Contra Cabal 610-09-01 - Theater of the Absurd - C. Lee Odell (with Halloran, Judd, and Krull)

Theater of the Absurd

C. Lee Odell (with Halloran, Judd, Krull, and Whitburn)

Case studies address repugnant moral and ethical behavior experienced in US universities
during many years as a corporate CEO and professor.

Odell

Judd

Final Act - The Judd and Odell Farce

Theatre of the absurd departs from realistic characters, situations and all of the associated theatrical conventions. Time, place and identity are ambiguous and fluid. Even basic causality frequently breaks down. Meaningless plots, repetitive or nonsensical dialogue and dramatic non-sequiturs often create dream-like or nightmare-like moods. A fine line exists between careful and artful use of chaos and non-realistic elements that create meaningless chaos. However, true theater of the absurd has an underlying structure and one can usually find meaning in the midst of chaos. Not so at Rensselaer where neither underlying structure nor meaning existed in the H&SS/LL&C chaos.

The Travesty

Odell retaliated for filing a complaint with Halloran about blackmail and retroactive grade changes made by David Carson. Halloran responded: “This sounds like a legal complaint”. He then created a dilemma by referring the complaint back to Carson. Instead of responding to a request for a hearing, Odell colluded with Halloran to retroactively attack and destroy credentials which resulted in Judd refused registration for the fall semester. By that, Judd blocked registration for a third year of doctoral study based upon frivolous claims by Odell and other cabal members claiming lack of qualifications for doctoral work.

Judd 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. Previously, Judd had found that the same credentials met RPI criteria for admission to the doctoral program and waived the graduate record examination because of extensive academic and professional experience. Two years later he found the same credentials inadequate for graduate work although he had accepted certified MS equivalencies. He then expelled me.

I 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 I had originally represented in my application for entry into the doctoral program more than two years earlier.

The attorney proved that Judd had made an arbitrary decision and not investigated the unsupported and libelous statements submitted to him by Halloran and Odell. Judd reinstated registration under duress. In the effort to gain reinstatement and reestablish credentials, I incurred $6,000 in legal fees and lost a semester of PhD research.

I completed the required courses and the three-year commitment I had made to RPI and accepted a position as a professor in California. Judd arbitrarily refused registration a second time for me to complete my PhD. When I visited campus to discuss his latest action, Judd et al had me arrested by campus police on trumped-up charges of violence.

Although I did not request it, Judd granted an MS that I had neither applied for nor needed because it duplicated equivalent degrees that I already held. I accepted it on condition that it formed part of my work toward a doctoral degree and annotated the acceptance document to that effect. Later, I found that Judd or Kunkel (registrar) had deleted the annotation containing the condition from the document. Judd then refused to renew registration for continuing PhD work on grounds that I had not made satisfactory progress toward a degree.

Odell, Halloran, Krull, Whitburn, and other cabal members then commenced an international blackballing campaign. Two decades and $4 million later I still wonder what Oscar Wilde would have made of this travesty.

S. Michael Halloran, Chair, LL&C issued a letter of acceptance (07 Aug 85) which contained the statement that: “Your credentials are strong enough that we can admit you to doctoral study without seeing your scores on the Graduate Record Examination. You should be receiving formal notice of admission shortly” - the same credentials that two years later he maliciously challenged. After acceptance for doctoral study, a letter contained a peremptory statement which effectively rejected out of hand the field of study statement submitted with the PhD application. Ironically, the content of the field of study statement mirrored the department’s own bogus mission statement. [Field of Study]

Halloran

Krull

H&SS/LL&C had almost six weeks to question the content of the appendix or to ask for clarification. It clearly delineated a plan of study in keeping with the graphic and technical communication program which Robert Krull described and broadly publicized at University of Massachusetts (Umass-Amherst) and at conferences. As a professor and administrator in the Massachusetts system I could have completed a doctorate at UMass without paying tuition; however, UMass did not have a technical communication program so the UMass dean referred me to Rensselaer based upon criteria provided by Krull who had huckstered a non-existent program.

LL&C later published a misleading program description on the H&SS/LL&C web site: “For over 30 years, our PhD graduates have been the leaders in the study of the relationship between communication and technology. As new forms of technologically mediated communication emerge, research and scholarship are needed to describe their nature and account for their unique effects.” Krull lied to a UMass dean and created a future travesty that affected hundreds of doctoral students.

