Once Upon a Time: A Tale of Faculty Bullying

In light of the recent faculty satisfaction survey and the lack of an accompanying staff satisfaction survey, I wanted to paint a picture of some of the things that staff experience while working here at UNCG. It is unfortunate, but bullying is not confined to the upper administration and if we are looking to recreate UNCG as a positive working environment we can neither assume inherent and homogenous benevolence on the part of one part of our community nor complete and unanimous wrong doing on another.

Too many people assumed that by removing Linda Brady, all that had gone wrong at UNCG would disappear. However, there has still been absolutely no acknowledgement by either those who have managed to cling to power or by those who have come to assume it of the wrongs that were done. The absence of any such profession of truth has left some of these bullies with the feeling that their particular brand of abuse is sanctioned and that they enjoy absolute immunity to continue unchecked.

Let me tell you a story:

Once upon a time, in a department not far away there was an administrative assistant named Cordelia*. Cordelia had graciously served the department and was a dedicated and hard working member of the community known as Uncglandia. She made phone calls, scheduled appointments, supervised a band of student workers, and generally made herself most useful. She was pleasant and polite and her value was obvious to all. Well, to nearly all...

You see, in this otherwise idyllic department in Uncglandia there was a creature who could only raise herself up by pushing others down. On the outside, this creature looked very much like any one else, but all those who had come into contact with her over the years had found themselves in a desperate struggle to maintain their sanity in the face of her unpredictable and irrational assaults. Unfortunately, this creature had imbibed of the potion known as 'tenure' and it had caused her become nearly invincible and to further swell with pride.

Innocent Cordelia had come to this department unsuspecting of the nature of this creature. Many of those who had been given this same potion had used its protective power to fight valiantly, to explore bravely, or to create beauty. And so, Cordelia was surprised to find herself the object of its wrath. She began to be ever more fearful as the slightest wind could blow the creature in to breathe fire down her throat, leaving her in tears and the recipient of sympathy from kind, but equally powerless, graduate students.

Whenever Cordelia tried to answer the creature's questions or respond to its baseless accusations, the creature put out her hand and silenced her with a gesture born of her power. The vile words and unreasonable demands could be heard echoing through the hallways, infecting everyone with their poison. It was clear that no matter where this creature resided, it would bring naught but terror, trial, and confusion.

One day, after a particularly bad bout of burning had been visited on Cordelia, a young and noble graduate student dared to comfort Cordelia in her sorrow.

"Is there nothing that can be done to stop these outrages? This abuse of your goodness surely cannot go unchecked!" The graduate student declared.

"Alas," sighed Cordelia, "I believe I must resign myself to my lot as the creature has imbibed from the fountain of tenure. Sadly, there is nothing to be done except for me to contemplate my escape to somewhere more peaceful."

Turning away, she remembered all of the others who had been lost in this same way. Uncglandia was growing weaker as vibrant and vital members of its community were driven to flee from the onslaught of this creature and others like her. Some had appealed to the grand high Vice Chancellor's for help but it had been discovered that they were nothing if not the very source of the corruption in the land. They sanctioned evil actions and punished those who dared cry out and they remained afoot, despite the mysterious disappearances that had troubled their ranks.

I ask you, dear reader, what is to be done? Is Cordelia to be allowed to suffer? Is there no power that can rise and speak the magic incantation that will either banish or cure these terrible creatures?

To be continued...

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*names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Don’t Be Fooled

There are those who will say that this blog is weakening UNCG – that it could destroy it.

I am not so egotistical as to believe that the words I write have the power to destroy without foundation. If UNCG is so weak as to be able to crumble as a result of a blog, well, it’s hard for me to believe it was standing up to begin with.

What is weakening is the ability of the administration to do as it pleases with no fear of repercussions.

What is weakening is the shadow that has been cast by this administration and the possibility that it will continue to block out the sun for years to come.

I will be glad to see those things weakened and destroyed. Don’t listen to the execs when they tell you that these words have harmed UNCG. These words bring to light the harm that they have done to UNCG…and they would like you to believe that they are the heart and soul of the institution.

They are not.

If Jan Zink can’t bad mouth our donors and squander their money, UNCG will be stronger.

If Bryan Terry can’t verbally abuse his staff, screaming and yelling like a tyrant, UNCG will be stronger.

