de, and that it was
against a woman.

The group of faculty women begged him to reconsider. To press such
minuscule charges in the first place had been a mistake. The
information had spread across campus, the town and the state, making
almost every person who heard of it laugh at first, then as they
realized that it was not a joke become indignant.

"The publicity already has been harmful and it can only get worse if
this hearing is continued," one of the professors urgently stated to
The Pope. "Why do you continue with this?"

They were told that the decision to prosecute was final and that there
was nothing they could do. Then they were shown the door.

The same sort of treatment was given to staff and students except that
they usually got shorter shrift. Islands of concerned people protested
but never joined in concert. It was not a safe undertaking at Belmont
University. Not if you wanted to keep your position. As Edmund Burke
observed, "When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they
will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."

The final straw that tipped the balance and sent Diana to an attorney
to fight the inevitable termination was an editorial that appeared in
THE PROD, the Belmont student newspaper. In a strongly worded article
it condemned the undemocratic judicial process of the Belmont
administration, which flouted the laws of the state and made up its own
to fit each occasion. The editorial compared Belmont's disciplinary
process to feudal times.

It was titled:

PUNISHING THE VICTIM

....Dr. Diana Trenchant was accused of wrong doing. Therefore, she was
tried by a jury of her accusers in accordance with university policy.
Although two witness, who in any court would be called 'expert'
witnesses, testified against her, she was not allowed an adequate
defense--that is, the service of an attorney who would be competent to
cross examine so-called expert testimony. She was also not allowed
access to documents needed in her own defense.

She will most certainly be summarily terminated--deprived of her
livelihood without due process--another victim of Belmont Kangaroo Kort
Justice.

"That does it," she told Andrea and James whose support had never
wavered throughout the ordeal. "I refuse to be one of Burke's
'unpitied sacrifice'. More specifically, I refuse to be their victim.
Perhaps the courts can do something. Let's give it a shot."

Th