Jan Zink Advances Backwards

I guess managing an extra five people turned out to be too much for dear Jan “Basket Queen” Zink. But her reign was not without accomplishments, of course. It’s just that I can’t think of any of them. I’m sure something will come to me.

[Note: accomplishments to be listed here just as soon as they become clear]

She managed, in her brief tenure, to drive away Lanita Goins further reducing the skeleton crew of university relations refugees. Rumor has it that even the birds stopped singing and several typefaces left the university in protest.

She’ll probably be sad to give up Betsi Robinson’s old office as I hear she had converted it into a humidor for her extensive collection of Cuban cigars. I could be wrong though.

Meanwhile, we’ve received James Thornton to egregiously chancellorate us through the next six months. He may be a lovely person, I have no idea, but I guess by comparison, how bad could he possibly be? And, after all, with his expertise in fundraising, he may just make Zink even more redundant than she already was.

And, at the very least, Thornton wins some sort of prize for the speed with which he updated his LinkedIn profile to reflect his new position. Elsewhere, LinkedIn is littered with the former connections of our least beloved who, despite continuing to be unemployed (and unemployable) have failed to remove their “Vice Chancellor of X” designations. Of course, I’m not sure “layabout” or “disgruntled claimant” really has the cache they were hoping for.

I hope Zink recognizes that this is the signal heralding closure of her time at UNCG. She’s not long in her old position either as the word ‘advancement’ couldn’t be used to describe anything she has conjured into being since arriving on our doorstep and since she has been here for slightly over two administrator years, that’s nearly a lifetime of employment in human years.

To put all of this into context, I turn to Joe “Golden Tongue” Gallehugh who, in an effort to capture the subtleties of the complex organism that is the university, said: “No comment.”

I propose a basket of ice as a parting gift and directions to Seth Cohen’s office should she find anything about her exit confusing.

UNCG's Big Bang

If what Edna Chun says is true, that she was pressured into revealing names that should have been kept confidential and that she was working in a hostile work environment, doesn’t that demonstrate that A. there are significant problems in HR with confidentiality and B. She doesn’t know how to address the very situations for which she was hired? So, she has admitted failure (revealing names) and incompetence (inability to address a hostile work environment). I wouldn’t think she’d need a lot more than that to explain why she was fired.

And what about Benita Peace in all of this? It would seem to me that since Chun has been sent packing, Peace should be pushing things into a suitcase too. If Chun has been fired for the reasons that the university would like to provide as legal reasons for non-renewal (as opposed to because she was Asian and 68). After all, the main difference between Chun and Peace then seems to be age (Peace is 59, Chun 68) and race (Peace is African-American, Chun is Asian-American).

In which case, Chun is correct, she was treated differently and is being dismissed as a result of race and age.

I’m sorry, I think I just opened up a wormhole in the universe.

Let me see if this still makes sense:

Either, Chun was fired because of failure and incompetence which means that Peace should be fired too.

Or, she was fired because of her race and age, which would be demonstrated by Peace having not been fired.

So…UNCG should either fire Peace or admit to racism and ageism…which sounds like a HR problem…and should definitely lead to some lost jobs for their supervisors as the very things for which they were ostensibly fired (failure and incompetence.) Which might mean that Charlie Maimone should be fired (and he’s white, so that would truly demonstrate that the firings weren’t about race…I haven’t the foggiest idea how old he is). If he isn’t fired, it must be because Chun is lying…a perfectly good reason to fire her.

Ouch, my head hurts.

Add to that, though, the fact that when Chun was fired from her position in HR at Broward, she filed a grievance claiming discrimination AND she was fired because of claims of discrimination.

This is a twisted mess.

I wouldn’t be surprised if even Stephen Hawking wouldn’t be able to explain UNCG’s Big Bang.

Hope Springs Eternal

We at UNCG have had very high hopes for our Provost (and current acting Chancellor) Dana Dunn and for Charlie Maimone, the Vice Chancellor of Business Affairs.

There have been a series of "unfortunate" events...

Other than Dunn’s spate of hysterics at the last faculty meeting in which she apparently mistook me for a character from Lemony Snicket, she generally seems to be much more reasonable than the cabal of cronies with which we have been burdened for the last seven years. People on campus still seem genuinely hopeful that she represents a kinder, gentler administration and I hope they are right.

The same sort of hopefulness was floating in the air in regards to Charlie Maimone (despite the unfortunate possibilities present when rhyming his name with “My Money”). His first strike was a vote for a totally closed search, in direct contrast to the hybrid model for which the faculty senate had unanimously voted. However, he quickly fell of the radar again amid the fireworks being set in the rest of the executive administration.

Only now, with Edna Chun’s summary dismissal and her complaint is his name rising to the surface again.

The jury is out. Chun says he created a hostile work environment and labels him as “instrumental” in the firings of Carpen, Wilson, & English (the UNCG3). Now, that’s a new twist in the plot, isn’t it?

Is this a woman desperately clawing at others as she falls from grace? Or is there something more here that needs attention?

Shockingly, Maimone has not responded to the allegations (probably he has received coaching from UNCG’s spokesperson extraordinaire Joe“no comment” Gallehugh.)