If Edna Chun and Bonita Peace can’t ignore the heartfelt pleas of faculty and staff for just treatment and basic dignity, UNCG will be stronger.

If a chancellor can’t accept the position assuming that we are their personal piggy bank with an unruly mob meant to be suppressed, UNCG will be stronger.

If anyone working here now or in the future knows that they must make a commitment to the larger university and Greensboro community when they accept a position, knows that they are taking a place in a vibrant and dynamic culture, understands the bounds of human decency, and accepts the mantle of responsibility to something larger than their own agenda, UNCG will be stronger.

Don’t ask me to stop working for those goals, because I won’t. And don’t be fooled when those with much to lose whimper as the risk increases. They weren’t thinking of others before and they aren’t doing so now.

I have heard from so many of you supporting the changes in the atmosphere that we are seeing begin to come about; let’s keep shaking things up and let the sun shine in stronger than ever.

Candidates with Courage Should Apply

I’ve read that the number of candidates for our highest management position, fancifully called Chancellor, has been winnowed from 50 to 10. That bit of data is presented as if it indicates anything meaningful. People love to supply numbers in situations where quantity is irrelevant. It means they don’t have to actually tell you anything.

It’s a bit odd that a government institution feels the need to work in such great secrecy as it looks for a new chancellor. It’s unfortunate that it has chosen to do so even in the face of overwhelming support for a more open search. It’s tragic that it has done so on the heels of such traumatic obfuscation by its former administration.

When President Tom Ross spoke at UNCG in the fall, he was clear that courage was a primary prerequisite for this position. In theory, the secrecy in this current search is to protect the candidates from the types of uncertainty the rest of us experience on a regular basis.

If they aren’t courageous enough to admit they have applied for the position (whether for fear of it being known if they don’t get it or for fear of retribution or fear of the unpleasant feeling they get from telling their current community that they are considering joining another one), then it’s pretty clear they don’t live up to the minimum expectations that we have set.

If there is any among the candidates that is not a coward, I call on them to out themselves.

Stand up, show us that you have the courage required of a Spartan. This place needs no more shadow candidates and disdainful leadership. Join our community not because of the lure of power or the promise of a renovated mansion and a higher salary, but because you wish to be a part of UNCG.

Reveal yourselves, don’t come in as the Wizard of Oz but stand up and show us that you had courage, a heart, and brains of your own all along.

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.

New Chancellor Will Get More Money

Sometimes, it is hard for my to type through the tears as I imagine the struggles that our current chancellor-in-chief experiences. Recently, she complained to those still unlucky enough to work with her that this "anonymous voice" just doesn't understand what she is going through. As much as that pulled at my heart strings, I do have to remind her that given the fact that she never, ever, ever, ever explains herself, it can't really be my fault that I don't "get" how hard it is to be her.

The board of trustees (who I have decided no longer deserve capital letters) is falling all over themselves to reassure any potential chancellor candidates that they won't have to work for the pittance paid to the current occupant of that vaunted position (a measly $324k if you can imagine the indignity!) I say, finally, hurrah, good for them. It must be so hard to stand up in the face of the powerless and give in to moneyed interest. The courage it takes to roll over (and on top of the rest of us) and promise more to an as yet un-wooed confidential individual...it warms my heart.

So, how much more than $324k are we talking about?

Well, it hardly seems dignified that a mere dean (albeit of the under-populated nano school) should make more than the grand high poobah (the new name for the position of chancellor, by the way, I don't know if you got the memo, they only send it on Tuesdays to every third employee who began working in an odd numbered month...). Since he gets $354k, I guess the new poobah is looking at at least $360. I say, why not just make it a cool million, right? I mean, if we want the best candidate, don't we have to pay the best salary?

And we do want the very, very best.

Why shouldn't we have that? I mean, other than the fact that North Carolina's higher education is being gutted. And that once the student loan bubble pops we're upside down in a mortgage for three times the amount of our cash reserves. And that faculty and staff are fleeing the institution. And that we've made some not so great headlines while doing some not so great stuff and then not fixed any of it.

Maybe we'll get someone truly forgiving, generous, and willing to lead a troubled place back to glory, like, I don't know, the Dali Lama. What do you think his salary requirements might be?

Barring that, we can only hope that maybe the very best candidates don't have Google.

