The Ultimate Machiavelli
Technical Communication - Hearing - Abstract

English, American, and French revolutions embodied libertarian ideals in the structure of national governments. Bill of Rights of the Constitution of the United States later established libertarian principles as a foundation of modern democracy and embodied the civil rights and liberties of US citizens.

Civil rights implies that the state has a role in ensuring all citizens equal protection under the law and equal opportunity to exercise the privileges of citizenship and otherwise to participate fully in national life regardless of race, religion, sex, or other characteristics unrelated to the worth of the individual. Civil liberties refers to guarantees of freedom of speech, press, or religion; due process of law; and other limitations on the power of the state and state actors to restrain or dictate the actions of individuals. This initiative hinges upon the First and Fourteenth Amendments, and tangentially, the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution.

University of Washington (UW) has specific procedures designed to address faculty and staff grievances governed by Revised Codes of Washington and Washington Administrative Codes. Although the university has a degree of autonomy or self-government, it remains accountable in law. Employees of UW, whether classified or professional staff or faculty members, rank as state actors and remain accountable to the State of Washington and by extension US Government.

Computing services that charge fees rank nominally as private entities when they buy and sell services; however, those employees still classify as a state actors because government has a mandated say in management or control. Federal regulations govern all aspects of University of Washington. As state actors, administrators intertwine with US Department of Education officials.

The university abrogated federal regulations for several years by taking advantage of laissez faire policies at US Department of Education. That dereliction has caused the unlawful expulsion of students and the termination of faculty members without due process of law guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution. Every citizen has the right to both procedural and substantive due process under both Article I, Section 3 of Washington State Constitution and Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution.

A kangaroo court’s decision to deny a continuance to retain counsel also violated the right to procedural and substantive due process in that it denied the right to a full and fair hearing on the facts. Justice required that the complainant have representation by counsel, and further, that counsel have enough time to conduct adequate discovery in order to respond to and refute allegations. The university “buried” a previous finding by an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) cooperating attorney that probable cause existed to support the complainant’s allegations.

Without a full and fair hearing on the issues, the university prejudiced the complainant and arguably denied his right to due process. The provost’s decision to expel the complainant and to deny mandated appellate procedures created extreme prejudice by denying a full and fair hearing of the facts. In Washington state, the Public Disclosure Act codifies access to state and municipal records and the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) controls access to federal records. University of Washington officials have forged records and silently withheld documents to give the appearance of propriety. Secrecy and laissez faire policies continue to destroy the value and advantage of open government and university officials keep an increasing amount of public information under wraps to avoid responsibility for their personal actions or dereliction.

The university must provide services in accordance with the contract that it enters with students. Administrators and faculty members must comply with general laws in their dealings with students. This particularly applies to computer and other services not covered by tuition and for which students pay separately. When it deliberately prejudices students, it incurs liability in a similar way to any commercial company that breaches contracts made with its customers. The special privileges that the legislature grants to academic institutions demand special consideration for constitutional and human rights violations.

A précis contains excerpts from myriad documents supplied to the chair and all hearing committee members immediately before and following the “hearing”. In fairness, when one listens to the tape recording carefully it becomes apparent that some committee members acted with reticence or remained silent; however, they have equal responsibility for what transpired, silent or not. They should have had enough moral courage to refuse to participate, recuse themselves, or just leave when they realized that Landolt and Ramey had railroaded them into illegal, immoral, and unethical practices.

The excerpts appear in chronological order as far as practical in an attempt to make sense out of the irrational and convoluted way in which faculty members behaved while denying relevance of law.

A false and misleading statement by Ramey claimed: “You have been a graduate student in TC for six years, and, although you have earned 245 credits and are currently enrolled for 18 credits, you have not completed any TC required courses, established a supervisory committee, or filed an official course of study”. Of course not, those credits with a 4.0 GPA refer to doctoral study in an SPhD program supervised by a doctoral committee composed of Winn, Haselkorn and Xxxxx, The credits applied to courses and independent studies in four UW colleges as required by UW SPhD program rules.

Ramey received repeated requests for documents prepared by Spyridakis and Winn whom she claimed to have consulted and who had provided her with “recommendations of unsatisfactory performance and progress pursuant to GSM #16". She did not produce them at the hearing and obviously did not know that Winn had filed affidavits with US Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights supporting his doctoral candidate.

The documents reveal the malfeasance inherent in the railroading set up by Landolt and Ramey and supported by impotent or malevolent faculty members with Caspar Milquetoast Haselkorn timidly trailing behind them. The linked documents prove railroading in one of five kangaroo courts related to these issues.

The Ultimate Machiavelli

[Introduction - Full Text]
[Kangaroo Court - Abstract]
[Kangaroo Court - Full Text]
[Technical Communication - Hearing - Abstract]
[Technical Communication - Hearing - Full Text]
[Technical Communication - Correspondence]

[Introduction - PDF]
[Kangaroo Court - PDF]
[Technical Communication - Hearing - PDF]
[Technical Communication - Correspondence - PDF]