To the students and faculty and most of the staff at the Tucson Campus:
The following is intended to remedy the fact that still, to this day, the students at Brookline College, Tucson campus, have not been given any truthful answer as to why I am no longer teaching at Brookline College. As always with the truth, tell the full truth.
This is also to acquaint the administration of the College in Phoenix with the general situation at the Tucson Campus. It is hard for me to believe that what happened to me was okay with them, but that leaves open two possibilities; either the Tucson campus management has the headquarters so “snowed” about what really is happening at the campus, or the headquarters thinks what is really happening is okay with them; and not just with my situation, but everything that is horribly wrong at the campus. Either way, the management personnel in Phoenix should be professionally ashamed for having any part of it, especially how it seriously, negatively affects the educational experience of the students at the College. What happened to me was done simply as an act of meanness, and personal vendetta, because I would not be intimidated.
The following is just an explication of the truth of what happened, and a list of things that need to be said, out in the open, about the quality of life, and education, at the Tucson campus of Brookline College.
I am now aware of the Petition the students have brought before the College for my “reinstatement”. I cannot express my appreciation strongly enough to the students and others who acknowledged, in writing no less, their desires to see me back teaching. But, sadly, there is not going to be a reinstatement until something else happens. So long as Leigh Anne Pechota and Anna Slaski are managing the Tucson campus, ruling their kingdom by edict, and mismanage and abdicate their responsibilities to others, and blame others for their own incompetence, and disrespect and demean almost all who work under them, I do not belong there.
I had not spoken out before I “was resigned” (not a typo… I did not resign, I did not quit, I “was resigned”), because I figured if I was there, I could try to fix or help deal with the numerous problems as they came to my attention, and I did that. But now I am not there, and my students, as well as all the students and the faculty and most of the staff, are suffering even more since my unwilling departure.
The “Resigning of Me”
On Fateful Thursday (February 2, 2012), I was called in to read my performance appraisal with Anna Slaski, always an unpredictable moment in a faculty member’s life at the campus. When I got to the words “negative” and “complainer”, now for the second consecutive year, in spite of everything I have done for the College, I took my school keys and placed them on Anna’s desk. I looked right into her face, and told her she can “close [your] own building”, and get a new Program Director and a new Extern Coordinator” and that I will just teach my classes. I stated “I am not signing this”, and I then walked out of her office.
She tried twice to get me to come back into her office and I refused She said I was being “overly sensitive”, her favorite defensive tactic when caught being her real, incredibly insensitive and brutal self. I had no intention of sitting still while she tried to explain to me why this farce of an appraisal was appropriate, because that was coming next. I took my briefcase and left the building, fully intending to return in the evening for my classes.
In the parking lot, I remembered I left my eyeglasses, and came back into the building. I was walking out of the building again when I saw Anna and Leigh Ann Pechota turn the corner down the long hallway, in front of me. Absolutely wanting to avoid talking to them, I turned down into a different hallway.
Upon seeing me, Leigh Ann began calling my name repeatedly, “Brad… Brad… Brad”, loudly, in the hallway, and I heard the sound of running feet (clackety shoes). They both turned the corner and ran after me. To avoid what was obviously developing into a chase through the building, I stopped and told Leigh Ann essentially that I had nothing to say to her, that the appraisal was “bullshit” (I think I said “absolute bullshit”), and that I won’t stand for such actions directed against me, or anyone else, any longer.
At that point, Leigh Ann’s face became a shrieking mask of hate, her teeth actually bared, her face red and contorted, then she pointed a crooked finger at me, and screamed at me, with Anna standing there, in the hallway, with other people in the hallway, and I mean screeching, “ See? That’s the negative attitude I am talking about. I accept your verbal resignation!”, and she meant from everything, apparently. I was taken aback as I had not resigned from everything (not teaching), just the jobs I did not get paid for and the extra unpaid hours I worked each week, for which they are, on top of that, completely ungrateful and unappreciative. As usual, Anna Slaski had lied to Leigh Anne about what I had actually said, proved by Leigh Anne’s statement. At this point I said, “Whatever”, and walked away from them and out of the building.
I resigned as Program Director, as Externship Coordinator, and as “night closer” of the building, and nothing more. When they last accused me of being a “negative influence” at the College, in late 2010, I resigned from being the Master of Ceremonies at graduations, because it occurred to me that if they really felt that way, why would they want to give me an audience of 1500 people, and a podium from which to speak, where they could not control me, and say whatever I want? It apparently did not occur to them (of course), but it did to me, so I resigned that position only (and not teaching). And guess what? NOTHING HAPPENED! They did not resign me from anything else! And we all went along as if nothing else happened (for a while).
