Professor files suit against university, alleging defamation

By Allison Sundaram

A business professor has filed suit against the university and two top administrators, alleging that he was defamed after being falsely accused of discriminating against two students in 2004.

Management professor Jacques Delacroix stated in a suit filed June 8, 2005, in Santa Clara County Superior Court that the university defamed and inflicted emotional distress upon him.

Although the university has declined to comment on the case because it is a pending legal matter, it did file a motion for summary judgment. The motion would dismiss the charges in the university's favor if they can prove that there are no legal grounds for the case to go to trial. The motion will be heard in June.

Delacroix's case centers on what he alleges to be university misconduct in the handling of a discrimination case against him in the fall of 2004. That was when he was accused of discriminating against two students from Hong Kong in a fall 2004 business course, court documents stated.

In the suit, Delacroix stated that Provost Denise Carmody made "false and defamatory statements accusing Delacroix of discrimination and harassment," and that University President Paul Locatelli, S.J., "improperly interfered" with the professor's "contractual right" to a hearing and review by the Faculty Judicial Board.

The professor, in court filings, alleges that, in an investigation, he was accused of speaking "too fast in class," telling the students to "stop talking in class" and singling one of the students out for being seven minutes late.

Delacroix's complaint said that a private investigator, who is also named in the suit, had created the report about the alleged discrimination incident, which accused Delacroix of violating the university's policy against harassment and discrimination. Delacroix, in filings, said the investigator falsely claimed that the professor "unlawfully discriminated against the two students because they were from Hong Kong."

According to the dismissal motion, which contains portions of the university-sponsored investigation, Delacroix "spoke too fast in class for the women to understand everything." It also states that the women were asked to stop speaking in Chinese, and that "other students continued to talk, but were not singled out by Delacroix."

The university report also states that Delacroix "asked the students to buy him Chinese food," and assigned the women to buy a copy of the National Enquirer but "did not assign this to other non-Chinese students in the class."

As a result of the investigation, Delacroix met with Carmody to discuss the findings of the investigation. He asked for a letter summarizing their discussion. Carmody sent the letter, which stated, "while you may have intended no ill-will toward the students, nor intended to belittle or discriminate against them, your comments to, and behavior towards them cause them to feel demeaned and discriminated against."

But, Delacroix's filings stated, the investigation was "improper and unauthorized" because the investigator was not a Santa Clara employee, and that the investigation was "not authorized by Santa Clara's policies and procedures" detailed in the university's Faculty Handbook.

Delacroix also alleges in his complaint that the accusations themselves are false, and that they "have been spread throughout Santa Clara and into the national community and beyond," filings stated.

Delacroix was asked by Carmody to attend a sensitivity course, discuss the written portion of his student evaluations with the department chair each quarter and "comply with the letter and spirit of the university's policy on unlawful harassment and unlawful discrimination," the university's motion states.

According to Delacroix's complaint, Carmody defamed Delacroix with the letter by putting a copy of it in his personnel file and sending a copy to the Leavey School of Business Dean Barry Posner.

The "false accusations," Delacroix's filings stated, "have ruined Delacroix's personal and professional reputation and have made it difficult to continue his work as before."

The motion for summary judgement will be reviewed June 20, and the case is scheduled to go before a jury Aug. 28, court records stated.

Contact Allison Sundaram at (408) 554-4546 or asundaram@scu.edu.