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Doesn't UND have a PR dept. ?


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UND doesn't do things like this willy-nilly. If they took action like this, through the process, there's cause. It'll come out in due time.

I believe Sicatoka is right, I am sure UND can't comment and is probably waiting for the upcoming lawsuit. I have seen Government employees (UND is state government) get fired for good cause, sue in court and get their job back.

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Someone should tell this administration that UND is not a private business and cannot keep using "no comment" as the answer to every media question about this. This is a publicly-funded and governed institution of higher education and I think the public has a right to know why this is being done.

Aside from coaches, have UND representatives ever commented publicly about personnel issues?

Also, I find it interesting that in this situation, only Groenewold and his wife seem to have voiced their perspectives of the situation to the Herald.

**Neither of these comments are directed specifically to you, FS4L, just at the topic you posted. :)

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Aside from coaches, have UND representatives ever commented publicly about personnel issues?

Also, I find it interesting that in this situation, only Groenewold and his wife seem to have voiced their perspectives of the situation to the Herald.

**Neither of these comments are directed specifically to you, FS4L, just at the topic you posted. :)

Whenever a high-level person (Vice-President, Dean, Coach) is fired, forced to resign, resigns to take another job or retires, there usually is some sort of statement from UND about it. The EERC Director is a big-time player on campus; you simply cannot do something like this and not have it cause ripples across campus and across the community at-large. Which is why saying "no comment" over and over again is a bad idea; people start making up their own stories on what happened or didn't happen. If there are legal reasons for it, then we'll just have to wait until there is some sort of legal action. Which I think is coming.

My point is that when you are the head of a public institution like UND, you need to play the PR game better than this. Acting like it's nobody else's business is not acceptable.

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I think there is a pattern here on how the UND president and his team handle these HR actions...The police are called in and no one finds out why they were really let go and there is no show of respect for these long serving employees of the university. I also think the Mr. Groenwald is a shrewd business man and probably has a very high priced legal team ready to fight this out to the end - I could be wrong, but I don't think he worries about money more than his reputation and the organization he helped develop and build into to what it is now...Just my 2 cents.

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Whenever a high-level person (Vice-President, Dean, Coach) is fired, forced to resign, resigns to take another job or retires, there usually is some sort of statement from UND about it.

When a public official is dismissed, there's usually a canned response to due to the litigious nature of today's society.

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When a public official is dismissed, there's usually a canned response to due to the litigious nature of today's society.

Yeah, there is a lot of mindless legal-speak in the announcements. But that is still more than what we are getting from the Kelley regime. I guess the biggest problem I have with this is the general attitude of "It's none of the public's business why this happened" that has been adopted by the suits in Twamley Hall. A simple "We cannot comment on specifics because of an ongoing investigation" would be better than "no comment" x 1000.

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http://www.grandfork...ains-mum-reason

Groenewold said the university claimed there were several reasons for firing him, but that the two main causes were his admittedly intense personality and a disagreement over how the EERC’s funding should work.

Groenewold said he had a strong personality, but didn't think it should be grounds for dismissal.

Uh, Gerry, it wasn't your personality (as much as you'd like to spin the Herald into believing such). UND knows it can't back up a termination over "personality differences". However, ...

I'm expecting an audit finding to soon find its way into the public square. I don't know it; I just suspect it. Why? Even Groenewold brings up "funding" --> Where there's smoke ...

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Yeah, there is a lot of mindless legal-speak in the announcements. But that is still more than what we are getting from the Kelley regime. I guess the biggest problem I have with this is the general attitude of "It's none of the public's business why this happened" that has been adopted by the suits in Twamley Hall. A simple "We cannot comment on specifics because of an ongoing investigation" would be better than "no comment" x 1000.

This is even for a situation where the employee fired was a complete ass hat and his termination was all his fault too.

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  • 3 weeks later...
... Groenewold reportedly would “grossly exaggerate” the EERC’s financial situation to make it sound more successful than it really was to both clients and members of the public and take credit for work he hadn’t done himself. ...

And the GF Herald blindly and blithely believed his story without doing any independent research.

Then on March 27, UND's Vice President of Finance and Operations Alice Brekke wrote Kelley a memo voicing concerns about the EERC’s budget deficit and said that if nothing changes, UND will carry a total projected deficit for the EERC of about $3.75 million by the end of fiscal year 2015. ...

It's ... always ... all about the Benjamins.

Last thought: If it got to the point where the head of EERC had do go, maybe someone with a big office on third deck in Twamley should face some scrutiny as well.

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And the GF Herald blindly and blithely believed his story without doing any independent research.

It's ... always ... all about the Benjamins.

Last thought: If it got to the point where the head of EERC had do go, maybe someone with a big office on third deck in Twamley should face some scrutiny as well.

There might be a huge crack in the ROK! Que Sera Sera
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  • 11 months later...
Actually surprised Groenewold hasnt filed a suit against EERC employees for not taking bullying, abuse, and harassment better. After all, its the EERC employees fault that Gerald lost his precious job. Reminds me of the NDSU Foundation situation.

It would be cool in my book if Groenewold and Kelley moved to the same block for retirement. They deserve each other. But that's just my opinion.

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