Day 75 (Pt. 14)
[Author’s Note: This story is part of a series documenting punitive actions taken against me by Rutgers University & various law enforcement agencies beginning November 9, 2016 — the day after Trump’s election. Start with Part 1.]
Today marks Day 75 of Rutgers’ investigation into whether I violated their policy prohibiting workplace violence. Seems like a simple determination, right?! There was no violence or threat of violence. My students are all witnesses. 75 days later and Rutgers still can’t make a determination. Huh.
Dragging out the investigation prevents me from negotiating future work at Rutgers and elsewhere since it effectively prevents anyone at Rutgers from providing me a reference. As far as I know, administration has banned everyone at Rutgers from talking to or about me in relation to the investigation and my teaching. So they are not only messsing with my future at Rutgers, but my overall professional reputation and hopes to work anywhere in the educational field in the near future.
The current Spring 2017 semester at Rutgers began on 1/17/17, so my hopes of a quick return to the classroom have been squashed for the immediate future. But that also begs the question: where is the report and determination from this investigation? What is Rutgers waiting for? They’ve successfully blocked me from immediate employment, so why not release the report? What do they gain by continuting to drag things out? There is no fathomable way they are still investigating. If they are, it speaks to a gross incompetance at the administrative level since I provided them with my own interview and names of witnesses back on 11/28/16.
If I were full-time faculty, things would be different. But I’m an adjunct lecturer. Hired semester by semester. Administrative leave does not exist in perpetuity for me. Starting tomorrow, “administrative leave” means absolutely nothing since the pay period of the semester for which I was last employed (Fall 2017, when all this happened) is over. Starting today, I consider myself to be officially terminated from the University. Their cowardly handling of the entire situation just means they don’t have to announce it as such. I just fade away into another limbo state. I’m not one to fade away though.
new Twitter bio
Representatives of the University will only state I’m not on the schedule for Spring 2017 but won’t admit that keeping me from the schedule as an adjunct, and keeping the investigtaion “active,” is tantamount to official termination. My students and the entire student body continue to fight for me though. They’ve kept the conversation going by getting this article published in the student newspaper on 1/25/17 (written by one of my former students):
http://www.dailytargum.com/article/...versity-will-not-teach-during-spring-semester
I’ve sent MANY emails to the Human Resources office. They were cordial and accomodating to begin with — I went so far as to gracioulsy take hours to help my investigator navigate and download days worth of my tweets on Twitter because I knew that I’d done nothing wrong. And she assured me a draft of the findings in the investigation was submitted nearly six weeks ago. However, my emails became less accommodating, more forthright, and even a bit accusatory as time dragged on. Which I feel is justified as fuck.
All signs point to the investigation being deliberately drawn out because it’s in the University’s best interest. They can just continue to ignore and not make any formal statements. Finally, on 1/2/17 — after more than enough waiting — I intimated I felt as if this was nonsensically being drawn out via email. Since that email, to which there were adament disavowals and claims of offense on their part (are you fucking kidding me?!), I’ve had no responses from the Human Resources office save a promise from the Director that the determination of my investigation would be released by January 6, if not sooner. I still don’t have the report today, 1/31/17.
Here is a copy of HR Boss Lady’s promise sent on 1/3/17:
(The complaint referenced and filed by me is a complaint I hastily made one night against the person I believe to be at the bottom of this entire campaign against me. I decided to withdraw it UNTIL the determination against me is finalized.)
So…WHERE IS THE REPORT? I need it released before I can take further action and the wait, I feel, is egregious. None of my subsequent emails has been met with any response.
Through this whole process the union has been amazingly helpful and supportive, but nothing has pushed Rutgers to move faster. The current demand to administration, issued before the holiday break, is to immediately pay my medical bills and reinstate me. We’re too late for reinstatement this semester and so I’m also seeking a monetary settlement for the 2 courses I would have been teaching this semester — the income they screwed me out of. It’s not much, but I’d be happy to receive that small amount to tide me over while I continue chasing other options. No response from the Univesrity. At all.
Because of the lack of response, I involved an outside legal firm interested in my case. They contacted Rutgers counsel during January. Immediate responses flowed. Hmmmm. However, Rutgers issued an edict that I could not have both the union and outside legal counsel fight on my behalf simultaneously because they didn’t know who to negotiate with.
OK. Now that I’d jump-started the conversation again, I decided to allow the union and it’s legal representative to continue advocating on my behalf. They know the ins and outs of the University and already have relationships with many of the people involved. It seemed like the best best. However, the minute I asked the other legal firm to back off, contact between the University and the union reverted to nonexistent status. Ignoring requests. Not responding. Dragging everything out again.
I’ve never been a patient person, but I feel like my patience in this incident has gone over and above what makes sense. Bureaucracy is one thing; outright obstruction is another (though the two may not be that far apart to begin with). I am giving the University a few final weeks to rectify the situation with the union before reinstating the big guns, who are ready and waiting for word from me.
My requests are modest: release the report determination immediately to open up contact between me and my colleagues again; pay my bills; give me a settlement in the amount I would have rightfully earned teaching the 2 courses I was set to teach this current semester before any of this occurred (and even though contracts weren’t signed, I have verbal confirmations from multiple people in the departments I would have been teaching in); and reinstate me for future semesters.
I’m also demanding the University reveal the redacted names from the RUPD report. Since the complaint that set everything in motion was based on false information and outright lies, I have a right (under HR guidelines) to respond to false accusations. I seek no retribution against any “student” or “parent” that may have been involved, but there is certainly someone at Rutgers who helped advance this false complaint to exponentially egregious levels, and I do seek to file a claim against that person. I have the right to know who it was, or…have my suspicions confirmed that the same person who has fought me tooth and nail for years is also behind this.
However, I’m not holding my breath. And if this situation isn’t resolved in the coming weeks, I will transfer representation back from the union (since the University refuses to respond to them in any kind of timely matter) to the outside legal firm with the resources and time to blow this case up. Not only will I seek damages for the small amount owed to me in preventing my teaching this semester, but damages for defamation and violation of my first amendment rights.
Rutgers would do well to settle this quickly. Unless they want the bad PR of choosing to protect — with no verification or corroboration of the veracity of the claim — one conservative white student’s feelings of discomfort related anonymously through a parent, and never recorded by said student, over protecting free speech, academic freedom, and the questioning/deconstruction of power in the classroom. Not the hill to die on, if you ask me. But Rutgers continues to surprise with how obtuse and oblivious they can be.
I’m not going anywhere. I’m not backing down. Next move is yours, Rutgers. And choosing not to make a move is also a move. I see you. And I’m ready.
