Ousted University of Wyoming engineering dean Cameron Wright sued the school this week over his demotion, alleging retaliation by university President Ed Seidel.
Wright’s large group of vocal supporters on and off campus has maintained Seidel maneuvered for the then-dean’s ouster after he protested the transfer of a portion of the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences’ funding to a new school of computing. That new school is run by Seidel’s romantic partner.
Wright, who remains a university professor, has largely stayed quiet in public. But in his legal complaint, filed Thursday in Albany County District Court, his attorney alleges Seidel “personally and through third parties improperly pressured” Wright to sign off on the transfer of $500,000 to the College of Computing, though university guidelines dictated Seidel should stay out of the matter given his relationship with computing dean Gabrielle Allen.
When the former dean refused, Seidel orchestrated his ouster, the complaint alleges.
Wright declined to comment Friday, citing the advice of his attorney, May Elizabeth Galvan. She also declined to comment on the lawsuit. In a brief statement, UW spokesperson Chad Baldwin said the school contests Wright’s depiction of events.
“The university disagrees with allegations made in the complaint and will vigorously defend against it,” Baldwin wrote.
According to previously disclosed records, Wright opposed the transfer because he believed it violated legislative direction to spend the money on the engineering college. Specifically, Wright argued the money was allotted toward a long-held goal from state leaders to push that college into the top tier of engineering schools nationwide.
Seidel and other university officials, including the school’s trustees, have argued the budget transfer was proper and say Wright was let go for failing to sufficiently advance the school’s Tier 1 goal.
Ultimately, it was the trustees who voted to remove Wright from his deanship, not Seidel. They voted to do so unanimously in a closed session in early April. But in the complaint, Wright’s attorney alleges the board made the decision “at Dr. Seidel’s insistence,” though the complaint does not elaborate on how the former dean knows that.
Ahead of his demotion, the complaint alleges that Seidel retaliated against Wright through “public dissemination of false information concerning [Wright’s] tenure as Dean of the College of Engineering and Physical Science.”
And after the vote, as the university community erupted in furor over the widely popular dean’s removal, the trustees also denigrated Wright’s reputation, the complaint alleges.
“Following [Wright’s] removal as Dean, the University of Wyoming Board of Trustees, acting in their official capacities, publicly disseminated otherwise confidential information falsely denigrating his performance as Dean,” the complaint reads. According to the lawsuit, Wright was demoted, though he received good performance evaluations and had no disciplinary or negative incidents on his record. The demotion also came over the objection of the 10 engineering college department heads, who backed Wright and sought to head off his demotion in a letter to the trustees before they took their vote.
The lawsuit asks a judge to order UW to reinstate Wright as dean, award him back pay and attorney fees and for “further relief as may be just and equitable.”
Wright’s demotion led an overwhelming majority of the faculty senate to back a vote of no confidence against Seidel on April 7. It also led the deans of the university’s other colleges, except Allen, to write a letter to Seidel and the trustees expressing “deep concern for the trajectory of the university.”
Two major donors to the university also publicly announced they were reconsidering their financial support after the demotion.
The fact that he is suing UW shows that he should have been fired sooner. He’s clearly is self-serving and not a leader. A real leader would be helping UW find a dean that can do the job.
Please!!! Asking for his job back is really a sad pitiful move by him. We now know that he’s all about himself, not about UW. A Dean serves at the will of the President, and Dean’s are fired all the time. They go back to their ‘regular’ job as faculty or stay in administration at another university. This dean was popular, but that’s not the job. He failed at moving UW forward in Tier 1, and his presentation clearly showed he’s not competent. Move on. You’re not that special or important.
The University of Wyoming would seem to have a death wish. How many presidents have come and gone in the past 10 years? Too many to count. The current president is serving after having provoked a no confidence vote of his faculty- an unsustainable situation for a university leader, not withstanding the apparent support of the Board of Trustees. No serious or qualified candidate for the position is likely to apply for or accept the position under current conditions. I suspect that few candidates for faculty positions as openings occur will have UW as their first choice. I further suspect that parents of children of college age who have the financial resources to look at out of state institutions will suggest that their children do so, and the fact that large and small donors are reevaluating gifts to the University have been widely reported. It is time for a thorough housecleaning of the Board of Directors and of higher administration. Perhaps with a fresh start and absent the current political interference, the institution can be saved. A sad situation indeed.
These kinds of shenanigans at the executive level could very well trigger an accreditation review. That happened for far less of a scandal at a major university where I was a professor.
Thanks for the article. I am a student at UW currently on a bachelor’s degree program associated with the School of Computing, so this story has personal relevance to me. As such I wanted to point out some inaccuracies.
As of the the time this article was published, Dr. Allen has stepped down from her role as the director for the school of computing.
The SoC has currently decided on an interim director, though I do not know if that has been officially announced yet so I’m not going to say who it is.
I think it’s important to note that the article reads that the case is about state funds awarded by legislature for a specific purpose. As a tax paying citizen who believes in student programs and higher education, I would like to read news confirming the university behaves beyond reproach as a state institution who rivals corrections, dfs, and the department of transportation in amount of state public fund support. I’m glad to hear the program may have benefited you as a student and think that is important feedback but I remain sad to read it might all have been created for personal interests and benefit.
It’s time to cut all federal/State funds off to all colleges/universities. They can make it on student tuition. Shift the state money over to trade schools and start really teaching useful trades. Cap all colleges etc to 2-3 years. Time for shakeup in system
Mr. Skow- just once I’d love for you to do some homework before you comment. It would be great if UW could raise tuition, but we can’t because of the state legislature. Raising tuition would solve a lot of our problems, but we are beholden to the state legislature-as in they have to approve tuition hikes and they haven’t thus far.
Beyond that, state and federal dollars go to funding things like cancer research/medical research, engineering research, a broad spectrum of scientific research, etc. The list goes on and on. I certainly hope you have the common sense to understand why funding things like this are important. This research is the literal example of why most of us are still alive past 35 years of age. You are free to think and comment however you want, but you should be careful of what you wish for. Research and universities where this research happens are literally the reason why we have the life expectancy we currently have. Let alone the quality of life as we age-and that’s just one example of many things that come out of university research funded by our tax dollars. It’s a great use of our money and we should all be grateful that it is being spent this way.
Your suggestion is beyond silly unless your goal is for the US to fall behind all other developed countries….you want the US to be the least educated, highest poverty, most unequal, less competitive workforce, less innovative companies, and farthest behind other countries in tech, research, advances, health, etc. If that’s your goal, why stop at college….we should charge people for K-12. If we just want to give up being good, let’s go all in.