Classroom Talk
Fifth and Sixth Grades Archive
Seeking advice -- hearing on Thursday!
Posted by Rob on 07/07/2003 08:34:15
Hi everyone:
I am seeking some advice if you read this in the next few days.
The background:
There was a part time faculty member who I hired to teach a class last
year, call him HB. Toward the end of the semester, the president of the
college happened to be at a dinner with some students and heard form
one of them that HB had not attended something like 9 classes. She was
very angry. I was asked to meet with her and the dean. The dean
proposed to look into the matter and to withhold HB’s final paycheck.
The dean discovered that perhaps 5 classes were missed and that HB did
not inform the department that the classes were going to be missed and
did not plan to make them up. While HB disputed these facts, the
college withheld his pay.
Now:
HB is taking the college to court to get his pay. The dean wants me to
present evidence at the hearing. I have indicated that, as a faculty
member (even as dept chair) I do not wish to present evidence against
another faculty member. I also indicated that I did not support the
action of the administration in withholding HB’s pay. I am being
pressured to go to this hearing.
I am seeking advice. My analysis:
The college president is dominated by a need to control and by judging
and punishing. When she heard of this problem she immediately decided
that the situation needed to be controlled and that the action of HB
should result in punishment, i.e., not being paid. The president was
not content to simply not rehire him for future classes. I think that
the lawyer, the dean’s time, all are better spent doing something else
than punishing a part time faculty member and not paying him the $ 500
or so dollars that he was supposed to earn. He did turn in grades and I
assume that they are fair since I did not receive grade appeals. I
think that HB probably doesn’t deserve to be paid and is a bit of a con
artist AND I think the college is just making trouble for itself by
withholding pay and seeking to punish HB when just deciding not to
rehire him would have been enough (in my opinion) So, I feel
uncomfortably in the middle of this.
Archived 09/22/2003