Edna Chun’s Sad Tale or As the World Turns at UNCG

All right, I finally did it. I broke down and bought an ergonomic keyboard. I simply can’t keep up with the pace of the UNCG soap opera if they are going to keep churning out news at this rate. I really am going to have to ask for health insurance and a pension if they keep me working full time like this.

The News and Record reported yesterday that Chun has filed a grievance with UNCG.

The irony was not lost on me. I think it would have been considered heavy handed as a story line even in the world of daytime television, but this is reality where no such bars on the purest melodrama exist.

Chun’s angle is that she was fired because of her age (68) and her ethnicity (Asian). She certainly wasn’t fired because of her abilities (insignificant) or her strength of character (absent).

One of her primary complaints isn’t that she was innocent of royally screwing up but that she wasn’t extended the courtesy of being allowed to resign or retire rather than be fired.

Wait, I’m tearing up and I can’t see the screen clearly.

Okay.

In other words, she is the first one that has been dealt with appropriately. That has got to hurt.

Somebody more fluent than I in the subtleties of this system might need to fill us in, but I would imagine that if you retire or resign you get a different set of benefits than if you are fired. At the very least you get to save face.

Something that doesn’t happen, of course, if you are carted away in handcuffs and your mug shot is posted for all the world to see.

But I digress.

So, she wasn’t given the velvet handshake. Also, she says, she doesn’t know why she was fired. And she didn’t have anything to do with the UNCG3 anyway. And Paul Mason made her do it.

I’m having a hard time processing all of those different angles at the same time. She didn’t do it, except for that they made her do it, and she doesn’t know why they fired her, but she didn’t do it anyway, so it doesn’t matter. I think that’s the argument.

Pulling together all of his talents as a university spokesman and after a lengthy incantation to invoke the muses, Joe Gallehugh responded bravely on behalf of UNCG with words that are sure to echo through the ages much as the speeches recorded by Tacitus in his Histories that the university couldn’t comment.

Chun is showing some backbone in refusing to allow others off the hook and go silently. Of course, it would have been helpful earlier if she had brought it to the public’s attention that Paul Mason had demanded to know the names of those who had filed grievances against him and pressured her to dismiss the matter. Also, apparently her supervisor, Charles Maimone created a hostile work environment – something Chun suddenly seems to clearly understand.

But if she wants to call out the whole rat’s nest, I would advise everyone to put on goggles and gloves because it’s going to get dirty.

Maybe Lyda Carpen can offer Chun some pointers about going through the grievance process. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Carpen is too busy these days to have time to help.

What Is a Bully?

A bully, according to the dictionary, is:

One who uses superior strength or influence to intimidate someone, typically to force him or her to do what one wants.

Consider the power relationship that exists between Sophie and members of the upper administration at UNCG. What power does she hold? Then, I ask you to think about the relationship between members of the upper administration and their employees.

Where does the power lie? Who is doing the bullying? How can a nobody ‘bully’ the powerful? If I have power, it lies in speaking the truth.

The accusation of injury is a typical tactic when the powerful get called out; to turn the tables and play the victim.

It means this is working.

I am sorry if these people find their own actions to be cruel and insulting. I am sorry if they are experiencing any small measure of the discomfort that they have doled out so glibly to others over the years. I am sorry that this filth had to exist in order for it to come to light.

If there had been other means to address these issues; If it had been possible to deal with these problems via civilized discourse; If they weren’t bullies accustomed to the use of intimidation…but that’s not the world we live in. My mother always used to say: “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”

If the executives find it horrifying, they must know that they are responsible. Sophie has held a mirror to their faces and they do not like it when others see their twisted reflection.

If the folks in the upper administration at UNCG are truly concerned with the creation of a positive work environment, then I applaud them. Admitting they have a problem is a first step, but unfortunately, I have seen no indication that such an admission is forthcoming. 

Instead they will play the part of the injured innocent and make bizarre and melodramatic claims that the words I write could incite violence. They may as well claim that I will summon unicorns and the wrath of Horus. Dana Dunn plays the part of a horrified damsel asking if anyone would really like to come work on our campus where such behavior (writing about the truth) is acceptable.

Were they supposed to be more enticed by a place that has its employees arrested? That spends 91 million dollars on a Rec center while claiming a dearth of funds? Where screaming at your employees is considered an executive privilege? Where students are assaulted for exercising free speech?  I could go on, but it isn’t necessary. We’re national news.

The truth hurts. 

It’s time to clean up.

The Chancellor Needs to Answer

Now there has been a settlement, the final admission by the university that it didn't have a leg to stand on. Not one, not a stump, not a lean-to, not a dream, not a prayer. There wasn't even a whimper despite the promised bang.

Where is the evidence of egregious wrong doing now?

The lies should stick in Linda Brady's throat.

And if the faculty had any guts at all, they would be at her office on Monday morning demanding that she answer for herself. She should beg our forgiveness and she should leave now. There isn't enough crow to serve her what she deserves.

This. Is. Unacceptable.

We do not forgive.

We do not forget.
Expect us.

Paul Mason is Leaving UNCG but We Aren’t Done with Him Yet

Free at last, free at last.

Paul Mason has not yet announced it, but will be leaving UNCG on February 6^th to pursue better opportunities. Who wouldn’t these days? After all, he only cleared out nearly a century’s worth of accumulated knowledge distributed among those who were once employed in the now ravaged university relations department. He’s been hired to swing the axe somewhere else, that’s for sure. Anyway, he’d done what he came here to do and so why would he stay?

It probably would be hard for him to come back to work the day after the public hearing that will be held as part of Lyda Carpen’s grievance process.

There’s also not that many people left for him to intimidate, fire, or have arrested.

