"Now what did you do with these SmurFFs that Dr Fecesi brought you?"
questioned Henry.
"At first, I just thought about them. Then I took them to
Jimbo Jones who was chair of the department before me.
"I thought he might have some idea of what should be done
and he, of course, knew Trenchant since she had been
in the department during his tenure as chair."
Lyle continued, shifting in his chair so he appeared taller.
"Jimbo immediately took them to Mark Rogers who is the
university attorney and Mark sent them out for analysis.
"I looked through other SmurFFs and picked out a couple
that seemed strange, that didn't seem to me to be what students
would write, and Jimbo found a couple in the nursing course
and all those were sent out to the examiner.
"The document examiners reported that, to the best of their knowledge,
Trenchant had written the SmurFFs we had sent them so I went to you,
Henry, to the administration, and it was decided that I meet with her
and give her an opportunity to resign. When she refused, I wrote
the dean and he initiated the termination for cause action."
Henry appeared pleased, consulted his notes and asked if Lyle
could explain Trenchant's conduct.
Certainly, Lyle would be happy to. His eagerness to answer this
question lent strength to a skeletal system already overtaxed
with maintaining a taller posture.
"It had to do with the problems in the radiology course.
Ian and Randy were trying to make the course better. She fought
them on everything and finally she quit the course--said it was
too much along with her other teaching responsibilities.
It was about a year ago that. . ."
Randy called another meeting to discuss the Radiology course changes.
Ian attended reluctantly. He was not convinced but Randy swept him along
and Randy had Lyle's approval. All Ian had was a poor track record
teaching the course.
Randy delineated the changes he was going to make in the manual.
The first one was that Trenchant's name would not appear on it.
Instead, it would be the product of the course directors, Ian and Randy.
He was quietly and firmly told by Trenchant that he did not have
her permission to make any changes. The manual was copyrighted
by her and would stay that way. He had the option to either
use it or not, but he could not change it as he was indicating.
As for legitimate suggestions or ideas, she would certainly,
as always, welcome constructive criticism and make the necessary
changes herself.
This was not an arbitrary determination by Trenchant. Her manual was
written expressly to teach a circumscribed area of the course.
It did not pretend to be otherwise. Even though more emphasis
was to be given to recent developments in the field, the radiology
course must still devote a great deal of time to the basics.
This was because the students had to be prepared for the courses to follow.
Randy announced that he would use what he wanted, as he wanted
and the meeting broke up.
The accused was busy in her office when Lyle burst through the door
in his customary manner of no manners.
"What do you mean telling Randy and Ian that they could
not use the manual and make the changes they want in it?"
He yelled at her, continuing with threats of what would
or might happen if she didn't do as she was directed.
When Trenchant was finally given a chance to answer, she told him
simply that the manual was copyrighted and that she had told
Ian and Randy that they were free to use it or not as they chose.
They were not to edit it or change the authorship, however.
When his browbeating failed to move her, he left.
Within the hour, Jimbo accosted her in much the same manner.
Becoming a Vee had not changed Jimbo. He was still unable
or unwilling to govern his temper.
"You cannot claim copyright to the radiology manual because it
is illegal and the university will sue you and put you in jail."
After he had stopped yelling, Trenchant told him the same
thing she had told the others.
He left and went into Lyle's office where they were joined
by Ian and Randy.
It was decided that they would retype the radiology manual
using as much of it as they wanted. "To hell with that
trouble-making broad," was the decision of the assistant vice
president for academic affairs of Belmont University.
This was done. Without permission, they used large portions
of the manual in the fall radiology course, giving no credit
to its author.
Diana was not the only author so honored. In the manual,
and in other material that these men put together to teach
the radiology course, complete excerpts were taken verbatim
from four standard radiology texts. No source was cited.
No author was credited. Also, an entire atlas on radiology
was photographed. Several copies of these photographs
were made and put out in the lab with absolutely no credit
given to its authors or publisher.
At least one medical student was incensed by this.
He or she wrote to the publisher anonymously.
The accused learned through the student grapevine
that the department got into serious trouble
because of this and that Dean Broadhurst was furious.
Lyle blamed Trenchant for blowing the whistle, conveniently
forgetting that it was a student who had written the letters.