A former UNM professor has filed a lawsuit against the University and three medical school employees alleging discrimination and harassment, as well as being retaliated against for failing students whom she caught cheating on a final examination.
Cynthia Lopez, who taught courses in the Master of Health program, filed the lawsuit Thursday in Bernalillo County District Court. The suit asks for relief in excess of $25,000 exclusive to punitive damages, interest, costs and attorney's fees.
According to the lawsuit, Lopez's University employment contract was not renewed partially because she reported an abuse of the UNM Public Health program's core course substitution policy to an accreditation team visiting the University in 2001.
The lawsuit states that in an impromptu employee evaluation, Nina Wallerstein, director of the Masters in Public Health program and Arthur Kaufman, chairman of the Department of Family and Community Medicine, cited Lopez's letter notifying the accreditation team of the suspected abuse as the reason for her dismissal.
The University Business Policies and Procedure Manuel states that: "The University of New Mexico encourages all University employees, acting in good faith, to report misconduct. The University is committed to protecting employees who report suspected misconduct."
Both Wallerstein and Kaufman have been named as defendants in the suit.
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Wallerstein and Kaufman did not return Daily Lobo phone calls.
The alleged abuse of the core course substitution policy stems from a December 2000 incident when Lopez caught six students cheating on a take-home final administered in her health care systems course.
After Lopez said she detected the students' plagarized answers, she brought the matter to Wallerstein, who was her immediate supervisor. According to the suit, Wallerstein told Lopez to pass the students who had been caught cheating and not to discuss the matter with any outside sources.
Lopez contends that when she refused to pass the students, Wallerstein and one of the student's advisers, Howard Waitzkin, professor of Family and Community Medicine, embarked on a series of harassing and retaliatory actions against her.
Calls to Waitzkin's office were not returned by Friday.
According to the suit, on May 5, 2001, without consulting Lopez, Wallerstein e-mailed a request to Robin Meize-Grochowski, associate dean of Graduate Studies, that one of the students who had been caught cheating in Lopez's class be allowed to substitute a health policy credit course for a health care systems course. She said that the request was made without Lopez's knowledge.
The health care systems course the student was to take was scheduled to be taught by Lopez.
According to the suit, "the substitution allowed the student to graduate before a decision on his grade appeal, which may have been unfavorable and resulted in his expulsion, had been reached."
The suit further states, "The impropriety of Wallerstein's interference in Curriculum Committee policy is emphasized by the fact that her actions in the class substitution issue violated an agreement she had made to the MPH (Master of Public Health) accreditation team that Health Care Systems class co-taught by Drs. Lopez and Rowe, was to be a core requirement for the class of 2000-2001."
Lopez states in the suit that on August 31, 2001, she faxed a letter to the accreditation team about Wallerstein's alleged actions regarding the core course substitution and that by approving it, Wallerstein was allowing a student to sidestep a required core course within the program. Lopez also advised the team regarding Wallerstein's and Waitzkin's alleged interference with her attempt to discipline the academically dishonest students.
On Oct. 9, 2001, Lopez received a "belated" performance review from Wallerstein and Kaufman. According to the suit, Lopez received "satisfactory" marks and both reviewers assured her she could get tenure and that plans were being made regarding her future at UNM.
The lawsuit states that on or around Oct. 30, the accreditation team met with Wallerstein and at that time, Lopez's letter to the team was discussed.
Finally, on Nov. 6, according to the report, an "impromptu" meeting took place between Kaufman, Wallerstein and Lopez. At the meeting, Lopez was notified, for the first time, that the Oct. 9 meeting was only a six-month evaluation and did not include a review of her performance for several months in 2001.
During those months in 2001, Lopez was given a poor performance rating in three of four categories.
It was at that meeting Lopez was notified she would not be re-appointed following the expiration of her contract in June of 2002.
According to the suit, in three previous reviews, conducted between 1997-2000 and administered by Waitzkin, Lopez had received "exceeding expectations" marks.
Charles Estes, University counsel, did not return phone calls made to his office by Friday.
Sam Giammo, director for public affairs for the Health Sciences Center, said that he could not comment on pending litigation against the University, but that usually in these cases, the University turns over all relevant material and information in the case to the state's Risk Management Division in Santa Fe.
"Generally what we do is hire outside counsel to handle these things on a case by case basis, and that is in conjunction with the Risk Management Division," Giammo said.
Lopez also alleges in the suit that the Master of Public Health program regularly lists names of former ethnically diverse instructors as current employees to the accreditation team to increase numbers of minority representation.
Lopez could not be contacted for comment on the lawsuit.
