OCR Text |
Show NEWS - '4 Nri 1k i AUDIT CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 outcome. "DSU strives to continuously improve its policies and procedures, and it will correct noted deficiencies," Hicks said. Brad Asay, president of the American Federation of Teachers Utah chapter, has followed the termination of professors at DSU since Tar lo Davenport was terminated in 2016, he said. Asay said Davenport was a union member he helped discuss options with after Davenport's termination, including the appeals process. May said after Dav- enport found he was not going to get his job back,DSU sparked his interest once again with the termination of Peterson and Webb. Not long after Asay offered AFT services to Peterson and Webb did legislators begin to ask him what was happening at DSU, he said. "I kind of informed them on what was going on and what I was getting," Asay said. "Legislators asked me questions, and I informed them." Asay said thanks to legislators asking questions and members of the St. George and DSU community sending their concerns, the democratic senators requested an audit. As a union, AFT ensures public school faculty and staff are allotted due process and federal rights, including state, district and individual school or university policies are followed, Asay said. He said AFT lobbies legislators for laws that affect educators' rights and are involved with the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations. "We don't enjoy these things that have happened," Asay said. "It's not pleasant for anyone who is involved to have to go through this." Asay said the most frustrating aspect of Peterson's case is the lack of due process and the drafting of the Last Chance Agreement. "There were 28 points in an agreement where there was no remediation, there is no prior issues, and the one prior issue that came up from Hicks was this thing 13 years ago that had no merit," Asay said. He said the purpose of a last chance agreement is to offer a last chance to an employee who was given due process and time for remediation but who had not shown adequate growth. Peterson's Last Chance Agreement was nothing like this and included no remediation or due process, Asay said. "The AFT views this as a very hostile situation," Asay said. Asay said faculty feel their voices are not being heard, especially when it comes to due process and shared governance. "Hicks tried to intimidate faculty members at DSU in faculty meetings stating that it was illegal to join a union in Utah," Asay said. "Absolutely false. Someone who has legal counsel should know the law, and he doesn't know the law." He said although what Hicks said is not true, there is no collective bargaining for higher education faculty and staff, which means there are no contracts. There is a whole different process for higher education faculty and staff, he said, but anybody can belong to a union in the state of Utah. "We are hoping that voices will be heard," Asay said. "We are hoping that faculty will have a seat at the table." He said AFT is not looking for President Biff Williams, Provost Michael Lacourse or Hicks to be removed from their positions at DSU, but rather that faculty are given "a seat at the table" to ensure that due process is followed. "We are not looking for heads to roll or jobs taken away or anything like that," Asay said. "Allow your faculty to have a voice; allow them to help in the shared governance; allow them to have aca to-b- demic freedom." Despite everything and as a union, he said, AFT wants DSU to succeed. "We don't ever want to see a university or a public school not succeed," Asay said. "We are here to have solutions, we are here to help where we can, and we also need people to be treated fairly." He said he hopes Peterson will be reinstated as a tenured professor and the Last Chance Agreement is annulled. "Peterson is a pil- lar in the community," Asay said. "Peterson and Webb have influenced a lot of people, and I think it would be advantageous for the university to swallow their pride a little bit and allow Peterson back." Hicks denied to comment on the topic of faculty intimidation. k o Do you have any , 1 ) , news tips for us? lit i ii ' k f.;. L Email us at DixieSundixie.edu, message us on Facebook, or tweet at us using voiceofdixie. ?,' 1 President Donald Trump talks to reporters during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., on October 17. in the Cabinet Room Trump says China is meddling INS President Donald Trump has said China is interfering with the November midterm elections, but the findings of top cybersecurity firms are casting doubt on his already fraught relationship between the two countries. claims. "We haven't observed any evidence of Chinese targeting the midterms or anything that would be relevant to upcoming elections," said Luke McNamara, a principal intelligence analyst at the cybersecurity firm Fire Eye, which works with some state and local authorities to monitor election threats. Jon Di Maggio, a senior threat intelligence analyst at Symantec, which studies threats to campaigns, candidates, Identifying nation-stat- e hackers is complex, and the analysts agree that there may be some they haven't detected. But the companies' common finding of no evidence raises fresh questions about Trump's asser midterms dons. that Trump's claim China is pursuing a campaign to interfere in the election and damage his administration is putting extra strain on an BY ALYZA SEBENIUS states, and on social media, said he's observed "no digital trail of bread-crumthat is leading back to China." in bs Beijing and Washington are locked in an escalating trade conflict, and this month, U.S. and Chinese warships nearly collided in the South China Sea, where both nations are seeking to assert regional dominance. The Department of Homeland Security, FBI and Office of Director of National Intelligence said Friday that nations including China were engaged in "ongoing campaigns" to "undermine confidence" and be something outside of it," such as conventional election-relate- d LADIES, THIS IS A "UAL worzw" ESCAPE MST! NO FIGHTING! - propa- ganda. Chris Krebs, a Homeland Security undersecretary, said the threat involved "media manipulation." Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have cited a paid advertising supplement the Chinese govern' ment placed in the Des Moines Register, Iowa's largest newspaper, criticizing the administration's trade policies. The accusations have been building since last month, when Trump told the United Nations Security Council that "China has been attempting to interfere in our upcoming 2018 election, coming up in November, against my administra- influence policy and opinion in the U.S. The administration tion." hasn't provided evidence month, saying: "There can be no doubt: China is meddling in America's to support the allegations. Dmitri Alperovitch, chief technology officer at Crowdstrike, which works with states and municipalities to look for intrusions, said of China, "We haven't seen any activity in cyberspace from them that's election related, but there could W441ALiaWNleti. pr.zooralca .. ,--- - , ;01ii 4 - , . : : ".).:"; ''flArril"4,:- '''inlillai( ...f' wit,, tl, .ke,', t 'ittLltt 1!,-I- . itit,) 11' ''kjIL.: '''.:11',:f , ,., ,, , , . ,,,.,. ,,,,, ,, ., ,, , -- -, '4, . - , ,, , , , PI 0PN Al ti,,4) , ALAN 44V ( 07 'i. v 4111. ' FOR DSU STUDENTS AND THE PUBLIC AGES lb . I ,111 "..,1.4 ' stt' 7r) .t . !k,1'$. ' $ 'tAitt4 1,4 15-8- 0 -- 1 ;10,-ol- oo t ' .v 'q '" Pence followed up with a speech this MUST FOR THE PROGRAM AT R rtEALSELFDEFENSEFOR democracy." Pence characterized Beijing's behavior as "an unprecedented effort to influence American public opinion, the 2018 elections, and the environment leading into the 2020 presidential 1. PRE-REGISTE- 'et 1 04.4; I 1 ....A i I ;:k , OL1E11.COM 't , , y Ie .4 E ",kiak I A 1 k I 4 .k |