A professor and former chairman of the department of mechanical engineering at Ohio University is suing the institution for defamation, contending that its officials falsely accused him of supporting academic fraud in the university’s recent scandal over plagiarized master’s theses (The Chronicle, August 11).

The professor, Jay S. Gunasekera, filed the lawsuit in a state court last week, seeking more than $25,000 in compensatory damages, according to an article in The Columbus Dispatch. The suit says the university’s statements have ruined the professor’s reputation, causing him to lose potential job opportunities and scuttling a nomination for him to become a fellow of the International Academy of Manufacturing Engineering.

In a report released in May, an investigating committee at Ohio called for the dismissal of Mr. Gunasekera and another faculty member at the Russ College of Engineering and Technology after finding evidence of “rampant and flagrant plagiarism” by graduate students in the department that took place over more than 20 years (The Chronicle, June 2).

His lawyer, John Marshall, told the Columbus newspaper that the university “had absolutely no evidence or indication whatsoever that Dr. Gunasekera was aware of any of the plagiarism” when it issued the report.

University officials have vowed to “vigorously defend” the lawsuit.