Has Imogene Cathey Been Re-moted?

Here's a question that maybe some of you folks can answer for me:

The last I remember, Imogene Cathey was demoted to Deputy General Counsel because of, "the increasingly complex issues and evolving landscape across higher education, including compliance, Title IX, capital projects, public-private partnerships, and many others that require wide-ranging experience and strategic thinking." 

Now, however, if you go to the UNCG website, you find her listed as a non-modified General Counsel. I know that Betsy Bunting was interim, but where has she gone? Well, her name is on the position in a PDF out of the Provost's office. 

Is she still Deputy GC but UNCG accidentally fired everybody who could update the website? 

If she's Deputy GC still, is it really a good idea to let her hang onto a title she doesn't have anymore? 

Or has something happened here that I don't understand?

Probably would be more transparent if the interfaces that were most likely to receive interaction from people outside of the Executive Administration's offices were updated to reflect the current state of reality. It may seem like a small thing, but when you perform as poorly as Cathey did in her position and still manage to get a big ole salary, the least we could ask for is that she work her way down the ladder and not be seen as still having one foot going up.

Screen Capture 9.8.15

The Fight for a Living Wage

Across the country today, workers are joining the struggle for a living wage.

Why we seem so thoroughly convinced that universities shouldn’t get money from the state and yet seem perfectly content to let those same dollars subsidize the externalized costs of big companies is something tragic.

In any case, the reason I bring this up is because UNCG participates in this shameful low wage cabal. What I mean is that we aren’t all poor struggling to get by, UNCG just has some employees that it pays a pittance to and some who get fat raises at the same time.

For example, Tim Crews who has worked for UNCG for 19 years is employed full time for $10 an hour. If minimum wage had kept up with cost of living increases it would now be $18 an hour. So, we pay him only slightly more than half of what the absolute bare minimum pay should be.

After 25 years of loyal performance, Alice Courts only makes $23,762 a year. And she’s on the list of essential employees who must come to work at UNCG even when hazardous weather causes others to stay at home and the university to close.

Imogene Cathey, however, pulls in a handsome $85 an hour.

Jan Zink rakes in $137 per hour.

And they get to stay home.

UNCG has more than 200 full time employees earning less than $15/hour. Adjunct pay is shameful too.

Nancy Maree has been willingly teaching our students in the nursing program for 12 years and in return? She get $1,000. That’s all a class is worth? That’s all her expertise and insight are worth?

And, of course, the enormous raises given to those who already make more than they deserve continue to roll in. The execs get bigger salaries while the rest of us have to deal with nothing or fight among ourselves for scraps.

We are the workers.

We are the people.

We can do better.

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.

Imogene Cathey Gets Demoted

It should come as no surprise, since she has clearly been operating well above her capabilities, that Imogene Cathey, who has been 'acting' as General Counsel for UNCG is being quietly tucked away as a Deputy Counsel in a departmental reorganization. Given the propensity of this administration (and the setup for the next one) to engage in acts that at best skirt the intention of the law, it should also come as no surprise that they are expanding the office of General Counsel.

Yes, there will now be even more positions in upper administration. However, given the rate they are clearing them out - and the uptick we hope to see in it - it still may leave us with less people than there could be. I'd be interested to know if Cathey's pay will also be demoted (currently at $170,000 per year) or if we are going to be adding another $170,000 position...or possibly an even higher paying one if the deputy gets to make $170k.

As the administration removes Cathey and gets lawyered up, it makes you wonder if they expect legal troubles to be an even larger part of the university's future or if they just plan on litigating their way through leadership as they set up an even more oppositional relationship with the faculty and staff here.

I have to admit, I don't think I'll be sending any thank you notes to Cathey and am still keeping my fingers crossed that wherever Paul Mason went to work may want an overzealous, under-competent attorney to complement their staff.

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From the desk of Linda Brady:

Across higher education, we are dealing with increasingly complex issues and an evolving landscape, such as compliance, Title IX, capital projects, public-private partnerships, and many others that require wide-ranging legal experience and strategic thinking. We also recognize the need for additional staff within our Office of General Counsel to address the volume and complexity of work and to enable us to be more responsive to competing demands.

This week we begin a three-part restructuring of the Office of General Counsel. First, effective February 10, Imogene Cathey, General Counsel, will move to a new Deputy General Counsel position to fully take advantage of her experience in employment law, personnel, human relations and civil rights, and complement the talents of existing Associate Counsel Mike Jung and Todd Davis. The addition of this position will add significant capacity, create a more balanced workload for all, and lead to the development of a more responsive team.

Second, also effective February 10, Betsy Bunting, who previously served as interim General Counsel at UNC Wilmington, Associate General Counsel at UNC General Administration, and Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice Higher Education Section, will assume the position of interim General Counsel at UNCG. She has extensive experience in higher education, understanding of the UNC system, and knowledge of the North Carolina judicial system.

Third, we will shortly announce the search for a permanent General Counsel, with the expectation that the next chancellor, once named, will interview finalists for that position and make the appointment.

Please join me in thanking Ms. Cathey for her past and continuing service and in welcoming Ms. Bunting to the UNCG community.

Please feel free to circulate this message to others. We will share this information in Campus Weekly.

Thanks for all you continue to do to support UNCG, our faculty, staff and students.

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.

Paul Mason is a Bully

The latest oddity in the farce that is UNCG's administration is their continued support for Paul Mason at the expense of any and all others. A panel, made up of staff who can be fired (or arrested) told Brady the least they could without endangering themselves and so, most likely, the judgment to uphold the firing of Lyda Carpen will be forthcoming.

For those of you just joining this made-for-made-for-tv drama, here's the summary:

Three loyal UNCG employees complained about the abusive practices of their newly hired supervisor, Paul Mason.

Three loyal UNCG employees were then arrested and fired based on evidence fabricated by Paul Mason and his sidekick Sherri.

UNCG stands behind its claim that the three committed egregious wrong doings while simultaneously suggesting that everyone should stop thinking about it.

The court system disagrees, dropping the charges and all but apologizing to the three for the fact that they were going through this.

Independent arbiters hear the cases and recommend the university rescind the firings.

UNCG continues to refuse to release any information. Imogene Cathy, legal council for UNCG does not appear to understand what a public information request is nor how to respond to one.

[Back to present]

That's the long and the short of it, although not half of the stupid can be conveyed without resorting to multi-media presentations.

Despite an outpouring of support from faculty, staff, students, and community members for the fired employees AND overwhelming lack of evidence AND the circus-like nature of the whole proceedings, UNCG's chancellor Linda Brady, in what we can only assume is a strategy so stupid that it might be brilliant, will stand her ground...well, other than the fact that she has been forced into retirement. And she's a lame duck. And a pariah.

She, by the way, hired Paul Mason. She has a history of hiring these kinds of bullies to clean out departments and reform them more to her liking. If you can find someone left from before they were hired who isn't terrified, you should ask about Jan Zink, Bryan Terry, and Kim Record. Actually, you don't need to ask about Kim, you can just read the newspaper.

In the meantime, you should check out the photo exhibit titled Due Process on display at Tate Street Coffee which includes work by the photographers David Wilson and Chris English as well as the warrants for their arrests.