Benedict, Professor Settle Academic Lawsuit: Teacher Said Swinton Fired Him for Refusing to Boost Students’

By James T. Hammond, The State, Columbia, S.C.

Apr. 17–Benedict College and its president, David Swinton, agreed late Sunday to settle a four-year-old lawsuit brought by a professor over a controversial academic policy.

Former Benedict professor Milwood Motley sued the school in 2004, saying he was fired by Benedict because he refused to implement the SEE (Success Equals Effort) policy.

The SEE policy’s grading system gives greater weight to effort and participation than to academic achievement in a student’s freshman year at the historically black private college.

Motley had charged in his lawsuit that Swinton ordered him to use the system to ensure more students would qualify for state and federal scholarship programs.

Motley argued in his lawsuit that the SEE policy amounted to academic fraud and an attempt to defraud the state and federal agencies that set academic thresholds to qualify for student grants and loans.

A trial was scheduled to begin Monday. The settlement, the terms of which will remain private, means the lawsuit will be dismissed, according to the attorneys and court officials.

Friday, Circuit Judge William Keesley heard arguments over Benedict’s motion to dismiss the case.

Keesley notified the attorneys on Sunday that he would dismiss two of the six legal reasons to sue raised by Motley and his attorney. Late Sunday, the parties agreed to the undisclosed monetary settlement.

Both sides claimed victory in the settlement, which focused on a question of whether Motley was fired because he said the SEE policy violated public policy and law.

“We were very pleased with the judge’s order,” said Victoria Eslinger, Motley’s attorney. “The judge was going to let us put in all of our evidence. It would have allowed us to show wrongful termination.”

Steve Morrison, attorney for the college and its president, said the judge’s order left Benedict in a strong position to prevail in a trial, but in the end, it came down to the cost of settling versus the cost of five days in court.

Morrison, who is also a member of the Benedict board of trustees, said neither Benedict College nor Swinton admitted to any wrongdoing in the settlement.

“They took money that was on the table two years ago,” Morrison said. “I wish we could have tried the case. In fact, some of us would have rather done that than to settle.

“This may be the end of any litigation over the SEE policy,” Morrison said.

Friday, Judge Keesley had questioned Motley’s attorney asking her where was the proof of fraud in Benedict’s grading policy. His questions suggested that universities, particularly private institutions, had broad legal latitude to establish grading policies.

Reach Hammond at (803) 771-8474.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The State, Columbia, S.C.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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