The president of SUNY Broome has handled the heroin and alcohol overdose death of the chair of the school’s criminal justice program (also “a former police officer and New York State certified criminal investigator”) extremely well. Shortly after the death – as soon as reports of its circumstances started to come in – he acknowledged it, expressed shock, expressed sympathy, and used it as an occasion to prompt people who might know someone else in trouble:
“If you a have a loved one you think might be involved in drugs, please intervene,” Drumm said in a statement. “We so wish that we had any inkling of issues with our beloved colleague so that we might have done so.”
Scathing Online Schoolmarm might quibble with the use of three so‘s in that second sentence … But really, as someone who has chronicled official university responses to very bad events for years, UD (to channel the second of your blogger’s multiple personalities) admires Kevin Drumm’s rapid, straightforward, humane response here, especially since this story unavoidably embarrasses the school. The person in charge of a significant component of SUNY Broome’s education in the law was himself lawless, etc.
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One detail of this story worth noting in terms of trying to get a grip on the nature of the drug epidemic: Wesley Warren seems to have been a heavy user of alcohol as well as (at the same time as) heroin.
February 19th, 2014 at 10:27AM
According to comments on Rate My Professors, Warren seems to have been popular with his students and genuinely liked. A very sad story.
February 19th, 2014 at 10:34AM
Yes, an uncharacteristically humane and well phrased response.
I don’t really mind the repeated us of “so” — perhaps because it’s used each time with a different meaning? Drumm is saying, “We [really, really, sincerely] wish that we had any inkling of issues with our beloved colleague [in order] that we might have [intervened].” Compared to this, I think the three so’s work just fine. Maybe, too, the colloquial sense of the first “so” helps establish the humane tone.
February 19th, 2014 at 10:41AM
Dr_ : You might be right. It’s possible SOS is being a bit doctrinaire here, as in all use of obvious repetition (outside of church litanies and the like) is a bad thing…