Considered in retrospect, the acceptance letter and a despicable comment by a LL&C professor should have aroused suspicion of trouble ahead. The comment: “If you want a doctorate from H&SS then you had better behave like a nigger applying for membership in a Jewish country club” caused me, a former civil rights worker of partly Jewish extraction, concern. Unfortunately, the record over two decades has proved that ethnic analogy correct. To put the statement in perspective, one must consider the same professor slept with an LL&C easy rider. [Easy Riders][Soul Department]

Rensselaer defined, in common with other universities, that a doctoral dissertation demonstrates a capacity for independent work which embodies the results of original investigation in the candidate's principal field of study on a topic approved by the student's doctoral committee. It claimed that the field of the dissertation should be chosen as soon as possible after entry upon doctoral study; however, Odell and Halloran blocked any attempt to comply with that suggestion.

A cabal of Rensselaer LL&C/H&SS faculty members headed by C. Lee Odell controlled graduate students by criteria that guaranteed failure for those unwilling to accept a sycophantic cloning process. The policy insured very few new PhDs entered the job market to threaten these insecure and incompetent faculty members.

LL&C devised a program that required four courses, each taught or controlled by an incompetent cabal member (Carson, Harrison, Krull, and Whitburn) each devoid of knowledge about technical and graphic communication. They presented totally unprepared orations to classes with content that had virtually no relevance to course descriptions. Some promoted discussion on anything and everything to avoid preparation for class. Others prescribed an inordinate amount of reading material but never discussed the content.

Cabal members coerced, cajoled, and harassed both students and junior professors until they either left the university or succumbed to unlawful practices. Through willful blindness, RPI administrators covered up crimes by their subordinates to an extent that they committed criminal acts themselves as accessories before or after the fact.

H&SS/LL&C failed to conform with university regulations and deliberately violated state and federal laws. The department appointed Camillus Lee Odell as sole advisor for all new PhD students despite his having no demonstrated experience or knowledge in technical and graphic communication. Odell then arbitrarily decided in advance with whom he would work and allow to graduate based upon ethnic and commercial considerations regardless of merit.

Doctoral students had no choice of faculty advisor or dissertation topic - they all (except for easy riders) had to use C. Lee Odell until they achieved PhD candidate status. This gave Odell absolute control over who would and who would not succeed. I met with him once in three years at which time this blatant sadist used humiliation tactics in apparent retaliation for filing a complaint with Halloran about blackmail and retroactive grade changes by David Carson.

When I filed the complaint, Halloran said: “This sounds like a legal complaint”. He then created a dilemma by referring the complaint back to Carson. Carson had tried to blackmail me into doing outside consulting work in return for high grades while charging a fee for himself, pocketing the income, then recording the work as research. When I refused, he retroactively reduced an already recorded grade from A to B and registered an incomplete.

Odell made an appointment for a 30-minute session at my request during Spring 1986 to discuss the dissertation topics that I had submitted to him about two months previously. He kept me waiting beyond the appointed time with his door left ajar so that I could see him and hear the trivia he discussed on the telephone. After 30 minutes, he waived me in and said that he could only spare a few minutes. He then spent three minutes making humiliating comments such as “I am not interested in anything you do or say” and then terminated the meeting.

In three years, Odell (my self-appointed doctoral advisor) met with me only twice both times confrontational. During the interim he studiously avoided me in the public areas of the administration building. He falsely recorded meetings required by the terms of the PhD program to discuss dissertation topics which never took place. He deliberately left me without a dissertation advisor for 15 months which cost me about $42,000 in tuition at current rates. In answer to his letter requesting doctoral outlines, I prepared three outlines for approval which he arbitrarily rejected without discussion or recourse.

After the first meeting with Odell when he did not give me an opportunity to respond to his outrageous statement he sabotaged my program with lies and innuendo. I tried to remedy the situation so that I could proceed with my PhD work but to no avail. In misleading correspondence, Odell referred to meetings that never took place in the same manner that Halloran used false and misleading correspondence.

After the second meeting at which Odell established a pattern of harassment, I wrote a formal letter of complaint to him recording the events that took place at that meeting. I requested another meeting to discuss serious false and misleading statements that he had placed on my record apparently in retaliation for my Carson complaint to Halloran about arbitrary and capricious evaluation filed 12 months previously. I requested due process under university regulations for an independent investigation into, and a hearing about, negative comments that he had surreptitiously placed on the record and retroactive and arbitrary changes to my scores which effectively construed as forgery. [Arbitrary and Capricious Evaluation]

Instead of responding to my request for a hearing, Odell colluded with Halloran to attack and destroy my credentials which resulted in Judd refusing to register me for the fall semester. Exasperated, I 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 I had originally represented in my application for entry into the doctoral program more than two years earlier. [Educational Qualifications]

In the effort to gain reinstatement I incurred $6,000 in legal fees and lost a semester of PhD research while I reestablished my credentials. Odell and other cabal members then started a blackballing campaign that has over two decades cost in excess of $4 million. Odell’s behavior apparently prevented several technical communication students from proceeding with their doctoral work and they left Rensselaer because of the abuse; meanwhile, classical rhetoric students received easy-rider treatment. [Easy Riders]

