A registered package arrived for Diana. It contained copies
of the `suspect' SmurFFs and copies of the standards that she
had seen before at the hearing. Also enclosed were many
other documents, apparently copied from microfiche files.
These copies were atrocious, all spotty with black dots and lines.
Most of the letters were blurred and some parts were unreadable.
The package also contained a report from another document examiner.
This one agreed that Diana had written six of the eight documents
sent to them for analysis, but was not sure of two of them.
Just like the previous examiners--except it wasn't the
same two they indicated.
Nevertheless, the cover letter, signed by Henry, decreed that
this was supportive testimony and the hearing would reconvene
in five days to present this evidence formally to Diana.
At that time she would be given an opportunity to cross examine
the so-called expert testimony of the document examiner.
This time Henry was taking no chances. This time, the document
examiner was male.
Diana and her supporters were not terribly surprised by
contents of the package. It did, however, confirm that as
far as the Belmont administration was concerned, she would be
convicted even if they had to move heaven and earth to prove it.
The initial hearing of three days, the official protocol,
the declarations of good faith made by the panel members--
all a sham. She'd waited long enough. It was time to
seek help outside of Belmont U.
Part of her decision to take this path was made in response to the
outpouring of support from the staff, faculty and students of Belmont.
These people, many of whom felt repressed themselves, knew that there
was no way that justice or fairness could be brought about within
the university structure. Anyone who had experience with university
politics completely subscribed to the dubious accolade that
university politics were the meanest of all types known to exist.
Many were angry that the whole rotten business evolved around
a mere seven out of several hundred forms--all of which in the
normal course of events would have been ignored.
There was frustration as well. They felt helpless and many
were sickened at their lack of ability to effect any change.
By sending money to Diana, "to help with legal expenses,"
they could mitigate their helplessness and their fear.
Efforts were initiated to bring the affair before the
Faculty Senate but they were quashed as soon as they started by
the new Senate president, former ombudsman, Jonathan Bambridge.
Trustees were approached by supporters as well as university
alumni groups. There was sympathy, but no one wanted to risk
their position against the very real power wielded by the administration.
Several women faculty went to the Pope and pleaded for him to intercede.
These were brave women. They took to the meeting with the university
president examples of many cases of proven misconduct that had occurred
on campus. In every case, no man had ever been terminated. They reminded
him that this was the first time at Belmont that a termination for cause
charge had been made, and that it was against a woman.
The group of faculty women begged him to reconsider. To press
such minuscule charges in the first place had been a mistake.
The information had spread across campus, the town and the state,
making almost every person who heard of it laugh at first,
then as they realized that it was not a joke become indignant.
"The publicity already has been harmful and it can only get
worse if this hearing is continued," one of the professors
urgently stated to The Pope. "Why do you continue with this?"
They were told that the decision to prosecute was final and that
there was nothing they could do. Then they were shown the door.
The same sort of treatment was given to staff and students
except that they usually got shorter shrift. Islands of
concerned people protested but never joined in concert.
It was not a safe undertaking at Belmont University. Not if
you wanted to keep your position. As Edmund Burke observed,
"When bad men combine, the good must associate;
else they will fall one by one, an unpitied
sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."
The final straw that tipped the balance and sent Diana to an
attorney to fight the inevitable termination was an editorial
that appeared in THE PROD, the Belmont student newspaper.
In a strongly worded article it condemned the undemocratic
judicial process of the Belmont administration, which flouted
the laws of the state and made up its own to fit each occasion.
The editorial compared Belmont's disciplinary process to feudal times.
It was titled:
PUNISHING THE VICTIM
. . .Dr. Diana Trenchant was accused of wrong doing.
Therefore, she was tried by a jury of her accusers
in accordance with university policy.
Although two witness, who in any court would be
called `expert' witnesses, testified against her,
she was not allowed an adequate defense--that is,
the service of an attorney who would be competent
to cross examine so-called expert testimony.
She was also not allowed access to documents
needed in her own defense.
She will most certainly be summarily terminated--
deprived of her livelihood without due process--
another victim of Belmont Kangaroo Kort Justice.
"That does it," she told Andrea and James whose support
had never wavered throughout the ordeal. "I refuse to be one
of Burke's `unpitied sacrifice'. More specifically, I refuse
to be their victim. Perhaps the courts can do something.
Let's give it a shot."
The women on the panel took a lot of heat for the reconvening
of the hearing. Ricocheting across campus were the whisperings
and lamentations of Esther as she endeavored to absolve herself from blame.
Jane's battle with her conscience reached only the ears of her
closest friends, but her glacial features and bent posture bespoke
her frustration and her impotency.
The saddest of all was Annette who had quietly borne the conflicting
waves of testimony that flowed over her at the hearing. She had dared
to speak up a couple of times, but now she knew that it had been a mistake.
Whatever Henry asked her to sign, she would sign. Without question,
without hesitation, but not with good conscience. His visit to her
and his carefully chosen words concerning his knowledge
of her life-style had left no doubt remaining that
the threat of exposure was real.
Diana found out early on that it would be unwise to place
too much confidence in the judicial system. She discovered
that a court cares nothing about right or wrong, good or bad.
It cares only about what the law is, can you prove it,
and who proves it in the most entertaining manner.
The Attorney General had told Diana that an additional hazard
was that this was a civil rights case--sex discrimination.
The current federal administration had knocked the hell out of
most of the laws pertaining to sex or age discrimination
and greatly weakened any remaining. The EEOC was acting like
a toothless pussy cat under the direction of a staunch Reagan\Bush
conservative whose payoff would be a seat on the Supreme Court.
However, for all its drawbacks, it was the only game in town.
A choice, instead of giving up. Besides, Diana was overwhelmed
with the magnitude of support in the form of cold cash from the
university community and alumni. She had to at least have the faith
in herself that others had shown--but the cost! Enough to make her
frugal Yankee blood congeal in horror.
Well, no help for it, she thought. She carefully figured out
just how far she could go with what she had and what had been given her.
That far she would go and no further. She'd give the court a chance,
but she wouldn't bet the whole farm on it and certainly not the rest
of her life. Decidedly not in a city where the old boy network
was so substantial and entrenched that it kept its meeting place
a male bastion and ruled the entire state from it. Not to mention
that The Pope was a prepaid member--a perk traditionally given
Belmont's president.