Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1978 [PAGE 97]

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86

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[September 15

appropriate, including the employment of special counsel, to protect the interests of the University and to provide representation for those Trustees or former Trustees and employees of the University who request the same and represent that any actions alleged to have been taken by them in the matter were taken in their capacities as University Trustees or employees. The University Counsel has recommended that he be authorized to proceed with the defense on the basis outlined above and that the interim authorization be ratified, approved, and confirmed in all respects. I concur.

T h e student advisory vote was: Aye, M r . Conlon, M r . Matthews, Mr. Volgman; no, none. O n motion of Mr. Hahn, these recommendations were approved by the following vote: Aye, M r . Forsyth, M r . H a h n , Mr. Howard, M r . Lenz, M r . Livingston, M r . Neal, Mrs. Rader, Mrs. Shepherd, M r . Velasquez; no, none; absent, Governor Walker. Litigation Initiated by Eugene Ford, Chicago Circle

(37) A complaint in chancery has been filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County (Case No. 76CH 4088) by Eugene Ford, a former employee at the Chicago Circle campus, seeking an injunction requiring the University to make reasonable efforts to place him in an administrative, educational, or professional position appropriate to his capacity, and to pay him salary from and after September 1, 1975. The University, President Corbally, former Chancellor Warren Cheston, former Executive Assistant to the Chancellor Patricia McFate, and former Acting Vice Chancellor George Magner are named as defendants. T h e complaint alleges that the Chicago Circle campus of the University and Malcolm X College entered into an agreement to establish a Dual Enrollment Program ( D E P ) . It is stated that the plaintiff was employed beginning September 1, 1973, to be the program coordinator as a Staff Associate in the Office of the Chancellor at the Chicago Circle campus, reporting and directly accountable to the Staff Administrator to the Chancellor, Dr. Nan McGehee. The complaint further alleges that concurrently there was at the Chicago Circle campus an Educational Assistance Program (EAP), the director of which reported and was accountable to the Office of Academic Affairs. I t is alleged that in July of 1974 Dr. Patricia McFate was made Executive Assistant to the Chancellor and Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Support Programs, including the Educational Assistance Program, and that the plaintiff was advised to report to Dr. McFate. It is alleged that thereafter in January 1975 the plaintiff was advised that he was to report and be accountable to the Director of EAP. It is stated that plaintiff protested the legality of the reporting change to Acting Vice Chancellor George Magner who rejected the plaintiff's protest. It is alleged that thereafter the plaintiff filed a grievance with the Professional Advisory Committee, which recommended that either the Dual Enrollment Program be reassigned to an appropriate administrative or academic unit, or that D E P be terminated and an effort be made to reassign the plaintiff to an appropriate administrative position at the Chicago Circle campus. I t is alleged that Acting Vice Chancellor Magner rejected the entire grievance and that the Chancellor has never acted thereon, except that the plaintiff's University employment was "terminated" as of August 31, 1975. It is alleged that the actions of the University officials downgraded the D E P ; caused a cloud upon the administrative, planning, and executive capacities of the plaintiff; lessened his opportunities for advancement; and caused him to suffer financially and professionally in that he has been unable to secure employment in the capacity for which he has been educated and experienced. Pursuant to previous delegations by the Board of Trustees, the University