"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.

He looked over at Henry and smiled without speaking.

"Yes, thank you. Of course, that's it." Henry testified for him and then tried to prove through Jimbo's testimony that Diana had a history of conflict with department members.

Once again, Jane observed, no examples were given. The names of the individuals involved in these alleged conflicts were not given so there was no confimation of the testimony. When she tried to get specifics on these conflicts, Jimbo answered that, ". . .it involved the kind of facility utilization problems that one runs into in a small department."

Pursuing this, Jane asked, "Did they have anything to do with running a course or what should be taught in a course?"

"No."

At this juncture, Esther, not to be outdone asked if the difficulty had anything to do with her ability to teach.

Jimbo replied that her ability to teach had never been in question.

He also confirmed, much to Henry's chagrin, that Diana had worn a brace on her wrist in December but could not remember exactly when.

Since he had been commandeered to help in the radiology lab after Diana left the course, he was asked how the medical students responded that year. His answer indicated that he believed the students generally liked the lab portion.

He also disclosed that the lab had not changed at all from what had been taught in previous years.

Not b.l.o.o.d.y likely, thought Diana, since they copied most of the material from my manual that they were expressly forbidden to use. . .

the manual that was so successful in the course for the previous two years.

When Jimbo declared that the year Diana didn't teach, the course content was no different from the previous year, Henry tried to hurry him out the door.

He recalled all the testimony from the NERD people insisting that things were much different and much improved after Diana left the course.

Before he could, Diana said, "I have one question, Jimbo.

We taught that lab together for many years when you were chair of NERD. During that time, it was my impression that each year's cla.s.s could differ immensely from the previous year.

Specifically, one year, the cla.s.s would like the way the course was run, then the next year's cla.s.s would hate it. Do you agree?"

"Yes, wholeheartedly, absolutely."

"Thank you."

Henry walked Jimbo out of the hearing room wishing fervently that he had never asked him to testify. What a mess, but hopefully Lyle could fix it.

Chapter 25

Ann Biggot was a crawling mora.s.s of nerves. As she explained to the panel, it was not really fear of retribution for what she might say, it was fear that she might be understood incorrectly and that would harm either her chairman or Diana. She was overwhelmed, she exclaimed, ". . .because I heard that this is the first Termination for Cause Hearing ever held in Belmont!"

What an airhead, Henry thought. She swings so widely back and forth that her testimony is generally contradictory and always rambling.

When she criticizes Lyle, in answer to a question from the panel, she, in nearly the same breath, praises him on a totally unrelated issue.

Lord protect me from these dithering female types, he implored, raising his eyes toward the ceiling. He looked back at the witness critically. She's held her own in the looks department for a woman of her age, he decided, but has let herself go to fat somewhat.

Must be, from the looks of her about ten years or so younger than Diana.