When Mitch McConnell had a "freeze" during a news conference, I remembered when I had my one and only one. I was Acting Director of Facilities Planning and Management and was meeting with representatives from all segments of the University in a facilities planning meeting. I have no idea what I was presenting, but I do remember that I stopped right in the middle of a sentence. In a few seconds I continued... Later, I asked the only other woman there, and one who represented my major VP for Instruction, and asked her if it was noticeable. She kindly said that it wasn't too bad... But I knew, and now know that was the beginning of the neurological changes beginning in my brain.
My boss, William Campbell, had already been moved "up" as an assistant to the new Assistant VP for Facilities and Services. WVU has a habit of "promoting" people when they want to get them out of a job in which they want to place somebody else. I'd seen it before and knew what was happening. I would soon be getting a new boss. Jim Shaub had come in as Associate Director to handle the Facilities Planning part of our office. Not once did he ever meet with me to allow me to explain what I was responsible for. Instead, there was little if any work-related interaction. It was not long afterward when one of my manager's left her position.
I had been interviewing and, surprisingly, had a retired colonel of Military Science apply for a first-line supervisory position! For me, it was NOT a good fit, given the detail-oriented activities that were required. All I can say about him was that he seemed to be a nice guy... Nevertheless, the retired colonel of Aerospace Studies, new Assistant VP for Facilities, Harry Snoreck, soon came into my office, leaned over my desk, and told me that "I" had the man for the position. I didn't feel I had a choice. The Assistant Vice-President position had just been created and filled. My new boss, was also retired from Aerospace Studies. I had to assume that, as men, they would have some skill in capital construction, but for my job? I saw nothing that would qualify "any" of them to lead the Office for which I had been responsible.
Almost immediately after Ken White was hired, he invited the three of the supervisors to his home for dinner. Personally, I thought it was totally inappropriate, however, I went... knowing I was the odd "man" out...
Recognize that what I write about are sections of time that, I believe, affected my health. Soon, I was being told a "good ole boy" story about the big boss having an affair and his "rubbers" had been found in the heating unit at the hospital. I was shocked hearing such a story. At that time, I still had some respect for the new Asst VP. I arranged to meet him in a room far from our office suite. As soon as I heard him coming, I turned around and said, "I'm hearing much too much about your personal sexual life. I want it to stop."
"I'll take care of it." he said and left. I never heard any more stories and I also realized that I would never be, nor did I want to be a "good ole' boy..." I had built an image of professionalism which I'd used most of my career and it had helped me in moving forward. I had no desire to party with the leaders while, I knew, that little supervision and work would be done... I was not that type of person.
On the other hand, I did later learn from my former boss, that my promotion to Associate Director of the Office when Jim took over as Director, had been "negotiated..."??? What did that even mean, I wondered. Soon I would find out.
Jim came to me one day, revealing that the capital construction budget was out of control. I looked at him, thinking that was a function of the facilities planners. However, it had gone too far. They had no information about what project had what budget, nor what had been spent, nor what had been designated for what project, nor whether they had enough money to even begin a job that was soon to be funded. I was aware of the project, one of my favorites, estimated to be over $1M, since it was a small auditorium that I had done much work on as a facilities scheduler/ analyst/ and preparing for an ongoing renovation/ upgrade program that I'd proposed to the Vice President for Instruction, which he had approved.
Jim assigned me to "fix it..."
I soon realized that, without any knowledge or involvement, I was told that the office accountant had been promoted to one of the analyst positions now under Ken White...
In other words, not only was the position now empty but the money had been converted to other uses, I had no idea what. First, let me talk about the Facilities Analysis Office which I was also, still, responsible for. Ken White was now head of the office. Ken White had no training to direct the activities, there was a new analyst who had nobody to train her...
Each of the analysts had a specific role, one was for classroom scheduling, one for federal and local facilities reporting, and one was for space allocation via facilities analysis. The three had specific parts of the campus for which they would be responsible for the facilities analysis portion for projects. The manager's primary activity was to document and recommend space allocation...
I also had a secretary, Sandy, who was wonderful. I had no choice, I lost the secretarial position for helping me with details and created a capital construction accountant. Fortunately, I had earlier developed a good relationship with Dr. Ed Gross, Vice Chancellor, Administration and Planning, primarily in responding to the detailed information required for campus facilities. I called him and explained what I would be doing. And, merely, copied the type of project accounting system that was used by the Board. Yes, you are correct, it was not a hard job and could have and should have been done by the accountant before it had become a crisis. Apparently none of the project officers had the desire or skill to train the accountant already in the office. Of course, saying that would imply that the side of the office biw led by Jim Shaub was now not functioning properly...
What the task now required was a total audit of each and every project, to establish a project budget and match expenditures to each project, and to establish a correlation of each budget to the capital budget allocated by the Board of Regents. The only word I can use was tedious. It was not hard. But it took me a year. A year of my life handling and correcting the lack of accountability for project financing by the, in my opinion, new Director, Facilities Planning Unit.
At the end of that year, I called the Board of Regents project accountant to disclose my findings. WVU had approximately $1.5M owed us. Dr. Gross got involved, told everybody that he had to accept my findings due to my earlier work. But, he explained that, in lieu of having this information earlier, the Board had only $1M left. Dr. Gross instructed his staff to send that amount to West Virginia University.
During that past year, I learned, that, because of lack of control of their projects, MY project for Eiesland Hall's renovation had been cancelled. Not only had the project been cancelled, but none of the work related to the integration within the classroom scheduling had been done... In other words, While planners continued working construction, the former unit established for Facilities Planning and Management, for which I was also responsible, had been allowed to...languish... because, of course, Jim Shaub nor Ken White had any idea how to direct those activities while I was on special assignment...
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Near the end of my year-long audit of a multi-million dollar capital budget, one of my employees, Terry Dangler, who I hired as a programmer, came to me in my office. He apologized for coming, but then said, "you've got to do something! I just found Carolyn banging her head against the wall. I tried to help but don't know what to do..."
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