His protector, Linda Brady, will be leaving at the end of the year.

This is a man who never holds a job for very long anyway.

Here’s the thing though. He doesn’t get to walk away from this as quietly as he’s walked away from the other places where his devastating personality has been allowed to roam freely. Now, if you type “paul mason uncg” into the Google search engine, the top hits are almost all about the damage he has done and the brazen stupidity of his actions at UNCG.

The people who hired him no doubt know who and what he is, and my heart goes out to those who will fall under his dominion. However, no longer will they have to search and scrape to find out why this is happening – it’s well documented that this is what he does. If you find out you’ll be working for Paul Mason, you’d better get your running shoes on, but you won’t be alone. Eventually, his name will stand for the pure toxicity that his personality leaks.

We’ll follow you Paul.

This isn’t over.

Ridding UNCG of Parasites

It has been several thousands of years since rulers realized that a population guided by principles of mutual trust was much more productive. This doesn’t mean that societies end up living in pure harmony, what it means is that the laws and rules put in place were designed to facilitate interactions between people who were not friends or family members. The benefit of creating comfort for ongoing interactions among large groups of unrelated individuals comes from the non-zero-sum nature of information and knowledge. The more that more people know, the more knowledge those people can produce none of which limits the amount of knowledge available to others or for future discovery.

Robert Wright uses the metaphor of the brain to describe a productive human system. The more neurons (people) the more the overall knowledge the brain can both access and produce, nurturing the health and growth of the brain itself (and therefore its neurons). There is nothing to be gained from a rogue ‘neuron’ conquering and destroying others. It eventually damages the brain to the point that the neuron itself cannot survive – in other words, it leads to a total loss.

Should each neuron in the brain insist on working by itself, there is no doubt that things such as language, writing, medicine, or cake could never have been developed. If a neuron were to, let’s say, refuse to answer emails or always work with its door shut, it would not be contributing to the growth of the brain’s potential but instead would be a parasitic entity trying to benefit from the production of others while failing to contribute any value of its own.

If the goal of the collection of neurons into a brain is the advancement of opportunity, information, and benefits then there is a requirement for mutual and transparent communication. This has been demonstrated through an exercise known as The Prisoner’s Dilemma. The situation offered as an example is that of two prisoners who are being separately interrogated – cooperation is in their mutual interest but there are also two primary barriers to this cooperation.

The first barrier is the inability of the two to communicate with each other. You cannot communicate if there is a wall (either physical or social) between you. If your door is shut, your attitude is hostile, and your emails unanswered, communication for mutual benefit is impossible.

The second barrier is one of trust. If you cannot openly communicate with a person who is neither a friend or family member, how can you develop the ability to trust that they will do what is in the best interest of all? If they continually indicate that they don’t trust you by engaging in regular practices of anti-social behavior, the possibility to believe that their actions are or will ever be designed to be of mutual benefit is nil.

The question then becomes, why would two (or more) neurons in the same brain, ostensibly working for the betterment of the brain as a whole (and therefore the mutual benefits to its neurons) not build the possibility for open communication and trust?

The answer would have to be that they are either a sociopath or that they see a benefit to themselves that requires or is contingent upon sacrificing the health of the brain. They have other goals.

Obviously, this is a metaphor.

What I am asking here is this:

If members of UNCG’s administration (and here I am thinking particularly of Paul Mason, although he is simply representative of the type of executive that UNCG’s new public management culture has favored) are interested in the growth of UNCG as a university (that’s the brain) then how do we explain their actions?

We can’t.

Instead, those actions become explicable only if we realize that they are not working for the positive growth of the university as an institution of higher education. They have a separate set of interests…and to find out what they are, you have only to follow the money.

The faculty, staff, and students at UNCG are feeling the impact of the zero sum game being played by upper administration. Each time a neuron dies, each time a person disappears from the collective consciousness of that brain, it entails a loss of knowledge. We are each weaker for it. Certainly there are times when through growth or death, we will lose people who contribute to our overall well-being. At other times, though, we must look to surgically remove those who cause damage.

Recently, our mind has been deprived of Lyda Carpen, Beth English, Chris English, Betsi Robinson, Debbie Schallock, Andrea Spencer, and David Wilson. We have also been injured by the loss of Helen Hebert, Laurie Sims, Nelson Bob, Linda Carter, Patti Stewart, Steve Gilliam, and many others.

There is a continual, concerted, and intentional effort to carve away those who would send signals of alarm at the rampant parasitism. As with all parasites there will come a time when the damage is so severe that both the host and parasite are lost. In the short term, however, the benefits to a few are great enough that they will willingly sacrifice everyone’s potential for mutual benefit in order to collect as much as they can right now.

They are fools to sacrifice so much for so little. They give up more than they will gain. Even the corporate world understands that the non-zero sum gains to all are greater than the momentary theft of current assets. Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, and Freddie Mac demonstrated quite clearly what happens – you could have $1 billion now but end up disgraced, jailed, and ruined or you could accept $1 million per year and be remembered as a hero. Short sighted greed will never buy long term good.

UNCG’s administration has gone corporate…but it has gone out of date corporate. Google, Costco, IDEO – these companies and many others realize that happy employees are more productive employees. They understand the non-zero sum nature of the collective brain.

I’m not suggesting they are philanthropists. Running a business isn’t a charity. However, they are smart. They see the benefits that come sharing, from feeding the brain, that are longer term and more sustainable than those that can be obtained by being a parasite. They also are working for the success of the company as an entity. UNCG’s administration has forgotten about the success of the university as an entity and become obsessed with the simple reproduction of administrative structures.

The UNCG community isn’t under attack. It’s up for sale.