Category Archives: Legal issues

Kansas City Star: UMKC settles sexual harassment suit for $1.1 million

The work environment at a laboratory in UMKC’s psychology department was so sexually charged that at least five women left in recent years after nothing was done about it.

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Inside Higher Ed: Court Rejects Discrimination Case

A former research associate professor at the University of Utah cannot sue the institution for employment discrimination because, in the position she held, she did not meet the legal definition of an employee, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit sided with Utah in a lawsuit filed by Diane Xie, after concluding that Xie could not challenge the university’s decision not to renew her contract because the university had little control over her daily activities, did not pay her a salary, and did not require her to teach, among other factors.

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The News-Press: FGCU lawyer placed on leave

FGCU’s head attorney claims the university’s president blocked her from reviewing a gender equity complaint involving campus athletics.

General Counsel Wendy Morris said she didn’t even hear about the May 25 complaint until all Florida Gulf Coast University employees were notified through a June 8 e-mail. That message was sent hours after The News-Press already had inquired about the case.

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The Chronicle: U. of Wisconsin Settles With Administrator Demoted After Harassment Allegations

The University of Wisconsin system will pay $135,000 to settle a messy and much-publicized dispute with a black administrator who was ousted from his position on the system’s main campus following allegations of sexual harassment.

In a settlement made public on Friday, the university system’s Board of Regents agreed to pay the administrator, Paul W. Barrows, $124,000 plus $11,000 in back pay and to remove a letter critical of him from his employment records. And Mr. Barrows, who was vice chancellor for student affairs at Madison, will drop a number of pending employment and racial-discrimination claims against university faculty members and administrators.

Both parties also agreed not to “publicly disparage” each other.

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Las Vegas Sun: Raid sweeps through CCSN offices

Nevada attorney general investigators and other law enforcement officers raided the Community College of Southern Nevada business and construction offices Thursday, looking for documentation relating to construction, maintenance and renovation activities at the college.

Sources familiar with the attorney general’s investigation said the raid was prompted by a criminal investigation of campus construction chief Bob Gilbert, whose home also has been searched.

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Inside Higher Ed:

The American Chemical Society on Friday announced that it was reinstating Iranian members who had been dropped from membership out of fear that having members from Iran would violate U.S. laws limiting contacts with that country. The society — which has faced criticism for removing the Iranian members — said that the change in policy followed a more complete review of legal options. Now, the society will only bar Irananian members from access to certain career services and discounts

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Houston Chronicle: Jury recommends ex-TSU official get 10 years for misusing funds

Texas Southern University’s former chief financial officer should spend 10 years in prison for illegally allowing the use of TSU funds to improve the home of the university’s president, a jury decided this morning.

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Inside Higher Ed: Southern Discomfort

Allegations that Southern University’s board chairman sexually harassed university employees have sent the nation’s largest historically black college system into flux at the end of the academic year.

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Times-Union: Strevell admits to fraud at nonprofit

The former head of a publicly-funded program meant to help jump-start businesses admitted Monday to finagling a fraudulent $95,000 pay raise, using his corporate credit card for a trip to Disney World and insisting his father be included on two business junkets to China.

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Springfield News-Leader: MSU approves settlement for Hendrix

Michael Hendrix, the Missouri State University assistant professor who was convicted of raping a child 25 years ago, will receive nearly $185,000 to leave the school.

The MSU Board of Trustees voted 7-0 at a hastily called special meeting Monday to pay Hendrix a total of $166,734 over a three-year period (based on an annual salary of $55,578) plus $7,000 they had promised to pay him to teach summer school this year and up to $10,000 for out-of-pocket medical expenses.

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Inside Higher Ed:

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to hear two higher education cases, effectively letting stand appeals court decisions that (1) would require the University of Phoenix to defend itself against charges that it violated federal law by paying recruiters based on how many students they enrolled and (2) upheld Gannon University’s right to change a former minister’s duties in ways she believed were punitive. In the first case, the University of Phoenix (supported by some higher education groups) had argued that the Supreme Court should overturn last fall’s decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit because its interpretation of the federal False Claims Act was overly expansive and could expose colleges and companies to extreme liability for minor wrongdoing. The court’s decision to let the Ninth Circuit ruling stand, however, was applauded by lawyers for the former enrollment counselors who had challenged Phoenix’s compensation policies, who the lawyers said deserve their day in court. In the Gannon case, the Supreme Court’s decision not to consider the case lets stand a Third Circuit ruling last September that upheld the “ministerial exception” that generally shields religious colleges and organizations from employment claims brought by clergy. The Third Circuit’s ruling discarded a ruling by the same court a few months earlier that had significantly undermined the ministerial exception.

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Star Bulletin: Gag order lifted from UH professor

The University of Hawaii has agreed to lift a gag order imposed on one of its tenured professors while the school investigates allegations that he bullied, harassed and intimidated faculty, staff and students at the College of Education.

Michael D’Andrea, a professor in the Department of Counseling Education, College of Education, had sought a restraining order against the university after he was banned from campus effective March 2 and prohibited from talking to any former or current students or anyone at the Manoa campus about the grievances against him.

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Herald Tribune: Professor in Cuba spying case gets 5 in prison

A college professor who pleaded guilty in a federal case involving allegations that he and his wife spied for Cuba’s communist government and betrayed their fellow Cuban-American exiles by passing along information about community figures was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison.

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