!

Mr. Carl Van Thulin, Vice Chair
6301 Bayview Avenue
Brant Beach, New Jersey 08008
609-494-3341

Mrs. Eva Smithers, Secretary
1131 West Cross Street
Lakewood, New Jersey 08701
732-364-5856

Dr. Louis Aragona, Treasurer
603 Green View Way
Toms River, New Jersey 08753

Mr. Jerry J. Dasti
620 West Lacey Road
P. O. Box 1057
Forked River, New Jersey 08731
609-971-1010

Dr. Bruce Greenfield
Ocean County Superintendent of Schools
212 Washington Street
Toms River, New Jersey 08753
732-929-2078

Mr. Stephan R. Leone
9 Robbins Street
Toms River, New Jersey 08753
732-797-1600

Mr. Harry Jay Levin
1410 Hooper Avenue
Toms River, New Jersey 08754
732-240-0909

Mrs. Dolores Lewis
852 Glenwood Circle
Toms River, New Jersey 08753
732-363-5115

Mrs. Linda L. Novak
810 Derry Drive
Toms River, New Jersey 08753
732-270-6599

Mr. Warren H. Wolf
525 Nicholas Road
Brick, New Jersey 08723
732-899-5823

Counsel:
Mr. Jack Sahradnik
P. O. Box 757
Toms River, New Jersey 08754
732-349-4800

A hiatus...and another blog

I am going to be tied up for the next three weeks with work and a conference in Nashville, so my time will be limited until around the second week of April. Therefore, Boz Watch will be on hiatus.

But I would like you to check out The People's Voice blog, by Alberto D. Morales, news and photography editor of OCC's Viking News. When I get a chance, I'll dive into the template and add the site to the links on the right-hand side of the page. For now, you can link to it from this post.

Later.

More letters in support of Bosley

Letters to the Editor - Asbury Park Press, March 9, 2006

OCC leaders authoritarian

Shame on the Ocean County College Board of Trustees and President Jon Larson. ("Group: Reinstate professor; Report cites power struggle at OCC," Feb. 25.)

I urge all OCC alumni to reconsider making financial and in-kind contributions to the college in light of the recent removal of Karen Bosley as Viking News adviser. I was the sports editor of the Viking News from 1994-95, and Bosley acted as a mentor and a guiding light. She has always held the Viking News and its staff to the highest journalism standards and has been cultivating investigative reporters for decades. It is obvious this woman of integrity was dismissed for encouraging her students to pursue the truth.

The position of the trustees and Larson is that there are "too many errors" in the Viking News, and the Apple system is antiquated and not in step with professional newsletters. What a baseless pretext, and what a case of heavy-handedness on the part of these insecure, authoritarian and ignorant administrators. You have taken away her position, but your shameless act will not so easily erase her legacy.

BRIAN GREENAN
Baltimore, MD

NOTE: Mr. Greenan and I worked on the Viking News together in the mid-1990s and had lost touch soon after our time at OCC. In recent days, I have Googled him and realized he has gone on to have a very significant life, being involved in community revitalization projects while working in Mexico and later serving in West Africa as a volunteer with the Peace Corps. He is now an assistant director for a community-improvement organization in Baltimore.

Letters to the Editor - Times-Beacon Newspapers, March 9, 2006

Firings unfair

I am greatly troubled over the unexplained and arrogant removal of Ocean County College Prof. Karen Bosley as advisor for the student newspaper Viking News, and unfair firings, including that of two highly qualified and well-liked professors.

It speaks volumes of math professor Patrick Mitchell's qualifications, credentials and performance that he was promoted to assistant professor even before he was considered for tenure.

These poorly advised moves are obviously a knee-jerk reaction to their (ousted professors) support of free speech on the OCC campus.

It should be noted that all those individuals waived their privacy rights, requesting a deliberation at the OCC Board meeting Dec. 12, 2005. I understand the board attorney promised deliberations. However, there were none.

Observers at the meeting noted that the board members voted first and then stared into space as agitated professors and students spoke up in protest. It was a meeting that would be perfectly at home in a Lewis Carroll novel, but has no place in an institution that is supposed to be dedicated to helping to nurture the minds of tomorrow's business and political leaders, teachers, writers, professionals, etc.

