mobbing

(May 5, 2007) Late Friday, May 4, 2007, Alvin Willians, Interim Dean for the College of Business, orchestrated a cowardly and shameful mobbing of the editor of this website. The purpose of the mobbing was to silence usmnews.net. Approximately half of the College of Business faculty participated. The editor was cursed and condemned for refusing to maintain his silence about problems in the CoB. Incredibly, Dr. Sami Dakhlia, an untenured assistant professor was pushed to the front to do the dirty work of others who want this website silenced at any cost. As stated in our editorial policy we invite Dr. Dakhlia and any others to provide specific instances of untruths and we will publish the information together with any documentation provided. While we await the evidence supporting the allegatons contained in his document, we present the document and it's claims here. As this story develops, we will provide more information to the academic community. I would remind my colleagues that an educator’s first task is to lift the veils of secrecy and impassioned rhetoric so that everyone can see what is going on and engage in reasoned debate about how to make sense of it. [Paraphrasing Kenneth Westhues, “Administrative Mobbing," p. 309.]

Over the next few days, in addition to its regular news and opinion reports, usmnews.net will be publishing some excerpts from an excellent article published in the Chronicle of Higher Education last year. Mob Rule: In departmental disputes, professors can act just like animals, John Gravois, http://chronicle.com, Section: The Faculty, Volume 52, Issue 32, Page A10. It is based, in significant part, on the work of Kenneth Westhues who has made an extensive study of academic mobbing.

Then matters come to a head - to a "critical incident," as Mr. Westhues calls the third stage. You are accused of making racially or sexually insensitive remarks. A minor charge of plagiarism surfaces against you. A surprise audit shows you have been careless with expense reports. You have an angry outburst in class (perhaps catalyzed by your long walk across the parking lot, your misplaced request, the insanely early/late time of day). A rumor of some impropriety with a student gets traction.

In the eyes of your colleagues, this "critical incident" demands swift administrative action - and many of them may sign a petition saying so. They may say that the incident confirms what they have always suspected about you. What's more, it makes them wonder aloud what you're really capable of...". Mob Rule: In departmental disputes, professors can act just like animals, John Gravois, http://chronicle.com, Section: The Faculty, Volume 52, Issue 32, Page A10.

(May 8, 2007) "The first stage of a mobbing, as he outlines it, is a period of increasing social isolation. At this point, if you are the target, you might get left off certain guest lists. Colleagues begin to roll their eyes at you during meetings. You get the sense that more people dislike you than you once thought.

The next stage is one of petty harassment. Your administrative requests are repeatedly delayed or misplaced. Your parking space is moved to the outer reaches of the lot. Your classes or meetings get scheduled at odd times.

(May 7, 2007) Since the most recent mobbing efforts directed at the editor of usmnews.net were orchestrated by Interim Dean Alvin Williams, perhaps the following may be instructive:

"Professors seeking to eliminate one of their colleagues cannot get very far without the backing of the administration, he said. And in cases where many professors are pitted against one, administrators' first instinct will often be to side with the majority.

But because mobbers tend to be so impassioned and sloppy in their reasoning, Mr. Westhues argued, administrators who side with them may suffer for it later. Mr. Westhues's research provides numerous examples of mobbing victims who have walked away with fat court settlements, and of administrators who have walked away without their jobs.

'Administrators need to know that it's in their interests to prevent this,' Mr. Westhues said. 'They take a big risk when they encourage the mobbing of a professor.' Mob Rule: In departmental disputes, professors can act just like animals, John Gravois, http://chronicle.com, Section: The Faculty, Volume 52, Issue 32, Page A10.

(May 6, 2007) During a mobbing to silence this editor and usmnews.net, Dr. Donna Davis stood to complain that she had come to this editor requesting a correction. There are no records of Dr. Davis requesting a correction to any publication, nor does this editor have any such recollection. However, we invite Dr. Davis to send any communcation or information about her requests to the editor.

Upon review of our archives, we found an article published in July 2006 entitled Donna Davis’ Role as Sedona Coordinator: Deconstruction of a USM Forum --- No Quarter Message Board Post. Subsequently, Dr. Davis placed additional comments on the USM Forum -- No Quarter Message Board. Dr. Davis statements were copied by one of our reporters and added verbatim to the original report. The update was posted on July 22, 2006. We post the original article with the update for your review. Donna Davis’ Role as Sedona Coordinator: Deconstruction of a USM Forum --- No Quarter Message Board Post.

