Book: Wild Justice

R >> Ruth M. Sprague >> Wild Justice




"The committee rejected direct evidence by one student who testified
under oath that she had written one of the `suspect' documents.
It ignored the testimony of Diana as well as that of her witnesses."

Then the LOD turned to the report from the hearing committee
that Henry had authored. One paragraph stated: "The effect of
the suspect critiques on the two people who were said to have
been hurt by them had not been assessed, but did affect the
individuals involved." To this, the A.G. declared, "One questions
the committee's findings as an accurate reflection of the evidence.
No underlying facts were stated by the committee that explain
its findings that `individuals were affected,' nor does the committee
state how it could make that finding while stating that it had
not examined the effect."

As precedents or comparison, the LOD reported that no
penalties were imposed on two male Belmont faculty members,
one who had altered promotion papers, the other convicted
of child molestation. It quoted the testimony of Stacy Denton,
the university psychologist. She had declared she knew of many
instances of faculty misconduct more serious than what was
alleged in this case. Those people had not been terminated.

Concluding that the university's stated explanation for
terminating Diana was not worthy of credence, the report
found there existed probable cause for sex and age discrimination
and disparate discipline by Belmont against Diana.

The LOD was sent to the regional EEOC office which accepted
it and confirmed the acceptance with the A.G. by phone.
The newspapers and television reporters had a field day with it.
Diana and her supporters felt vindicated beyond measure.
Almost everyone believed that it was all over--that Diana had won.
Congratulatory letters and phone calls flowed to Diana and
Belmont University administration was given a verbal drubbing.




Chapter 39


The university PR system was cranked up to its fullest.
Letters were sent out to various alumni groups around the
country and speakers to these groups were alerted and advised.
The trashing of Diana blossomed into an intellectual lynching
of the lowest order. Much later on, as people came to understand
that the university had not complied with the findings of the court
and Attorney General, there was a general loss of respect for Belmont
which contributed to a decrease in enrollment.

The official Belmont University response was delivered by
the public relations spokesperson who dismissed the LOD as,
"inconsequential. I don't know what all the fuss is about,"
he said. "When you cut through the fancy title at the top
it's just a lawyer's opinion." No one else at Belmont
was available for comment.

The Pope did know what all the fuss was about and was
stung by the words of condemnation contained in the LOD.
He immediately called his contact at the Washington DC office
of the EEOC. He complained fiercely that the LOD never gave
the university's side of the question. "No one here was
interviewed by the investigator from the Attorney General's Office,"
he protested peevishly.

He got that right!

His contact got his protest an immediate hearing by the EEOC chairman,
who directed the regional office to quash the Attorney General's LOD.
No one in the head office bothered to read the LOD and learn
that the reason there were no interviews of university personnel
because they refused to cooperate with the investigation.
Friends in high places, indeed.

In addition, The Pope called a meeting to discuss their
court strategy. "Now," The Pope said forcefully, "It's time
we did something to end the legal hassle. That damned judge!
And, this A.G. letter on top of it. We are getting too much
bad publicity. The letters and phone calls are driving everyone
crazy around here. It's gone on long enough--too long!" Sitting
around the conference table in the west wing of his office with
him was Murrain, Henry Tarbuck and Jimbo.

Murrain spoke confidently. "The court business is nearly finished.
I have already petitioned the judge for permission to start discovery.
Unless the plaintiff is sitting on a gold mine, that will finish off her
bank account right there."

"How's that?" asked Jimbo.

"During discovery, we take depositions. Al Garret will have to
depose a lot more witness than we do in order to even come close
to presenting his case. Conservatively speaking, he's looking
at nearly a thousand bucks a day that he must bill Trenchant.

"And that's not even the best part." Murrain caressed his
face with his hand as if re-oiling the smile on its surface.
"I'll coach our people in evasive answers, which means that
it will take days of deposition time for him to get the
information that an unprepared witness would give in a hour.

"Good." The Pope was pleased.

Not so pleased was Al Garret and the plaintiff. Both attorneys
had agreed some months ago that the process of discovery would not
be commenced until the judge had given his final ruling on the motions
and the trial date set. Murrain delivered his low blow without missing
a beat. "Oh," he cooed when Al called him to complain, "I must have
misunderstood. I thought you wanted to get started before the final ruling."

Al was outclassed and he knew it. Apologetically, he called the plaintiff
and drew her the financial picture. An appeal to the judge for permission
to delay discovery was ignored--Murrain had carefully picked his time.
It was one of the last orders the judge signed before departing
on his vacation.

That's all she wrote, Diana acknowledged In debt and unemployed,
she dropped her illegal-termination suit against Belmont University.




AFTERGLOW


Chapter 40


Deep within the bowels of the Belmont library building,
the university archivist, Igor O'Toole, had been keeping an
informal running tally of events relating to the SmurFF Affair.
He had gleaned the information from his friend, Diana, confirmed
gossip, media sources, university documents and private sources
which he knew to be reliable and would not reveal. He had,
over the past two years, posted it in a scrapbook.

His interest had been whetted when the story first broke.
Everyone repeating it on campus was incredulous. . .termination
for cause on account of seven SmurFFs? Really? It must be a joke.

