***** Vol.3 Chap.30 The complaint *****
The next morning, a thick package came through special delivery from a work-study student. Frank opened the package immediately and scanned through the contents. The package contained copies of papers that he had published with Mark based on Mark’s doctoral dissertation.
It was not uncommon for doctoral students to publish their work before graduation. In fact, publication was expected, and for that matter, the more the better. Mark was a talented writer and hence was quite prolific in publishing.
All the papers cited in the package were papers without JB’s name. The complaint from JB claimed that all the publications attached to the package were all her original ideas, and they were published without her name. For evidence, she had copied many pages of her log book, showing when the idea was conceived by her.
Having a log book to write things down was Frank’s idea, and he insisted that all his students and postdocs did the same. Everyone including Frank himself kept log books to record the events and ideas that had happened during their research.
The point of a log book was to record any research ideas as evidence of when the idea was first conceived. This was good practice for proving their case in the courts in the event of any patent fights. A well-kept engineering log book was good indisputable and court admissible evidence showing when the idea was initially conceived.
It was almost comical and ironic to him that the very thing that he insisted on his students doing now became an instrument to haunt him.
Frank was truly saddened by the claims. To him, the work was clearly Mark’s, and JB had nothing to do with those papers. He inspected the pages of JB’s logbook pages and compared those with his own logbook. It did not take long before Frank discovered that all the pages that she had submitted as ‘evidence’ were all records of research meetings where JB and Mark had taken part.
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What JB had submitted was indeed her version of the meeting that she had written in her logbook.
Frank had been asked by the Academic Appeals Committee to submit a written response to the complaint, and he had a week to do so. Grudgingly, he composed his response.
In fact, the supporting evidence for his response was quite easy to gather because JB had already given all the dates from her logbook. All he had to do was just copy the pages from his own logbook for those same days. Just for safe measure, Frank also copied the pages of the research meetings during the past years before JB joined the group and the log of the research meetings when JB was absent.
In no time, he also had a thick stack of supporting evidence put together that he carefully laid out and indexed. When he was done with his response, one of the work-study students in the department walk the parcel over to Dr. Summer.
Frank felt his response was sufficient, so he attended to his daily business and never even considered about the event again.
That afternoon, when he was having his office hours, Dr. Summer called to acknowledge the receipt of his response package and would forward his response subsequently to the complainant and the committee members.
Later that afternoon, she called again and said that the date for a preliminary hearing has been set for the following Monday and she was calling to see about his schedule. She was very professional over the phone and gave no hint of what the committee would do about the case.
The weekend passed quickly. While Frank thought about the impending hearing now and then, he really did not think too much about it and had decided that he really did not need a lawyer. He felt that his response was clear, and that the submitted evidence justified his case.
During this time, he left JB alone. He knew she was working in her office, but she would not answer Frank’s phone calls or emails. Frank grew tiresome in trying to reach her and never had the chance to see her until the day of the preliminary hearing,