[ATTW-L] Fwd: the Champlain Towers South engineering report

Thu Jul 1 04:27:31 UTC 2021

Dear Rob, thank you for your closing query.

People in professions like medicine, psychology, and chaplaincy are
increasingly talking about how to handle "moral injury," harm from
experiencing, witnessing, or failing to stop something that violates one's
values or professional code.

Medics who've survived the pandemic to date, for instance, are still
wrestling with their inability to stop so much death over the last year.

I can imagine it being extremely helpful for engineers, doc designers, and
report writers to have discussions about moral resilience as part of their
professionalization process. Part of working with others, especially as you
begin your career, is being overruled, and not always for good reasons or
with good results.

It's important to build the capacity to grieve these experiences as part of
work rather than brush them aside as if they were marginalia without
consequence.

Keisha

Keisha E. McKenzie, PhD
McKenzie Consulting Group
http://mackenzian.com

On Mon, Jun 28, 2021, 11:28 AM Robert Rowan <rmr122 at case.edu> wrote:

> In addition to examining the report as a communication artifact, there's
> also the messy and tangled communication among the people who received the
> report, as described in this McClatchy article.
> https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/investigations/article252394393.html
>
> Even if this report had been written perfectly (whatever that might mean),
> there's no guarantee that all of its recipients would take it seriously and
> act on its recommendations.
> One of the ugly truths our students will need to confront, either in our
> classes or afterward, is that people will often prioritize saving/not
> spending money over risks to human safety. No amount of precedent or
> "lessons learned" ever seems to eliminate this tendency.
> That's a tough conversation to have with students, especially when they
> believe or expect that people will behave rationally. What happens to an
> engineer (mentally, emotionally, professionally) after their
> recommendations are ignored and tragedy strikes?
>
> Rob Rowan
>
> Robert M. Rowan, PhD
> Lecturer, Department of English
> Case Western Reserve University
> rmr122 at case.edu
>
> Subject: Re: [ATTW-L] the Champlain Towers South engineering report
> Date: Sun, 27 Jun 2021 21:36:43 +0000
> From: Lettner-Rust, Heather <lettnerrusthg at longwood.edu>
> <lettnerrusthg at longwood.edu>
> CC: attw-l at attw.org <attw-l at attw.org> <attw-l at attw.org>
>
> This report is an excellent first week eye-opener. And we could return
> again and again to the lessons learned.
>
> Heather G. Lettner-Rust, PhD
> Associate Professor of English
> Writing Coordinator, Civitae Core Curriculum
> 434.395.2162
>
> Longwood University
> Dept. of English & Modern Languages
> Grainger G10
> 201 High Street
> Farmville, VA  23909
> ------------------------------
> *From:* ATTW-L <attw-l-bounces at attw.org> <attw-l-bounces at attw.org> on
> behalf of Hilary Sarat-St Peter <hsstpeter at gmail.com>
> <hsstpeter at gmail.com>
> *Sent:* Sunday, June 27, 2021 12:04:52 PM
> *Cc:* attw-l at attw.org
> *Subject:* Re: [ATTW-L] the Champlain Towers South engineering report
>
>
> CAUTION: This is an EXTERNAL email. Do not click links or open attachments
> unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
> As a teaching case, it might be productive to show this report to students
> and ask them if they think changing the wording or design of the report
> would have affected the tragic outcome of the Champlain Towers collapse.
> Students would have to ground their answers in tech comm principles and
> evidence from the case, and the instructor would need to approach the topic
> with utmost sensitivity because some students may have personally lived
> through a structural failure disaster or had family members affected.
>
> On Sun, Jun 27, 2021 at 9:25 AM Stephen Bernhardt <sab at udel.edu> wrote:
>
>> You have to wonder whether the HOA was dragging its feet on expensive
>> repairs.
>>
>> On Sat, Jun 26, 2021 at 5:57 PM Dragga, Sam <Sam.Dragga at ttu.edu> wrote:
>>
>>> A 2018 nine-page engineering report identifies issues that might have
>>> caused or contributed to the collapse of Champlain Towers South in
>>> Surfside, Florida.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> The report raises important issues for technical communicators about
>>> information design. The report has no headings but alphabetizes issues A
>>> through K. The key issues related to the integrity of the building’s
>>> foundation are addressed on pages 6-9.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> As I read this report, I think that a more emphatic display and
>>> organization of information could have stirred immediate action on critical
>>> repairs and saved lives. This report will likely be a salient and tragic
>>> example for classroom discussion of ineffective communication.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> The report is available at
>>> https://www.townofsurfsidefl.gov/docs/default-source/default-document-library/town-clerk-documents/champlain-towers-south-public-records/8777-collins-ave---structural-field-survey-report.pdf
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Sam
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Sam Dragga
>>>
>>> Professor Emeritus, Texas Tech University
>>>
>>> sam.dragga at ttu.edu
>>>
>>> 1-806-543-6099
>>>
>>>
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>>>
>> --
>> Steve Bernhardt
>> Bayside DE
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