How to Reform a Wayward Executive

I’m getting reports that Bryan Terry has been quieter recently. It seems like many on campus are in a holding pattern, just waiting to see the new chancellor.

Our new chancellor has an excellent opportunity to come in and turn this institution around. I’m not talking about massive infusions of funds (although that’s there too), I’m talking about setting an example for the way in which administration, staff, faculty, students, alumni, and community members should be working together. If Brady created (or exaggerated) this culture of bullying, it’s clear that the next person has the chance to create an atmosphere befitting of an academic institution. The fact that people are waiting for the new chancellor before they show their cards again means that the time is ripe for leading them in a new direction.

I wish her/him all the best in this. I think the lessons learned are clear and anybody with half a brain doesn’t have to read my blog in order to have understood them. There are a lot of positions to be filled and the choices made will have a profound impact on UNCG.

In case some people need a little extra assistance, I’ve put together some suggestions for helping transition the folks in upper administration who haven’t been able to ‘move on to better opportunities.’

Bryan Terry’s contract will include mandatory anger management classes as well as a slow and detailed explanation of the difference between a compliment and an insult.

Kim Record’s salary will now be calculated as a percentage of the profit from ticket sales to sporting events. She will be assigned a board of advisors to assist her in all decision-making. This board will be made up entirely of members of the former wrestling team.

Kim Record's Board of Advisors

Bonita Brown will be required to join the Girl Scouts and earn a badge in ‘plays well with others.’

Benita Peace will complete a spiritual journey under the guidance of the Dali Lama until she can find her center by reciting ‘hostile work environment’ in the lotus position.

Jan Zink will serve in the peace corps digging ditches and building water filtration systems until such time as she understand that the word ‘authentic’ can be used in other ways than to distinguish fake and real fur coats. Or until the earth crashes into the sun, whichever comes first.

There. That’s a good start. 

Tune in tomorrow when I’ll provide some application and interview tips that could help us weed out the a$$holes before they are hired.

99 People and Counting...

I've just received a few more names to add to the list of those who exited UNCG under Kim Record's distinctive leadership. Nearly 100 people found the environment worth leaving behind. Nearly every day I hear from someone with a confirmation of the toxic nature of her management. She has been protected by the bubble of administrative superiority for a long time, but now that this bubble is deflating, I wonder how much longer she'll be with us?

She never seems to have been particularly compatible with UNCG, almost as if she wants to make us into something we're not. A favorite tactic seems to be to cut off resources from those who need them and then to claim surprise at their failure to thrive. Sure it's underhanded and not particularly sportsmanlike but why would we look to the leader of our athletics program to demonstrate notions of fair play?

In any case, at least she did play a little defense after her assistant AD Brian Battle tried to strangle a soccer player on the field. By which I mean, she buried the story and possibly paid Battle to go away. That's a move that's pretty standard in the UNCG playbook, I'm sure he followed some better opportunity. It seems that even if you mess up badly (ie somebody catches you) your "externalization" is still padded.

That's why I guess I'm still surprised that they didn't offer that same face saving opportunity to Edna Chun that they did to Paul Mason (who apparently either was paid off enough that he doesn't need to work...or it's awful hard for him to escape what his name has come to represent). I wouldn't feel too badly for Chun though, after all, she's used to moving on. In fact, almost all of these executive types are. It's too bad we can't do a trade, get back some of the people who were long term members of UNCG's community in exchange for the release of some of these upper admins back into the wild.

Barring that, or a genuine reformation by those remaining, it'd be helpful if we could wrap up the executive admin exodus before the arrival of the new chancellor; give her/him a fresh start, a fighting chance. We all want our new chancellor to succeed and in order to help ensure that s/he can swim, it's time to release some of the dead weight that might pull even an olympian to the bottom.

Kim Record
Benita Peace
Jan Zink
Bonita Brown
Bryan Terry

If you love us, you'll leave us. And if you don't...we'll drum you out.

A bit of helpful advice.

Edna Chun Should Start Packing

When I was job-hopping through college and in the years after it, I remember hearing that it was important that I show people I could hold a job.

I’m now questioning that advice. It seems like the people who have been holding down the fort at UNCG for the longest are not the ones who are rising to the top. Instead we get people like Edna Chun and Paul Mason who seem to think that a two-year stint at a single employer is long enough.

No wonder they fire or drive away employees with 15, 20, 25 year histories with UNCG – it just seems suspicious to them that somebody would stay that long somewhere unless they were getting some illicit benefit. Having never worked anywhere long enough to become part of the community, they don’t trust that it is possible to become loyal to a place.

When Chun joined UNCG in 2011, they boasted of her past which included three years at SUNY Geneseo (2003 – 2006), one year at Brooklyn College of the City of NY (2002 – 2003), and two years at Kent State University (2000 – 2002). Her record holding length of employment was a five year period with Broward College where she served as vice president for human resources.

