Warning: Lost my campus radio show for 3 weeks because of a joke I thought was fine
So back in October at my school in Boise, I did a bit on my radio show where I read a fake campus email about a squirrel getting tenured. I figured it was harmless since the squirrel was the joke, not any person. The station manager pulled me in the next morning and said a dean had emailed twice about it, and I got suspended for 3 weeks. That is when it finally clicked that I had been reading the room wrong all semester, because I thought campus rules were mostly about not naming people, not about poking at admin stuff at all. I was 22 and honestly had no idea a bit about a squirrel could count as a problem. Anyone here had a suspension over something that seemed totally silly at the time? Trying to figure out if I should fight it or just take my lumps.
Squirrel getting tenure is funny. That is the whole point. I bet the dean got mad because it hit too close to home about how easy some people keep their jobs on campus. Three weeks is way too much for a bit that did not name a single real person. Fighting it probably gets you nowhere because admin always wins, but you could ask for it cut down and get a note in your file gone. Take the lumps but make some noise first so they know you are not just rolling over.