Frank Magazine Issue 578.pdf - Besthostingplanever.com

WHO’S HOT & WHO’S
NOT AT ACADIA
BY AL UM
AS HE COPES WITH WRESTLING A
$70 MILLION DEBT ALLIGATOR THAT
PLAGUES THE VALLEY’S FINEST BAP-
TIST UNIVERSITY, ACADIA PREZZIE RAY
IVANY MUST BE MORE THAN A LITTLE
PREOCCUPIED WITH BRINGING STABIL-
ITY TO HIS SENIOR ADMINISTRATIVE
RANKS.
To that end, HR executive director
Akihah Starkman is called upon as interim
replacement for Neil Carruthers,
the veep of administration since 2007.
THE
GROVES OF
ACADEME
Having previously worked under ‘Fabulous’ Floyd Dkyeman at Mount
Allison’s external relations office, Neil entered Wolfville’s academic
groves in 2002 as exec. dir. of campus planning. Given that he survived
Killer Kelvin’s Reign Of Terror, and the Gail Dinter Gottleib
lost years wandering in the desert, I’d say Neil’s loss is a big one for
Acadia.
Starting his new gig as Huron U. College CAO in Upper Canada on
February 15, Neil happened on a career opportunity too good to pass
up, suggests Acadia spokesthingy Scott Roberts, when asked to explain
the departure.
Also on the career upswing is Acadia’s University Librarian Sara
Lochhead, who also toiled at Mount A. and who Ray appointed veep
of enrolment & student services, a crucial portfolio, but perhaps a thank-
TROUBLESOME TERA, FROM PAGE 14
On a personal level, Parker told me he has
a lot a time for Tera. He added they had many
discussions when he was doing the Tar Ponds
thingy and Tera was doing the reporter thingy
for the Herald. Parker said it speaks to Tera’s
character that at the end of the workday she
drew no daggers, held no grudges.
Parker, having had those many Sydney Tar
Ponds dealings with reporter Tera, I thought,
would be an appropriate person to ask for his
thoughts.
It’s Parker’s interpretation that the same
passion the Holland College grad demonstrated
in her choice of career, and during her
go-getter freelance days, that ultimately
played a role in her departure from the Herald.
He described Tera as an “indefatigable” person
and journalist, but one whose judgement
is often blurred by her passion for a story to
the point where “she assumes people who
disagree with her are ill-motivated.”
Colleagues at the Herald say much the
same thing. These are foot-soldier union
brothers and sisters who feel Tera has been
wronged.
“No, we are not in the business of making
mistakes,” noted one co-worker.
“But what newspaper doesn’t make mistakes?
Tera’s mistakes, at least, were ones
18 ATLANTIC CANADA FRANK FEBRUARY 16, 2010
of exuberance. There are reporters in the Halifax
(Herald) newsroom, still, whose best day’s
work constitutes nothing more labour intensive
than rewriting press releases. That wasn’t
Tera’s thing.”
To wit, Tera supporters agree that management
must inescapably share the blame for
her undoing. “I’m not sure they fully appreciate
how tough the Cape Breton bureau is to
work,” said one co-worker.
“There are management types who, believe
it or not, think it’s a half-hour drive from Sydney
to Meat Cove, a 20-minute drive from
Sydney to Port Hawkesbury. They come
aboard Tera, disown her now, but they were
only too happy to hitch themselves to her
when she won a journalism award.”
As far as the story in question is concerned
that was filed near the end of a 14-hour day,
Tera told me.
She blamed the Herald copy desk for the
misrepresentations in her story, adding that
unfortunately, her cellphone was kaput, which
made communication between her and copy
editor Bobby Burgess impossible.
Maybe so.
But there are others familiar with this saga
who would argue that a component of a reporter’s
passion for his or her job, is also the
passion to get it right, and with Tera there
came a cumulative effect that could no longer
Hot: Sara.
Not: Neil.
less one. If enrolment remains low, Sara could v. well wind up, through no
fault of her own, in the crosshairs of an impatient board. After all, Acadia’s
former enrolment specialist, Paula MacKinnon-Cook, ended up launching
a wrongful dismissal suit against the uni and Dinter-Gottleib, after
Paula felt her Acadia exit was unduly hastened, a suit she ultimately lost
in court (Frank 517, 574).
In another turn of the revolving door, Geoff Irvine has left his exec.
dir. gig at Alumni Affairs, having taken over for the ousted Steve
Pound eons ago. In mid-December former Harbour View Seafoods
owner and Clearwater toiler Geoff embarked on his new career as
czar of the newly formed Lobster Council of Canada.
Adios, Geoff, or as they say in Latin, “Vale!”
Does Frank Know? atlanticfrank@eastlink.ca
be ignored.
Maybe if Tera Camus was just a simple plagiarist
like Herald Yarmouth bureau chief
Brian Medel (Frank 472), she’d still be on
the Dennis Family payroll. Who knows?
Last year, Tera virtually signed her own
death warrant when she agreed in writing with
Herald management that further miscues
would mean a parting of the ways.
As of this writing, the Whitney Pier native
is planning an excursion from Sydney to Halifax
to sit down with union bosses to discuss
grieving her firing.
Outside of that she has no immediate plans,
other to stay in journalism, even if that means
a possible move to the West Coast.
“I have to be around the water,” Tera concluded.
And the last word goes to Parker Donham,
who told me while it is traumatic for a career
journalist to be out of work, it is never the end
of the world.
“I don’t think journalists ever appreciate the
skill set they develop over the years. There
are opportunities to match that skill set, but
you have to seek them out,” he said.
Er, um, great to hear that news, think I’ll run
my resume down to Jimmy Melvin Jr. Inc.
Enterprises, I’m sure they can put a man of
my varied experience to work in some official
capacity.