Linfield University has agreed to pay just over $1 million to settle a whistleblower suit filed by tenured English professor Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, who accused the university of firing him for speaking out against alleged sexual harassment and discrimination by university board trustees and the president.
The university will pay Pollack-Pelzner a total of $1,037,500 to cover his lost wages, emotional distress and attorney fees.
The university disputed Pollack-Pelzner’s claims but agreed to the settlement, according to records obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive.
Pollack-Pelzner, who began teaching at Linfield in 2010, had held an endowed chair in Shakespeare studies until he was abruptly fired in late April 2021.
“Ultimately, we hope his case sends a clear message that sexual harassment must not be tolerated on any campus and that institutions that seek to silence whistleblowers will be held to account,” said attorney Dana L. Sullivan, who represented Pollack-Pelzner.
Pollack-Pelzner, now a visiting scholar at Portland State University, said he’s pleased with the outcome and hopes it shows Linfield University and other universities that there’s “real consequences” for firing a tenured faculty member without due process.
“Everyone should be able to work and study without fear of discrimination or harassment, and everyone should be able to report their safety concerns without fear of retaliation,” Pollack-Pelzner said. “I’m grateful for the many students, alumni, and colleagues who joined me in demanding change and refused to be silenced when Linfield failed to uphold these essential principles.”
The university agreed to pay Pollack-Pelzner $517,393.76 for non-economic damages, $85,000 for lost wages and $435,106.24 for attorney fees.
Scott Nelson, Linfield University’s associate vice president for strategic communications, said the university “felt it preferable to resolve this situation and move on” at the recommendation of the university’s insurers.
Though the university doesn’t admit to any wrongdoing, “defending against litigation, even when confident in the legal outcome, diverts time and energy from the mission of the institution,” Nelson said in an email.
“Most importantly,” he said, “this agreement allows Linfield University to focus on building and expanding upon its rich educational heritage and creating a welcoming community for all.”
Pollack-Pelzner learned of his firing on April 27, 2021, when his school-issued laptop suddenly froze during a video conference and his university email account sent out a return message that he was no longer employed at the school.
His suit alleged the school attempted to “silence” him and fired him because he disclosed and discussed allegations from students and faculty of sexual harassment, sexual assault and religious discrimination. His termination touched off a national and international outcry from educational organizations, as well as Linfield students, alumni and faculty.
Longtime Linfield trustee and university donor Ronni Lacroute, who had endowed Pollack-Pelzner’s chair to keep him at the private college in McMinnville, resigned in protest from the board, saying she was appalled and could no longer serve in “good conscience.”
As part of the settlement, Pollack-Pelzner agreed to dismiss his lawsuit and any other complaints or administrative actions challenging his termination or arising out of his past relationship with the Linfield University’s board of trustees.
He also agreed not to file any future claim against Linfield University, yet the settlement doesn’t prohibit Pollack-Pelzner from pursuing or participating in an investigation done by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or any similar state or federal agency.
Linfield University agreed to dismiss counterclaims and not pursue any future legal claims against Pollack-Pelzner.
Pollack-Pelzner became a Linfield faculty trustee in 2019 and repeatedly raised concerns about student and faculty allegations of sexual harassment and inappropriate contact by board trustees. He pressed university President Miles K. Davis and then-board chair David Baca to institute sexual harassment training for all trustees and adopt restrictions on use of alcohol during trustee events with students and faculty.
Longtime Linfield trustee and university donor Ronni Lacroute, who had endowed Prof. Daniel Pollack-Pelzner’s chair to keep him at the private college in McMinnville, resigned in protest from the Linfield University board after Pollack-Pelzner's firing, saying she was appalled and could no longer serve in “good conscience.”
David Jubb, a longtime member of the university’s board, resigned as a board trustee in June 2019 after AnnaMarie Motis, an undergraduate student trustee, said Jubb groped her in February of that year.
Motis said Jubb grabbed her and pulled her body to his as they waited in the lobby of the Michelbook Country Club after a faculty-trustee dinner and then continued to touch her inappropriately at a McMinnville bar afterward. Motis reported Jubb’s behavior to Baca and to the college within a week and made a police report in March 2019, her lawyers said.
At the time of Jubb’s resignation, Baca said it was “due to health concerns.” Yet months later, in December 2019, Motis filed a civil suit against the university and publicly came forward, accusing Jubb of groping her and urging a judge to order Linfield to take steps to prevent and investigate sexual harassment. Motis reached a settlement of her suit against the university for $500,000.
Jubb, Motis learned, had been accused in 2018 by a graduate of sexually abusing her and two of her friends after drinking too much at a bar following a senior achievement dinner on campus in 2017. The Linfield graduate, who agreed to be identified by her initials A.K., singled out Baca for criticism, saying the school’s general counsel told her that Baca “gave his word that David Jubb would never have contact with students again or be allowed at events that served alcohol.”
