Otis B. Grant, a tenured professor at Indiana University South Bend, was dismissed for engaging in "serious personal and professional misconduct," according to the university.
Grant's last day of employment on the IU faculty was Dec. 31, 2011.
"The finding of misconduct was primarily based on representations he made at the time of his hiring and subsequently during his tenure at Indiana University," states IU's written response to a public records request by The Tribune.
Details of the alleged misconduct were not disclosed by the university.
Efforts to reach Grant for comment were unsuccessful. He has no local listed home telephone number and is no longer listed in the IU e-mail directory.
Grant is appealing his dismissal to the IUSB faculty board of review, campus spokesman Ken Baierl said. "The board of review is actively engaged in it at this time," he said.
The board has asked Grant and IUSB Chancellor Una Mae Reck to submit written reports, and the board could decide to schedule a hearing, Baierl said.
If the board affirms the dismissal, Grant could appeal the matter to IU's board of trustees and IU President Michael McRobbie.
Grant was sanctioned by IUSB four years ago after complaints by students and an investigation into his professional conduct, as The Tribune reported at the time. Some students in 2008 alleged the professor used foul language in class, canceled classes and dismissed two students from a course without due process.
He also was accused of allowing a nonemployee to grade student work and access student academic records, a potential violation of federal privacy laws.
The 2008 investigation did not determine the identity of Riane Hunter, the name used by a woman who identified herself at the time as Grant's graduate assistant. Students said she graded and signed their academic papers and sent instructions to the class from Grant's campus e-mail address.
No one named Riane Hunter was employed by IUSB or had ever been enrolled at any IU campus, administrators said in 2008. At the time, IUSB administrators said they never were able to determine who Hunter was or even if a woman by that name existed.
In a Tribune interview at the time, Grant denied the allegations about his classroom conduct but wouldn't provide any information about the woman who was grading his course work. Grant, who is black, said that racism may have played a role in the complaints.
Grant was a tenured associate professor of law and society in IUSB's department of sociology & anthropology. His salary on a 10-month contract was $53,954, according to IUSB.
Grant earned a bachelor's degree in psychology in 1983 from Westfield (Mass.) State College and a law degree in 1997 from the University of Connecticut School of Law. He was hired by IUSB in 1999 to teach in the School of Public & Environmental Affairs. He was granted tenure in 2005 in the department of sociology and anthropology in IUSB's College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, and the tenure became effective in 2006, according to IU records.
Grant in 2005 was honored with the IU Trustees Teaching Award and in 2004 he was elected to IU's Faculty Colloquium for Excellence in Teaching.
Dismissal of a tenured professor is rare in the IU system.
IUSB Chancellor Daniel Cohen was forced to step down in 1995 amid sexual harassment allegations, and he later lost a civil lawsuit filed by a former employee who claimed he has sexually harassed her. Cohen remained on the faculty as a tenured physics professor but was the subject of additional complaints by students. The university investigated the allegations and fired Cohen in 2001 for violating school policy on sexual harassment, according to The Tribune archives.
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