Posted on: Thursday, June 17, 2004
Public dismissal stirs talk nationwide
By Johnny Brannon and David Waite
Advertiser Staff Writers
It's extremely rare for university presidents to be openly fired, and the ouster of University of Hawai'i president Evan Dobelle is drawing national attention in the world of higher-education.
"The story is: Why?" said Sheldon Steinbach, general counsel for the American Council on Education, a Washington, D.C., group that represents 1,800 colleges and universities.
"People are interested in the human aspect of why someone would be terminated in such a public fashion," he said.
University heads who fall out of favor with the board that oversees them usually resign under pressure, after meeting privately to work out a severance agreement, Steinbach said.
Such arrangements avoid open hostility and embarrassing public feuds that most universities shun, he said.
"It's like an orderly divorce," he said. "It's handled behind closed doors and the president is announced as having left to 'seek other opportunities.' "
The UH Board of Regents terminated Dobelle on Tuesday "for cause." Unless successfully challenged, that spares UH from having to pay him a severance package worth an estimated $2.2 million. But details of what triggered the decision have not been released. Dobelle yesterday said he had not been told why he was fired and that it was too soon to decide whether to fight the decision.
"One could surmise that there is deep-seated acrimony beneath the surface here," Steinbach said.
He called Dobelle's firing "highly unusual" but said it's too soon to tell whether it was warranted.
"Just because an allegation has been made, that it's for cause, doesn't mean necessarily that under closer scrutiny it will emerge to be cognizable as being for cause," he said.
But firing a university president without a solid reason would be unusual, too.
"I wouldn't think that a board would move blithely to make an allegation of that kind without significant and substantial evidence to support their position," Steinbach said.
Steinbach said it's unusual to fire a university president publicly even if there is good cause. He recalled one president who was allowed to resign after being caught engaging the services of a prostitute.
If Dobelle decides to file a lawsuit challenging his termination, it will likely be a protracted and complex legal battle, Honolulu attorneys familiar with "breach of contract" and "wrongful termination" cases said yesterday.
Whether Dobelle decides to sue will likely depend on the strength of his contract and the specific reasons cited by the regents to end it, Honolulu attorney Eric Seitz said.
"I certainly wouldn't hesitate to litigate if I were he," Seitz said.
The nine-page "appointment agreement" signed by Dobelle in March 2001, lists three reasons that would allow the regents to fire him for cause: conviction of a felony offense; a doctor's determination that Dobelle was mentally unstable or otherwise unable to perform his duties; or conduct that constitutes "moral turpitude," brings public disrespect and contempt or ridicule upon the university and if proven in court, would constitute grounds for a criminal conviction or civil liability of the university.
Seitz said moral turpitude usually has to do with accusations that someone has done something "illegal or so unethical" that it would require that person to be stripped of a special "entitlement" given to him or her.
"It's more than a mere transgression. Typically it's a theft or something that most people would consider morally depraved," Seitz said. A lawyer who steals money from a client or an educator who takes money belonging to students would be examples, Seitz said.
Robert Katz, a partner in a law firm that handles 20 to 30 wrongful termination lawsuits a year, almost always in defense of management, said for-cause terminations such as Dobelle's are rare.
"That's because at his level, terminations are done without cause and usually contain some kind of severance provisions," Katz said.
If Dobelle wants to assert simple breach of contract, he would generally have six years to file a civil lawsuit. If he intends to claim the termination was done to embarrass or defame him, he would generally have two years to sue, Katz said.
The bulk of wrongful termination lawsuits are settled without going to trial. Those that do go to trial typically take 18 months to two years to resolve, Katz said.
He said he is not surprised that the reasons behind Dobelle's being fired have not been announced.
"To be fired publicly, for someone in his position, is the kiss of death," Katz said.
Advertiser Staff Writer Beverly Creamer contributed to this report.
Reach Johnny Brannon at 525-8070 or jbrannon@honoluluadvertiser.com and David Waite at 525-8030 or dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com.