What kind of a board, whether in the business or the nonprofit/educational sector, only listens to one side?

Back in the day, I worked on the Viking News, and had the privilege and pleasure of working under the direction and tutelage of Karen Bosley.

As an invaluable mentor and an excellent teacher, Bosley was a very helpful influence on my career. Now, not only is she facing retaliation for her uncompromising standards,including her excellent work on The Viking News, a publication that has won accolades from prestigious journalism organizations under her impeccable leadership, but so are the new professors mentioned above.

While the professors facing these unfair sanctions from the board are all willing to answer questions, the same cannot be said for OCC President Dr. Jon Larson, who has remained silent on campus, only to turn tail and take off on vacation.

What is he hiding from?

And the board members? Why aren't they questioning Dr. Larson?

Given these illegal and unethical retaliatory actions against well-qualified faculty, and the board's obvious reluctance to investigate Dr. Larson's insidious actions, I call for a thorough and impartial investigation by an outside and independent body, if necessary, the N.J. Attorney General.

SUSAN M. WALD
Southhampton, N.Y.

A bevy of new articles on OCC & Bosley

Viking News on collision course?

"There is no communication between you and us," the news editor of the student newspaper at Ocean County College told the college president yesterday.

Alberto Morales accused OCC President Jon Larson of "not communicating with the students," in putting together a soon-to-be-issued statement about press freedoms and a plan for the future of the college newspaper, The Viking News.

By the way, there is something mentioned in this story that caught my attention...

The plan proposes spending $30,000 already budgeted on new technology for the newspaper during the fall semester.
It will be used to produce an online edition hosted by the college to speed up responses over the existing online edition.

This reminded me of something that happened while I was the Web content coordinator at Rider University. The Rider News, for which I served as executive editor in 1996-97 during my days as a student, was looking for a new home for its online edition. It had been hosted on an old server in the communication department, but it was slow and the advisers asked me about moving it to the main Rider Web server. Personally, I had no problems with it, but as a student journalist-turned-administrator trying to "work both sides of the room," I told the advisers that it would be wise to upgrade the communication department server and bring the newspaper site back to it as soon as possible because I didn't like the idea of a student publication being hosted by a server run by administrative personnel. There are all sorts of inherent problems with that and it shouldn't be done. In my opinion, any online edition of a college newspaper should be hosted off campus or on a server administered strictly by the newspaper staff.

Adviser claims probe picks were agreed to by OCC

The embattled adviser to the student newspaper at Ocean County College said yesterday that both administrators and she handpicked the people to be interviewed during a recent investigation by the College Media Advisers into allegations of eroding press freedoms on the campus.

Karen Bosley, who has advised the newspaper for 35 years, said she picked the people she wanted interviewed and OCC President Jon Larson did likewise...

Ousted teacher earned award

Their frontal assault blocked, some members of the English Department at Ocean County College used a flanking movement yesterday afternoon to bring attention to national teaching awards won by four faculty members, one of them just axed by the Board of Trustees.

"We worked on this before this crisis arose," said English coordinator Judith Angona of the teaching programs that brought Diana Hacker TYCA Outstanding Programs in English Awards to her, adjunct instructor Lisa Prothers, and assistant professor Karen Veselits...

OCC fires back, dismisses probe report as "biased"

Ocean County College President Jon Larson dismissed a report that claimed there was an atmosphere of "intimidation and fear" that "permeates parts of this campus" and threatens student press freedoms.

"It's riddled with bias," Larson said.

The claims were among the findings of College Media Advisers after reviewing the decision to oust Karen Bosley from the journalism and newspaper advising posts she has held for 35 years.

That decision was "educationally and legally suspect," the CMA concluded...

OCC report author stands by "unbiased" findings

The author of a highly critical College Media Advisers report on press freedoms at Ocean County College is defending the findings against administration claims he was biased.

"They didn't like the message so they blamed the messenger. I stand by the report," said David L. Adams of Indiana University...