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One discrimination lawsuit against FGCU on hold
The university and its former general counsel to make an attempt to settle case
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Florida Gulf Coast University is attempting to settle one of the recent lawsuits alleging discrimination against women at the school.
The attorneys for FGCU and former general counsel Wendy Morris will meet on or before Aug. 15 to mediate a settlement in the dispute over Morris’ firing.
In April, Morris filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against FGCU, alleging the former interim university president Richard Pegnetter fired her in July 2007 for asking too many questions about his handling of sex discrimination claims in the athletics department, as well as creating a general work atmosphere hostile toward women.
In May, FGCU responded by suing Morris in Lee County Circuit Court, claiming she violated attorney-client privilege through the claims made in her lawsuit.
After the FGCU Board of Trustees met on June 18, the trustees decided to seek a mediation settlement with Morris, rather than go through a lengthy trial.
The lawsuits were put on hold until the mediation can take place. If the two sides don’t reach a settlement by Aug. 30, then Morris’ lawsuit will continue, according to the order filed on June 23 by U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas Frazier.
Morris’ attorney, Rod Smith, and FGCU attorney Aaron Behar did not comment on the pending mediation. Morris and FGCU also declined to comment on the matter.
“We don’t comment on pending litigation,” FGCU spokeswoman Susan Evans said.
Before any settlement between the university and Morris is complete, the Board of Trustees would have to approve it.
The trouble for Morris began when Athletics Director Carl McAloose and the Associate Athletics Director Kathy Peterson wanted to fire volleyball coach Jaye Flood, and Morris advised them Flood’s performance didn’t justify such an action.
When former FGCU Athletics Director Merrily Dean Baker wrote a letter to Pegnetter complaining of sex discrimination, Morris objected to the university’s handling of the issues, including sending out a campus-wide e-mail, calling the allegations unfounded and cutting Morris out of the ensuing investigation.
Pegnetter fired Morris in July.
After Morris was fired, Flood and women’s golf coach Holly Vaughn filed separate gender discrimination claims regarding employees in the athletics department. Flood and Vaughn also claimed they received poor performance evaluations because of Baker’s letter.
Vaughn resigned from her position in October, less than a month after filing the complaint.
The subsequent investigation found that the university didn’t discriminate between male and female student-athletes, but the findings did show Flood and Vaughn should not have received the poor performance evaluations. McAloose and Peterson each received a written reprimand for those performance evaluations.
The Littler Mendelson law firm, the same investigative team that looked into the Flood and Vaughn complaints, also found that Flood pursued an inappropriate relationship with a student. Flood objected to the findings but was fired from the university in January.
Flood and Vaughn filed a separate lawsuit against FGCU alleging sex discrimination in the athletics department and retaliation against them for voicing their concerns over it. FGCU’s response to that lawsuit is due Friday.
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