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Tuesday, 20 March 2007 16:17 |
By JIM GENARO
In the wake of a controversy over several dismissals of longtime employees at UNC Asheville, the schoolís chancellor, Anne Ponder, apologized March 13 for the way university services have been restructured.
Ponder addressed about 150 people at the universityís Owen Conference Center during an open meeting of the UNCA community, comprising mostly faculty and staff members.
She
told those assembled that while recent personnel decisions will not be
reversed, the schoolís leadership should have communicated better about
the reasons for some of its restructuring efforts.
Furthermore,
Ponder said that, she has come to a greater awareness of the importance
of consultation as an area that needs improvement.
Students and
faculty alike have raised objections to Ponderís management style,
which many have said has contributed to a climate of fear at the
university.
Last month, more
than 100 students walked out of classes and held a rally on the
schoolís quad to protest the termination of counseling center director
Maggie Weshner.
A UNCA employee
for 29 years, Weshnerís job was eliminated as a result of a
reorginization of the universityís counseling services.
The schoolís
faculty senate also recently protested the termination of Weshner and
others at the school, passing a resolution of support for her and
expressing alarm over the dismissal of longtime staff members.
One such staff
member, Cindy Branton Lane, recently appealed her termination in an
adminstrative hearing. Lane was fired from her position as director of
printing services after being employeed at UNCA for 22 years after
administration officials said she had violated the schoolís
anti-nepotism rules by hiring her sister to help with a two-day job
assembling commencement programs.
Lane says her
termination was actually the result of a desire on the administrationís
part to start outsourcing printing services.
Meanwhile,
Ponder said that Weshner has been offered a chance to remain on the
payroll without working or to work on a health-and-aging collaboration
between UNCA and the Mountain Area Health Education Center.
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