But, this time when I resigned my extra positions only (not from teaching), just like last year, the result was different, and it is important for everyone to know why it was different, which we will get to shortly.
After my being resigned by Leigh Anne this time, I wrote an email to Leigh Ann and Anna, the same day, included here as an attachment, which speaks for itself (the attachment includes all the early emails between me and them and HR). As always, I was willing to compromise and try to make the best of a bad situation. They, and the Phoenix headquarters, completely ignored my email. Instead, the next morning, I received an email from Brookline’s human resources department, that they have “accepted my verbal resignation”… which I never gave (see attachment).
No one from headquarters or HR has ever asked me about what happened. They are seemingly not interested one bit. What does that say?
They (Leigh Anne and Anna) do not want to hear about the problems at the campus, which as managers, is their first most important responsibility, to listen carefully, and then actually to do something about the problems. They want desperately to believe they know how to manage the campus, when it is shockingly clear that they do not.
Class and student scheduling, teacher assignments, serious safety and security problems, the latest construction project fiascoes, and violations of Dept. of Education and accrediting agency rules, regulations and policies, are all being neglected and often affirmatively avoided. Faced with someone telling them there is a problem, they must face their own incompetence and inadequacy, which they cannot bring themselves to do. Instead, they punish those that speak up, and ignore the problems, or bury them.
When someone suggests a way to do things differently from their way of doing/ hiding/ burying things, that person is most frequently labeled a “complainer”, and that ends up on a performance appraisal, and then one is threatened with termination and almost always, no raise that year. One has to wonder if that is a corporate policy as well.
The short (very short) version of the original false branding of me as a “negative influence” happened in December, 2010, when I reported to Leigh Anne that I had heard others refer to Brookline as “Crookline” ( and worse). I was repeating what others had said, and wanted to change that perception of the College, largely undeserved (then). This fact was then distorted by Leigh Anne and Anna into “I” was the one using these terms to describe Brookline, a completely false accusation. As I explained to them, I have more of my reputation riding on Brookline’s success than they do, so how could that make any sense? But common sense has never stopped them from doing anything foolish. So, that led to me being written up and threatened with termination if I did not stop being a “negative influence”, but not quite explaining what that meant. Of course, the only people I was negatively influencing were those two. So, I guess it is a good thing I taped that conversation. [Nicole from HR, are you listening? You are on that tape, as clearly a witness for these two supreme prevaricators, buying their false accusations, and clearly not doing a shred of your job to get at the truth.] Remember students, evidence is everything.
As déjà vu was setting in this time, I was not going to let this situation happen to me twice by the same pair of incompetent, irresponsible, and simply mean mis-managers of the Tucson campus, and so this year I resigned my extra, unpaid duties, and again, not my teaching duties. But leave it to them to make the worst out of a bad situation. This “resigning” of me by Leigh Anne was simply the act of an egomaniac who has the extra-added problem of having to cover up and explain a variety of mistakes, mis-management, and the horrible treatment of people. I just refused to take it anymore.
They apparently did not and still do not appreciate that I tried to make my suggestions, and even some demands, in as diplomatic, quiet and non-public way as I could. They made all this public by “resigning” me. Now I am simply helping them make it even more so.
I believe that no one in the upper levels of administration has any real sense of the low level of morale at the Tucson Campus, no sense of the level of confusion, distraction, and fear among the staff and faculty, and the causes for that state of affairs. They should know about the unqualified people teaching classes, the enormous (and unpaid) course load some faculty are required to accept for fear of being terminated. They should know about the students sitting in the wrong classes (because of the wholly incompetent schedule-making), the general decline in the teaching quality (not due to the faculty), and the failure of management to address these and other issues. This cannot be a corporate policy… can it?
I believe that no one in the upper levels of administration has any sense of the tension among the faculty and adjuncts vis-à-vis management, due to the cheating and chiseling by the College (Anna and Leigh Anne) in terms of adjunct contracts at the Tucson campus, where the compensation is so varied and different so no one knows a standard rate for doing anything. That is why they try to intimidate employees to not talk about their compensation. This has to be a corporate policy, right?
Most important of all, no one in the upper levels of administration seems to have any real sense or even awareness of the state of confusion, disorganization, and absolute anxiety the students in the paralegal and criminal justice programs (and medical as well) have been in since I was resigned. I know for a fact that you at the headquarters in Phoenix do not, because if you did, you would have stepped in long before now and fixed things, or forced Anna and Leigh Anne to fix them, or fired them, right?
Right?
