Blackballing and Blacklisting
Excluding membership in elitist clubs such as
Freemasons, Skull and Bones at Yale University, Rensselaer, and University of Washington
which self-perpetuate through inbreeding.
New members only gain admission by election of existing members which
insures collegial power and preserves the exclusivity of the cabal.
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Contra Cabal web sites have achieved an extraordinary readership. If Paul Trummel dies before he completes his work, then trustees have authority to continue publication as an educational project through the newly formed Contra Cabal Foundation, London which will own all publication rights. The Foundation will publish Contra Cabal in perpetuity in the way that Sonia Orwell posthumously published the collected works of George Orwell. Foundation trustees and directors (professional people, lawyers, and academicians in UK and US connected directly and indirectly with the International Federation of Journalists) will supervise editorial and design functions using young investigative reporters and graphic designers who wish to further their education in journalism. They will receive trade union freelance rates of payment for their work. The Foundation will respect former trustee the late William D Winn's last admonition "Go get 'em!" by continuing to report academic malfeasance and to expose morally repugnant academicians and public officials. Readers should consider the articles and case studies as a work in progress. More information about academic or government fraud and deceit frequently surfaces after victims or their associates read Contra Cabal. That information becomes part of a relevant case study after verification and validation. Students and current faculty members write letters to the editor on politically sensitive issues. Some correspondents request name withholding to avoid retaliation. Contra Cabal electronic magazine contains expose and satire. Probably one of the first to appear on the web, it has now published since 1992. The hits/month range between 100,000 and 150,000 with more than 1.5 million hits by about 60,000 unique visitors during the past twelve months. The "New Releases" menu lists new, updated, or revised articles on the four Contra Cabal sites. |
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Introduction
In 1985, S. Michael Halloran, Thomas Phelan, and Gary Judd, formerly Chair (LL&C), Dean (H&SS), Graduate School Dean (RPI) respectively, accepted unequivocally the author’s European academic degree equivalencies, which a string of American universities had previously recognized, as a basis for doctoral program enrolment. Halloran and other LL&C faculty members scrutinized the documents. They had a meeting with the author which resulted in a consensus to grant an exemption from the graduate record examination on the understanding that although the credentials differed from those used in the US they had post-graduate degree equivalency.
RPI graduate school issued a certificate of admission after it checked the equivalencies with Fitchburg State College (FSC), Massachusetts where the author had held a tenure-track position as an assistant professor. FSC Attorney Thomas Coates confirmed that the documents given to Halloran were copies from the “official personnel file of Paul Trummel who was formerly employed by the college as an assistant professor - technology”.
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1974 Fellow of the Institute of Printing 1969 Member of the National Union of Journalists 1964 Member of the Institute of Public Relations 1959 Member of the Institute of Printing (Printing Managers and Overseers Association)
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Furthermore, Mara requested specialist opinions from Dean of Graphics and Vice President of Academic Affairs at Rochester Institute of Technology, New York whose findings concurred with those of FSC. Mara then certified the FSC personnel record and his lawyer later released a copy to LL&C. LL&C faculty, H&SS dean, and RPI graduate school administrators affirmed and ratified the FSC and RIT findings.
Prior to the FSC evaluation, several other US academic institutions accepted the UK credentials as equivalent to US degrees: Boston University, Danforth Museum School, Massachusetts Bay Community College, Northeastern University, Rochester Institute of Technology, and University of Massachusetts Boston. Later, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, San Jose State University, and University of Washington recognized them. International Education Research Foundation (IERF), a credential evaluation service accredited by US Department of Education, twice certified their comparability.
UK equivalency evaluation granted academic qualifications to mature technologists and professional people. They received letters after completion of concurrent work and academic study programs with examination by professional institutes, guilds, or trade unions. Equivalency evaluation filled a void created when UK introduced university degrees in disciplines such as architecture, law, accounting, and graphic arts that had previously relied upon indentured apprenticeship, internship, and institute examination under Royal Charter.
