THE HEARING - DAY 2
Chapter 14
All of her witnesses were waiting in a high state of excitement when Diana reached Howard Hall the next morning.
"Roz came in early," she was told. "She wanted to be sure we got this room again today."
Roz brushed aside the praise, "Hey teach, I've got some great news. The rest of the class is kicking in to make up for what we lose in wages by attending the hearing."
Diana was delighted. The fact that many of her witnesses were losing time at work to help her had caused a nagging pain of remorse. Already, most of them had lost a day's pay just sitting around waiting to testify yesterday. While her witnesses occupied themselves in various ways—studying, reading or conversing quietly, Diana sat down on the couch, closed her eyes and sought to compose herself. Even though the panel had instructed her to be there at nine with all her witnesses, one never knew when the hearing would reconvene.
Good news indeed. What great people these were, she thought. When the whole mess happened, this class of some two hundred nutrition students had rounded up hundreds of signatures for petitions sent to Lyle, Sam and the Pope. Many of the students had gone to them in person to plead for justice.
Although most of the students were in the nursing school, some came from the colleges of agriculture, arts and science and special education. Collectively, they had filled out and filed more nominations for me to be named Teacher Of The Year than had ever been received before for one teacher. They were devastated when the committee receiving these nominations threw them in the wastebasket, following the instructions of Henry Tarbuck.
Then there were some that went as a group to beg help from the 'Minority VP'—Dan Field. Dan talks a good game against discrimination and even pretends to speak for the black community. He's a brilliant, fascinating lecturer, a perennial favorite with the students. They considered him to be the most impartial, open-minded administrator they had ever known. His feet of clay surprisingly revealed when he washed his hands of the students pleas and sided with the administration, telling the students who petitioned him for help that I am a criminal. At least the blacks on campus weren't surprised by this. They had long ago discovered he was not only a smart cookie, he was an oreo.
But, Diana mused on gratefully, Dan was the exception. Many pleaded on my behalf. Someone once said that all it takes to stop evil is for one good man to speak up and many good men, and women, did just that. They spoke up for justice and fair play. They argued with administration officials, citing example after example of male faculty misconduct over the years that had gone nearly unnoticed and never punished.