A professor implicated for advising engineering students accused of plagiarizing their theses filed a defamation suit against Ohio University yesterday.
Bhavin Mehta, mechanical engineering professor in the Russ College of Engineering and Technology, is suing for $25,000 in damages, alleging the university unfairly targeted and wrongfully terminated him.
The university has published and circulated false and inflammatory statements
said Fred Gittes, Mehta's attorney. In an unrelated lawsuit, Gittes also is representing Todd Acheson, who was terminated for his
alleged responsibility for the network security breaches.
Mehta's employment will be terminated as of July 1, 2007, and it will be impossible for him to find employment with a reputation tainted with academic misconduct, Gittes said.
Engineering college Dean Dennis Irwin said Mehta was terminated because of budget cuts in the college, an assertion Gittes disputes.
The university initially told Mehta he was terminated for budget reasons but later the university announced to the press he was dismissed because of the alleged plagiarism, Gittes said.
Mehta's suit marks the second time a professor filed suit against the university for defamation related to the plagiarism scandal. Already, professor and former engineering department chair Jay Gunasekera filed a similar lawsuit Aug. 9, seeking $25,000 for damage to his reputation.
The lawsuit also alleges OU Provost Kathy Krendl and Irwin released a report this past spring about incidences of plagiarism, knowing it was false and inflammatory, a claim Irwin also denied.
I think it was fundamentally factually correct he said. The report, a review of Russ College that was conducted by faculty member Hugh Bloemer and administrator Gary Meyer, found that plagiarism had been rampant and flagrant for 20 years. Commissioned by Krendl and released at a news conference this past May, it also stated certain faculty members generally were more responsible for contributing to the incidences of plagiarism.
The report recommended the dismissal of the Group II faculty member who had the second-highest incidences of plagiarism ' 11 theses ' under his direction. Gittes said the media and other professors were able to infer Mehta's identity and that following the report, the media contacted Mehta to respond.
Irwin, who saw the report before it was released, acknowledged he sent an e-mail to engineering faculty warning certain professors could be identified, adding it was inappropriate for him to influence an independent committee to hide their identities.
I did have a problem with releasing those names he said.
Gittes also disputed the university's assertion that professors were responsible for the academic misconduct of their students.
It is an impossible standard to expect advisors to detect all incidences of plagiarism, Gittes said. It doesn't mean they condoned it
participated or assisted in it.
Irwin said that though he believed Mehta did not actively encourage academic misconduct, he did contribute to a culture that permitted plagiarism.
Sure
plagiarism is an act that is committed by a student; however
the faculty advisor is not simply someone who sits back in a chair and accepts the final result
Irwin said.
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Sean Gaffney
