Another Day, Another Lawsuit

Yet another former UK employee has had to resort to legal action in order to address UK's flagrant discrimination.

Jeanne Suchanek is not the first woman fired for having breast cancer at UK or the first employee to be fired for a serious illness, and, unfortunately, she probably won't be the last.

We have heard horror stories like hers from all areas of the university -- supervisors and deans making their own rules, employees forced to lie on evalutions, and more. Of course these things are against the policies of UK but in the everyday real life of far too many UK employees the official policies don't mean a thing.

Our question is why aren't more employees speaking up?

Tuition Increase and No Raise for the Third Straight Year

According to Lee Todd's e-mail to UK folks today, UK "will not be able to provide across-the-board salary increases to faculty and staff."

Todd did acknowledge that "because hospital operations are generating sufficient revenue, the senior leadership of UK HealthCare continues to analyze whether they have the capacity to give a salary increase to their employees."

This story has been repeated so many times no one seems the least bit surprised.

Lest the students feel left out, Todd also announced a six-percent increase in tuition.

However, Todd did express some regret at being unable to give raises. "He said he would like to give the university's lowest-paid employees a raise of some kind — perhaps a one-time payment or permanent salary adjustment — but is not sure how to pay for it."

There now -- don't we all feel better?

Yes, You Can Buy Anything at UK

The Gatton College of Business Economics just sent out their invitation to the induction into 2010 Alumni Hall of Fame.

Guess who one of the inductees is? Yes, it is the same old Mr. Coal Lodge himself, Mr. Joseph Craft III.

I guess you can buy your way into anything, even the Gatton College Alumni Hall of Fame.

The irony is that the College just started a Center for Green Manufacturing!

(We wish we could say we were surprised.)

Morale Might Suffer?

Today's Lexington Herald-Leader quotes Lee Todd as saying "The biggest impact would be to the morale," in response to a question about consequences to a possible cut to funding. There is a possibility that state colleges and universities will suffer more cuts to their budgets in the next two years.

Morale might suffer? Evidently Todd's been on vacation for the last 18 months if he thinks morale isn't already suffering.

Let's see -- Todd has "flattened" the organization of the university by hiring more and more administrators. Staff have been without raises for two years. Jobs continue to be cut, forcing the remaining staff and faculty to take up the slack. The Board of Trustees continues to trust Todd to keep them safe from unpopular issues by not allowing visitors to speak to them (this also helps the Board work more diligently on finding ways to pay Todd even more). Todd and the Board were thrilled to accept coal money for a new building required to be named after a fossil, guaranteeing Kentucky being showcased on Leno and David Letterman.

Morale might suffer? God help us all.

UK Continues to Value Its Staff

The Kentucky Kernel brings us the latest example of UK's sensitive and caring handling of an employee matter -- that of an employee having a gun locked in his glove compartment.

UK does not allow firearms of any kind on its property, unless they're carried by law officers. Evidently this includes firearms kept in complete compliance with the laws of Kentucky (section 8). In other words, UK doesn't appear to pay much attention to the law.

UK fired this employee, termination of employment always the easiest way to deal with personnel problems.

The employee is suing, of course. He and his attorney tried to work things out without an expensive, drawn-out lawsuit, but UK's said to have nearly all the attorneys in the area on retainer, so why should they care about lawsuits?

Besides, all publicity is good publicity, right?

Why Indeed

One of our readers asks:

Why in the world did the Assoc. Provost appoint 2 new Asst. Provosts in this budget climate 2 days after faculty and staff received a message from the President basically telling us to be ready for even worse layoffs, furloughs, and program reductions?

Unofficial Wage Policy?

An interesting post from one of our readers . . . .

Is it true that HR said that there were over 3000 UK employees that were not being paid according to UKs unofficial wage policy? Is it true that the Staff Senate is attemping to right this wrong by making this unofficial policy official and mantory for all Depts? Why has UK held back wages for so many for so long? What can staff do to correct this injustice to long time employees?

We don't have the answers, but we sure would like to know, too.

Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don't

James Paxton, a UK baseball player, filed suit against UK for demanding that he "answer questions" from the NCAA or face possible expulsion from the team -- without allowing Paxton to know why or what the NCAA was looking for. " 'University officials allegedly have threatened to remove Paxton's eligibility if he continues to decline NCAA interviews, and such a threat violates the UK code of student conduct,' Paxton's attorneys say."

Yes, well, UK would never let a little thing like the UK Code of Student Conduct bother them, would they?

Our favorite part is Paxton's allegation that UK compliance director Sandy Bell told him "not to tell anyone — including his parents or his attorney — about the interview or (UK's) instruction to participate."

Fortunately Paxton wasn't quite the stooge UK Athletics assumed. He filed suit against UK, resulting in a nice article on the front page of the Herald-Leader. He talked.

Later this evening Kentucky.com reported that Paxton will be allowed to stay on the team and receive his scholarship "without the threat that it will change."

James Paxton, we applaud you and wish you great success in your pursuit of justice for student athletics.