Dean of the College of Business

Dr. Bob Frederick was the Dean of the College of Business at Southmont State University and recently he met a problem that his administrative secretary, Laura Adams, was to be punished because she taken a course during normal working hours although with his permission. He think the punishment was unduly harsh and unfair as other employees on campus, because of their race, were allowed to attend classes during working hours.

Laura had been working on a Bachelor of Business Administration degree and now was approaching the end of the program. The requirements said that if she didn't complete her last two courses this summer a calculus course was being added to the list of the required course. One of her courses was offered from 10:50 A.M. to 12:30 P.M. on Monday through Friday and didn't have an alternate time. Under such circumstance, she had to attend this necessary course. Nevertheless, she would make up the lost time resulting from class attendance. Even so the academic vice president Jerry Forrest and the director of personnel Mr. Alex Farrell think she had a violation of the staff scholarship procedure as she attended the Staff Scholarship Program and didn't get an exception approved by the president of the university or the vice president of Business and Finance.

In my opinion, the Dean could write a memorandum to the president along with all the information about the Laura's circumstance, her outstanding performance on working and also the copy of Southmont Insights which referred to the Black Staff Scholarship Program. First apologize that they didn't apply for exception from him and hope him could understand the circumstance Laura had. Second suggest that the Scholarship Program is unfair to the employees who are not black. And then apply for the reduction of Laura's punishment.

If the Scholarship Program could equal to every employee, then there will be no one feel unfair when working in our university. It will never appear some staffs can attend classes during working hours while others not. That's the real fair. The equal policy could bring motivation to workers and give them more chance to enhance themselves. We will not lose excellent employees such as Laura. In the long run, this is very helpful to the development of our school.