{"id":102596,"date":"2017-12-01T20:12:45","date_gmt":"2017-12-02T03:12:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/professor-andrew-gulliford-seeks-to-recover-legal-costs-from-fort-lewis-college\/"},"modified":"2017-12-01T20:12:45","modified_gmt":"2017-12-02T03:12:45","slug":"professor-andrew-gulliford-seeks-to-recover-legal-costs-from-fort-lewis-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/professor-andrew-gulliford-seeks-to-recover-legal-costs-from-fort-lewis-college\/","title":{"rendered":"Professor Andrew Gulliford seeks to recover legal costs from Fort Lewis College"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Gulliford\"
Gulliford<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Andrew Gulliford, professor of history and environmental studies at Fort Lewis College, has requested the school\u2019s Board of Trustees reimburse him for $37,000 in legal fees he incurred fighting plagiarism charges that he was eventually cleared of.<\/p>\n

In addition, he said the lack of respect and fair hearing of his side in the dispute has created a situation that could harm junior faculty recruitment and an ongoing search for a new president.<\/p>\n

He wrote in a letter delivered Friday during a meeting of the Board of Trustees: \u201cWhy would a young untenured assistant professor seek a job at a college where tenured senior professors are threatened with dismissal?\u201d<\/p>\n

In the letter, Gulliford said his accuser, Steven G. Baker, used the same source as he, a 1987 interview transcript available to the public in a U.S. Forest Service office, and the situation was a case of \u201cparallel research, not plagiarism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baker\u2019s claims of plagiarism came after The Durango Herald published Gulliford\u2019s monthly column Dec. 8, 2016, about Pacomio Chacon, a sheepherder best known for the artwork he would leave on aspen trees while in the field.<\/p>\n

Baker\u2019s allegations revolved around two main examples in which Gulliford used the term \u201cmaster folk artist\u201d and a reference he cited of how many bears were killed by Chacon and his brother one winter.<\/p>\n

In April, former FLC Dean of Arts & Sciences Maureen Brandon, leading the college\u2019s investigation, issued Gulliford a \u201cnotice of charges\u201d that said after review, \u201cI believe it possible, if not likely, that you plagiarized material from Mr. Baker\u2019s book.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his letter to the trustees, Gulliford wrote: \u201cI have spent hundreds of hours on my defense and incurred thousands of dollars in legal expenses. I responded to charges May 25, 2017. Maureen Brandon (dean of arts and sciences), who wrote the formal charges against me, testified at the hearing that she never even bothered to read my response.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gulliford requested a hearing, which is part of the college\u2019s disciplinary process, according to the Fort Lewis College Faculty Handbook. Gene Dackonish, a Grand Junction attorney, conducted the hearing.<\/p>\n

At the end of September, Dackonish concluded that Gulliford was not guilty of the college\u2019s allegations of wrongdoing. In his report, Dackonish rejected each of the college\u2019s arguments that Gulliford\u2019s work had plagiarized Baker\u2019s book.<\/p>\n

\u201cNeither dismissal nor other disciplinary action is warranted regarding Dr. Andrew Gulliford as a breach of Fort Lewis College\u2019s ethical and professional conduct policies has not been proven by a preponderance of the evidence,\u201d Dackonish wrote in his conclusion.<\/p>\n

The hearing officer also dismissed Baker\u2019s claims that in his Herald column, Gulliford used two of Baker\u2019s photographs without credit or permission.<\/p>\n

His findings served only as a recommendation to FLC President Dene Thomas, who had ultimate say on disciplinary actions. Several weeks after receiving the hearing officer\u2019s conclusions, Thomas sent a letter to Gulliford that said:<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough I do not agree with the hearing officer\u2019s conclusions, I have determined it is appropriate to accept the hearing officer\u2019s recommendation that neither dismissal nor other disciplinary action is warranted,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

At the time, Thomas declined to explain to the Herald the particulars of why she disagreed with the hearing officer\u2019s findings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think anyone who wants to read Andrew Gulliford\u2019s article and read the book could draw their own conclusions, and see if they agree or disagree with me,\u201d she told the Herald in late October.<\/p>\n

On Friday, several trustees and Thomas, who is retiring at the end of the academic year, each declined to comment on Gulliford\u2019s case and the Faculty Senate resolution to reimburse him for legal expenses. All of them said the situation was a personnel matter on which they could not comment.<\/p>\n

However, later Friday, the college emailed a statement to \u201cflc-official-l@listserv.fortlewis.edu<\/a>,\u201d a list for announcements to faculty and staff, on behalf of the Board of Trustees. The statement said the board had received a resolution from the Faculty Senate and the FLC Chapter of the American Association of University Professors on Gulliford\u2019s case and said the trustees \u201cthoughtfully reviewed the resolution and letters and took public comment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter said the board adheres to procedures established in Part II, Section 17 of the Fort Lewis College Faculty Handbook in dealing with faculty disciplinary matters.<\/p>\n

The trustees letter stated, \u201cPursuant to that process, consistent procedures are followed for each disciplinary complaint in order to ensure that fair and impartial consideration is given to the accused faculty member.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an email to the Herald, Gulliford called the trustees\u2019 statement disappointing. He added that the handbook is in \u201cserious need of revision as it relates to disciplinary procedures and to protect First Amendment rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

He noted the faculty is currently working on revisions to the cited section of the handbook \u201cso that best practices will be utilized in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added if trustees respect FLC faculty, they will welcome the changes. \u201cOur disciplinary procedures must include faculty peer review so we are commensurate with colleges and universities across the nation,\u201d he wrote in his letter to trustees.<\/p>\n

Gulliford also asked trustees to further examine problems exposed in the adjudication of his case.<\/p>\n

He wrote: \u201cThe faculty expect that the Board of Trustees will, in the interest of transparency, seek a full understanding of this event, its financial costs, and that the Board will review possible ethical violations by College administrators.\u201d<\/p>\n

FLC has, so far, spent at least $26,000 on the hearing. According to records provided to the Herald through a Colorado Open Records Act request, the college paid $22,606.29 to Dackonish, the hearing officer who oversaw the case and rendered a decision. The expenses included legal services, travel and lodging in Durango. It also spent $3,578.90 for research and travel expenses for Elenore Long, a witness who testified in the hearing on behalf of the college. The Colorado Attorney General\u2019s office also provided legal services in the case, but on Friday, FLC spokesman Mitch Davis said the office had not yet notified the college of its costs.<\/p>\n

Gulliford began his monthly Gulliford\u2019s Travels column for the Herald in 2006.<\/p>\n

parmijo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cleared of plagiarism charge, he says sloppy adjudication of case harms school<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":102597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[132],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-102596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-fort-lewis-college"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102596"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=102596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}