CURRY CHANDLER
Assistant News Editor
What began as a quiet dispute over questionable student evaluations in 2004 continued in court this summer as Dr. Ronald Fagan laid another claim against Pepperdine seeking more than $55,000 compensation.
In June, Fagan, a professor of sociology, filed a motion for damages, seeking lost wages and benefits from the period following the university’s termination of his employment. The court acknowledged Fagan’s motion, but is withholding final judgment until other issues related to the case are resolved.
Fagan was fired in April 2005, according to court files, for allegedly violating the conditions of university sanctions for his admitted forgery of his course evaluations.
The granting of Fagan’s motion for damages is another step in a prolonged legal battle.
In March of this year, the Los Angeles Superior Court ruled in favor of Fagan, deciding that Pepperdine had indeed wrongfully terminated the professor, and granted his appeal for reinstatement. On March 21 the university issued a letter officially reinstating Fagan as “a member of the faculty of Seaver College.”
Fagan has not taught at Pepperdine since fall of 2004 and will not teach this semester.
Having won his battle for reinstatement, Fagan now awaits resolution in his second suit against the university: a claim of defamation relating to the university’s stated reason for his termination. This claim is set to be tried in November.
The university declined to comment on the case as litigation is pending.
Court records place the genesis of the controversy in June 2004, when Fagan was privately asked by Seaver Dean David Baird and Associate Dean Rick Marrs if he had falsified student evaluation forms. He initially denied the accusations, even threatening to file charges against Marrs if the matter was pursued further.
In the following weeks the matter was presented to the Seaver College Rank, Tenure and Promotion Committee for inquiry. Pepperdine’s court filings show that after four days of hearings, including confirmation by a handwriting expert that the handwriting on the evaluations was Fagan’s, the panel recommended “the most severe sanctions … short of immediate dismissal.”
In Fagan’s closing remarks to the hearings he admitted that he had “added comments to one of my teacher evaluations in summer 2003 and two to four evaluations in spring 2004.”
The Faculty Hearing Panel prepared a written report for university President Andrew K. Benton in Jan., 2005. Excerpts from the report contained in court documents show the panel characterized Fagan’s behavior as dishonest, based not only on the professor’s falsifying of student evaluations but also on his repeated denial of the accusations.
Benton sent Fagan a letter March 4 informing him that he had accepted the hearing panel’s sanctions, which included stripping Fagan of his tenured status. Benton also said in the letter, which is included in the court papers filed by the university, that he expected Fagan to “meet the highest standards of excellence in (his) conduct and performance,” and that a perceived failure to do so would be grounds for dismissal from the university.
That April, Benton further amended his personal requirements for Fagan by asking him to present a public apology at a meeting of all full-time Seaver staff.
Correspondence filed in the public record reflect that Fagan was skeptical, expressing concern that the only purpose of such an event was to further shame and embarrass him, but Benton was trenchant, saying that the apology was necessary to bring closure to issue.
On April 8 Fagan sent e-mails to four colleagues in which he wrote, “the best way for people to support me is to not show up at the meeting,” but that they were welcome to come if they so desired. By the following morning Benton had caught wind of the e-mails’ content and asked Fagan if he was encouraging people not to attend the meeting which Fagan denied.
On the evening of the 19, the night before the apology was scheduled to take place, Benton sent an e-mail to Fagan and other relevant parties informing them that he had decided to cancel the meeting. On Friday, April 22 Benton notified Fagan that he was terminating the professor’s employment as of the 30th.
That August, Fagan filed suit against Pepperdine. In March of this year the court granted his claim of wrongful termination.
The university would not discuss the technicalities of Fagan’s reinstatement because personnel issues are considered confidential.
08-28-2006