Arizona Republic: ASU settles lawsuit filed by woman in rape case
The settlement of a lawsuit filed by a former student who said she was raped in her dorm room will cost Arizona State University $850,000 and revamp the way the three state universities respond to complaints of sexual harassment and violence.
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Tagged Legal issues
Star Bulletin: Courts confront issue of tests’ constitutionality
Federal courts around the country have been split on whether drug testing of public school teachers is constitutional. In Hawaii, the state Supreme Court has yet to rule on the issue.
The U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment, which prohibits “unreasonable searches and seizures,” is the basis for the constitutional challenges, but federal courts disagree whether the government has a “special interest” or legitimate basis for subjecting public employees to the tests.
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Posted in Legal issues
Tagged Drug Testing, Legal issues
The Chronicle New Blog: Former Marshall U. Official Reaches Preliminary Settlement in Defamation Lawsuit
A former athletics compliance officer at Marshall University says he has reached a settlement in his federal defamation lawsuit against the university, in West Virginia.
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Posted in Legal issues
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bnd.com: University of Missouri sues professor over patent
COLUMBIA, Mo. — A long-running dispute between the University of Missouri and one of its professors over intellectual property is headed to federal court.
The university system filed a lawsuit Monday in U.S. District Court in Kansas City against chemical engineering professor Galen Suppes. The system claims Suppes won’t release the rights to more than 30 inventions and 11 potential patents it says were developed in his Columbia campus labs.
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Orlando Sentinel: UCF dean turns himself in to jail authorities
Jamal Nayfeh, UCF’s College of Engineering associate dean, is accused of charging more than $40,000 for personal items on his university-issued credit card.
The UCF dean accused of purchasing more than $40,000 worth of high-end electronics for personal use with his university-issued credit card has turned himself in to the Orange County Jail.
Jail spokesman Allen Moore said Jamal Nayfeh, 48, is with his lawyer at the jail and is paying his bond, which is set at $3,000, jail officials said. The arrest affidavit shows he faces charges of grand theft, false or misleading statements or supporting documents and fraudulent use of credit cards.
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The Alligator: UF tenure–track professor fights to be reinstated
A hearing was held Friday to determine if UF improperly laid off Andrea Pham, assistant professor of Vietnamese language and linguistics.
A decision on Friday’s hearing should be reached within 60 days.
Pham was one of eight faculty members and 65 staff given layoff notices after last year’s $47 million budget cut.
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Posted in Budgets & Funding, Legal issues, Tenure & Promotion
Omaha World-Herald: Judge upholds affirmative action ban
Nebraska’s ban on affirmative action looks like it’s here to stay after supporters scored a courtroom victory on Thursday.
A Lancaster County judge ruled in the ban’s favor, upholding the legality of the petition drive that put the measure onto the November ballot. Voters overwhelmingly approved the constitutional amendment.
With her ruling, District Judge Karen Flowers seemingly dashed the best hope for opponents, who had shrugged off the Election Day defeat and focused their energy on defeating the amendment in court.
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Posted in Diversity, Equity, Legal issues
Chattanooga Times Free Press: Professor sues University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
A UTC professor has sued the university, claiming he was demoted because he voiced concerns about a female professor who he said lied about her academic records and behaved unprofessionally.
Dr. Bill Harman, who came to UTC in 2001 to serve as head of the philosophy and religion department, was removed from his position as department head in June 2008, taking a 12 percent pay cut, after opposing the tenure promotion of Dr. Talia Welsh, who had worked in the religion and philosophy department since 2001.
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Posted in Legal issues, Tenure & Promotion
WLKY.com: U.S. Attorney: Former Dean ‘Not Intimidated’ During Questioning
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — During seven hours of questioning, embattled former University of Louisville education dean Robert Felner never once requested an attorney, nor was he ever read his miranda rights and placed under arrest, a motion filed by U.S. Attorney David Huber said.
Felner, and former associate Thomas Schroeder, face charges they fraudulently obtained more than $2 million in grant and contract money from the Universities of Louisville and Rhode Island.
Felner’s attorneys have filed a motion asking the judge to suppress statements he made to a U of L detective and a United States Postal Inspector. They argue that investigators illegally obtained the information during interviews at the College of Education on June 20, 2008.
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Tagged Robert Felner
The Chronicle News Blog: U.S. Supreme Court Rules Against Limiting Title IX Lawsuits
Washington — A unanimous Supreme Court today ruled against imposing more limits on sexual-discrimination and sexual-harassment lawsuits.
