BY BEN L. KAUFMAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Another senior staff member has sued the Union Institute -- an innovative college and graduate school based in Walnut Hills -- charging discrimination. Husam A. Alahmad says his boss, Uvieja Leighton, harassed him sexually in ways she did not treat female associates.
Mr. Alahmad's suit, filed last week in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati by attorneys Marc D. Mezibov and Ted L. Wills, also says his academic skills were denigrated because he is a Palestinian. Further, the complaint says Mr. Alahmad was wrongly demoted from the Union Institute's administration to faculty status with a significant loss of pay.
In addition to the Walnut Hills-based school, defendants are Dean Leighton and President Robert T. Conley.
No one at the Union Institute in Cincinnati could be reached for comment Monday.
Mr. Alahmad wants to be reinstated as associate dean for California, where the alleged discrimination occurred, and seeks unspecified damages.
He says he joined institute adjunct faculty in 1991 and was promoted to full-time faculty and assistant dean in California in 1994. Mr. Alahmad said the common perception was that he was good at recruiting and marketing, but his bosses discounted his "academic ability because of his cultural heritage as a Palestinian."
Further, he said, Ms. Leighton frequently hugged him, held his hand, complimented his "handsome appearance" and attire and told him "any woman would be willing to have him." These advances frequently took place during travel assignments, he said.
In 1997, Mr. Conley and Mr. Alahmad signed a contract making Mr. Alahmad associate dean, but the school reneged, the suit says. The demotion also reflected Mr. Alahmad's questions about academics and academic recordkeeping in the California branch, the suit says.
Last year, three black women sued the Union Institute, saying they were fired during the past two years because of their race and sex.
Their federal suits seek unspecified damages and reinstatement or extra money to support them while they seek similar jobs.
Suing were Sherry T. Scott, alumni director; Theresa Taylor-McGee, a secretary; and Ann M. Taylor, a professor and academic adviser in undergraduate studies.
Ms. Scott, now of Smithtown, N.Y., also sued Mr. Conley and Peter Hollister, vice president for institutional development.
Ms. Scott also claimed she was a victim of retaliation, saying she was fired after filing a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Ms. Taylor-McGee, of Over-the-Rhine, sued Mr. Conley and Greg Braxton-Brown, vice president for academic affairs, in addition to the institute. She said she was fired after filing a complaint with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, which found there was probable cause to support her complaint of retaliation.
Ms. Taylor, of Mount Healthy, named Mr. Conley and the institute. She said her firing -- after leave for a broken leg -- was part of a "pattern and practice" of discrimination at the institute.
