Dioxin Dorms Blog :: SUNY New Paltz

MONDAY promises to be a difficult day for Sandy Hess, the executive secretary to SUNY New Paltz Prez Steve Poskanzer. Sandy is, by dint of her job, the flak catcher for Dr. Steve. She guards the gate, and answers the phone if you get as far as his office. Monday, a lot of parents will be doing just that.

This weekend was Parents’ Weekend at the college. That means a lot of moms and dads came up to visit their sons and daughters and get an earful from the administration. Most of that happened at an event Saturday night at the Studley Theater (built in 1919).

Students from the group Synthesis and their friends at SDS did a little informational direct action. They dressed in back, like ushers, slipped in the door, and as parents and students filled the theater, they passed out an informational letter about the PCB and dioxin crisis in Bliss, Capen, Gage and Scudder halls.

I read the letter late last week; the students asked me to edit it and make sure they had their facts right. Mostly I tightened up the formatting and added a bit of punctuation; the letter was basically perfect, touching on all the key points, getting the history right and maintaining a clear, concerned tone. Jenna Dern was the main author; she’s been a student of PCBs for more than six months now, and she’s learning this very difficult topic well (she’s a Taurus — the info takes a while to get in, then when it’s there, it’s like a library with a good catalog).

Saturday’s direct action gets the perfect 10 rating from Dioxin Dorms. It was designed to inform those who are getting contaminated about the issue — see our mission statement. Currently, this is the only thing that will save lives.

It cost a few dollars make the copies. Students giving out this kind of information is the college’s worst nightmare — all those parents finding out at a public event. So it had a very high psychological value and nuisance value, which is part of what makes a good direct action.

There was no risk to the students and their friends; even the New Paltz admin seems unlikely to do anything too stupid with all those parents around, but you never know. Anyway, the minute a student is arrested for giving out a leaflet, the campus will be hearing from a civil rights lawyer (and New Paltz grad) who is watching this issue carefully with great interest.

Most of all, it was FUN. It’s quite a rush doing something so subversive.

Monday, however, will probably not be so much fun for Sandy. So I’m here to send a dozen roses for she who must catch the flak, and remind her that it is indeed her boss’s problem. Of course there remains the issue of what to do if you are one of many people at SUNY New Paltz who feels your job is on the line if you tell the truth, or even admit the truth to yourself.

But that is a blog for another day.

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