Friday, September 01, 2000
Educator wins severance fight
Jury sides with former president of Central State University
The Associated Press
XENIA, Ohio — A jury on Thursday ruled that a former Central State University president does not have to repay the state $127,000 from his severance pay.
Arthur Thomas received a total of $325,000 when he resigned under pressure from the financially troubled school in 1995.
The state sued, claiming he was not entitled to money from accumulated vacation and sick leave because it was carried over from previous years.
The state also claimed that Dr. Thomas should repay travel and telephone expenses that were not properly documented and reimburse it for an $1,800 tapestry that Dr. Thomas took from the president's residence when he left.
Dr. Thomas, of Kettering, said officials filed the suit to try to punish him.
“This state is more racist today than Mississippi was in the '40s,” he said after the verdict was announced in Greene County Common Pleas Court.
Dr. Thomas is black and led Ohio's only public historically black university for nine years.
A multimillion-dollar deficit and deteriorating campus buildings resulted in a state bailout and increased state supervision over the school in Wilberforce, about 15 miles east of Dayton. The school has since emerged from that supervision and has had a balanced budget for the past few years.
Central State lost nearly two-thirds of its 2,600-person student body after published reports of the school's problems. But enrollment has since rebounded a bit, with more than 1,100 students expected this fall.
Dr. Thomas' attorney, Larry James, said the lawsuit was driven by the attorney general's office and other state officials “who hated Dr. Thomas so much they couldn't let it go.”
The jury deliberated for four hours over two days.
Attorney general's spokesman Todd Boyer said the state had not decided whether to appeal.
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