LAS VEGAS, N.M.
New Mexico Highlands University has agreed to pay a former assistant professor of chemistry $205,000 to settle the last remaining personnel-related lawsuit against the school.
David Wiedenfeld, who now teaches Marshall University in Huntington, W.Va., was one of four Anglo employees who were denied tenure at Highlands in 2005. He sued the school last year in federal court alleging the tenure denial was because he isn’t Hispanic.
Highlands did not admit to any wrongdoing in the Wiedenfeld’s settlement agreement, which was reached this past week.
Regents President Javier Gonzales said he is happy to close that chapter of the school’s history.
“It just marks a new day at the university, and it closes a very sad and troubled past,” he said.
The university has agreed to shell out more than $600,000 to settle three discrimination and wrongful termination lawsuits over the past year. All were filed during the rocky two-year tenure of Manny Aragon as university president.