A Question for the Board of Trustees

For anybody who knows Bob Wineburg, they know he is never one to hold his tongue when he believes there is something that needs to be said. This does not make him the easiest of people to be around and has certainly earned him a solid set of enemies.

I have not always agreed with him, but I have to say that I admire him profoundly - to stand up, to speak out, to call a spade a spade isn't meant to make others comfortable. It never has an it never will. There is no comfort to be had right now and to seek it is a disservice to the UNCG community - students, staff, faculty, and the citizens of Greensboro alike.

As such, I share Dr. Wineburg's missive to the Board of Trustees and desperately hope that it is not met by the same stone wall we have seen before.

"Dear Members of the Board of Trustees: 

I have had the distinct honor of sharing my views with you and President Ross throughout the worst mess UNCG has faced since I have been here. Sadly, we faculty have suffered through the most egregious administrative behavior I have witnessed in 34.5 years at UNCG. Thank God for free speech! I could not hold in how badly I felt for the victims of a truth worse than a horror story.

I believe as stewards of this once incredible university, some sort of statement about regret is in order from some level of leadership here. I don't expect one from Chancellor Brady, nor the administrators whom I believe knew this was a "house cleaning" from the get-go, nor any of you. Your leadership, especially giving Chancellor Brady a golden parachute when she truly deserved to be fired, was sort of Orwellian-like, in that "All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others."

But I need to go on record suggesting you consider doing what we ask our students to do when they plagiarize, aren't honest taking  a test, and the like. We give them a second chance if they make a good faith effort not to repeat such behavior. We don't use a one strike and you are out policy; they are human and can learn from their actions. Good teachers are firm but gentle. The gut of this university is its teachers, something lost in this saga. In reality, you are all are here to make sure we do our jobs the best we can. That slipped away. 

I am not so foolish to think that you don't carry a large burden of always steering this large ship, and even more so when things of this nature happen. You look before you leap and err on the side of caution as you should. I think you did your best in putting lipstick on sow of a situation. I know it is hard to call a skunk a skunk especially when the herd of independent minds is calling it a lily.  

But some of you backed Chancellor Brady, and I was wondering how you are going to rectify what the  News and Record said about some of you:   "some UNCG trustees’ assurances that the university would be vindicated once the “full story” was revealed ring hollow."

The University was not vindicated and I was wondering, as our leaders, how you you are going to employ the Golden Rule? Or will it be Silence is Golden?

Thank you for your time once again."

It is time to answer.

Frostbitten Fingers

In my continuing quest to save the university money, I thought I would collect the ice needed for the sculptures that Jan Zink seems to believe are the key to our donor's checkbooks. I'm only too afraid that in the face of her failure, her next plan will be to demonstrate UNCG's suitability as a recipient for donations by lighting things on fire. Apparently, she is operating under the assumption that our alums haven't experienced some of nature's most basic wonders...maybe she should try accurately predicting an eclipse?

In any case, I had nearly finished collecting what I believed would be a reasonable amount of snow, when somebody sent me pictures of the kind of things that Zink would be expecting from her frozen frivolities. I may have to move to Boston. I don't think it's coming down hard enough here to be able to deliver her fix.

I wonder how much it is costing to provide valet parking at these shindigs? After all, the people who work here have to PAY to park here. I wonder how much money the university could raise if it didn't have any employees. Probably none. So maybe a better investment would be to reduce the cost for parking for employees. I don't think these glitz and glam tactics are fooling anybody.

I guess I also can't help but wonder if we couldn't have found any sort of reusable but elegant ornamentation that could be used...we do have art and design departments on campus.

After all, we can't get raises, fix our buildings, or even keep our jobs since the budgets are being cut and cut and cut, right?

And, all of our financial woes are just coming down to us from Raleigh, right??

So, there's no chance that once the money that comes to the university is being spent in a way that is causing its faculty, staff, and students to suffer, right??

And since everything is ordered from Raleigh, there is no way that we could decide, for example, not to use it on ice sculptures but rather to pay for anything else, right??

Because that would mean there was a failure on the part of our leadership, not some hardship that we just have to deal with...and that would mean that we should demand that our leadership stop failing.

RIGHT?!?

Oh, I see.

We don't have a financial crisis. 
We have a leadership crisis. 

It's going to take a lot more than ice to heal that injury.