Word: beasleyisms
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This is where Brown-Beasley's banana converter comes in. Since the August 4th firing Harvard's defense has leaned partially on a disturbingly vague clause in the personnel manual that reads, "Discharge without prior warnings or suspension may be justified for very serious offenses, for example, serious dishonesty, including theft of University property." (Harvard's arguments also rest on the University's contention that Brown-Beasley, who admits he is eccentric and hard to get along with, has a record of difficulties in jobs he has held at Harvard since 1969. But Brown-Beasley's University personnel file contains...
...Brown-Beasley has argued, Harvard's broad interpretation of the clause grew even more dubious when the press revealed earlier this fall that Fredie--who had certainly been charged with a far more serious act than Brown-Beasley-had been suspended with pay after his arrest and had never been fired. Brown-Beasley correctly points out that Harvard's action was appropriate, since employees should be considered innocent until proven guilty. But Brown-Beasley also rightly insists that he, as an employee charged merely with insubordination, certainly also deserved the protection of due process. Harvard's response--that the charges...
...would be difficult to prove, however, that Harvard handled the two cases differently because Brown-Beasley is white and Fredie is black. A more likely scenario is that Brown-Beasley could be fired with little fuss, his oddities and outspokenness having weakened his standing within the administration. The Fredie case, on the other hand, was potentially explosive: there were charges that Harvard higher-ups were involved in the alleged prostitution operation and students had definitely been linked to the case. Indeed the delay in the publicizing of the conviction suggests the care with which Harvard and the court authorities handled...
...this hardly destroys Brown-Beasley's basic dispute. The facts of his case suggest quite strongly not only that Harvard erred in his dismissal but also that the personnel manual provides insufficient protection for salaried employees. It seems arbitrary, for example, for Harvard to cite the "very serious offenses" clause when other disciplinary rules in the manual state...
...alarming--as Brown-Beasley himself has noted--that these procedures--which provide Harvard such amazing latitude--are essentially part of the University's affirmative action plan. What besides the cumbersome appeal procedure is to prevent a racist or sexist supervisor, for example, from using the escape clause to justify abrogation of "progressive" discipline...