The University of Arkansas settled a federal lawsuit filed by Linda Schilcher, a former professor, who claims she was discriminated against and fired from the Middle Eastern studies program.
Neither side would divulge terms of the out-of-court agreement Monday. The final document is being drafted and should be filed with the court in a couple of days. An order of dismissal, subject to terms of the settlement agreement, was filed Monday. The case was set for trial later this month.
Schilcher, who worked in the program until she was fired in 1998, claimed she was discriminated and retaliated against by university administrators because she is female, white-skinned, Caucasian and American, and because she spoke out about problems with the administration of the program.
According to the suit, the university fired Schilcher without due process because of her complaints.
The university denied all allegations of wrongdoing. Schilcher’s teaching and research performance were simply insufficient to warrant a reappointment, according to the university.
The suit named the university Board of Trustees; Don Pederson, formerly vice-chancellor for academic affairs; Bernard Madison, former dean of the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences; Mark Corey, formerly associate dean for the International Relations Program; Hoyt Purvis, former director of the Fulbright Institute for International Relations; Adnan Hydar, former director of the King Fahd Program for Middle Eastern Studies; and Mounir Farah, former associate director of the King Fahd Program for Middle Eastern Studies.
U.S. District Judge Jimm Larry Hendren Hendren had previously narrowed the focus of the suit to events that occurred within a specified time period and he dismissed Schilcher’s First Amendment retaliation claims against all the individual defendants in the case, except for Pederson and Madison.
Hendren also threw out Shilcher’s allegations of breach of contract, wrongful discharge, defamation and invasion of privacy.
Schilcher’s original suit, filed in June 2000, sought unspecified actual and punitive damages.
In a similar suit, Gwenn Okruhlik claimed she was denied tenure at the university’s Middle East and Islamic Studies program because she complained about sexual discrimination and mismanagement when she was an assistant professor from 1995 to 2002.
A federal jury found Okruhlik was working in a hostile environment and awarded her $351,000 after a 10-day trial in November 2002.
But, Judge Hendren overruled the jury and threw the case out. He ruled that Okruhlik was not technically denied tenure, because she withdrew her candidacy before it reached the university president, who holds the sole power to grant or deny tenure.
Okruhlik appealed Hendren’s ruling but lost at the 8th Circuit earlier this year.