In the same allegations, Paul Mason continues to look like the bull in the china shop that everybody already knew he was, but now somebody has actually said it out loud (or in print, which is as loud as we need).  This is the first time that anybody in the upper administration at UNCG has admitted that there might have just been even the tiniest bit of wrongdoing on Mason’s part.

Those left standing in upper admin and on the board of trustees at UNCG have been repeatedly told that there needs to be some truthtelling in order for there to be reconciliation. Generally, the response has been to clamp down completely (for example, to date, the letter that faculty member Hannah Mendoza wrote to the BoT has gone unanswered).

It looks like the truth is going to come out no matter what. The only question remaining is: how badly do they want to be part of the reconciliation?

The first step to forgiveness is admitting that you have a problem.

We’re all ears.

Dear Linda

Dear Linda:

I just want to say how glad I am that you did that interview with The Carolinian where you were egregiously candid enough to admit how sorry you were that we are all so difficult to work with.

I mean, if only we had known that none of this was your fault, that the problem was US and not you, and that we were simply too hard-headed to understand what was best for us, why then maybe we could have been better people. 

I’m sorry we are so disappointing.

I mean, now that you’ve explained, again, how difficult we are, I really feel like a great era of healing and togetherness is just over the horizon. After all, you only make enormous amounts of money (plus nice bennies!) to do your job, so how could we ever have expected you to be the one who was responsible for anything? I feel so foolish.

You’re right about so many things. It is tough to have a frank and open conversation when one side refuses listen. It is so complicated when something like the Faculty Senate can’t just nod and agree with everything and insists (!) on asking questions, representing various constituencies, and having access to information. Who could have known that people at a university would be so concerned with knowledge, right?

I’m sorry we’re so weird and different in that a racial discrimination scandal seems to have ended your career at Oregon State while an entirely different type of scandal seems to have brought it about here. Surely, there is nothing for you to learn from any of those situations because, as you so candidly explained, it’s everyone else.

I, for one, am enraged on your behalf that people would be so callous as to suggest that shared governance means a “sharing” of the “governance.” I can see why you would find that frustrating.

I’m sorry that the press wasn’t able to paint more glowing reviews of the change you knew was best for us. Where were the headlines saying: “New Rec Center Provides Enhanced Pigeon Roosting Opportunities” or “She’s Got a Green Thumb for Growing Executive Administration”? Instead, it was all “destroying my neighborhood” this and “overwhelming faculty dissatisfaction” that.

I mean, I know if that kind of continued conspiracy were to egregiously happen to me, the only thing I could think of to do would be to have people investigated and arrested. That’s what I did once when my cat wouldn’t use the litter box and I haven’t had a problem since!

Anyway, I know you spent a long time really doing some soul searching before you were able to satisfactorily conclude that you were blameless and that’s never easy, so I salute you.

Hopefully, everyone will be able to remember your honesty clearly when you rejoin the faculty in 2016.

Tchus,

Sophie

The Carolinian & The Owl

I spent just over four hours talking with Emily Bruzzo and Spencer Schneier. It was worth every minute.

They didn’t just ask me easy questions either.

I wore a hat and we sat in a coffee shop, just because Deep Throat was willing to meet in a parking garage doesn’t mean that I need to be so uncomfortable. They have promised me, and I believe them, that they will never reveal my identity. In fact, since they did not seem to be able to discern it, it is even more certain it would not be revealed.

They have treated the story with respect and I believe they gave Brady the best opportunity possible in which to express herself. Her message was no different than it has ever been: it’s not her fault, the faculty are irrationally difficult, times are tough.

Athena and her Owl

I do get the impression that she truly believes that is the case. I guess I find that slightly more disturbing than just assuming she was crafty. She may live in a reality where UNCG is idiosyncratic and all of this is confusing. Or maybe she’s “soul blind” it’s hard to tell, but it hardly matters since she has left. Maybe I’ll enroll in one of her classes when she rejoins the faculty.

To distill four hours of conversation down to a one page newspaper article and still capture both the essence and depth of the interview is no mean feat and I tip my hat to both Bruzzo (who endured the lengthy interview with the chancellor as well) and Schneier.

One question they did ask me but that didn’t really fit with the article is something that actually has come up twice since then and so it seemed fitting to answer it myself. Why the owl? What does it mean?

The owl is an ancient and contemporary symbol of wisdom (think Winnie the Pooh and The Sword in the Stone) and clear sight. The owl does not have her vision obscured by darkness and is able to distinguish the features of her surrounding even on the murkiest of nights. Particularly appropriate to UNCG is the close association of the owl with the Greek goddess Athena, whose Roman counterpart Minerva serves as a prominent symbol for the core of UNCG.

In ancient Roman folklore, the owl could be seen as a harbinger of death. If Sophie’s owl symbolizes death, it is only the death of a culture of bullying and of the obfuscation to which this administration has dedicated itself with the piety of ancient worshipers; however, given the paucity of ancient Romans reading this blog, I rely on the more popular understanding of the owl as a symbol of wisdom.

Finally, of course, the owl asks a very important question: “Who?” And its persistence reminds us that just because it is not easy to find the answers, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep asking the questions.