If any of you reading this can believe this, I heard that Anna recently described me… me… to one of my former colleagues, as “just picking up a paycheck”. That just about sums up their attitude and demeanor, doesn’t it? They expect an unreasonable amount of work, under the worst of workplace conditions, for little or no compensation, and when they actually get it from the dedicated professionals that we are, they reward us with disrespect and degradation. And, Anna is so oblivious to her own insensitive nature, that she apparently believes she can say anything with impunity, and that the listener is not going to repeat it. Wrong… again.
Anna herself told several people that she was “surprised” at my reaction, and actually told me before I left that I was being “overly sensitive”. Generally, psychologically, that is what guilty-minded people, who have little or no conscience, say when their behavior has unintended consequences. They rapidly backtrack and try to explain (and whine), “that’s not what I meant”, and actually blame the other person, among other consciousness-of-guilt statements and rationalizations. Why else did they come running after me, if I had already quit, in their minds? Why not just let me leave? Come on… you all have to get it by now.
The irony is unfathomable and inescapable, that I would be considered a negative influence at the college by these two failed managers, after all I have done for the institution, and the students. Their personalities and their management policies and attitudes are the real and only problem, the actual negative influence, at the campus, not the faculty, not most of the staff, and certainly not the students.
These two failed managers create the culture of fear, intimidation, and confusion pervasive at the campus. They treat people with the utmost disrespect, disdain, unprofessionalism, and outright meanness. They mismanage by edict, and not by consensus, which in an educational institution is so necessary to effect a culture of communication and learning. This is an environment conducive to learning, or a place where one wants to come to work every day? Hardly.
The College is, at least seemingly, hell bent on credentials, as least as far as faculty, way past the “necessary and appropriate” point and far into “insanely inefficient” territory. This then begs the question… what actual credentials do these two mis-managers have to do their jobs? Want a good laugh? Check it out.
They do not appreciate, as a competent manager would, when faculty and staff try to make things better; rather, they take it as a personal affront (because they are not professionals), and feel they have to punish us to make us stop trying to change the way they mis-manage almost everything.
It doesn’t matter if you try to help quietly, without fanfare, without publicity, tactfully and diplomatically, as I did. They only want us to stop “complaining”, their chosen word for appraisals of people who try very hard to help make things better and function more efficiently and smoothly. The changes and fixes needed are substantive and significant, because the problems created by their joint mismanagement of the Tucson campus lead to enormous negative consequences, and ultimately, to the low quality of education delivered by the College.
Leigh Anne’s act of “resigning” me was one of pure retaliation, and simple meanness, for not doing what she insisted that I do, and that was to talk to her “right now”. She actually stomped her foot and demanded I talk to her “now!”, like any child of five. It wasn’t about anything substantive, or College-related, or even my work as a teacher or administrator. It did not matter to Leigh Anne that her tantrum-induced decision, like some out-of-control maniac, affected my health coverage, and my retirement account, nor did it matter to her that my income would be affected. It did not matter to her that the students would be so negatively affected, as they have been. It only mattered to her to get her way, at that moment, in complete disregard for the good of the College, and of course, how that behavior would affect the students. Once again, personal animosity, based essentially and ultimately on the fear of having her own shortcomings revealed, caused yet another magnificently counterproductive and simply stupid management decision to be made by the two of them. Then, of course, the cover-up began, always a sign of bad faith dealings.
There is more to be said, but it will be saved for a potentially different forum. I apologize to all who tried to contact me since Fateful Thursday, students and faculty both, but I was doing my best to accede to the wishes of the college to not speak to anyone about the situation. But a few days ago I learned some new things. So, from today, feel free to be in touch, either at this email address (oh, the conspiracy theorists are going to have a field day with this email address) or at my office number.
To those of you who work at the Tucson campus, who stay and try to behave professionally and give the students what they deserve, in spite of the demeaning, threatening and horribly depressing work environment we have had to suffer through at the hands of the management of the campus, I offer my thanks and appreciation for your dedication and professionalism towards the students. I cherish and will remember with great joy, our time together.
To the students, who I am so passionate about, and work so hard for because you work so hard to be better, and whom I respect because you are willing to speak out for what you deserve, I say, as always, keep fighting for what you believe in. In spite of it all, no matter what happens next, be smarter than the ones who want to put you down, always. Maintain your dignity, and demand your rights.
And if you want to pass this around to the other students… you have my permission. What is most interesting about “hidden” truth, is that when exposed by a bright light, and with more people knowing the whole truth, bad conditions may actually change.
Management in Phoenix… this is your cue."
This is the first time we have been given any truthful explanation about why such an influential and brilliant teacher no longer teaches us. The fact that we were outright LIED to angers me beyond words and now that he is no longer with the school we pay so much money to be at, our professional futures are in jeopardy...
