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Preface
Contra Cabal essays describe my present professional and academic conflicts and contain my opinion. This preface outlines the scope and intention of the work that I have undertaken and the reasons for publishing these essays on the world wide web. I recount my experiences, and those of other people, to try to describe the ethical and moral cancer that permeates American universities. Moreover, I promote unfettered discussion of the ideologies and practices, many of them detrimental to both students and faculty members, that presently exist within the academe. I describe much of the dysfunctional behavior that I have experienced with university administrators and state officials whom I name personally. Moreover, I do not expect to change anything.
I use the pseudonym Nmesis and openly declare 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, I try to conform with the code of conduct and ethics of the journalism profession, mainly tested by courts in both Great Britain and the United States of America.
Since 1947, I have worked as a journalist, an editor (commercial and peer-review), a technical communicator, an associate professor (communication and rhetoric), also as a university administrator. I have held international press credentials since 1959. I hold two international terminal degree equivalencies, a Rensselaer graduate degree, and two elected international fellowships from the communication industry. Among other executive appointments, I formerly held the position of chief executive officer for a group of publishing and technical/graphic communication companies. I have won an international silver medal for my satire and a US award for my educational programs for disadvantaged people.
In 1957 (London), I founded and operated the first full-service technical communication organization. In 1973 (Connecticut), I designed and marketed the first typesetting system driven by a minicomputer, the precursor for today's desktop publishing systems.
During my time as a professor, the university changed the rules for promotion, retention, and tenure without considering that I had worked as a tenure-track professor for several years. This change required me to earn a doctorate before I could continue under the appointment that I already held. As with many other arbitrary academic decisions, the proponents of the new rules ignored the fact that no PhD programs existed in my discipline. They also chose to ignore the two terminal master's degree equivalencies and many years of professional experience that I had accumulated.
I moved to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and became a non-traditional (mature) graduate student. Then I earned a MS (communication and rhetoric) and completed all of the course work and a dissertation for a PhD. Since then I have also completed all of the course work, formed a doctoral committee, and written a dissertation for a second PhD at the University of Washington (UW). Administrators at both universities have arbitrarily blocked me from completing both degrees so that I may neither defend my dissertations nor continue my employment as a professor.
Rensselaer and the University of Washington have colluded in the arbitrary removal of my computer access and expropriated all of my academic research and editorial databases. I believe that they did this in an attempt to silence me because I exposed their corruption. They have also tried to prevent me from further publicizing my experiences by a variety of unlawful means. Both RPI and UW have denied due process of law. RPI administrators had me fired from my associate professorship at San Jose State University (SJSU) by making false representations. Then they blackballed me which has prevented me from earning a living since 1985 (except nine months at SJSU). UW administrators have forged my transcript by wiping it clean to give the appearance that I have no academic credentials at all. They have apparently done this to support a cover-up of the kangaroo courts that they frequently convene.
My experience shows that despots control many specialized programs in the academe. They enforce a new type of sectarian totalitarianism and work toward the suppression of academic freedom. They use their tenure to force their ideologies upon others, to enrich themselves, and to perpetuate their power. Consequently, they must accept responsibility for the present mediocre level of education for which students pay exorbitant tuition. Exposure can only take place if those who have suffered from this type of abuse have the courage and means to speak out about inequity and malfeasance.
Many students and faculty members have genuine grievances, nevertheless, many administrators deny them due process of law under fraudulent judicial systems. These systems give the appearance that they support fair practices, however, they have become weapons for corrupt provosts and deans. Administrators and state officials suppress evidence in attempts to cover up their own malfeasance and use their power to intimidate their adversaries. They forge documents, conceal public records, and deliberately destroy careers through capricious blackballing and stonewalling. I report the actual events and provide evidence to support all my allegations.
My predominantly ethical business world experience greatly contrasts with the unethical situation that I have found as a professor. I partly attribute this to the personal accountability that exists in the business world and the lack of it in the academe. I believe that self-regulation by administrators with professorial tenure amounts to no regulation at all. The dual role engenders blatant conflict of interest. It undermines the whole concept of academic freedom and the protection afforded by tenure. Additionally, it makes tenure a means to provide job security for administrators without accountability, usually at the taxpayer's expense. Nowhere else can an incompetent individual receive a high executive salary then retreat to a tenured bolt-hole anytime and for any reason.
I recognize that the truth, by its very nature, often inflames the sensibilities of others. It frequently causes fear among insecure people who identify with the negative aspects of the discourse. Moreover, they probably fear disclosure of their own machination and loss of the power that they may have usurped through intimidation. Consequently, they make unsubstantiated attacks upon others. I hope my efforts will help those who have previously had no voice to regain their personal power without acquiescing to this type of dialog.
As a septuagenarian with a considerable reputation to defend, I will neither accept the type of abuse that I have experienced in the academe nor buckle to coercive persuasion. Consequently, I have already published more than thirty editions of Contra Cabal that exposed much corruption. As the result, I have suffered prior restraint, censorship, and denial of due process of law. Challenging the injustices has caused me immense personal loss of assets and income.
Overcoming the personal anguish caused by the loss of all my material possessions, the removal of my teaching credentials and journalistic rights, and denial of contact with students, has caused me to perceive my experiences as an inspiring process. It seems that when one can transcend the immediate humiliation and harassment caused by the arbitrary decisions of others one may more clearly see one's true vocation. For example, I believe that continuing with my present endeavors may eventually help create legal precedent. This may stop the erosion of freedom of expression in the academe and in the electronic media. My actions may also help to keep the academe accountable.
Supposedly, due process of law limits the power of institutions arbitrarily to deprive me of my constitutional rights. The federal concept of prior restraint applies to the denial of my right as a journalist to gather and publish information or opinions without institutional control or fear of reprisal. However, university and state officials consistently deny due process on the arbitrary removal of computer access, expropriation of research databases, and prior restraint. Some people believe that new information technologies will overcome traditional difficulties. However, my experience shows that administrators coercively and illegally use the new technologies to strengthen their totalitarian hold over both faculty members and students.
In universities, politically correct special interest groups claim political and economic reform but their policies remain impracticable and absurd. The academe must offer something more practical to replace them. The present despotic system only prejudices one group in favor of another and does not provide the egalitarian principles it claims. Special interest greed cannot possibly support equal political, economic, social, and civil rights for all people. Even the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has become suspect. In my case, a nine-month investigation by an ACLU cooperating attorney found cause for legal action. The ACLU legal committee authorized filing of a suit. Yet the politically motivated ACLU legal program director in Seattle chose arbitrarily to block that filing and in the process abrogated a signed agreement.
As a professor I believe that I have a responsibility to bring administrative and academic abuse to the notice of trustees; as a citizen, I have a responsibility to inform law enforcement authorities about malfeasance and misuse of federal funds; and, as a journalist, I have a responsibility to gather information and to develop public awareness about wrongdoing by university officials.
I expect Contra Cabal to provide a forum in which powerless people may express themselves powerfully and without fear of reprisal. They need a means to expose the injustices meted to them by privileged academic despots who increasingly usurp absolute power. It gives them a forum in which they may expose the lack of ethics and the injustice rampant in the academe. It also gives them the opportunity to warn others of the fraudulent programs that many prominent institutions constantly advertise in their catalogs.
Some restraint must occur to preclude the cultic manipulation of academic political power for self-aggrandizement and monetary gain. Perhaps, through increased public awareness and pressure the academe may one day return to its intended purpose: the accumulation of knowledge.
Paul Trummel (Nmesis)
International Federation of Journalists, Brussels (Press Card #GB 8028)
National Union of Journalists, London (Press Card #025057)
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