Part 28 (1/2)

”Now you tell me.”

”You could have read it anytime.”

”When? Every time there was a break, you shooed me out of here.”

”We needed this room to confer.”

a.n.u.se broke in to hammer home another spike of explanation in the maze of questionable activity engaged in by the administration.

”Mark, from a legal point of view, can an employee's personnel records be sent out for this type of a.n.a.lysis without the individual's permission or verification?”

Mark answered, again with the qualifier, which was not deemed noteworthy by the committee members. ”In my opinion, they may not be used for just any purpose, but they certainly may be used for those purposes.”

Well, sure. Ask the guy who did it if it was all right.

Some legal opinion! thought Diana.

It was, however, the benchmark, the criterion of the prejudice exhibited by the hearing panel throughout.

The Attorney General, after her investigation was complete, wrote in her report that, ”. . .the panel utilized a procedure in which guilt was not investigated, but a.s.sumed. The university placed the burden of proof on Diana Trenchant to prove she was innocent, but denied her the evidence to do so.

”In fact,” The A.G.'s report continued, ”the process was so fundamentally unfair and reflected such an aggressive determination by the university to discharge her, that its actions have strengthened the inference of discrimination.”

Chapter 24

After Mark had left, a.s.sociate Academic Vice President, Jimbo Jones was sworn. He had held the chair of NERD for many years, then when Lyle took over, Jimbo was moved to the central administrative post. Henry smiled wryly, hoping for the best because no matter how poor a performance was turned in by senior administrators, they were never fired--they knew where too many bodies were buried. They were kept around and use as needed to plug gaps and cover a.s.ses, especially their own. . .

Having few duties as a Vee, Jimbo lectured, teamed with Lyle, in the nursing nutrition course. He used to refer to them as a dog and pony show. The students thought of two other animals that would have described the situation better, since neither man was greatly liked.

This was mainly because both had a low opinion of undergraduates, felt it was beneath them to lecture at this level and didn't try to hide their opinion from the students.

Lyle and Jimbo gave these few lectures because the university policy of increasing administration personnel and research faculty while decreasing teachers had decimated the ranks of competent instructors.

Upper level administrators like Jimbo were paid in the six figure category.

A few professors received fifty grand a year; most substantially less.

A limited number of excellent teaching faculty worked their b.u.t.ts off teaching course after course for peanuts. The ever burgeoning, corpulent administration and research people had light duties and lots of play time--to say nothing of having the money to play.

At the time Diana was employed at NERD, it was not unique for the research professors to spend one or two afternoons a week on the golf course, lake or ski slopes. Any research accomplished mostly fell to the technicians paid by a grant or the university.

Citizens who donated money for research into various diseases would be astonished to discover how little of their money went into the research, and how much went into paying administrative salaries.

At Belmont, Friday afternoons turned into happy hours as medical research professors with their light teaching loads relaxed together in the conference room recuperating for the weekend.

When Jimbo was asked to identify the two evaluations-- these being the two from nursing nutrition that Lyle had said Jimbo had brought to him, he professed not to recall how they were found or where. ”I don't remember if I found them or who found them,”

he stated. ”I have seen them before, but I don't know who discovered them.”

Henry started to get nervous. This d.a.m.n jerk who found those two SmurFFs professed no recollection of it.

He hurried into the breach. ”What you are saying, Jimbo, is that either you or Lyle found them but you don't remember which.”

Even with this prompting, Jimbo couldn't hack it.