Part 14 (1/2)

All of her witnesses were waiting in a high state of excitement when Diana reached Howard Hall the next morning.

”Roz came in early,” she was told. ”She wanted to be sure we got this room again today.”

Roz brushed aside the praise, ”Hey teach, I've got some great news. The rest of the cla.s.s is kicking in to make up for what we lose in wages by attending the hearing.”

Diana was delighted. The fact that many of her witnesses were losing time at work to help her had caused a nagging pain of remorse. Already, most of them had lost a day's pay just sitting around waiting to testify yesterday.

While her witnesses occupied themselves in various ways-- studying, reading or conversing quietly, Diana sat down on the couch, closed her eyes and sought to compose herself. Even though the panel had instructed her to be there at nine with all her witnesses, one never knew when the hearing would reconvene.

Good news indeed. What great people these were, she thought.

When the whole mess happened, this cla.s.s of some two hundred nutrition students had rounded up hundreds of signatures for pet.i.tions sent to Lyle, Sam and the Pope. Many of the students had gone to them in person to plead for justice.

Although most of the students were in the nursing school, some came from the colleges of agriculture, arts and science and special education. Collectively, they had filled out and filed more nominations for me to be named Teacher Of The Year than had ever been received before for one teacher. They were devastated when the committee receiving these nominations threw them in the wastebasket, following the instructions of Henry Tarbuck.

Then there were some that went as a group to beg help from the 'Minority VP'--Dan Field. Dan talks a good game against discrimination and even pretends to speak for the black community.

He's a brilliant, fascinating lecturer, a perennial favorite with the students. They considered him to be the most impartial, open-minded administrator they had ever known. His feet of clay surprisingly revealed when he washed his hands of the students pleas and sided with the administration, telling the students who pet.i.tioned him for help that I am a criminal. At least the blacks on campus weren't surprised by this. They had long ago discovered he was not only a smart cookie, he was an oreo.

But, Diana mused on gratefully, Dan was the exception. Many pleaded on my behalf. Someone once said that all it takes to stop evil is for one good man to speak up and many good men, and women, did just that.

They spoke up for justice and fair play. They argued with administration officials, citing example after example of male faculty misconduct over the years that had gone nearly unnoticed and never punished.

They a.s.serted that a witch hunt would hurt the Belmont image and reflect badly on all who worked there. They all knew what a farce the SmurFFs had always been and all this fuss over seven?

Sure, evaluations were used at times by administrators as justification for not reappointing a faculty member, but even then, there had to be a preponderance of negative evaluations.

It was of no avail. The administration was adamant. So much for wise sayings but the fact that some people did try was heartwarming, Diana thought.

Roz broke her revere, gently. ”It's time, Diana.”

Was it her imagination or was the panel friendlier this morning, Diana mused as she entered the room and took her seat.

I do believe besides saying good morning, most of them smiled at me.

Maybe things are looking up.

A chastised Randy returned to the witness chair. He looks ridden hard and put away wet, thought Diana with amus.e.m.e.nt.

Responding to a question from Annette, he avowed that, ”The year that Trenchant didn't teach, we rewrote the lab manual.

We didn't use any material from the manual written by Trenchant.”

When all on the panel had indicated that they had no more questions to ask him, Henry asked Diana if she wished to question the witness. To himself, he added, G.o.d help us if the little twerp doesn't do what he's been told. Mark had a.s.sured him that he and Lyle had a good long session with Randy and felt that he had now seen the light and would behave properly.

”Yes, please. I'm confused, Randy. You have said that you saw one evaluation that appeared to be more directed toward one year than both years. You answered that this was one of the reasons why you thought it was suspicious.

”Now these evaluations have no dates on them. Is it not possible that both are from the same year?”

”No.”

”How do you know that?”

”Because I don't remember which one was from which year, but these are from two separate years.”

”Did you mark them.”