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Longtime athletics director heads south
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- Tenure denial goes to court Metro Pres. Kaplan named as defendant in accounting professor's tenure trial Jesse Stephenson The METROPOLITAN
Phillip Thornton was a Metro accounting professor who seemed to have a lengthy future ahead of him at the college. But in the fall of 1995, Thornton watched his career dissolve after he stood up for a man applying for a job in his department.
That's what attorney Paul Baca told a jury Aug. 21 in federal civil court. Thornton, who was an assistant professor since 1990, is suing Metro President Sheila Kaplan, Letters, Arts and Sciences Dean Joan Foster, Accounting Chairwoman Virginia Parker and ten others he claiins helped wreck his chance at getting tenure at Metro. , During the trial, which Kaplan said probably will be in session until the final week of August, Baca and the defendants' lawyers gave very different versions of what caused the demise of Thornton's career at Metro. Thornton's attorney said revenge and discrimination blew his chance to get tenure at the college, while attorneys for the defense said that based on his performance, he didn't deserve tenure.
"Tenure is a job for life, it's a reward of lifetime employment. It's serious business, and it's not free -you have to earn it," said defense lawyer Rumaldo Armijo, the assistant attorney general for the state. Armijo told the jury Thornton failed to earn his place at Metro because he didn' t show enough professional development as a professor and was weak in other key areas that are considered by administrators who grant tenure. Baca painted a much different scenario, detailing accusations of outrageous misconduct against those who charted the course of Thornton's career. Baca said Thornton's ordeal began in July 1995, soon after lwo men came to-campus to apply for a job in the See TENURE page 9
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Elizabeth Dole, wife of Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole, works the crowd at the Dole/Kemp rally last Friday in downtown Denver. See DOLE'S ADVICE page 3.
Hyoung Chang/ The MElROPOUTAN