Incorporation by Royal Charter protected the public interest. Once incorporated by Royal Charter a body surrendered significant control of its internal affairs to the Privy Council. Amendments to Charters required the agreement of The Queen in Council. Amendments to by-laws also required the approval of the Council. This effectively meant a significant degree of Government regulation of institute affairs. The Privy Council satisfied itself that such regulation accorded with public policy.
Established in cooperation with UK universities, academic degree equivalencies predicated upon institute or guild criteria which had evolved over several hundred years. University educational standards had evolved in parallel. Equivalency certification allowed transition by granting exemption from, or reciprocity with, either university degrees or institute examinations. In effect, the only difference between them related to the suffixes used to denote qualification - BSc and MSc or a variety of institute letters. UK has since replaced institute education and qualifications with university degrees.
Agreements with foreign institutions, including US universities, ratified UK degree equivalency. US universities have since adopted similar professional programs to those established in UK such as business administration and other professionally oriented disciplines not previously recognized in primarily liberal arts environments.
Halloran, Phelan, and Judd had no reason to challenge the author’s credentials two years after accepting them except for political expedience and fear of exposure for LL&C program fraud. The challenge evidently supported a cover up of the fraudulent program which had become clearly evident to anyone with experience as a CEO in technical communication.
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This cabal especially feared exposure of the scam that they had set up with IBM which involved a contract to teach a non-existent graduate program at IBM, Kingston, NY. Lacking the qualifications to teach the course themselves, they used the author as a proxy faculty member. The deal also granted Easy Rider PhD degrees to IBM executives as a quid pro quo for negotiating the contract. Cabal members resorted to character assassination to kill a prospective messenger who could expose their fraud. [Easy Riders]
Judd blocked the author’s PhD registration for a third year claiming lack of qualifications for doctoral work. He ignored the fact that two years earlier he had approved the same credentials and that H&SS dean had granted a faculty position to teach the off-campus graduate level course at IBM. Nothing had changed except that the author had completed most of his doctoral work with an ‘A’ grade.
To cover their tracks when the author disputed the arbitrary action, Judd and Halloran sought and supplied an obscure evaluation agency with inaccurate and incomplete information thereby insuring a negative and flawed report. Judd then used the flawed report to refuse registration for continuing doctoral work and to arrange eviction from a campus apartment while Halloran closed the author’s computer account which destroyed his research data.
Exasperated, the author engaged an Albany, NY law firm. The lawyer insisted upon reevaluation of credentials with an agency recognized by US Department of Education and International Education Research Foundation filed a positive report. The new evaluation tallied with what the author had originally represented in his application for entry into the doctoral program more than two years earlier. Judd capitulated by reinstating PhD registration. In the effort to gain reinstatement the author incurred $6,000 in legal fees and lost a semester of PhD research while he reestablished his credentials. [Educational Qualifications]
Merrill D. Whitburn assumed the department chair the year of the reinstatement. He immediately blocked the author’s doctoral progress and access to facilities for several years and initiated a vicious blackballing campaign. He later denied registration without any explanation then choreographed an arrest by campus police when the author attended campus for a meeting to discuss the issues. [Kafkaesque Scenario]
Sharon Kunkel, RPI Registrar, informed the author that expulsion predicated upon a letter purportedly written and signed by Philip Rubens, the author’s PhD advisor - a statement inconsistent with two recommendations that Rubens had previously written and especially suspect when RPI granted a master’s degree using the same recommendations. Kunkel refused to produce a copy of the alleged negative statement by Rubens saying that it classified as an "official internal document". [The Big Lie]
Judd neither mitigated the damage nor provided a reason for his actions. Instead, he again refused registration. He effectively expelled the author a second time using trumped-up charges provided by Whitburn to deny degree completion. Then, quite unexpectedly, Judd attempted to assuage his guilt by granting an MS degree. The author accepted that degree with the provision that it formed part of his PhD program and that it did not mitigate any of the damage caused by unethical and in some cases unlawful behavior by Judd or LL&C faculty members.