Jubb subsequently was charged in an eight-count indictment that accused him of sexually abusing the four different students in 2017 and 2019. He faced one felony count of first-degree sexual abuse and seven misdemeanor counts of third-degree sexual abuse. He pleaded no contest to two counts of harassment for groping two of the students. Jubb was sentenced in October 2021 to 18 months of probation, ordered to undergo an alcohol abuse assessment and complete 40 hours of community service.
The month before Jubb’s sentencing, Baca stepped down as board chair after facing campus criticism for his handling of sexual abuse allegations involving Jubb.
Another Linfield professor filed complaints, alleging that Davis, the Linfield president, and another trustee, Norm Nixon, had touched her inappropriately at school events. An outside investigator found the professor’s allegations were “substantiated by a preponderance of the evidence” but that the behavior didn’t violate university policy.
The university never investigated another student’s allegation of inappropriate touching in May 2019 by another sitting trustee, David Haugeberg. Nelson, the Linfield spokesperson, in 2021 said the university had received a written statement “that purported to be from an unnamed student” involving Haugeberg and that the university’s Title IX coordinator read the letter, consulted with the general counsel and “determined the statements would not have amounted to a violation of university policies.”
Pollack-Pelzner, who urged the university’s board and board chair to address the complaints, was later restricted from attending the board’s executive sessions. The university claimed he had breached the sessions’ confidentiality provisions.
Pollack-Pelzner said Davis asked him to withdraw a report to faculty in February 2020 expressing concern about Linfield leadership’s handling of sexual misconduct allegations against trustees, including Jubb. Davis, according to the suit, said Pollack-Pelzner’s report “would destroy Linfield.”
Pollack-Pelzner said any information he shared on alleged sexual misconduct by trustees came from material that faculty, students or alumni shared with him, not from the board’s executive sessions.
Pollack-Pelzner also had alleged that Davis made an antisemitic remark about the “length of Jewish noses” in a 2018 meeting. The two had been discussing Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” and its themes of prejudice and intolerance.
Davis acknowledged in an interview with The Oregonian/OregonLive that he had made a reference about Jewish noses in the meeting, saying, “I might have well said that from a physical characteristic perspective, you’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference amongst Semitic people.”
He had denied making the comment when questioned by an independent investigator hired by the university, according to school records.
Davis and the school had defended Pollack-Pelzner’s firing. In an interview, Davis said it wasn’t Pollack-Pelzner’s role “to be the crusader,” that there were “appropriate channels to go through.”
The afternoon that Pollack-Pelzner was fired, then-Linfield Provost Susan Agre-Kippenhan sent a message to the university community saying Linfield “took the extraordinary step of terminating the employment of a member of our faculty for serious breaches of the individual’s duty to the institution.” She wrote that the “goal of a safe, welcoming and inclusive environment for all … cannot be achieved if individuals abuse their positions of trust and take deliberate actions that harm the university.”
The university also released a statement saying Pollack-Pelzner “deliberately circulated false statements about the university, its employees and its board,” was insubordinate and “interfered with the university’s administration of its responsibilities.”
Pollack-Pelzner’s firing prompted the American Association of University Professors, a nonprofit group of faculty and other academic professionals based in Washington, D.C., to censure the university after finding Linfield fired Pollack-Pelzner without due process and violated the school’s own regulations on academic freedom. The association’s governing council said the university didn’t hold a hearing before a selected group of faculty to provide cause for the dismissal. The university had adopted the recommended national standard that calls for such a hearing.
At the time, Nelson, Linfield University’s spokesperson, said by email that the university strongly disagreed with the censure.
In court records, Linfield’s attorney acknowledged Pollack-Pelzner “was not provided a hearing before a faculty committee at the time of termination” but argued that such a procedure wasn’t required, alleging his “breaches of his obligations to Linfield excused” the school “from any contractual obligation.”
Any harm to Pollack-Pelzner “was a result of his own misconduct,” attorney Paula A. Barran wrote.
As a faculty trustee, Pollack-Pelzner held a fiduciary position and “owed Linfield University a duty of undivided loyalty, utmost good faith, full, fair, and frank disclosure and fair dealing,” Barran and co-counsel Edwin A. Harnden wrote in response to the suit. They accused him of making false, disparaging statements about trustees and interfering with the university’s relationships with donors.
Davis, who signed the settlement, is out of the country in Jamaica, invited to attend a career expo there. The Jamaica Observer newspaper featured a short blurb on the attendees, which Davis shared on his Instagram. It called Davis an “authority on entrepreneurship whose most recent work focuses on integrity, values and principles in the business world.”
Pollack-Pelzner said he never intended to pursue legal action until he was suddenly terminated.
He said he hopes the settlement shows, “If you don’t follow your own policies, you’ll have high costs to bear.”
He said he also hopes it pushes leaders at Linfield and other universities to seriously consider sexual harassment claims by students, faculty and staff.
“After two years of hitting a brick wall at Linfield University,” Pollack-Pelzner said he was heartened by the outpouring of support from students and other colleges and organizations around the world once he went public.
“When you speak up about a key principle -- even if your own employer doesn’t recognize it -- there are other people out there who will stand beside you,” he said.
-- Maxine Bernstein
Email mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212
Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian
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