The Top 9 Least Wanted, Or, Why It's Not Yet Time to Move On

Paul Mason is gone, relegated to the ‘better opportunity’ given to him by staying at home and off of UNCG campus. The Chancellor is leaving in July, albeit to a year with full pay and no work expected and, after that, the possibility of (heaven forbid) returning to walk among the faculty. Imogene Cathey has been demoted, although for some reason that doesn’t mean that she gets paid any less…and she surely wasn’t demoted for excellence of service, so you’d think it would.

But there are still bullies at UNCG and we need to smoke them out before the work here is done. The culture that Brady created will take years of hard work to undo and given the makeup and bent of the search committee as well as the type of downward pressure exerted by the Board of Governor’s, it doesn’t bode well. If our next chancellor is any of the things that we have requested, it will be due to the dedicated work of a few members of the search committee or a complete accident.

I guess that means that our biggest hope is that the incompetence this Board of Trustees has shown so far extends to an inability to select the candidate they want, thereby inadvertently choosing someone good for what UNCG has always stood for: community in scholarship.

We are a microcosm of what is happening in the North Carolina system as a whole, which makes our demons a bit more difficult to exorcise. But it will be done. So, here, I give the UNCG Top 9 Least Wanted List:

1. Bonita Brown**

2. Jan Zink

3. Bryan Terry

4. Kim Record

5. Edna Chun*

6. Benita Peace

7. Imogene Cathey

8. Linda Brady

9. Paul Mason

So, we’ve made some progress, but there is work to be done. Let these people be on notice – their behavior will be under the microscope so they’d better shape up or ship out. Nobody loves a reformed sinner more than we do, so apologies and a sincere (and successful) effort to abandon their bullying ways might put them on the road to make amends.

No more yelling at staff, treating them with disdain, or using condescension as a default tone of voice.

No more driving our staff to tears, to therapy, to drink, to divorce, or despair.

No more being technically correct while at the same time being ethically bankrupt.

No more superiority, swagger, or immunity from consequences.

The owl will be watching.

*Updated as of 4/16/15 to reflect her dismissal
**Updated as of 9/14/15 to reflect her resignation