I found Dr. Davis' comments extremely interesting. In July 2006, she claims “The ONLY reason for not yet making the data [CoB faculty vitae on Sedona] available in a publicly accessable form is that it is incomplete.” That statement no doubt comes as a surprise to former-Dean Doty and Interim Dean Williams, both of whom take the postion that vita are confidential. In fact, it took an Open Records Request, several weeks of delay, repeated requests from the editor's attorney and finallly a request directed to Commissioner Meredith to obtain the vitae.

As I stated to my colleagues during the mobbing that took place on May 5, 2007, usmnews.net VALUES FACTS. IF DR. DAVIS OR ANY OTHER PERSON HAS FACTS TO INDICATE OUR REPORTS ARE INACCURATE OR INCOMPLETE, LET US KNOW AND I'LL MAKE CORRECTIONS. AND PROVIDE EVIDENCE WITH THE SAME ENTHUSIAM AND COURAGE THAT YOU AND OTHERS MOBBED ME DURING THE FACULTY MEETING.

(May 9, 2007) "Like the weather, conflict in a well-functioning academic department comes and goes. 'People's stock rises and falls over time,' Mr. Westhues says. 'The different factions in departmental politics rearrange themselves over time. That's healthy.'

A mobbing, he often says, is like a tornado spun off from a spring rainstorm - a fervent collective assault that escalates from an ordinary conflict.

'What happens in a mobbing is that everybody gets lined up on one side," he says, 'with one or a few targets on the other side who are demonized as being beyond the pale.'"

Mob Rule: In departmental disputes, professors can act just like animals, John Gravois, http://chronicle.com, Section: The Faculty, Volume 52, Issue 32, Page A10.

"Essentially, Mr. Westhues says, anything that can be a basis for bickering can be a basis for mobbing: race, sex, political difference, cultural difference, intellectual style. Professors with foreign accents, he says, often get mobbed, as do professors who frequently file grievances and "make noise." '"

Mob Rule: In departmental disputes, professors can act just like animals, John Gravois, http://chronicle.com, Section: The Faculty, Volume 52, Issue 32, Page A10.

(May 11, 2007) "The purpose of a university, Mr. Westhues contends, is to maintain a spirit of openness, independence of mind, and civil debate. "A university cannot achieve its purpose as a tight ship," he says. When a mobbing occurs, that spirit of openness gets strangled by groupthink, bent on someone's elimination."

(October 9, 2007) Culmination of the Latest Mobbing Episode "A number of recent reports and columns at USMNEWS.NET have referred to an ongoing federal legal proceeding involving USM President Martha Saunders, CoB Interim Dean Alvin Williams, and former CoB Dean Harold Doty, now a professor of management in USM’s business school. That proceeding involves Saunders’ decision to relieve the editor of USMNEWS.NET, Marc DePree, of his teaching and service duties to USM during the fall semester 2007...".

(October 9,2007) Memo to Martha, Part I: A Look at Alvin Williams’ Role in the Mobbing of Aug-07 "Reporters at usmnews.net have received a copy of a memo sent by Interim CoB Dean Alvin Williams to USM President Martha Saunders, through Interim Provost Bobby Middlebrooks, asking Saunders to terminate the employment (at USM) of USMNEWS.NET editor and accounting professor, Marc DePree...". See also, Mobbing.

(October 10, 2007) Memo to Martha, Part II A Look at Alvin Williams’ Role in the Mobbing of Aug-07 "… Part II in this Special Report series investigation picks up where Part I concluded, with paragraph 2 of page 2 of Williams’ memo to Saunders. This part of Williams’ memo, inserted below, continues to describe the CoB accountants’ fear of DePree…”.

(October 11, 2007) Once Upon a Time: The Fanciful Expressions of Interim SAIS Director Steven Jackson "The Aug-07 mobbing of USMNEWS.NET editor, Marc DePree, has been the subject of a number of reports here at USMNEWS.NET. Parts I and II of "Memo to Martha" explain in graphic detail the misrepresentations and mischaracterizations in Interim CoB Dean Alvin Williams' 21-Aug-07 memo to USM President Martha Saunders requesting that Saunders terminate the employment of DePree, a professor of accounting at USM...".

(October 18, 2007) No Good Deed Goes Unpunished "The recent series of stories about the mobbing of USMNEWS.NET editor Marc DePree by various officials in the central administration and College of Business at USM has sparked a great deal of interest with USMNEWS.NET readers...".