Once “Kennedy” had fired me I looked up Paul F. Buzzi, Esq. Of the many people whom I have met in my life, Paul is without a doubt one of the most upstanding. I recall somewhat vividly how Paul described the sinful and hypocritical lifestyle he used to live, getting high with judges in Akron (ones who sentenced others involved in drugs to prison). Ultimately Paul got hooked on another drug, Jesus juice, and his addiction had dramatic positive results. Paul waited for an answer from the Polymer Science Department at the University of Akron, but none was to be had. Meanwhile, for the next 1.5-2 weeks my status as a student was apparently in a state of limbo and it wasn’t until I ran into the head of the Polymer Science Department (Dr. William {Bill} J. Brittain)* that inquiries were made into the previously described events. When I ran into Dr. Brittain the first thing he said was something to the effect “Mark Kohler asked me if you were to still have clearance to the building and I wondered what was going on.” So within a day or two latter I arranged to meet with Brittain and told him the entire series of events that had transpired. Brittain asked me what I’d like to do and admitted that the events were gross misconduct on “Kennedy’s” part. I told Dr. Brittain that all I wanted to do was simply finish my Ph.D. seeing all the time I had invested. I was then immediately moved into a new research group that had shown up at U. Akron, that of Dr. Scott Collins. I was also informed that this move would be most ideal for me seeing that Collins had a project centering on IB polymerization and I was already somewhat well versed in the area. Having few options at my disposal and a great desire to get my degree and get the hell out of the shithole of Akron I accepted this arrangement.
* I was well acquainted with Brittain having finished a M.S. under him instead of a Ph.D. At this juncture I cannot say anything overly good or bad about him. During my stint in his lab I learned absolutely nothing of value in terms of synthetic laboratory techniques. What I did learn was how power corrupts and how that corruption can destroy people’s lives. Without going into detail at this moment (and I have plenty of documentation on file that I can post) one need only look at court records pertaining to him in the 90s as well as awards granted through the Polymer Division of the ACS to students (during the time that Bill chaired this division) to figure out what was going on. Remember, this is the time of Monica Lewinsky…