By Emily Bruzzo, Staff Writer

Published in print Oct. 22, 2014

It’s a complicated story.

What began as a quiet issue, relevant only to UNC-Greensboro’s university relations department, has emerged as a source of community outrage on a campus quite close to reaching its breaking point.

It all started with an article the News and Record ran on Sept. 30.

The newspaper reported that a trio of former UNCG university relations employees had been fired and arrested on Sept. 24, and were facing a total of 22 felony charges.

Photographers David Simmons Wilson, 38, and Christopher Woodrow English, 41, have both been charged with several felony counts of obtaining property by false pretenses. Allegedly, both men worked for their private photography business, Artisan Image, on university time.

The warrants state that Wilson falsified his time sheets an alleged six times and English an alleged five times from 2012 to 2014, defrauding UNCG a total of $1,799.60.

University relations supervisor, Lyda Adams Carpen, 48, along with English, has been charged with several felony counts of aiding and abetting obtaining property by false pretenses.

It’s a tangled love triangle. Allegedly, English signed Wilson’s falsified time sheets and Carpen signed English’s falsified time sheets.

The News and Record, in its persistent coverage, reported that James Herring, UNCG’s police chief, had launched an investigation Sept. 4 in University Relations after an outside third party— whose identity has still yet to be revealed— brought evidence suggesting criminal activity was taking place in the department.

On Sept. 5, Paul Mason, associate vice chancellor for marketing and strategic communication— Carpen, English and Wilson’s boss— placed the trio on paid leave.

The timeline continues with a disciplinary hearing for Carpen, English and Wilson on Sept. 9, which was officiated by Mason. Fast-forward two weeks, and the timeline is back to the trio’s terminations and arrests. 

From Sept. 24 onward things only get bumpier for UNC-Greensboro.

On Sept. 30, the university released Carpen, English and Wilson’s terminations letters, which is required by state law.

The letters, which were written by Mason, were supposed to clarify some of the issues for all concerned.

The letters alleged that, from 2010 to 2014, the trio had misused state property for personal gain, falsified time sheets and failed to follow secondary employment policies.

However, the letters weren’t as helpful as the university had perhaps hoped they would be.

Sept. 29—five days after the terminations and arrests and one day before UNCG released the dismissal letters—three former University Relations employees circulated an email to UNCG executive staffers and prominent faculty members.

The email made its way before the public eye, thus starting a fierce outcry to release Carpen, English and Wilson of their charges and reprimand UNCG for its questionable methods of handling the situation.

The email’s writers are Betsi Robinson, former communications director and former editor and editorial writer for the News and Record, Debbie Schallock, former marketing director, and Andrea Spencer, former copywriter.

In the email, Robinson, Spencer and Schallock said that the terminations and arrests were the products of, as the News and Record reported it, “A ‘disturbing pattern of behavior’ by Mason, who created a ‘hostile work environment’ in the department when he joined the university on April 1.”

With the email making its way round Greensboro, the community turned its focus towards Paul Mason and his leadership over the last six months.

It also didn’t help when the News and Record sat down for interviews with Robinson, Schallock and Spencer, in which the three women claimed Mason had, “Belittled and undermined them from his first week on the job.”

Mason had eliminated Robinson and Schallock’s positions on June 30.

Spencer resigned from her position on Sept. 2, telling the News and Record, “A directionless feeling in the department grew to be something much more concerning: the sense that several of my colleagues were being targeted in a way that I never imagined was possible.”

Robinson and Human Resources became well acquainted during the time she worked under Mason. Before he told her of her impending termination, Robinson felt compelled to seek out aid in how to deal with Mason’s leadership style.

A few months later, in her exit interview with Human Resources, Robinson told the News and Record that she had asked about filing an official workplace harassment grievance.

Robinson claimed that the department dismissed her request, saying that it wasn’t an option because she was not considered a member of a protected class that is based on categories such as age and race.

It turns out that Robinson isn’t the only one who wanted to file a complaint.

Kenneth Free Jr., David Wilson’s attorney, told The News and Record that his client had gone to Human Resources and lodged a complaint.

Free argued that Wilson’s existing complaint provided grounds for calling into question Mason’s impartiality.

The story isn’t done yet.

Faculty members were, and have been, outraged.

Staff members were, and have been, paranoid about unclear polices.

In response, administrators launched a series of forums and meetings in order to calm the unrest.

On Oct. 8, Charles Maimone, vice chancellor of business affairs, Edna Chun, associate vice chancellor for human resources, and James Herring, UNCG Police Department chief, gave a forum on secondary employment and the State Personnel Act (SPA).

Maimone sat down for an extensive interview with The Carolinian on Oct. 10.

“I have great sympathy for all involved in this situation,” Maimone said. “It’s very challenging. The impact on individual employees’ lives is significant in all ways.”

Maimone wanted to make clear that in dealing with cases like this there are two processes taking place: the disciplinary process and the criminal process.

Maimone was quick to clarify that the UNCG Police Department is an entity of the state and has all the same rights that other state police departments have.

If the police department proceeds with criminal charges, administrators do not influence those decisions.

Maimone also felt it important to elucidate some of the secondary employment policies that have been causing confusion amongst faculty and staff.

“Our lives are not so bifurcated that you can’t take a phone call, that you can’t look at an email….Those kinds of things are supposed to be part of work life,” he said. “But they have to be measured and they cannot impede on the business operations of the institution.”

Maimone said that the policies allow for incidental use and that constant communication between employees and their supervisors is necessary to ensure there is no confusion.

Concerning the bitter response from faculty members who say administration isn’t sharing enough information, Maimone said, “First and foremost we are going to maintain the respect and integrity of our confidentiality for all employees.”

With regards to questions about complaints to Human Resources and personnel items, Maimone said, “I don’t know what happened in that meeting. And the integrity of that confidentiality should mean I shouldn’t know what happened in that meeting.”

He continued, “And it’s not that there’s a group of people who do know and there’s a group of people who don’t know, it’s that there should be a very select few people who are human resource professionals who do know. And I want to guarantee you they won’t say anything. Because they shouldn’t.”

Maimone argued that in upholding confidentiality it means that community members, “are trying to make a decision about the activities with one side of the story.”

The forums and meetings weren’t enough to calm faculty and staff members; there were still too many unanswered questions.

At a faculty senate forum on Oct. 15, art professor, George Dimock, submitted to his colleagues a petition to Guildford County District Attorney Doug Henderson.

The petition called on the district attorney to dismiss all criminal charges against Carpen, English and Wilson.

Provost Dana Dunn responded to the petition by saying, “I would urge that you give this a little time. Right now you have very incomplete information…we all have very incomplete information.”

This communal sense of having incomplete information is what prompted Chancellor Brady to stand before roughly 300 UNCG employees last Friday and present a prepared speech, in which she confirmed her support for the actions taken so far and called for unity in the community.

However, many faculty members left feeling they had just as many questions as before. Chris Poulos, a professor in the department of communication studies, sent an email out to much of UNCG’s faculty and administration, saying, “The trust at this institution is shattered…The repair work will be a long and arduous task.”

Christopher English and David Wilson have their court hearings on Oct. 30.

Lyda Carpen has her court hearing on Oct. 28. As reported by the News and Record, their attorneys say the trio will be appealing their terminations.

It’s a complicated story, after all.