But Igor, casting out his informational net, discovered that
it wasn't. It was discrimination, pure and simple and he,
because of his race, knew discrimination when he came on it.

He remembered how close he had come to not landing his
present position. A man in his late forties, he had
impeccable credentials and years of experience in archival work.
He was also an African American. Strong, competent and unassuming,
he had applied for the posted position of senior archivist
and then waited for the decision from personnel.

Time passed. They told him they were still interviewing,
but he had learned from a contact he had made in the library
that they had reposted the advertisement for the job because
no qualified applicants had been sent from personnel.
That was how Igor's pool of informational sources began.

Then suddenly, he was called in for an interview. By now his
contacts had grown and he discovered that his name had won him the job.
Someone in the personnel department had inadvertently listed him
to the library as a viable candidate based on his last name. . .
obviously Irish. His race had been overlooked.

The library director was delighted with his credentials and
called him in for an interview. This firmly established to all
and sundry that he was black. Back then, tokenism was rampant
so when the director hired him, the administration went along
with it, albeit reluctantly. After all, the archives were in
the basement, who would notice?

Now having enjoyed many years at Belmont and made many friends,
he was turning the last few pages of his scrapbook.
It was by now a huge tome, meticulously kept and
recently augmented by Diana's contribution of letters,
court papers and related documents. He had reached the
final section dealing with the people involved and the aftermath.

Grimly, he noted that despite the several instances of plagiarism
committed by the two faculty men, Ian Heathson and Randy Fecesi,
they were promoted and given tenure. The years of adverse student
evaluations of their teaching abilities were all thrown out
on the basis of five `suspect' ones and Henry's report.

Randy, at the insistence of the medical students, was moved
out of the medical radiology course and into an undergraduate
nutrition course. A year later there were problems involving
some of the young women in the course. The women were hushed up
and Randy was given an immediate sabbatical of indefinite length.

Ian continued in the radiology course but was never able to
capture any grants to continue his research.

The best all around teacher in NERD, fed up to the gills
with having to continually save the department's teaching bacon,
quit and moved away. This excellent teacher, Ray Stinnis,
could no longer turn his back on the rampant dishonesty inherent in
the department--the treatment afforded Diana had been the last straw.

After Ray's departure, Lyle Stone was forced to give
lucrative courses up to other departments. The resulting
decrease in revenue caused a severe decline in his research
programs and plans were underway to abolish the NERD entirely.

Frank Anuse had suffered a near fatal heart attack. Months later
when he returned to work, it was reported that he was a changed man.
His attitude toward the women in his sector improved and it was
reported that he regretted his role on the Trenchant panel.

Esther received the promised promotion and a raise. A year later,
she was retired--broken and unhappy.

Annette quit her position and moved out of the area with her roommate.

Jane, who had been tenured, left. The circumstances were never divulged.

Jimbo and Dean Broadhurst were quietly retired.

An administrative intern in The Pope's office was summarily fired
for injudiciously stating that it would have been more cost effective
to retire Diana than spend the thousands of dollars to terminate her.

"You see," he explained to the assembled president and Vees,
with more ignorance than good sense, "Our current policy would
have paid for her retirement without any further outlay of
monies on our part. The hearings, document examiners, courts and
subsequent damage control has cost nearly one hundred thousand dollars."


Still reading, Igor marveled at how the ripples created by Diana's
struggle had widened and spread out of Belmont into the state.
Her short but important court venture resulted in twenty areas
of state statutes cited. These annotated statutes served to
strengthen the application of the cited state laws to Belmont.
Using these laws, a faculty union was kindled and an
Animal Rights Organization sued successfully to attend
Belmont animal research meetings.

Applications for enrollment decreased as many became
turned off by Belmont's noncompliance with the law.

The legislature of the state became disenchanted with the university
because of the notoriety, and decreased its annual appropriation.
A legislative investigation was initiated to ascertain the number
and salaries of the central administration of Belmont.

The Pope felt the heat and got out of the kitchen--very suddenly.
An interim president was appointed by the trustees.

Henry Tarbuck elected to stay when the new president
came on board and was demoted to an associate Vee.
His wife successfully sued for divorce and Henry's claim
for alimony was denied by the judge. This meant that he had
to go back to living on his own salary.

Two women successfully brought charges of sexual harassment
against a Belmont administrator. A court subsequently awarded
them nearly a million dollars in compensatory and punitive damages.

So many sex discrimination cases were initiated by Belmont staff
that the new administration created an entire unit to investigate
and put out fires.

Diana applied for unemployment compensation which the Belmont
administration opposed on the grounds that she was discharged
for dishonesty. At the State Employment Service hearing,
Diana submitted the Judge's Order and the LOD from the Attorney General.

Although the entire upper administrative wing of the
personnel department appeared to testify against her,
the Employment Service hearing officer decided that she
had been unfairly terminated. She drew unemployment checks
for only a few weeks. They enabled her to get by until plans
for self-employment could be formulated. Continuing in her
teaching career was out--no references would be forthcoming from
her last employer. She started a small delivery business from
her home and with that, her friends and Social Security,
she managed all right.