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The linked curriculum vitae consists of twenty or more lists of experiences held together by links to a retrospective of life events. To that end, the term "curriculum vitae" properly explains and supports the articles published in Contra Cabal web sites. The documents do not try to persuade anyone to employ anyone else although they substantiate illegality in not doing so. They do not deal with equal opportunity; instead, they address repeated neglect to comply with equal opportunity laws. The information contained in the reconstructed and updated curriculum vitae serves three primary purposes:
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San Jose State University
The blackballing campaign followed the author to California and caused him to lose his job as an associate professor at San Jose State University (SJSU). SJSU administration had promised him full professorship with tenure as a “star” professor the second year upon completion of the RPI doctorate.
Rose Y. Tseng then Dean, School of Applied Arts and Sciences (SJSU) congratulated the author for turning around a stagnant technical communication program and for his high teaching scores. She said that she had viewed videos of the undergraduate projects completed during the year and found them at the level she would have expected from PhD students.
John K. Crane, Dean, School of Humanities and Arts (SJSU) wrote in his recommendation: “. . . What most impresses me about Paul Trummel is his dedication to things he believes in and his persistence in making good things much better than they would otherwise have been. He is a kind but forceful man . . . the sort of man I would want my children taught by because his maturity is such that they would be motivated by it rather than intimidated . . .”
Tseng recommended the author for retention subject to a satisfactory explanation from LL&C/RPI for the delay in granting a PhD. She said that Whitburn told her: “He will never get a PhD from RPI”. Whitburn knew that State of California laws required a PhD for full professor with tenure. Tseng could do nothing else under the law and had to deny retention. [Preliminary Injunction]
Whitburn and Odell evidently colluded with Neel (UW) who used similar tactics to try to prevent registration at University of Washington. By that, Whitburn and Odell caused, and Judd allowed, the RPI saga to replicate at UW for almost two decades despite an accrediting agency letter reaffirming their previous credential evaluation which repudiated contentions that the author lacked sufficient qualifications for PhD study. The situation at UW became even more preposterous than that experienced at Rensselaer. [Academic Harassment]
At an IEEE/PCS conference the author discussed his predicament with Mark P. Haselkorn, formerly Chair, Department of Technical Communication, College of Engineering, University of Washington, whom he had known for several years both as IEEE associate editor and colleague. Haselkorn said that he had an adjunct professor vacancy in his department which he offered in conjunction with finishing the RPI PhD in the College of Education (UW).
Haselkorn offered to sit on the doctoral committee and referred William D. Winn, College of Education (UW) as another professor willing to chair the committee. During a lengthy telephone discussion, Winn arranged an interview in Seattle at which he agreed to arrange admission and act as PhD committee chair.
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At a subsequent interview in Seattle, both Haselkorn and Winn accepted the author for admission to the doctoral program and confirmed that Dean James I. Doi (COE) had ratified the agreement. This meant that the author would concurrently work on PhDs at both RPI and UW. The author moved from California to Washington to complete both of them.
Allen D. Glenn succeeded Doi as dean and appointed Richard S. Neel as associate dean. Rensselaer H&SS/LL&C cabal heard about the UW agreement when UW graduate school contacted them to verify credentials. Whitburn and Odell immediately moved their blackballing campaign from California to Washington. Neel became a willing participant and arbitrarily rescinded the ratified Doi agreement and tried to destroy credentials already verified twice and accepted by Rensselaer and a string of other US universities. Consequently, the promised adjunct position never materialized.
