Roger F Malina
I am walking through our UTDallas alumnae center from the parking lot to our building
There is an event in the building. I stopped at the booth. The guest speaker is Dr Tony Bridwell. He is the author of “The Follower: a story about flipping the script on leadership”
I stop at the door, but he has finished speaking
I walk on.
A person accosts me and rudely tells me to leave immediately as this is a ‘private event”
They have seen me do this before and take a cup of coffee on the way
I say but at each of these events they have piles of leftovers they throw into the trash, instead of giving them to homeless people.
Ironically our Bass school is holding an event and exhibition about homeless people. Time to put theory into action.
They say this is theft. This is a private event I am not allowed.
I say rudely: but this is a public university, and we should not allow secret events; they should have a guard at the door if this is legally secret on public property.
The person threatened to call the campus police.
I say I see a stack of gift books by the speaker, can I take one.
They say do that, and we will have you arrested.
I tell them that universities must break down their silos. Especially a public university, though the state tax payer pays a minor fraction of the budget: a contradiction in function for a “public” university open to all.
But I guess in my location this is not the way we think. If this is the biggest ethical problem I confront this week, I am a happy person.