The following article appeared in the April 12, 1995, issue of
The Maine Campus, the University of Maine's student
newspaper. It is copyrighted (C) 1995 by The Maine Campus.
At no time may this article be sold or distributed in any
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of its author, Ryan Robbins, or The Maine Campus.
 
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Ryan Robbins
Maine-NCAA-Cust-Talks
04-11-95
 
CONTROVERSIAL CASHIER FIRED OVER PLAYERS' MEALS
 
     University of Maine officials told Carolyn Cust she could
resign from her position as a checker at Stewart Commons -- if
she agreed to sign a workers compensation agreement, Cust's
daughters said a week ago Friday.
     When Cust refused, she was fired, her daughters said.
     A 20-year employee of the university, Cust was fired by the
university in February after she admitted she had allowed off-
campus hockey players to eat breakfasts for free, a violation of
NCAA rules.
     Her daughters, Carrie Gallant and Rhonda Carter, are angry
their mother was fired but the 17 hockey players were allowed to
reimburse the university and continue playing.
     "We're concerned that she took the fall," Carter said. "She
took all the blame for it and that's not right."
     "Those hockey players didn't lose a damn thing," she said.
     "They're still playing hockey, they've still got their
college education, and they're still going along their merry way.
They stole those meals from the university. She did not drag them
in there and cram that food down their throat and drag them out.
They knew exactly what they were doing and she took the fall
because -- and only because -- they're the hockey team. And she's
a big comp case."
     Head coach Shawn Walsh required the players to eat breakfast
every Monday, Wednesday and Friday during the season.
     "They told her that they didn't have any money and that they
didn't have any meal tickets and she felt sorry for them and she
let them go by and eat," Carter said.
     "They knew she's a softy and if they come in saying they're
hungry and they didn't have any money and no card" she'd let them
through, Gallant added.
     The university has "been after her for a long time due to
her comp," Gallant said.
     Since 1985, Cust has filed four worker's compensation
claims.
     Before the university fired her, nobody disputed the claims.
But since firing Cust, the university has disputed her claims.
     Dining Services Director Jon Lewis told Teamsters Union
Steward Rachel Seymour during a meeting in March that he didn't
believe in worker's compensation, Gallant said.
     Not only that, but UMaine Human Resources Director Dale
MacDonald told Cust the university would allow her to resign if
she agreed to settle her claims on the university's terms, she
said.
     "She told my mother that if she agreed to sign their
workman's compensation agreement, that they would consider
letting her resign and not terminating her," Carter said.
     Lewis refused to comment Saturday on Gallant's allegation.
     "I'd feel uncomfortable doing that," he said. "I don't have
clearance to do that."
     MacDonald also declined to comment.
     Seymour declined to comment about the specifics of Cust's
grievance with the university, saying she did not want to
jeopardize Cust's chances of winning. She did say the union
believes the university treated Cust unfairly.
     "Nothing happened to the hockey team," Seymour said. "Those
hockey players will still play hockey. Nobody will point the
finger at them. And as far as we're concerned, they are just as
guilty as she is."
     When the university suspended Cust with pay pending the
outcome of its investigation, Lewis told Cust she was not allowed
to contact anybody on campus.
     In a Dec. 20, 1994, letter to Cust, Lewis wrote:
     "To protect both you and the university during this period
of this investigation, we are requiring that you leave campus
immediately and that you not return to the university campus for
any reason during the period of suspension. Until you return to
work, you are to have no contact with anyone here at the
university except your union steward and myself."
     Cust's daughters said the university failed to pay their
mother until they brought it to the university's attention at a
grievance hearing during the first week of March.
     Cust said the university told her not to tell anybody about
the NCAA violations.
     She said she offered to reimburse the university for the
$600 in meals the university claimed the players ate, but the
university refused to take her money. NCAA regulations would have
prevented Cust from doing so, but the university didn't tell her
that. Cust said she didn't know anything about NCAA regulations.
     Cust said the university told her she had until Feb. 17 to
resign. On Feb. 17 she handed her resignation in, but when she
returned to her home, she found a letter from Lewis dated Feb. 16
informing her she had been fired.
     Carter said her mother is a hard worker who doesn't take
anything for granted. Her mother could have quit her job and
stayed home while collecting workers compensation, she said.
     Cust sustained her injuries as a custodian for Campus
Living. Since 1985, she has sustained injuries to her back, both
elbows, knee and finger
     Even before the university became suspicious of low cash
receipt totals during Cust's shift, it had been trying to find a
reason to fire her, Gallant said.
     "She got a letter a few months even before this that
supposedly some pans fell and there was a huge thing over it,"
Gallant said. "Supposedly she was swearing her head off."
     The university claimed that when Cust took some time off in
December, cash receipt totals rose, but then dropped when she
returned.
     Cust took some time off between Dec. 6, 1994, and Dec. 23,
1994, to take care of Carter's kids. Carter had gone to
California and Cust took some hours off periodically to make sure
the kids got on the school bus.
     Cust could not remember whether she had taken a full day off
during that time. Her daughters said they did not believe she
had.
     Carter disputed the university's claim that 17 student-
athletes received free meals. "If 17 are saying that they got
meals free, then they got them from somebody else as well as
her," she said.
     Cust said she did not know how many players she let through.
The players had to sign their names at the check-in to show they
had eaten, but not all of the players ate all the time, she said.
     "I know for a fact that in the beginning those that didn't
have the money came in, signed their name and left because they
didn't want Shawn Walsh to know they didn't eat because they
didn't have the money to pay for it," Cust said.
     "I'm not the only (one) that let people in to eat," she
said. "Believe me. And it's probably still going on."
     Now working part-time at Wadleigh's Market in Old Town, Cust
said her main concern is health insurance. She has custody of her
16-year-old niece, whose mother died a few years ago.
     "I've really had it with this," Cust said. "I feel that I've
lost everything. My health is for the birds, they're trying to
take my comp away from me. You try to live on $50 a week to
support this house and a 16-year-old. You can't do it."
     Cust said she has learned a valuable lesson from the
incident.
     "If I was doing that job today, my own daughters would not
get into that building," she said. "I learned a great lesson."
     She doesn't harbor any hard feelings toward the players,
though. She has refused to name of those she allowed to eat for
free.
     "I love them. I love my kids. I do," she said.
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