That blackballing campaign prevented employment for almost two decades. UW associate graduate dean Elizabeth L. Feetham later denied that an RPI MS degree ever existed despite having received a copy of the certificate and transcript which she allegedly destroyed to support her contention. [The Big Lie]
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Documentation
The linked accreditation documents relate to circumstances at both Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and University of Washington. They form part of a file that contains 28 similar references, spanning 40 years, furnished by senior executives and CEOs of prestigious universities and corporations worldwide. However, Rensselaer and UW officials continue to deny the opportunity to defend two dissertations to complete a PhD at each institution. [Curriculum Vitae]
Kunkel has silently withheld copies of first party student records to cover up the kangaroo courts that LL&C held. UW convened kangaroo courts to try to force the author to start his higher education from scratch by spending another four years to earn a baccalaureate degree! The kafkaesque behavior of UW administrators evidences from the destruction or withholding of files and transcripts to support decisions by at least five kangaroo courts. [Sherking Responsibility]
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Paul Trummel PhD (RPI ABD), PhD (UW ABD), MS (RPI), MSc (UK), BSc (UK) Associate Professor, Communication and Rhetoric (Retired) International Federation of Journalists, Brussels (International Press Card)
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Snakes in the Grass and Easy Rider Degrees
RPI recently announced a review and modification of its faculty governance structure in order to strengthen the role of tenured and tenure-track faculty members in the faculty governance process. Reportedly, the review responds to a directive by the board of trustees restating its definition of the faculty for governance purposes - limiting that definition to tenured and tenure track faculty and requesting modifications to the faculty senate constitution. [Roll of Dishonor]
That review should logically start with an investigation into academic incest and decide upon a policy covering employment of former students in faculty positions. It also needs to investigate nepotism which involved PhD students enrolling in the same department as their sexual partners. This practice has created myriad conflicts of interest for both faculty and students.
When a department or university hires its own graduates, it engages in institutional inbreeding or academic incest. Most reputable institutions of higher learning do not hire former doctoral students because they want to avoid obvious conflicts of interest. Many colleges in the United States have informal policies of hiring only candidates who have completed their education outside the institution for tenure track positions. However, equal opportunity laws make it illegal for a college or university to have an explicit policy against hiring people who have earned degrees at the same institution which creates a dilemma.
Apart from the impossible task of remaining objective in the hiring process when evaluating graduates from one’s own university, outside perspectives and experiences help a department or institution avoid parochialism. Furthermore, inbred graduates will likely have a hard time earning professional recognition from outsiders. Hiring former students as faculty members or faculty members as administrators suggests that the university cannot attract or afford anyone better.
Equal opportunity laws allow incompetent and self-serving administrators like Judd and Halloran to take advantage of the law to the detriment of the institution and the students with whom they come into contact and who they should serve as paying clients. Adding Thomas Phelan (who never received a post-graduate academic degree) to the mix left LL&C controlled at all academic and administrative levels by three incestuous and corrupt political stooges who denied human and constitutional rights to faculty and students. Having done virtually nothing in their own careers, they apparently felt a need to destroy the credentials of someone who had succeeded both academically and professionally.
A succession of RPI presidents have granted these snakes impunity right up to the present hierarchy. President Shirley Ann Jackson, Provost Robert E. Palazzo, and Dean John P. Harrington continue to use political silence to cover up unlawful practices that they inherited. Apparently, Presidents Jackson (RPI) and Emmert (UW) feel safe in ignoring repeated requests for due process because they know the amount of work and money involved for individuals to pursue their constitutional rights in the courts. [Conspiracy of Silence]
A recent RPI press release (28 Jun 07) describes a classic example of administrative incest. It announces the recent appointment of Robert E. Palazzo as provost and states: “Robert E. Palazzo, acting provost . . . has been appointed to the position of provost after a rigorous national search . . . announced President Shirley Ann Jackson”. That statement implies that the search committee could not find a suitable candidate nationally so it returned to a policy of inbreeding and double-dipping.