Unfortunately for Chun, it seems that the longer-term employment at Broward didn’t agree with her. In 2010, Chun was a finalist for the position of Chancellor of Peralta Community College district. That search was eventually restarted after all three of the finalists were rejected by a unanimous vote from the board.

This must have come as quite a blow to her since she had recently been fired by the Broward College President J. David Armstrong. The racial discrimination charges were brought to the administration by an employee and deemed sufficiently damning to lead to her dismissal with full and unanimous approval by the Broward College Board of Trustees.

And so UNCG continued in its new habit of taking in wayward administrators and added Chun to our ranks.

You would think Chun at least would have picked up a thing or two about dealing fairly and equitably with employees, but she seems to have remained confused about the relationship between race and the right to a healthy work environment when she told various UNCG employees that if they weren’t a member of a protected group, there just wasn’t a darn thing human resources could do about continued harassment.

This does raise the question: exactly what is the job of human resources, then?

And

Isn’t it about time that Chun moseyed on to her next short term bout of employment?

After all, if you stay in one place too long, your incompetence is bound to catch up to you.

Numbers Don't Lie But You Have to Ask the Right Questions

One of the cards that administrators like to use when paying for things that they want while saying that there isn’t money for what others want (need) is the idea that the money they have to spend somehow exists in inviolable separate bundles. They use this mantra to indicate that their hands are clean, but that they are bound to, in an amazing coincidence, pay for the things they wanted at the expense of others.

This has been demonstrated time and time again to simply be untrue in the strongest, most direct sense of the word. There are (at least) two important things to keep in mind about university finances:

1. Yes, there are some rules from the state regarding money that has been appropriated for specific expenditures not being redirected toward other expenditures. However, we have to keep in mind that all that this means is that we need to ensure that our administration asks for the right things. Legislators don’t wake up in the morning and decide they’d like to fund an unplanned rec center. They have been asked to and once they have determined that they would like to fund such an enterprise (for a whole set of reasons that I hope to be able to address later) that money is set aside for that.

2. There are two systems of accounting at work here. One that is mandated by the state and the other that is set up internally within the university. The one used within the university is changeable and is being misused. The budget is a projection of the ways in which the university would like to spend money, not a reflection of how it has been spent. Right now, it is being used by upper admin to claim that there is simply nothing that can be done to change the way the money is spent and to protect executive expenditures at all costs (pun intended and tragic).

As an example, Kim Record’s basketball pipedream is being funded out of available resources to the tune of $8 million. That money is not legally restricted to funding athletics, it has simply been budgeted for it. It could be redirected (yet another topic I’ll have to cover later) or at least scaled back - possibly tied to her ability to demonstrate a newfound ability to retain employees...

UNCG is also holding approximately $85 million in unrestricted funds that could have been used, for example, to ‘repay’ the money we had to give back because of the ‘accidental’ incorrect projection of student numbers. Instead, the execs put on their long faces and cried crocodile tears as they asked the rest of us to suffer.

You don’t have to take my word for it. Professor of Accounting from Eastern Michigan State laid it all out in great detail, just as he has done for several other universities, and has shown that UNCG didn’t need to go under the knife.

As the Board of Trustees promises the incoming chancellor a salary increase while the message comes down to the rest of us that yet again there will be not only no pay increases but continued shaving of whatever meager budget has been left, I think it’s only right we ask for a full accounting. And while the Bryan Foundation may be footing the bill for the upgrade the chancellor’s mansion, I think it’s time we ask if they would consider donating that money to other university causes more vital to its continuing mission.

And as the legislature hands down more budget cuts while the BoG springs for a tuition increase, it’s definitely time for Jan Zink to reconsider her $150k ice sculpture expenditures (or whatever other frivolous folly she has dreamed up in the meantime).

Heck, I'd even chip in for a dictionary for the execs so that they can use the same definition of the word "civility" as the rest of us.

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

Kim Record's Record Loss

I know that one of the metrics held up to measure faculty and departments across campus is the retention of students. I wondered how administrators might fare when held up to that same standard. What I found when going through the employee database was that the 11 lost employees in University Relations or the 30 lost in University Advancement pales in comparison to the 93 lost in Intercollegiate Athletics.

Sure, some of these can be accounted for because they were temporary employees (although that is actually simply a front for the fact that they couldn’t keep anybody around), and three of them have been transferred to other departments. However, the stories of bullying and abuse make it abundantly clear that what we have here is another (or should I say the original) of Brady’s toxic administrators: Kim Record.

There are two main reasons why I bring this up.

First, it is that it is part of the evidence that Brady has created a toxic work environment that spreads beyond one or two anti-social administrators. Paul Mason wasn’t a lone wolf, he was well suited to the administrative environment for which he was hired. And the poison Brady has brought will not disappear with him or with her ‘retirement.’

