On Dependent Verification

by R. M. Douglas
Professor of History

Professors Johnston, Regenspan and Moore have addressed the recent dependent verification initiative on the part of the Administration and/or an entity calling itself the "Bonadio Group." Prof. Johnston describes it as "an outrageous invasion of privacy and an insult to the entire Colgate community." Prof. Regenspan points out the contradiction between a workplace model that, on the one hand, depends upon the willingness of faculty members to do an enormous amount of uncompensated labour as an expression of their commitment to the institution—without which the University could hardly continue in its current form—and, on the other, feels itself entitled to demand that employees prove themselves innocent of workplace fraud to the satisfaction of whatever and whoever the Bonadio Group may be. Prof. Moore notes that, in addition to all the above, the Administration may be blundering into a legal minefield in its implicit assumption that the verification process confers rights alone upon the University while imposing obligations alone upon its workers.

Professors Johnston, Regenspan and Moore are entirely correct, and, I have no doubt, express the sense of the overwhelming majority of the Colgate faculty. Regardless of whatever commitments into which the Administration may have entered with the Bonadio Group, this ill-advised initiative needs to be withdrawn.