The atmosphere in my office also was relatively loose, which I think most of us appreciated. I'm not aware of anyone in our group, however, who used UAB equipment to facilitate a private business. I sure as heck didn't do that--I didn't even facilitate my personal blog, for which I've never made a dime. According to UAB's own records, I violated no policies at all. The You & UAB Handbook states that relatively minor infractions are to be handled with progressive discipline--an oral warning, followed by written warning and possible termination, if necessary. I never received any such warnings, under university policy, about computer usage or anything else. My personnel file shows that I was doing my job, within university guidelines--and my most recent performance review had been positive.
The same apparently was true with the Pants because progressive discipline was not applied to them either. My guess is that the Pants, in their outside consulting work, unknowingly stumbled into a project that caused someone in the Alabama political hierarchy to become uncomfortable. That almost certainly is the real reason they were fired.
Whoever caused the Pants to be wrongfully terminated would be subject to major civil penalties--and criminal statutes might even be in play. That's why UAB will try to move mountains to hide that person's identity. And I doubt if John Saxon will try very hard to find out.
Here is the Pants' federal complaint:
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