Odell refused to discuss or give dissertation support for the 15 months that he designated himself my doctoral advisor. With all the resentment and incompetence that I experienced, I decided to “go it alone” and write a dissertation. In fact, I have written three dissertations under the auspices of a variety of excellent professors not connected with Rensselaer who had insight and understood my technical communication aspirations.
[Dissertation Trilogy] [Grünewald Paradigm]

I chose my area of research because I considered it an important underpinning for any technical communication pursuit as I had indicated in my initial statement and the reason for my move to Rensselaer. That belief proved correct with the emergence of the world wide web ten years later; however, my approach incited more bizarre behavior on the part of the cabal - a perception verified by professors that I chose for independent study who suffered persecution as a result of cooperating with me.

To comply with Rensselaer rules, I completed the four required courses which the cabal deliberately sabotaged. I then registered for a series of independent studies with two LL&C professors familiar with some aspects of graphic and visible communication who demonstrated a modicum of ethics and self respect. [Due Process]

Most universities provide a formal procedure within the academic unit offering the course to address arbitrary or capricious grading. Departments appoint a standing committee of two tenured professors and two graduate level students to hear complaints and appeals. That procedure did not exist within H&SS/LL&C.

Cabal behavior negated the normal procedure for students who wish to challenge evaluation in most universities. Details of those procedures sometimes change from campus to campus but the principles remain the same. Arbitrary and capricious grading appeals always require due process in one form or another. They require review by an entire committee and a decision by a majority so that the committee can either dismiss the appeal or move it forward to a hearing. [Arbitrary and Capricious Evaluation]

Halloran, Odell, and Whitburn arbitrarily dismissed all complaints as frivolous then referred them back to the instructor who caused the problem in the first place usually another cabal member. By that, they contravened the rule that does not allow instructors to hear or adjudicate a case against themselves. They retaliated by arbitrarily changing student records to reflect lower grades and false incomplete statements.


	Contra Cabal Foundation 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. [Site Navigation Plan] [Letters to the Editor]

This statement counters record falsification, withholding, destruction, and forgery for political expedience by registrars at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and University of Washington. See curriculum vitae menus for substantiating information.

Paul Trummel PhD (RPI ABD), PhD (UW ABD), MS (RPI), MSc (UK), BSc (UK)
UK equivalencies in graphic communication recognized by Boston University, Northeastern University, Rochester Institute of Technology, Fitchburg State College, San Jose State University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and University of Washington with comparability twice certified by International Education Research Foundation (IERF), a credential evaluation service accredited by US Department of Education

Associate Professor, Communication and Rhetoric (Retired)
Special Doctor of Philosophy Program (SPhD), University of Washington
Fellow, International Society of Typographic Designers (FISTD)
Fellow, Institute of Paper Printing and Publishing (FIOP)
Member, Society of Authors, London

International Federation of Journalists, Brussels (International Press Card)
National Union of Journalists, London (UK Press Card)

© Copyright 2007 by Paul Trummel
All Rights Reserved: 15 Sep 07/05:11 GMT
Edition: #610-09-01/09-0407-05:27
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Nothing Succeeds like Excess

Academic freedom, an absolute right not an abstract philosophy, should not subserve economic considerations.

Moreover, information technology remains a right not a privilege despite technocratic claims to the contrary.

Legislative and judicial decisions have determined the right of individuals to distribute information freely and the Bill of Rights documents the protection individuals should expect from the state.

However, laws do not provide much protection when despotic administrators interfere with computer resources because they disagree with the content of messages: a disagreement probably based upon disclosure of their own malfeasance.

They fear dissent and have an aversion to controversy. Their addiction to political correctness frequently causes them to invoke censorship of Internet activities.

They not only empower their systems administrators to handle frivolous email complaints by arbitrarily removing computer access but also allow them to censor incoming mail - an outrageous invasion of personal privacy.

They act upon an irrational expectation that certain categories of email may contain something that Big Mama would not wish others to read then arbitrarily reject it.

Interference with email transmission not specifically proscribed by federal law classifies as a federal offense which Rensselaer and University of Washington officials commit with impunity.

New Releases
September 2007

Shirley Ann Jackson, the latest arrival in a trio of uncaring Rensselaer presidents: Schmidt (1988), Pipes (1993), Jackson (1999), continued to employ Thomas Phelan, former H&SS Dean, as "university historian" and publicly adulated him at his death (2006), knowing that he had defrauded the university of millions of dollars by posing as a PhD when he did not hold a post-graduate degree.

