USGS cuts vs. Tenure

James Carucci (Carucci@SMTP.LMS.USACE.ARMY.MIL)
Wed, 14 Dec 1994 08:27:13 -0600

to Sandy Whitney:
WHAT KIND OF SELF-RIGHTEOUS, SANCTIMONIOUS CRAP ARE YOU SPOUTING?

tell me, does your university dept have less than 15 to 25 percent
deadwood profs, who haven't done anything for 10 years or more?

perhaps you are unaware of the current early retirement program in
place in the federal gov't-- it is sweeping away many of the higher
gs level deadheads you seem so knowledgable about.

my god, how can you call the government civil service system to task
without seeing the faults of your own [state] civil service program?

yes, i work for the gov. right now; have only been here 2 months, but
i took much offense at your post. every academic dept i have been
part of , visited, or heard of has a bigger problem with 'deadwood'
than the usgs.

one story i'd like to mention [which illustrates in general how
difficult it is to can a state employee]--
during my second or third year at SIU, it was discovered that a
physical plant employee of the university, a male, had kidnapped a
male undergraduate student, and held him hostage in one of the steam
tunnels in the sub-basement. this poor student was, for a few days
until he was rescued, the 'love slave' of the civil servant. the
daily egyptian [campus newspaper] had an article about the arrest of
the university employee, and mentioned that firing him for cause
would be difficult!!! the guy kidnaps and rapes a student, and the
system could not figure out how to fire him!!

by the way-- i am for less government, not more. i am for a cleaner
environment and more money for education. my politics are confused,
having come from los angeles county, having a b.a. from berkeley, and
phd from southern illinois, my values are somewhat complex. i was
embarassed and horrified by bush's genocide in the gulf war; i am for
choice in women's child-bearing rights [yet i am a christian]; and i
am for gun control [we clearly don't need automatic assault rifles
for deer hunting, right?].

i don't know what party is the better--they both piss me off and i
don't know what to think anymore about congress. i do know, however,
that your broad painting of the usgs and the civil servant system was
ill-coneived, unfair, over-generalized, and knee-jerk.

james carucci
fed archaeologist
outside academe looking in