Chapter 41


Igor O'Toole put his scrapbook aside, then stood up and stretched.
Back at his work bench, preserving, repairing and reconstructing
the tomes of human accomplishments, mistakes and history,
he ruminated on how the more things change, the more they
remain the same.

The structure of all but the most recently birthed colleges
and universities is rigid, he observed to the roll of
transparent tape he was using to repair still another torn page.
Their medieval trappings, so obvious at historic functions,
may appear invisible in other facets of existence. None the less,
these trappings still exist.

Patterned much like the society of monks, higher educational
administrations still follow a monolithic, generally white
male-dominated path even though modern times have seen the
enrollment of women students, the hiring of women faculty and
even women in central administrative posts. But it's a facade.
The real discipline, established centuries ago, is maintained
and furiously guarded.

For a while, the newer laws of the seventies relating to affirmative
action suggested that there would be a break in the male bastion.
Time proved, however, that sex discrimination and sexual harassment laws
were never well enforced and were being slowly destroyed by the Supreme Court.

Continuing his mentation, Igor allowed as how, like the monastery,
the university structure is maintained because it is supported throughout
the governmental system of a state or country.

Now comes the turn of ethnicity as students of all races,
religions and creeds are storming the ancient fortifications.
Thus far, they have not even cracked the surface. What appears
to be maneuvers that should embarrass a university administration
only serve to entrench it even more.

At Belmont, the student's attempts to force political
correctness--PC, on the administration culminated in
a takeover of their offices. Nothing new here.
This has happened at many universities all over the country.
The result of the takeover, far from enlightening the powers that be,
only delighted the Belmont administration.

As student protests do every time, he reflected, they take
the public's attention away from the stench of the secret
university policies and procedures and place it on the antics
of the students. Most always, student protests involved property
destruction. As a result, public opinion turns against student
innovators or bell ringers. The cause of their protest--entrenched,
polluted power--is again shrouded by the ignorance that gave it birth
in the middle ages.

Igor yawned and scratched his chin. Most of the collected
intelligence and experiences of the world is in this library,
he reminded himself, but few avail themselves of it. Upstairs now,
you don't even have to search through books for whatever you're
looking for, you just punch up a computer and it collects
everything ever written on any subject you can think of.

But with all these wonderful strides in disseminating information,
he marveled, the people running this place act just like they always have.
Tradition covers a multitude of sins and power corrupts now just as it used to.

Too bad most young people don't realize how much their protests
just solidify the status quo, or rather, most of them don't.
Igor smiled to himself as he glanced at the clock.

Diana would be back by now. Time to give her a call.
He sat down at his desk and dialed the phone.

"Thought I'd find you in. I've just been thinking about
our little project and taking a lot of comfort from it."

He listened briefly, then said, "Just thought it was too bad
that most young folks waste their efforts so. Not like those
two young women upstairs. They are exceptions."

Listening again, he answered, "Yes, they are good friends
and just as upset as me over the SmurFF fiasco. Well, we have
begun something that will have an effect for some time to come.". . .

"Me? I'm tickled pink to have had a part in an endeavor which,
in the Baconian sense, allows, `. . .a kind of wild justice' to prevail. . .

"Well, yes, I am still angry at the way Dan Field acted when
the students came to him on your behalf, Diana. This guy claimed
to be so strong for human rights, claimed to represent the blacks
and other down-trodden and he crapped out. No doubt about it,
he had the position and the clout to have stopped this thing in
its tracks. He was the administrations's visible token black.

"And that brother in the EEOC. Surely, as head honcho, he should
have checked the facts before blindly bowing to political pressure. . .

"Well yes, thank you. I, Igor have made up for both of those Oreos.
I have made Afro-Americanism stand for something positive at Belmont."

Smiling now, he reviewed with her the culmination of the combined
efforts of those two women upstairs, Diana and himself.

Pooling their knowledge of computers, they had formulated
and introduced a harmless virus into the library computer
which had already spread throughout this library and beyond.
And it would continue to spread. The contents of his scrapbook,
along with all the originals of the documents Diana could produce,
had been incorporated into the viral computer program so that
whenever anyone queried information on any relevant topic,
the SmurFF Affair at Belmont would be targeted. The true facts
of the good ol' boy conspiracy against Diana Trenchant could
no longer be hidden by the administration.

Any interested person would be able to access all of the
letters and documents relating to it. The entire transcript,
attorney briefs, Attorney General's LOD and all the shady
meetings and despicable planning engaged in by the power
structure of Belmont University would be instantly available in
menu form on their computer screen. The virus would see to that
and good old human curiosity would do the rest.

Still smiling, Igor said, "So long and take care. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

Picking up his jacket, he turned off the lights.
Another day--well, it would seem good to get home.

Upstairs, as he passed between the desks of Roz and Andrea, the women
who had made such fantastic use of the contents of his scrapbook, he paused.
Holding up both arms, palms flat out, he said, "Good night, my friends.
Have a nice evening. . .and thank you."

Slapping his palms in unison, with grins broad enough to span
the universe, they returned the greeting and the emotion.

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