Robert D. Newman, one of three candidates to replace Robert L. Carothers as president of the University of Rhode Island, has been named in a defamation suit filed by a Hebrews studies professor at theUniversity of Utah, where Newman is dean of Humanities.
Newman is visiting URI today as part of his candidacy.
The suit, filed by Harris Lenowitz, and first reported by The Salt Lake Tribune, claims that Newman wrongly dismissed him from a leadership position at the university’s Middle East Center.
Newman told URI’s student newspaper The Good 5 Cent Cigar that he removed Lenowitz for fostering what he described as a “toxic environment” at the center.
Extra: More on the finalists for URI’s top post: Robert Newman, David Dooley, and Sona Karentz Andrews
