• Trustees want experts from outside the university to review the process that led to the firings. Safran said those outside reviewers might come from the UNC system office in Chapel Hill.
“We’re trying to get some help from professionals,” said Safran, a UNCG alumnae and founder of a medical training company in Raleigh. “We’re a government agency. We want to make sure everything was done appropriately according to the government guidelines.”
• Trustees want UNCG to form a task force to review secondary employment policies and procedures and make sure all employees — both staff members and their bosses — are following the rules. University workers subject to the State Personnel Act must get permission before getting a second job and file a form annually that gives details about their outside employment.
As a first step, UNCG will hold an open forum Wednesday morning for employees to begin addressing state and university policies about outside work.
• The board formed a subcommittee to monitor developments. Committee members are trustees Charles Blackmon, Frances Bullock and Vanessa Carroll — all of Greensboro. Safran will serve as subcommittee chairwoman.
• Trustees said they support the chancellor’s actions. “Based on the facts as we know them,” Safran said in the board’s statement, “we are supportive of the dismissal of the employees.”
The folks at another UNC school just 2 miles to their east have long been lighting the way. Not only is North Carolina A&T University the #1 minority university in the nation today but they have also established policies UNCG should consider adopting yesterday.No task force, no money wasted on 3rd party consultants and no waiting months or years to establish a plan that works.
That's right, NC A&T, long known as Greensboro's other state university, the school with all the hand-me-downs, all the corruption, all the problems no one wanted to discuss publicly-- the red headed step child of the UNC system-- has now emerged as the better school in Greensboro. And while the leadership of NC A&T deserves credit they could never have gotten these so quickly without UNCG Chancelor Linda Brady who lowered the bar at UNCG.
Allow me to begin with the NC A&T Secondary Employment Policy.You'll notice it was established in 2004 and last revised in 2008. UNCG's secondary employment policy is still being put together in 2014.
Next up is the A&T Request for Approval of Secondary Employment. No mention of having to fill out a new form every year. That's probably because it is already covered by the NC A&T Annual Conflict of Interest Form that is filled out by everyone employed by the university whether they have outside employment or not. After all, part time jobs aren't the only forms of conflict of interest, now are they Chancellor Brady?
And finally, this is going to have a lot of UNCG employees filling out applications and waiting in line for the next openings at NC A&T. The A&T SPA Exempt Compensatory Time Policy
which spells out things like State regulations, A&T institutional procedures and record keeping.
At NC A&T, when a worker exceeds the 40 hours there is a reporting structure ensuring overtime hours are accounted for and the worker can draw on them. This is tracked using the Banner Information System. You know, the very same system UNCG uses. Workers can check the system to make sure their time is being correctly recorded and reported. And there's archives just in case problems arise later.
I guess when you grow up being the red headed step child you just have to work harder and do a better job than the spoiled brat. Ain't that right, Linda?
The fact is: It's the overwhelming opinion of the staff here at EzGreensboro.com that the secondary employment issue really is all smoke and mirrors on the part of UNCG. Two people who were already being pressured to leave had the nerve to fight back under a State policy that had just been re-emphasized to make sure workers would be free of retaliation so Paul Mason and Linda Brady retaliated to ensure UNCG's Fascist lead regime would remain in control.
And the only way UNCG can prove us wrong is by immediately adopting proven policies already in place at NC A&T University and other UNC schools. And that, my friends, should be accomplished in days, not weeks or months. Delay only shows resistance.
