The university demonstrated that it was justified in terminating Otis Grant, who joined the School of Public and Environmental Affairs as a tenure-stream assistant professor in 1999 and was “an award-winning tenured faculty member for nearly a decade,” U.S. District Judge Tanya Pratt said.
The decision laid out a series of problems that Grant had at IUSB, starting with student complaints in 2008 that he “allowed a non-employee to grade papers, used offensive language in class, inappropriately cancelled classes and dismissed two students without proper procedure.”
Students also complained about Grant to a local newspaper, which obtained university documents about him through Indiana’s open records law. In compiling those records for the newspaper, the university executive vice chancellor of academic affairs “noted discrepancies in Grant’s employment files” and concluded that Grant falsified credentials when applying for a faculty job and repeatedly after being hired.
Those discrepancies and misrepresentations included supposed teaching experience at several colleges, where Grant obtained his master’s degree, fellowships, a reference letter from someone who may not have existed and a judicial clerkship, according to the decision.
In addition, Grant claimed to have been working on his doctorate at Columbia University but Columbia said he hadn’t been admitted to its doctoral program.
After receiving notice of his pending dismissal, Grant failed to complete the Faculty Board of Review’s review process, according to the decision.
