Month: August 2019

Another former Dixie State University professor has officially filed a federal civil lawsuit against the university which relates to events beginning around 2015.

The federal complaint was filed by former tenured music professor Ken Peterson on Aug. 19, a little over a year after his initial dismissal in March of 2018. His termination, as well as the disciplinary actions put on his coworker and assistant professor of music, Glenn Webb, was the cause of contentious situations across campus including a protest, a last chance agreement letter, and a faculty call to action.

What happened?

According to the official complaint, Peterson is filing on the claims of “breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, tortious discharge in violation of public policy, and other violations of Utah State Law committed by Defendants,” as well as compromise of his First Amendment rights.

Peterson’s complaint chronologically describes the events that ultimately led to his termination and his eventual lawsuit, including disagreements about former theater professor Varlo Davenport’s dismissal, disputes between him and the former chair of the theater department, Mark Houser, and a Last Chance Agreement that Peterson has called “punitive, vindictive, disenfranchising and dehumanizing.” Peterson also argues DSU did not follow Policy 371 throughout his firing process.

Policy 371, or the faculty termination policy, outlines the process that should be followed in the case of faculty dismissals. Since Peterson was a tenured professor, a faculty review board was assembled to weigh in on whether Peterson should be reinstated.

After deliberation and a court-like hearing from both parties, the board recommended to President Richard “Biff” Williams that Peterson be reinstated after a two-week suspension.

According to section 4.5 of policy 371, the president has three options after receiving this recommendation: accept the decision of the board, hold further proceedings and get a second opinion, or reject the board’s decision.

In Peterson’s case, Williams recused himself from the decision since he was involved in the case and sent it to Elizabeth Hitch, associate commissioner for academic and student affairs for Utah System of Higher Education. Hitch determined Peterson should be reinstated with a last chance agreement document, which Peterson refused to sign due to fears of First Amendment infringements.

The LCA listed 28 points that Peterson would have had to sign in order to be reinstated and included things such as not posting “unfounded or untruthful derogatory statements” toward the university on social media.

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The lawsuit

According to the official statement of the university: “Dixie State University is committed to expanding opportunity, to excellence, and to creating the diverse community essential to fulfilling its mission of higher education. In the matter regarding Dr. Peterson, Dixie State followed standard personnel policies and procedures which provided Dr. Peterson the opportunity to return to his professorship on campus. While this matter is in active litigation, the University will refer all inquiries to the Utah Office of the Attorney General.”

Peterson is specifically filing against Williams, General Council Doajo Hicks, Provost Michael Lacourse, DSU Investigator Lynn Joseph, DSU as an institution, and 10 others whose names are not listed.

All DSU employees named in the lawsuit declined to comment.

The amount Peterson is seeking in this lawsuit is not stated in the original complaint. According to the complaint, “Peterson has suffered in an amount to be proven at trial.”

Both Peterson and his lawyer, Benjamin Lusty, declined to comment.

“I would sum up my experience with the current administration at DSU as an ongoing interaction with a group of people committed to self-preservation through mendacity,”

Varlo Davenport

A look to the future

Davenport, who is currently suing DSU for around $22 million, said things were hard after being terminated from the university, especially when it came to finding new work.

“After I was terminated I applied for university teaching positions all around the country and was invited to interview several times, but it never went any farther than that,” Davenport said. “I was finally hired as a car salesman in St. George, and with a great deal of help from family and friends we were able to limp along for a while.”

Davenport is now working for the Salt Lake School for Performing Arts.

“It took time,” Davenport said. “There were some board members who were very reluctant to hire me based on what they read online, but the principal, Ron Literal, took my ‘not guilty’ verdict at face value and went to bat for me.”

Davenport said he suspects this will be a long process and that his case is to be scheduled soon.

“Simply put, I would sum up my experience with the current administration at DSU as an ongoing interaction with a group of people committed to self-preservation through mendacity,” Davenport said.

Peterson said he is currently keeping busy with the Southern Utah Heritage Choir, piano work, his family and a book project he said he has been working on for a very long time.

