Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1978 [PAGE 591]

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578

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[March 15

campus. In addition to the University, die defendants include Sonya A. Zalubowski, a lecturer in journalism, and Scott R. Nesbitt, a visiting lecturer in journalism. The complaint seeks money damages from each of the staff members in unspecified amounts and from the University in the amount of $50,000. The plaintiff has previously filed a notice in the Court of Claims of Illinois, claiming that his privacy was invaded and his reputation damaged by virtue of the publications referred to in the complaint filed in the circuit court. The complaint alleges that in October and November of 1976 a telephone survey concerning presidential preferences was conducted by University students as a part of the University's instructional program. It is alleged that the plaintiff participated in the survey in reliance upon pledges of confidentiality as to his responses. It is then alleged that, subsequent to the presidential preference survey, Defendant Zalubowski telephoned the plaintiff, stating she was continuing the earlier survey and that the results of her interviews would be published by the New York Times. Subsequently, an article was jointly published by Defendants Zalubowski and Nesbitt in which the plaintiff was personally identified and quoted. The plaintiff alleges that he relied upon the earlier representations of confidentiality and that the subsequent publication damaged his reputation and standing in the community, jeopardized his future employment, and disclosed to the public private facts concerning the plaintiff. In addition to seeking recovery from the staff members, the plaintiff also asks damages from the University on the ground that the University's internal rules concerning confidentiality in experimentation on human subjects were not observed, thereby violating the plaintiff's enrollment contract with the University. The defendants have requested, and the chancellor at the Urbana campus has recommended, that the University provide representation for the individual defendants on the grounds that in writing and publishing the article they were acting within the scope of their employment by the University. I support the chancellor's recommendation. The university counsel has requested that he be authorized to take such steps as are necessary or appropriate, including the employment of special counsel, to protect the interests of the University in the matter and to provide representation for the University employees named as defendants. I concur. T h e student advisory v o t e w a s : Aye, M i s s Cordon, M r . Overstreet,

Miss Winter; no, none. On motion of Mr. Livingston, authority was given as requested by the following vote: Aye, Mr. Howard, Mr. Lenz, Mr. Livingston, Mr. Neal, Mrs. Shepherd, Mr. Velasquez; no, Mr. Forsyth; absent, Mr. Hahn, Mrs. Rader, Governor Thompson.

Litigation Initiated by Anthony Robert Martin-Trigona

(33) A complaint has been filed in the United States District Court for tile Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division (Case No. 78C 690), by Anthony Robert Martin-Trigona. The named defendants are the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the University of Illinois. T h e complaint alleges that the plaintiff is an owner of farmland which has been unlawfully irradiated by the University since July 1977 when the University ceased disposing of radioactive wastes by trucking them for entombment elsewhere in Illinois and began mixing such wastes with fuel oil for combustion in the Abbott Power Plant on the Urbana-Champaign campus of the University. It is alleged that the University holds licenses from die Nuclear Regulatory Commission with respect to radioactive substances used at the Urbana-Champaign campus, that the University has been negligent in changing its disposition procedures,