In Lawsuit, New England College Says Its Poetry Program Was Stolen

New England College has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the former director of its master’s-degree program in poetry stole faculty members and students from the New Hampshire institution and re-created the program at Drew University, in New Jersey, The Concord Monitor reported.

In the lawsuit, which names both the former director, Anne Marie Macari, and Drew as defendants, New England is seeking compensation for lost tuition, which it estimates at “six figures” for this year alone, and the $33,000 salary it paid Ms. Macari in her last year at the college.

An employment lawyer in Concord, N.H., who is not part of the case told the newspaper that the strength of New England’s claim would rest on whether Ms. Macari was still working for the New Hampshire institution while planning Drew’s program.

Ms. Macari declined to comment about the case, but in an affidavit filed with the U.S. District Court in Corcord, she asserted that no one from Drew had contacted her while she was “physically” at New England College.

A lawyer for Drew would not comment, but the university has asked the court to dismiss the case or move it to a federal court in New Jersey to cut down on the expense of traveling to New Hampshire for hearings. The court has not ruled on that request.

Ms. Macari joined New England College as an adjunct faculty member in 2002, the Concord newspaper reported. In March 2007, she was named the poetry program’s interim director. About three months later, the lawsuit alleges, she began neglecting her duties to recruit and enroll students at New England.

It was then, the complaint contends, that she began “secretly developing” a virtually identical program for Drew. In February 2008, it says, she told New England College she was quitting to take another job. All eight of the Drew program’s faculty members are or were affiliated with New England, the lawsuit says.