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Saturday, August 01, 2009
Ind. Decisions - "Ruling backs Indiana University South Bend in lawsuit"
The COA decision July 30th (ILB summary here) in the case of Trustees of Indiana University v. H. Daniel Cohen is the subject of a story today by Margaret Fosmoe in the South Bend Tribune. Some quotes:
The Indiana Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of Indiana University in a case involving former Indiana University South Bend Chancellor H. Daniel Cohen.In a ruling issued Thursday, the appeals court reversed a ruling by the trial court that had refused summary judgment in favor of IU and had concluded a provision in the agreement between IU and Cohen was ambiguous.
The appeals court ruled that IU was on valid legal ground in firing Cohen for violations of IU's code of ethics for faculty, and that IU did not breach an agreement with Cohen. * * *
Cohen was IUSB's chancellor from 1987 until 1995, when he was forced to step down amid sexual harassment allegations. He later lost a civil lawsuit filed by a former female employee who claimed he had sexually harassed her.
Cohen remained on the IUSB faculty as a tenured physics professor, entering into an agreement with IU that stated "any future act of sexual harassment or retaliation by Dr. Cohen that occurs from the date of this agreement forth in the course of Dr. Cohen's employment will be considered serious personal misconduct and will result in immediate steps to dismiss Dr. Cohen from the faculty."
In 2000, 11 female students filed written complaints about Cohen, claiming he was verbally abusive and discriminatory in the classroom. One of those students reported that Cohen discriminated against her based on gender, religion, sexual harassment and retaliation.
The university investigated the allegations and dismissed Cohen in 2001 for violating school policy on sexual harassment.
Elkhart County Judge Evan S. Roberts had denied summary judgment for IU, agreeing with Cohen that a jury should decide whether language in the agreement that allowed him to resume work as a professor after a sabbatical — an agreement IU later cited as the basis for his firing — was ambiguous. The agreement allowed him to continue teaching "with tenure with the rights and responsibilities attendant to that position."
But that language clearly required Cohen to follow all rules against sexual harassment contained in the school's constitutions and faculty handbooks, and Cohen even testified in depositions that he believed this was the case, the appeals court ruled.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 1, 2009 09:44 AM
Posted to Ind. App.Ct. Decisions