For the last several years, the Terry Wiley Band had been a staple of springtime at Duke. The group's membership included both students and employees, and spunky lead singer Terry Wiley was a campus favorite.
But the Terry Wiley Band hasn't played on campus this year, mainly because Wiley is banned from campus. The former Facilities Management employee was fired last May and has spent the last 11 months seeking redress for what he called the unfair harassment that led to his firing.
"It feels like a part of me is missing because I'm so used to being out there with the students," Wiley said. "I love students. I want to be back out there. I belong there."
Wiley, who started working at Duke in 1983, was terminated for leaving his work area several times. "You have truly created a pattern of this behavior, which cannot be condoned...," wrote Brad Evans, assistant director of Facilities Management, in an April 15, 1999 letter suspending Wiley. "Your future with Facilities Management Department now depends on you, and whether you are willing to change your behavior and work habits. We will support you if you want to change; however, any future recurrences of this behavior will subject you to discharge."
After two more incidents, Wiley was fired May 12. But Wiley said the charges were trumped-up, and that his supervisors were looking for an excuse to fire him. "It was just a power thing," he said. "They were just wanting to show me who's boss."
Several Facilities Management and Human Resources officials declined to comment specifically on Wiley's case, citing the legal confidentiality of personnel records.
Wiley was suspended for one day last April for being seen at the East Campus Gym and the Old Chemistry Building when he was supposed to be working in the Gross Chemistry Building. But Wiley contends that he had been given permission to be at the gym during his wash-up time and that he was actually on his break when he was spotted at Old Chem.
He was fired May 12 after two incidents in Gross Chem. On several occasions, according to his termination letter, he was talking on a phone in the building's hallway when he should have been working. Wiley said that he only used the phone once, to talk to his sister, who had a medical problem. He acknowledges that he "wasn't really paying attention to how loud I was talking."
The other incident occurred May 4, when a building administrator saw him resting in a classroom with the "door locked and the lights out," according to his termination letter. Wiley responds that he was resting during his break and that the lights were off because it was daytime. Furthermore, he said, "They made it seem like I went in there and locked the door. The door automatically locks behind you."
Ellen Plummer, special assistant to Facilities Management director Jerry Black, said complaints are handled systematically in the department. "One of the things that I am very aware of in the department... is the degree to which all of the employees-management as well as employees-are made aware of procedures and processes and ways in which things can and cannot be done," she said. "There is a way in which the management of the department is very much by the book."
At the same time, Plummer said that even though she has no idea whether Wiley's charges are true, she said the feeling of being singled out is common with anyone who has concerns about their workplace.
Wiley said a months-long period of harassment by his supervisors led to his suspension and then termination. During those months, Wiley said he was given unreasonable amounts of work to do in his job as a general mechanic. As a result, he suffered a painful back injury for which Duke is still paying his doctors' bills, he said.
Wiley said that Facilities Management administrators, including director Jerry Black, simply wanted to punish him. "I don't think he cared how they did it as long as they did it." Since then, Wiley said the University has been unresponsive and his union has been uncooperative. Seven months after he was fired, Wiley was banned from campus because police had received reports that he was threatening people, Wiley said.
Clark Stern, Trinity '99 and a member of the Terry Wiley Band, said the band and campus are not the same without its "singer, frontman and lead personality."
"He was one of the most appreciated and valued people on campus in any capacity, and the fact that he can't have the job he loved more than anything is terrible," Stern said.
Now, almost a year after his firing, Wiley's back is getting better, and he has begun working for the county and as a substitute teacher. Although he could apply for a job in another Duke department, Wiley said he wants to get his firing resolved first.
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