After years of planning and six months of construction, the new pedestrian underpass located at 400 South is open to St. George residents and Dixie State University students.

Thanks to the Utah Department of Transportation and a partnership among DSU, the Dixie Metropolitan Planning Organization and the city of St. George, the idea of a tunnel connecting DSU’s east and west campus came to life.

The walkway gives DSU students living on the east side of the freeway an easier route to campus while avoiding the busy 100 South and 700 South streets.

UDOT Regional Director Rick Torgerson said this project is something everyone in the city can use and hopefully reduce some of the congestion in St. George.

While the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new walkway, officially named Trailblazer Tunnel, was held Aug. 27 at noon, the tunnel became accessible on Aug. 19, the first day of classes at DSU.

Sebastian Garcia, a freshman psychology major from Fillmore, said the underpass has made his walk to school easier since he no longer has to go around the freeway.

“I think this tunnel is very efficient in helping students get to class on time in a safer way and makes being closer to campus and the campus atmosphere more accessible,” Garcia said.

The Trailblazer Tunnel is approximately 200 feet long, 16 feet wide and 10 feet high. Inside the tunnel, there are cameras, several light fixtures and an emergency button that a person can use to alert police if they are in danger.

According to a media fact sheet presented at the ceremony, UDOT paid for half of the $2.8 million project at $1.4 million, the city and DSU each paid $600,000, and DMPO paid $200,000.

Mariah Breaux, a junior health administration major from Las Vegas, said this new tunnel has already drastically helped her daily commute.

“Now I don’t have to wake up 30 minutes earlier just to walk to class,” Breaux said. “Also, the convenience of being able to hang out with friends more easily and not have to plan it out, bust a whole mission or make accommodations for them to pick me up.”

The DSU University Marketing and Communication Department is hosting a tunnel mural contest. The winner of the contest will receive $1,000, and their original artwork will encompass the entire west entrance of the Trailblazer Tunnel. For more information regarding the contest visit umac.dixie.edu/trailblazer-tunnel-mural-contest.

I was alone in the newsroom when I received a campus alert about a suspicious man wearing a bulletproof vest nearby. I didn’t get the notification that it was a false alarm until an hour later.

A campus alert was sent informing students of a “suspicious male wearing [a] bullet proof vest [and] camouflage pants” walking toward the center of campus from Nisson Towers. Further messages stated that the suspect was located and questioned by the police, who found that no crime had occurred. Specifically, the man had been wearing motorcycle gear, which was confused as a bulletproof vest by the person who had called the police.

Posts on Dixie State University’s social media an hour later confirmed that the situation was a false alarm. During that hour, students and faculty braced themselves for the worst.

“We pushed tables against the door and waited,” English professor Stephen Armstrong said. “No chance to run. We were ready to fight.”

Mark LaVoie, an assistant professor of media studies, said he had his students hide in the corner of his classroom until he confirmed with police that it was safe to resume normal activities.

DSU’s public information release about the incident said a resident adviser noticed a suspicious man wearing camouflage pants and what appeared to be a bulletproof vest just after 2 p.m. The resident adviser called dispatch at 2:13 p.m., with St. George police arriving 10 minutes later to assist campus police. Campus alerts were sent out starting at 2:31 p.m., and police had located the suspicious man at 2:40 p.m. at the Kenneth N. Gardner Student Center and quickly determined the man was wearing a motorcycle vest and wasn’t a threat.

There were roughly 10 minutes between the alerts and the determination that the man wasn’t a threat, but it took an hour for some students to be notified of the false alarm.

“Many people received multiple notifications of each specific message sent through phone, text, email and the notification system on campus, causing some to complain about too many notifications being received,” said Blair Barfuss, chief of campus police. “We try really hard to be very aware of our use of the campus alerts system, and believed the need to inform outweighed the possible inconvenience of over notification.”

Barfuss said he recommends that the community sign up for campus alerts at https://safety.dixie.edu/emergency/dixie-alert-system/ and use the page to educate themselves about how the system works.