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A former tenured biology professor on Tuesday filed a nearly $ 2 million lawsuit claiming he was lied to and falsely expelled by the University of the Pacific. David Scholnick is the second professor from the Pacific to file a recent complaint against the private university.
Scholnick had worked at the Forest Grove institution for about 13 years when officials in the Pacific launched an outside Title IX investigation against him, resulting in his resignation.
The investigation stemmed from an alleged complaint that Scholnick was biased against women because of his involvement in the process of establishing biology departments when he was president.
Scholnick disputes this claim and his lawsuit declares that even if the claim were true, it would not violate Title IX of federal law which protects people from gender discrimination.
The lawsuit says that in the summer of 2019, during his sabbatical, Scholnick was called in to meet with his college dean, Sarah Phillips, without warning that he had done something wrong. Jennifer Yruegas Pacifics, General Counsel, Director of Human Resources and Title IX Coordinator at the time, was also present at the meeting. The two women are listed as defendants in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit claims that Yruegas told Scholnick that there had been a serious complaint against him that warrants a full Title IX investigation. Yruegas did not tell Scholnick what the specific allegations were, but said Scholnick could avoid the investigation by resigning. The lawsuit also indicates that Yruegas told Scholnick that some of the Title IX allegations could lead to potential criminal charges, which could be avoided if he resigned.
Scholnick refused to resign and told the university to continue the investigation because he knew he had done nothing wrong. Scholnick did not know the details of the allegations against him until months after the Title IX investigation began, according to court documents.
The lawsuit says the external investigator told Scholnick that the allegations indicated that he had supported the tenure of male professors, but not female professors during his tenure as chair of the biology department.
Scholnicks’ lawsuit asserts that department chairs have no influence over tenure decisions; these decisions are made by a separate committee. The prosecution argues that the allegation of disparate treatment should never have triggered any adverse employment action by the University of the Pacific, let alone a Title IX investigation and a forced resignation.
Court documents also indicate that Scholnick had only objected to the tenure of a female professor, but that was almost 10 years before he became head of the department. Scholnick had opposed the tenure of professors for ethical issues related to the gross misrepresentation of her research achievements on her CV.
On top of that, the lawsuit says Scholnick had always supported all female colleagues who were candidates for tenure or promotion to college.
The Title IX investigation ended in October 2019, according to the lawsuit, but Yruegas Pacifics’ coordinator, general counsel and human resources director did not meet with Scholnick about the outcome until the end of March 2020.
During that phone call, court documents indicate that Yruegas told Scholnick that the investigation determined he was biased against women. Court documents indicated he was hostile, aggressive, and yelled at his female colleagues, although the only allegations that Scholnick and his lawyer knew about the coverage of the investigation were related to bias and no to Scholnicks’ interactions with his colleagues.
Dr. Scholnick has never been biased, aggressive towards a coworker, or yelled at a coworker in his entire career, whether the coworker is female or not. The allegations against him came after he worked at the university for about 13 years without a single complaint or accusation from a colleague or student, the lawsuit says.
Scholnick resigned following the phone call with Yruegas. The lawsuit said he was told he would receive six months of severance pay, but his release deal ultimately only included four months.
Dr Scholnick signed the deal because he was terrified of being publicly humiliated, his career and reputation destroyed, and the possibility of arrest and criminal prosecution, the lawsuit says. He did not retain the services of a lawyer to help him because the accused Yruegas had told him that he could not speak to anyone.
When the OPB contacted the University of the Pacific on Tuesday afternoon, the university said it was not aware of Scholnicks’ trial.
Scholnick is suing Pacific, Yruegas and other university officials for fraud, emotional distress, and other claims.
The lawsuit also claims that Pacific terminated Scholnick because of his age and race. Scholnick is white and 56 years old.
The defendants made false allegations of Title IX violations as a pretext for the real reason the plaintiff was fired: because he is old and white, the lawsuit says. This is part of a larger pattern of ongoing defendants’ behavior that will be proven at trial.
The first professor to file a complaint against Pacific after his suspension, Richard Paxton, filed a similar complaint.
It’s a familiar story at this point, unfortunately. While there are currently two cases filed, there will be more in the coming weeks, Scholnick and Paxtons lawyer Robin DesCamp told OPB.
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