Today’s decision overturns a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, in Fitzgerald v. Barnstable School Committee. The appeals court found that lawsuits filed under Title IX, the 1972 law that prohibits sex discrimination at institutions that receive federal funds, could not also include claims of civil-rights violations under a Civil War-era federal law, Section 1983, that enforces the equal-protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
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Posted in Equity, Legal issues
Austin American Statesman: U Texas $800,000 a year baseball coach Garrido arrested, suspended by university
University of Texas baseball coach Augie Garrido, the all-time victories leader in NCAA Division I, was suspended indefinitely with pay Saturday after being arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated in downtown Austin.
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Posted in Legal issues
Knoxville News Sentinel: Former UT head to get $175,000
Shumaker dismissed in ’03; lawsuit pending against foundation
NASHVILLE – Former University of Tennessee President John Shumaker will be paid $175,000 in severance pay to settle a lawsuit against UT under an agreement that has been approved by Gov. Phil Bredesen.
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Posted in Administration, Legal issues, Salary/Economic Benefits
The Chronicle News Blog: SUNY-Stony Brook Settles With Female Postdoc Who Alleged Gender Bias
Sherry M.J. Towers, a former postdoctoral fellow in physics who said her faculty supervisor denied her maternity leave and told her she had to return to work within days of giving birth, in 2003, has settled her sex-discrimination lawsuit against the State University of New York at Stony Brook. The settlement was announced today by the American Association of University Women, which supported Ms. Towers in her lawsuit. The terms of the settlement are confidential, the association said.
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Posted in Legal issues
The Chronicle News Blog: Professor in Plagiarism Scandal Is Allowed to Proceed With Lawsuit Against Ohio U.
A federal appeals court has given a professor embroiled in a 2006 plagiarism scandal at Ohio University the go-ahead to proceed with a lawsuit against the university.
Jay S. Gunasekera, a professor and former chairman of the department of mechanical engineering at Ohio, sued two university officials — Provost Kathy Krendl and the engineering school’s dean, Dennis Irwin — in 2006, after the university suspended his graduate-faculty status over allegations that he had been negligent in preventing plagiarism among graduate students he was advising.
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Posted in Legal issues
WLKY.com: Attorney’s Office Wants More Time In Felner Case
Robert Felner Faces Fraud Charges
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The U.S. attorney’s office said it needs more time to prepare its case against a former University of Louisville dean accused of fraud.
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Posted in Legal issues
Tagged Robert Felner
ISS: University of Texas faculty sue over post-Ike layoffs in Galveston
An association representing University of Texas faculty members is suing school officials on behalf of the 3,800 University of Texas Medical Branch employees laid off in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike.
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Posted in Legal issues
Courier-Journal: Motion made to exclude Felner statements
December 23, 2008
The lawyer for former education dean Robert Felner says federal authorities violated his client’s rights when they interrogated him for more than six hours at the University of Louisville in June.
As a result, attorney Scott C. Cox has filed a motion in U.S. District Court for Kentucky’s western district in Louisville asking that Felner’s statements during the interrogation be excluded from the case.
Felner, 58, is facing 10 counts of mail fraud, money-laundering conspiracy and income-tax evasion, after a federal grand jury indicted him in October.
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Posted in Legal issues
Tagged Robert Felner
The Chronicle News Blog: Opponents of British Faculty Union’s Israeli Boycott Say Legal Threat Has Blocked It
Opponents of longstanding efforts by some members of Britain’s main faculty union to call for an academic boycott of Israel now say that such efforts have been defeated and that they will sue the union to prevent similar actions in the future.
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Posted in Legal issues
Journal Star: Self-described witch claims UNL fired her unfairly
Saturday, Dec 13, 2008 – 12:18:59 am CST
A woman hired by the University of Nebraska to direct a youth program says in a lawsuit filed Dec. 5 that she was unfairly dismissed from her job.
“Plaintiff is a witch and the Reclaiming Tradition of Witchcraft is her religion,” the suit says.
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Posted in Legal issues
Akron Beacon Journal: UA trustee is indicted
Attorney Jack Morrison Jr. denies ethical violations in sale of son’s home
University of Akron Trustee Jack Morrison Jr. faces seven counts of allegedly violating Ohio’s ethics laws for his role in the purchase of his son’s home by the university.
Morrison, who is also chairman of the Summit County Board of Elections and a prominent local attorney, was indicted by a Summit County grand jury on the misdemeanors, authorities announced Wednesday.
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Posted in Administration, Legal issues
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