Double-dippers draw a high salary and two pensions by holding conflicting academic and administrative positions. They also receive bonuses and salary increases funded by outside organizations in the form of awards, grants, and consulting fees while retaining a tenured faculty position as a bolt hole for when they screw up.
Since his appointment, Palazzo’s public statements have followed similar platitudinous comments with which RPI administrators have assailed faculty members for many years. Similar administrative inbreeding resulted in the Judd/Phelan/Halloran disaster which has now become a matter of international concern. The more things change, the more they are the same. [Roll of Dishonor]
University presidents know that they have virtually unlimited resources to protect themselves when they violate the laws that govern them. Consequently, they use unlawful risk management polices with impunity granted by government dereliction and corrupt courts. These particular presidents have become accessories after the fact to criminal activity and hubris allows them to think that they rank above the law and the people they govern. They apparently do not care what the world thinks about their machination.
Halloran, Krull, Neel, Odell, and Whitburn, among others ranked as prime movers by violating federal laws and using administrative power to destroy a career seen as a competitive academic threat. Those individuals, who had done virtually nothing and been virtually nowhere, set out maliciously to prevent gainful employment: aberrant behavior that has lasted for more than two decades, all in the interest of covering up their fraudulent program.
C. Lee Odell (RPI) and Richard S. Neel (UW) started a destructive pattern and their minions have spent many years destroying or forging documents to cover up for them despite repeated credential verification by other universities and agencies approved by US Department of Education. They, jointly and severally, started more than two decades of humiliation, discrimination, and unemployment using malicious academic blackballing. Their xenophobia increased over the years as they repeatedly committed criminal acts, engaged in agism, and denied constitutional and human rights. [Academic Harassment]
This cabal practiced the Big Lie for many years. They had moderate success by using risk management techniques and covert connections with administrators both on and off campus to hold themselves harmless when they violated university regulations and state and federal laws. They knowingly conspired to destroy credentials. They lied cumulatively and repeatedly until their lies consolidated into the Big Lie. The term "Big Lie" refers to a belief that the masses will believe lies told repeatedly. Propagandists frequently use emphatic repetition techniques to prevent criticism. In universities, big lies have more credibility than small lies because audiences historically have esteemed institutions of higher learning and inherently believe that university officials would not have the impudence to lie to extreme.
Adolf Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf that a big lie must contain an element of credibility in order to corrupt the masses emotionally and to overcome a natural propensity not to lie. George Orwell propounded in 1984 that if everyone accepts lies as truth and all records tell the same tale then the lies pass as truth. Then the hypothesis that he who controls the past controls the future and he who controls the present controls the past develops into a truism. Cabal members had a personal stake in lying to evade exposure of their malfeasance. However, they made fatal errors by destroying documents when their adversaries possessed copies and by contradicting each other in writing.
A thorough investigation by an attorney appointed by American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) verified the linked documents and recommended civil and human rights action against UW which an ACLU committee approved. Steven G. Olswang, a UW lawyer, allegedly had those hearings unlawfully quashed by trading off unrelated issues as he did with a complaint to US Department of Education supported by affidavits filed by a doctoral advisor.
Council House, Seattle acted upon private information disclosed by UW and RPI then used straw lawyers and judges connected with UW in a conspiracy to deny due process of law. Washington Supreme Court found Council House actions unlawful in a unanimous, published decision by nine judges which reversed the trial and appellate court rulings used to jail the author incommunicado with solitary confinement and torture (30 Mar 06). [Supreme Court Decision]
The linked case studies contain descriptions of individuals who have allegedly acted unlawfully, sometimes criminally. They detail malicious behavior and crimes that they have allegedly committed based upon information taken from hundreds of documents in the author’s possession. Existing copies of those documents will be made available to independent investigators approved by the author or at the request of federal or state law enforcement agencies. [Roll of Dishonor]
Nmesis.
See Portable Document File (PDF) for citations.
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© Copyright 2007 by Paul Trummel |
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