Herkimer County Community College employee Janet Evelyn-Dorsey and her attorney, David Goldbas, held a press conference Thursday to address her suspension and subsequent barring from campus.
This week marks the ninth week since she was suspended, said Evelyn-Dorsey, associate dean of the Business Information and Technology division.
According to Evelyn-Dorsey, at a meeting on the afternoon of Feb. 29, HCCC Ronald F. Williams informed her of accusations and her suspension with pay. Williams told her that the matter would be cleared up in a couple of weeks.
 After the meeting she had to leave campus and has not been able to return since, said Evelyn-Dorsey. She has represented HCCC at two conferences.        
The accusations that led to the suspension cited two or three incidents that center around conversations, words or comments, according to Goldbas.
The first was an incident in which Evelyn-Dorsey told an employee to drop dead, said Goldbas. She is also accused of using profanity at a tavern off campus during a happy hour.
“I maintain the charges against me are without merit.” said Evelyn-Dorsey. “Schedule my hearing immediately.”
An original hearing to determine the status of Evelyn-Dorsey’s suspension scheduled for March 14 had been postponed and repeated attempts to get a hearing have failed, according to Goldbas.
Goldbas said he began representing Evelyn-Dorsey just before the original hearing. “When I appeared, everything was canceled.”
“I’ve written to the board, I’ve written to administrators...I get no answers.” said Goldbas.
He added that a response he has received states, “If there’s a potential for violence it should be investigated immediately.”
Evelyn-Dorsey will not get a hearing because she is under an investigation that has been going on for four weeks, according to Goldbas.
“Our request to the school is for an administrative hearing.” said Goldbas in a phone interview. “We’re pursuing all our legal avenues.”
 Answering a question on the involvement of race, Evelyn-Dorsey said as the only black woman on the campus, “It’s very difficult to rule race out because of who I am.” 
As a result of the suspension and barring, Evelyn-Dorsey said she could not even go on campus to mourn the death of former colleague Ted Schiros, whom she hired and worked with for four years.
She referred to a memorial held at HCCC on March 25 for Schiros, who was killed in a car accident on March 10 at the age of 41.
“I don’t think that you could get more cruel.” said Evelyn-Dorsey in a phone interview prior to the conference.
Evelyn-Dorsey also said the suspension impacted her students because it came at a very important juncture of the semester.
  One of her students in attendance, Maria Gerena, an HCCC senior, said there is no one else on campus to relate to and talk to as a person of color.
 Aisha Flowers, another of her students and an HCCC senior, said the college has yet to contact her involving her academic eligibility. “I refuse to come back in September.”
Speaking in support of Evelyn-Dorsey at the conference, David Mathis, a trustee at Mohawk Valley Community College, said his board of trustees would not have given the president a 17-week vacation if a similar incident took place at MVCC.
The comment refers to Williams’ action to use accumulated vacation days prior to retirement at the end of the semester.
Mathis compared it to “a car without a driver.”
Rebecca Ruffing, assistant director of public relations at HCCC, said in a phone interview, “This is an internal administrative matter that the college cannot comment on at this time.”
An attempt to contact Williams did not receive a response.
The press conference took place in the board room of the Mohawk Valley Community Action Agency Building in Marcy. The agency had no affiliation with the conference.