Second, because although it is too late to help those who have been fired or forced out, there may be some vindication for them in knowing that their story is being told.

What amazes me is that all of this sort of slipped under the radar – how we could lose over 90 people and nobody really question the abilities of the person brought in to lead. If a department were to lose 90 students, you’d better believe there would be repercussions. I can’t imagine why upper administration is not held to the same standard they so heartily avow is an important measure of quality and performance.

Each area of the university that suffers under Brady’s creatures seems to have done so in relative isolation – each group having little idea of what had happened (other than scattered rumor) to the others and quietly hoping that each incremental disaster was to stop before it reached their walls. It is understandable in such a fear filled environment that many would simply hunker down and hope for the best. Unfortunately, it is in increments that the waters around all of us rise, as TS Eliot said: “until human voices wake us and we drown.”

The history is clear and the disappearances have left scars on our collective psyche, damage to the community for which there must be truth before there can be reconciliation and we must demand as much before a new chancellor can wander unaware (or foolishly) into this and expect to lead us forward.

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

            -Martin Niemoeller

These are the names and in parenthesis the date of hire. Any information that would help to correct or amend anything on this list would be greatly appreciated.

Erica Zabkar, Assistant Coach (temp)

James Wyatt – moved from ICA to human resources (-$30,000)

Chad Workman, Assistant Coach (2004)

Jesus Wilson, AC (2008)

Vanessa Williams, AC (1992)

Mark Williams, HC (2004)

Laura Tomes, AC (2002)

Benjamin Thompson, Lecturer

Paula Terrell (transferred to accounting and finance - 1997)

Richard Stewart, Associate Director (2001)

William Steffen, AC (2004)

Janine Sprague - temp

Carrie Smith – temp (2006)

Jennifer Severns, AC (2006)

Jessica Schmidt, AC (2007)

Jarrett Santos – temp (30k)

Gary Ross, Assistant Director (2007)

John Rolle
Christopher Roberts, AC (2007)
Carla Roberts (?), Dance team (2001 - 2006)

Martin Redelinghuys, AC (1979)

Edward Radwanski (1999)

Jessica Poole (public safety officer)

Carol Peschel (1985)

Perry Phillip (1985)

Linda Peronto (2000)

David Percival (1994)

Michael Parker (1984)

Elizabeth Palazzi (2008)

Skydra Orzen (2005)

Kevin Oleksiak, Director (2006)

Vanessa Oakes, AC (2008)

Patrick Nichols, Head Coach – Volleyball (2006)

Linh Nguyen, Head Coach (2003)

Siri Mullinix, AC (2005)

Thomas Mozur, Head Coach - Tennis (2002)

Sylvia Mims, Associate Director (1979)

Emily Marron, Head Coach (2003)

Jason Loukides, Head Coach (2004)

Margaret Long (2007)

David Lee, AC (2005)

Shona Lauritano (2002)

Kaleah Latham, AC (2006)

Christina Kramer (2007)

Daisy Kovach, Associate Head Trainer (2006)

Gary Klutts, Assistant Director (2006)

Ronald Keefe, AC (2007)

Brian Judski, AC (2007)

Gwen Johnson (2001)

Rod Jensen, Associate Coach (2005)

Michale Janela (2008)

Justin Hukill (2009)

Neil Holmes (2006)

Erika Holmes (2007)

Michael Hirschman (2004)

Jonathan Hines (2004)

Kristina Hill
Jennifer Herzig, Head Coach (1986)

Jana Henderson (transferred to admissions)

Ashley Hayes (2007)

Nancy Hawks (2007)

Steven Hassen (2005)

James Harward (2007)

Amanda Haren (2007)

Chorhonda Gwaltney, AC (2010)

Edward Gordon (2008)

Corey Gipson, AC (1999)

Michael Gaski, Head Coach (1989)

Shawn Garus (2005)

Meghan Gannon (2008)

Brian Flynn (1998)

Carlie Fink (2010)

Shaina Ervin (2007)
Alex Edge

Kevin Easley, AC (2006)

Scott Desrosiers
Jennifer Desrosiers
David Dement, Head Coach (1995)

Celia Denham
Amber Debnam, AC (2007)

Aaron Craft, AC (2008)

Joann Cozart (2004)

John-Edward Comer – University Program Specialist, Alumni Affairs

Matthew Chazanow (2008)

Katherine Carter (2007)

Joanna Camp (1985)

Daren Burns (2009)

Laura Briggs (2008)

Paul Brennen (2007)

Deeann Brennan (1997)

Nelson Bobb (1983)

David Black (2001)

Jay Benfield, AC (1997)

Lauren Beasley (2010)

Brian Battle

Mary Avent, Associate Director (2000)

Cherie Avent (2009)

James Athas, AC (1999)

Lynne Agee, Head Coach (1981)