Dear George,

This is incredibly cruel scapegoating. These are people who have paid the price for their crimes. They were hard workers who did their jobs and now they are paying the price for someone else's criminal negligence. When they were hired by the University their convictions were part of their applications. UVa knew that they had been convicted and then entered into an employment agreement with them anyway. Now UVa is betraying that agreement.

Their firing shows a great contempt for the concepts of rehabilitation and forgiveness. Also, only temps (read exploited) and probationary employees were fired. Does this mean that attaining "classified" status somehow frees one of the stain of a felony? There are classified employees who are also convicted felons. Are they going to be fired next? Of course not. There are too many. Shame on the thoughtless, heartless boneheads that did this. I hope to hell that the U get sued and loses.

Kevin Cox (electronic mail, May 31, 2001).