business school

Nothing like waiting for class to end on Friday to find out if I’m no longer “the accused”, or if I’ll be spending the rest of my University career in pinstripes. Sure, the MBA Program left me a letter at the office regarding “The Threat”. But, of course, they don’t open until noon. Agony.

The result? Read the letter for yourself:

Dear Brendon

This is in response to your September 17, 2002 email to Anne DeWolfe and me.

Anne and I met with Kara McNair and you on September 17, 2002 to discuss an allegation that you made a verbal threat on September 10, 2002 in the Core Classroom. Theresa Pan, Manager Exchange Program, thought she overheard you make a threat, which was not directed at a specific individual.

At our meeting, you were given an opportunity to respond to the allegation and you denied making the verbal threat. You also agreed with us that it would be inappropriate and unacceptable to make such a threat. Given your response, we now consider this matter closed. There is no record of this issue on your student file.

If you have concerns regarding the Core administration, please see Steve Alisharan, Core Team Leader.

Yours truly,

Brian Bemmels

There you have it. Closure.

While I’m relieved with the result, I’m still disturbed by the implication: we’re watching you. Is this the way a university is supposed to operate? Last time I checked, universities were supposed to be pillars of freedom of speech. Even my father was shocked:

But seriously, the latest “Nasty Little Shock” is really scary. Are people really that paranoid?

In this post-Columbine, post-WTC, post-Age-of-Innocence atmosphere, there’s a question we should be asking ourselves as a result of this incident: Are we, as a society, just looking for trouble in every corner now, even when it’s not there? Instead of solving the real problems, are we just going out there, looking for problems to solve because we don’t actually know how to begin solving the real problems?

Want to solve real problems? Here’s a hint: stop bullying people that have done nothing wrong.

Nothing like being called into a meeting with the Associate Dean for Academic Programs and the Assistant Dean for the Master’s Program without explanation to start a day off on an interesting note. Yesterday, I got an email from the MBA Core Administrator requesting I meet with Anne de Wolfe and Brian Bemmels in the afternoon. No other information was provided. As member of an action against the University‘s tuition increases, I was a little nervous. I requested an explanation for the meeting and got the shock of my life.

Dear Brendon

I’ve asked to meet with you today to discuss an alleged verbal threat that you made in the Core classroom on Sept 10th. The threat was not directed at a particular person but it upset one of my Managers. I will provide details at our 4:30 meeting.

I appreciate you attending this meeting on short notice so we can clear up this matter.

Anne DeWolfe
Assistant Dean
MBA Programs

Verbal threat? Huh?? It smelled fishy, so I took one of my classmates, Kara McNair, to the meeting.

At the meeting it was revealed that before one of our classes an employee of the University overheard a private conversation between me and two other students. In it, I expressed frustration at the lack of organization in some aspects of the MBA program, a common complaint of a large percentage of the MBA students. The other two students, Kara McNair and John Phan, joked that I should be careful, after all the class had microphones and the University could be spying on us. At the time, it appeared the class was empty.

As anyone who know me will attest, I have no problem in expressing my opinions in a frank manner. I stated:

“If anyone confronts me on this, you know me, I’ll tell them.”

However, what the complainant alleged I said was quite different. The complainant alleged I stated:

“If anyone confronts me on this, you know me, I’ll kill them.”

I understand the need for the University to investigate any complaint of such a serious nature. However, the manner in which the University conducted the investigation was puzzling:

• When I left the room after making my comments, the complainant made no attempt to verify that I had said what was alleged.
• Though the complainant was able to identify me by my name tent, neither of the other two students were identified.
• The investigation made no attempt to identify and interview the two other students before interviewing me. I’m sure the complainant could have easily identified Kara and John from the MBA Student Roster to facilitate this questioning.

At this point it’s not clear what action may be taken, but I am filled with a sense of unease. First, it was a private conversation. While I understand the University’s need to ensure a safe work environment for their workers, it seemed a bit creepy. Second, they displayed a lack of common sense in the way they conducted their investigation. As a litigant against the University, wouldn’t it have made sense to conduct this investigation properly and avoid the possibility that it could be construed as harassment?

This is not the way to create an environment conducive to higher education.