Ohio University will pay a little more than $150,000 to one of its engineering professors as part of a settlement, according to court documents.
The U.S. District Court, Southern District of Ohio, ruled Monday that the university has 14 days to pay the $150,739 settlement to OU professor Jay Gunasekera. The amount includes all damages, costs and attorney fees.
In return, Gunasekera will drop his current case against OU, which would have allowed a jury to decide the amount of damages the professor would have received as a result of the loss of his Graduate Faculty Status.
John Marshall, Gunasekera’s attorney, said he is “very happy” with the outcome of the case, but added that the defamation action is pending.
OU’s General Counsel John Biancamano was not available for comment.
Last month, OU was ordered to pay $111,815 in attorney fees and about $6,425 in costs and expenses to Marshall and Morrow law firm.
In August 2006, Gunasekera sued Russ College of Engineering Dean Dennis Irwin and former Executive Vice President and Provost Kathy Krendl saying he was denied the opportunity for a name-clearing hearing. Gunasekera was stripped of his Graduate Faculty Status after it was found that several of his former advisees had plagiarized on their theses.
The court ultimately ruled that OU offer Gunasekera a public name-clearing
hearing.
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