Opinion ID: 3150482
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The University’s Response

Text: Dr. Covey appointed two senior staff members, Carol Clark, Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs, and William Walker, Director of Student Affairs, to investigate Appellants’ concerns. Between November and December 2011, Clark and Walker interviewed each of the Appellants. Clark and Walker also asked each 11 Case: 14-14149 Date Filed: 10/29/2015 Page: 12 of 50 Appellant to submit an individual statement detailing the specific complaints in the Memorandum of which he or she had personal knowledge.2 In January 2012, Dr. Covey met with Appellants to inform them that Clark and Walker had found insufficient evidence to substantiate their concerns. Copies of a final investigative report prepared by Clark and Walker were forwarded to Appellants on February 3, 2012. The report stated that Appellants’ “negative attitudes and dissatisfaction seem[ed] to be due to the desire of some of the staff to run the Center in the collaborative clinical services model that was used by the former director.” Clark and Walker also reported a “strong resistance” to change and a “reluctance to follow directions” among the Center’s staff. In the end, Dr. Covey determined that no action would be taken against Dr. Lee-Barber. Within a week after the final report was issued to Appellants, Dr. LeeBarber made the unilateral decision to cancel the Center’s practicum training program and the Center’s participation in the national matching program for interns. Dr. Lee-Barber asserted that the changes were due to an accreditation 2 On December 15, 2011, Drs. Alves, Arranz, Gunter, Moghaddam, and Reid submitted a complaint to the ODDEP. They complained that Clark and Walker “were biased, made inappropriate and/or insensitive comments, and [they] felt that due process was not offered to [either side]” during the investigation. They also alleged Dr. Lee-Barber had “creat[ed] a hostile work environment, unfairly enforce[ed] departmental policy, retaliated against some of the [staff] for taking their concerns to the Division leadership . . . , discriminated against some of the employees due to their race and/or sexual identity, bullied, mobbed, and participated in favoritism.” Linda Nelson, Assistant Vice President for the ODDEP, investigated the psychologists’ complaint. She found no evidence of racial discrimination and concluded that Clark and Walker’s investigation was not conducted improperly. 12 Case: 14-14149 Date Filed: 10/29/2015 Page: 13 of 50 standard that recommended that no more than forty percent of the Center’s clientele be seen by trainees. The cancellations eliminated many of the job duties of Drs. Reid, Gunter, and Alves. In the days between February 10 and March 2, Drs. Lee-Barber and Covey, with assistance from other University officials, also made the decision to implement a reduction in force that would eliminate the entire staff of full-time psychologists—all but one of whom were signatories to the Memorandum. University officials intended to outsource the clinical services provided at the Center to contract psychologists to allegedly lower the costs associated with running the Center. On March 2, 2012, Appellants (along with a full-time psychologist who was not a signatory to the Memorandum) were terminated.