"First
THEY (UNCG administration) are operating from incomplete information.
1)
Paul has been the original and only source of information about how
the photo department functioned, their workload and productivity.
Paul's credibility is shot at this point, so that should be an effective
argument. The basis for the investigation is rotten at it's core.
Let's not stop hitting on the fact that we all went to HR to ask for
help and nothing was done.
2)
No one -- not Paul, not HR, not UNCG Police -- has ever talked to the
three of us, Helen, the previous supervisor of 15 years, or Debbie.
Paul's story that the business was operating out of the office is false,
but the investigation proceeded the whole time as though it was a
fact. Their understanding of how schedules, time sheets, history of
equipment use, etc. is all faulty, so the investigation -- and the
evidence as presented to leadership -- is all one-sided. THEY ARE THE
ONES WITHOUT ALL THE INFORMATION.
At
this point, maybe we just make sure our friends on campus have this so
they can respond and ask the right questions at forums.
The second thing:
We hope the lawyers will be able to respond on our behalf if they (UNCG) release specific information.
1)
We learned yesterday that the $150,000 figure was already making the
rounds on campus, which is good. It won't have any shock value. If it
comes out via the administration, the lawyers can respond. (answer --
the business actually netted only a fraction of this; and SO WHAT --
they had
permission to have a business and the story that they did all that on
the clock is FALSE.)
2) They have 75 invoices dating back three years. Do the math. That's two shoots per month.
3)
As to the argument that they used university equipment -- the
university has used theirs to its benefit, and this has been true since
the university has employed photographers.
4)
As for work on the clock, we have a rebuttal to ALL the dates in
question on the time sheets. The majority of them are 1-2 hour shoots
for which comp time was taken; one was shot by another photographer that
they paid (Tom Ross' nephew -- can't wait for that to come out) and
that the investigation failed to uncover this; and for the two dates
that were out of town, the photographers had requested and been approved
for vacation but failed to put this on their time sheets. So those two
were errors -- two errors in 2 1/2 years.
It is possible they (UNCG) have other things that they will throw out, but it will just be more of the same --
basically more photo shoots. If we can discredit the initial stuff, I think we'll be successful."
Third: Beth English quit her job effective immediately last week. She, too, had turned to HR for or
help during these last difficult weeks in University Relations, and
like the rest of us she received no help. She started her first day on a
new job today."
Just so you know, Tom Ross is the head honcho of the entire UNC system. This is about to get very ugly, please spread the word.