Phelan's fraud trickled down to negatively affect students. Informed about denial of due process of law to untenured faculty and students, Jackson did nothing about it. She maintains a hypocritical political silence on issues that have had a devastating effect on many faculty and student lives while she unashamedly touts an ethical institution.

Phelan's deanship allowed him to employ a cabal of unqualified and inexperienced faculty that in turn short-changed hundreds of students who had paid one of the highest rates of tuition in the US. RPI breach of contract left them with a huge tuition debt and cost them millions of dollars in income through loss of their careers. Successive deans Duchin (1996) and Harrington (2002) covered up the criminal activity that they inherited which effectively made them accessories after the fact.

2007 has seen publication of a series of articles that expose academic and criminal fraud at Rensselaer and University of Washington (UW). They describe a cover-up of ongoing fraud that Jackson, Palazzo, and Harrington (RPI) also Emmert (UW) have neglected to address.

http://contracabal.us/

A list of fifteen articles published during September includes a new series entitled Roll of Dishonor which exposes alleged criminal activity by individual tenured faculty members and administrators. New case studies will continue to appear each month.

Information about academic fraud and deceit frequently surfaces after alumni and former faculty members read Contra Cabal. That information becomes part of a relevant case study after verification and validation. Students and current faculty members also write letters to the editor on politically sensitive issues. Some correspondents request name withholding to avoid retaliation which the editor, a professional journalist, honors.

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Case studies explain in detail the nature of alleged crimes.

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About the Author

Paul Trummel (Nmesis)

Paul Trummel, published since 1944, uses the pseudonym Nmesis and openly declares personal or conflicting interests.

These conflicts may relate to topics or to opinion, especially when the content draws upon advocacy, experience, conclusion, or interpretation.

As an accredited journalist, he conforms with the code of conduct and ethics of the journalism profession, tested by courts in both Great Britain and the USA.

Since 1947, he has worked as a journalist, an editor (commercial and academic peer-review), a technical communicator, an associate professor (visual communi-cation and rhetoric), and as an administrator at several leading universities.

He has held international press credentials since 1959 and holds two elected international graphic arts fellowships.

He earned professional letters in the UK that translated into two baccalaureate degrees and a terminal graduate degree in the US.

He has also earned a Rensselaer graduate degree and two US PhD degrees (now ABD).

[Sherking Responsibility]

He taught graduate level students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Northeastern University, Fitchburg State College,
San Jose State University, Massachusetts Bay Community College, and a private institute of graphic design.

He held an administrative post at University of Massachusetts, Boston, and has lectured at universities in US, Europe, and Japan.

In 1957 (London), he founded and operated the first full-service technical communication organization, a group of publishing and technical/graphic communication companies where he held the position of chief executive officer.

In 1973 (Connecticut), he designed and marketed the first typesetting system driven by a minicomputer, the precursor for today's desktop publishing systems.

He has won an international silver medal for his satire and a US city award for his educational programs for disadvantaged people.

Since 1992, he has investigated and written several hundred articles on bureaucratic and elder abuse.

He founded Contra Cabal, one of the first electronic magazines to appear on the web, for which he develops the site, writes articles, designs pages, and produces graphics.

http://ContraCabal.org

Contra Cabal has now published for almost fifteen years.

Earlier, it published as email for six years. The hits/month now range between 100,000 and 150,000 with more than a million hits during the past twelve months.

Articles cover ongoing criminal activity by bureaucrats and elder abuse.

They describe the actions of corrupt judges and gross misconduct by lawyers who file frivolous law suits against tenants in government financially-assisted housing.

They outline how managers use unlawful retaliatory measures and propaganda to destroy the reputations of people who report illegal activity and racism.

Washington Supreme Court unanimously reversed a lower court decision that effectively allowed prior restraint and defined journalism inquiry as surveillance and harassment.

Repeatedly, lawyers who could find no fault with content instead personally attacked the author or his genre.

A corrupt judge imposed prior restraint and jailed him for contempt when he challenged the court decisions as a basic violation of constitutional and human rights.

To further coerce him, in consort with other jurists, the judge then arbitrarily transferred him to solitary confinement among murderers and rapists.

His published work in the print media for more than sixty years has received no challenge relating to accuracy.

People, among them elected judges and lawyers upon whom the public should be able to rely, have tried to stop him publishing information on politically sensitive issues.

That prior restraint, and restrictions on personal mobility, has now become a matter of international concern.

American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU - Seattle),
International Federation of Journalists
(IFJ- Brussels),
National Union of Journalists
(NUJ - London),
American Society of Authors and Editors
(ASAE - New York),
and Seattle Weekly
have all filed amicus curiae briefs with Washington Supreme Court in support of his successful First Amendment stance.

Credential validation upon request by journalists and other responsible parties from: