Negotiations are still ongoing between attorneys representing Ohio University and professor Larry Nighswander to decide whether or not the former director of the School of Visual Communication will resign.
However, expectations are that Nighswander will not be teaching in the fall, OU Director of Legal Affairs John Burns said.
While negotiations have stalled somewhat over the summer, Burns said he was confident a definitive agreement on Nighswander's future at OU would be reached by the end of the month.
We gotta get this moving along
Burns said.
Rebecca Humes, a former OU student, is suing both Nighswander and the university for $3 million. Humes alleged in the suit that Nighswander repeatedly subjected female students of Ohio University to intimidation and crude and offensive comments and conduct that was of a sexual nature. Humes accused Nighswander of coercing her into modeling semi-nude, unclasping her bra, touching her breast and making sexually suggestive comments during a Sept. 24, 2002 photo shoot. She also claims that OU did not properly investigate her initial complaint against Nighswander.
A phone message left for Nighswander was not immediately returned.
Burns confirmed reports that since the accusation turned into a civil suit, an unspecified number of women have confidentially reported that similar things happened to them, but they never reported them.
OU officials asked Nighswander to resign at the end of May or face possible termination and have stopped paying his legal bills. If officials did decide to fire Nighswander, they would first have to remove his tenure
Nighswander, who spent the past year on a faculty fellowship leave, made $92,000 last year.
College of Communication Dean Kathy Krendl's appointment as interim provost will not have any effect on potential de-tenuring proceedings that could be levied against Nighswander.
Burns said any action taken against Nighswander would involve several high-ranking OU administrators, including the provost and the dean of the College of Communication.
If there's a de-tenuring both positions are involved Burns said.
The faculty senate handbook details the specifics of removing a faculty member's tenure. If a faculty member's ability to perform their responsibilities should be seriously questioned and no mutual agreement can be reached, Terry Eiler, director of the School of Visual Communication, would have to make a recommendation to the dean of the College of Communication (an as-yet unnamed interim dean).
The dean of the College of Communication would then submit his or her recommendation to now-interim Provost Krendl.
If there is still no settlement, the president can order a dismissal hearing, which would be heard by third-year members of faculty senate. Those findings would then be
given to the OU Board of Trustees, who would have the final say about whether or not to accept the decision or send it back to the faculty committee with objections.
If removed, the faculty member would receive his or her salary for that year, unless fired on grounds of moral turpitude
which, in that case, the employee would not receive that money.
Meanwhile, the civil suit against Nighswander is still pending. Ira Mirkin, Humes' attorney, could not comment on specifics, but said the discovery period is still slated to end Oct. 1, with no trial date yet set.
He added that the potential resignation of Nighswander would not necessarily have an effect on the case.
(Nighswander's possible resignation) certainly doesn't make the case go away
Mirkin said.
Nighswander's lawyer for internal university proceedings, Benson Wolman, was unable to comment on any specifics of Nighswander's possible resignation. Wolman is representing Nighswander in his dealings with the university, but not in the civil suit.
As of yesterday, Nighswander's name was still listed as the instructor of record for two visual communication classes, including VICO 486 Advanced Photo Reportage I, although OU spokesman Jack Jeffery echoed Burns' assertion that Nighswander will likely not be teaching in the fall.
Nighswander was removed as director of the School of Visual Communication on May 2, 2003. He has been at OU since 1995 and previously worked as an assistant director of picture editing for National Geographic magazine and also served as an assistant managing editor at The Cincinnati Post.
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