Moreover, many qualified American students don't even get the university seats they are qualified for. They have to go to lesser schools if they get in at all. Why? Because it's big bucks to go after the children of the foreign rich classes. Even the poorest third world countries have a layer of wealthy people, and while they may be a small percentage of their population, the sheer numbers compared to our population are huge.

The foreign student visa is NOT supposed to be an immigration visa. The entire purpose of that visa is for them to return home and build up their own nations, not stay here and take a scarce job. What's the difference between a foreign STEM grad and an American STEM grad? The foreign grad will be hand-carried into a choice job, whereas the American grad has a high chance of having to move home and wait tables.

Somebody needs to investigate the preferential recruitment of foreigners over citizens at American universities, and especially at state-supported schools. And, double-especially at the "land grant" schools (like Cornell). It definitely looks like some sort of di$crimination is occurring.

So ... why does the Office of Discrimination and Harassment even exist? All they can do, judging from the article above, is take a report from both sides in a dispute, type it up, and hand it right back to the parties who already knew about it in the first place. Including a copy to the "decision-making authority" (usually a departmental director) who may be a) completely fooled by or on the side of the perpetrator, b) in cahoots with the perpetrator, or c) may even BE the perpetrator of whatever the dust-up was about. And how much salary and operating expense money goes into this department every year?

The sad facts seem to be that there are no effective internal mechanisms for processing complaints, even valid ones, and no reliable means of redress for affected employees (of whatever rank, classified or not). Elaborate organizational structures exist that make it look like there are processes, but what do the processes really do in practice?

Both classified and non-classified employees are at career risk in such a setting. People outside of government employment imagine that classified employees cannot be disciplined or fired, but anyone who works at CU for any length of time has likely seen even classified people railroaded out, perhaps for little or no reason other than falling out of favor with someone above them, or being scapegoats sacrificed to cover for someone higher on the food chain.

If the outcry is loud enough, perhaps Ms. Erwin will be designated as a scapegoat, but will that change "business as usual" once things quiet down? Bets, anyone?

It's not fantasy. It's a step by step description of the process as I personally went through it in 2009-2010. I was presented with a pink slip less than 3 months after the results, in spite of 6 years of great performance reviews, too. Those of us who went to the ODH for help soon learned better.

When I worked for CU, I was told by my manager that management could count on HR's cooperation no matter why they wanted to get rid of a worker. and that managers that the directors liked were safe no matter how they performed. Your career was a matter of who liked you, not how well you performed in measurable terms. I was told to pay more attention to that than anything else. HR (especially ODH) were not safe places to go if you had a problem.

If they ever wanted to be trusted, then who came up with the hokey-pokey process the Office of Discrimination and Harassment uses to investigate complaints? In case you missed it, here's the six steps:

1. Let's say you are an employee and your manager does something so crazy to you that it seems unreal. You get your emotions under control, assemble your facts and your witnesses, and file a carefully worded complaint.

2. The Office of Discrimination and Harassment shows your complaint to your manager.

3. Your manager assembles a team of people who a) report to them and can be counted on to cooperate, b) people outside their line of report who want to curry favor with management for whatever reason, and c) people who may not be your fans for reasons that are irrelevant to your complaint. If this process doesn't turn up enough dirt on you, they can completely make stuff up to make you look like a bad employee who doesn't deserve to win a dispute.

4. You will NOT be allowed to see management's response to your complaint until AFTER the final decision has been made, and once the decision is made there is NO appeal process.

5. Your complaint, and management's secret response, goes to some committee who may or may not know anything about you, the department, or the issue at hand.

6. After the final decision has been handed down, you will finally be allowed to see how management responded to your complaint. It will likely be so shocking, so slanted, so unfair that you might even have trouble recognizing yourself from how they portrayed you. Too bad - too late. Some or even much of what got said against you may be totally irrelevant to the substance of your complaint - don't count on the decision committee to notice this. Some of what got said against you may even rise to the legal standard of defamation - again, too late! The decision is final.

Explains a lot, doesn't it? Like why problems go on so long and why we only seem to get action if an outside entity does the investigation.

It's not just the philosophers. It anyone who gets picked on or witnesses managerial shenanigans. It's all across ALL the departments and divisions.

The Office of Discrimination and Harassment process is heavily stacked in favor of protecting management.

It is significant that an outside investigative body was brought in. Internal investigations have been rather toothless over the years, not just in this department but also throughout the campus. The Office of Discrimination and Harassment complaint process is so stacked against the employees, you would not believe it. To see what I mean, here's how it works:

1. Let's say you are an employee and your manager does something so crazy to you that it seems unreal. You get your emotions under control, assemble your facts and your witnesses, and file a carefully worded complaint.

2. The Office of Discrimination and Harassment shows your complaint to your manager.

3. Your manager assembles a team of people who a) report to them and can be counted on to cooperate, b) people outside their line of report who want to curry favor with management for whatever reason, and c) people who may not be your fans for reasons that are irrelevant to your complaint. If this process doesn't turn up enough dirt on you, they can completely make stuff up to make you look like a bad employee who doesn't deserve to win a dispute.

4. You will NOT be allowed to see management's response to your complaint until AFTER the final decision has been made, and once the decision is made there is NO appeal process.

5. Your complaint, and management's secret response, goes to some committee who may or may not know anything about you, the department, or the issue at hand.

6. After the final decision has been handed down, you will finally be allowed to see how management responded to your complaint. It will likely be so shocking, so slanted, so unfair that you might even have trouble recognizing yourself from how they portrayed you. Too bad - too late. Some or even much of what got said against you may be totally irrelevant to the substance of your complaint - don't count on the decision committee to notice this. Some of what got said against you may even rise to the legal standard of defamation - again, too late! The decision is final.

There is an old saying that HR exists to protect the company from YOU, the employee. You will learn the truth of this if you are ever close to an internal investigation of a charge against someone in a managerial capacity at CU. Not just sexual harassment, but discrimination, favoritism, corruption and bullying are there but not reported too often for justified fear of reprisal.

Rest assured that this one news story represents merely the tiny tip of a very large iceberg. The other departments and divisions have their own untold stories hidden securely in the darkest organizational recesses, locked away by employee fear and turnover, and fortified by an economy so poor that escape is difficult.

They need an external body to look at ALL the departments. See my previous comment (buried on page 2 of the comments here) for a description of what happens to employees who rely on the internal complaint process to obtain redress.

They need an external body to look at ALL the departments. See my previous comment (buried on page 2 of the comments here) for a description of what happens to employees who rely on the internal complaint process to obtain redress.