Opinion ID: 1436568
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Elimination of Mr. McFarland's Job

Text: Before Ms. Hunter was appointed acting director, GW had begun a strategic planning process focusing on CEEP, which was losing class enrollment and money. Between July and December 1998, CEEP had to cancel eighty-three classes due to insufficient enrollment. On February 3, 1999, Ms. Hunter, now the permanent director of CEEP, formally proposed a two-phase departmental reorganization. She worked with Deborah McDonald in Human Resources to finalize the proposal. The first phase involved eliminating three positions, including Mr. McFarland's job as Marketing Manager; creating two new positions; and changing the responsibilities of another job within CEEP. The second phase involved integrating CEEP into a new centralized unit which would support all departments within the [ADCE]. [2] By reducing or eliminating duplicate staff functions, GW hoped to reduce costs. Savings in salary expenses would be directed into CEEP's advertising in an effort to reverse declining enrollment and sustain revenues over the long term. Human Resources and Dr. Whitaker (the Associate VP for ADCE) evaluated the proposal, and it received final approval sometime after April 7, 1999. Ms. Hunter chose to eliminate the Marketing Manager position because CEEP had outsourced the direct marketing of its courses, and the contractor had assigned a marketing liaison to support those activities. Ms. Hunter testified that Mr. McFarland's remaining duties were capable of being handled by others. In the meantime, appellant McFarland had become suspicious of Ms. Hunter's qualifications and abilities. On April 14, 1999, after he received the job description for the director position and compared his qualifications with Ms. Hunter's, Mr. McFarland sent a letter to Human Resources, asking various questions about the tardy response to his request for the job description, Ms. Hunter's salary, and why he had not been interviewed for the position. A few days before April 19, 1999, Ms. Hunter secured a letter from Human Resources terminating Mr. McFarland as part of the reorganization. Mr. McFarland was on leave on Thursday, April 15, and Friday, April 16, and Ms. Hunter gave the letter to him on Monday, April 19; his termination was effective immediately. On May 5, 1999, after Mr. McFarland had left GW, he received a response from Human Resources describing the process for selecting the CEEP Director and explaining that the selection committee did not recommend him for an interview because [it] determined that your qualifications were not as strong as those of the other candidates.