FAMU recently lost another lawsuit, January 25 in a case involving a former law school employee who was fired during Castell Bryant's tenure for breaching university policy. The Fifth District Court of Appeal sided with an administrative law judge who concluded that Janice Costin, the former coordinator of computer applications, was wrongly fired after making changes to the FAMU College of Law' computer system. The appeals court ruled she should be reinstated with back pay.
According to the ruling, Costin made two changes to the system in September 2004 - after a hurricane disrupted internet service – without getting prior approval from Kenneth Perry, FAMU's former chief information officer. The administrative law judge concluded FAMU failed to prove those changes hurt the school (see recommended order here). But FAMU, with interim President Bryant at the helm, continued to argue that Costin caused harm because she disregarded policy and chain of command – and that her May 2005 firing was justified on those grounds (see FAMU's final order here.)
The administrative judge, it said, interpreted the appropriate state rule "as requiring an employee's deviation from university policy to result in some palpable harm to the school or one of its employees or students before a tenured or permanent status employee could be terminated (without prior discipline) based upon his or her deviation from school policy. This is a logical, plain reading of the rule."
"FAMU, however, claims to read the rule as meaning that any ‘disregard of established University policy,' no matter how slight, is itself an ‘adverse affect to the functioning of the University' (thereby justifying termination of the employee) simply by virtue of the fact that a rule has been broken. FAMU's interpretation makes no sense because it renders the standard for termination meaningless."
FAMU spokeswoman Sharon Saunders said no decision has been made regarding an appeal.
Good grief!
ReplyDeleteGiven the number of lawsuits file during her tenure, there surely are more of these to come.
You're right. We can't save any money because FAMU is still cleaning up behind Castell. I say we sue her and make her pay.
ReplyDeleteCaz Bryant. Reaching from the beyond the grave to cost FAMU money. I wonder what she and Austin are doing now???
ReplyDeleteCalling the St. Pete Times every chance they get.
ReplyDeleteLEAVE CASTELL ALONE
ReplyDelete...And you get off this site defending her. Yes it's time we move on, but please don't come on here or anywhere else for that matter trying to defend her. Thank ya very much!
ReplyDeleteI support Castell's decision to fire this individual. Isn't this how we are in our current situation? Disregard or no polcies and procedures in place. It starts with one small decision not to follow the procedure and it snowballs into major issues. If every person on the campus decided to disregard one smaill procedure that impacts their particular job you now have 1000 deviations from the procedure and a grand mess.
ReplyDeleteIf you are working in an accountable environment you cannot afford to pick and choose when you reprimand and when you let go; especially considering the environment we have been and are currently in---an environment with no accountability, no policies and procedures, no understanding of policies and procedures and no respect for them.
It's obvious that Castell WAS NOT justified in her decision to fire this individual. A judge just ruled against the termination.
ReplyDeleteBrings up an interesting question. Was Castell always wrong?
ReplyDeleteIn my eyes, she did her share of messing up however I am trying, I mean really reaching to find some good.
Is there any way that the University can sue her to atleat get those bonus and raises back so that we can pay off these law suits that she caused??
ReplyDeletenone of what you guys are saying is true, there are others responsible for this happening and you would be suprised to know who they are. can anyone guess?
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of good. Lets look at some of Ammons hires of recent!
ReplyDelete8:22
ReplyDeleteWith all this "talk" some of y'all are doing about his hires, why don't you give them a chance. Have they messed up yet or is it that you didn't get who you like or know?
Let's all look at all the Castell hold overs still mucking things up .
ReplyDeleteWell his CIO (aka: head tech dude) making 200K a year can't even manage to even keep the email system from going down every other day.....lol!!!!!! Maybe because he only has a bachelors degree, ya think?????
ReplyDelete10:28, I believe that Austin is teaching at FSU. I don't know what Bryant is up to these days. (Staying away from anyone's university, for sure, I hope.)
ReplyDeleteThe judge said that Castell administration's "interpretation makes no sense."
ReplyDeleteSounds just like most of the decisions they made.
1:39 pm
ReplyDeleteafter reading the judge's opinion and the findings of fact, I believe you are being unfair. It's clear this individual (Costin) was setup by management to fail in her duties. Essentially she worked at the college of law and received her duties from its dean while at the same time she had dotted line responsibility to the IT department. Undoubtedly she was pressed to do her job for the college in a timely manner, while at the same time was at the mercy of the (slow moving)administration. When she chose to support the group she worked directly for, she was fired without warning.
Both the administrative law judge (ALJ) and the district court of appeals (DCA) refer to the standard practice of 'progressive discripline'. Given her employment record it is difficult to believe that FAMU administration was justified in their termination action against her.
3/14 @ 3:34PM
ReplyDeleteI agree with you wholeheartedly, especially after reading the opinion.
ok, RN, we don't wish to see any more pictures of CVB posted here again. let this one be the last one!
ReplyDelete